The idea keeps coming up in my brain. I’m not really surprised, with motherhood looming over me like a dark, cloaked sceptre not unlike Harry Potter’s Dementors (or the Black Riders of Lord Of The Rings… ever notice how similar they look?). The idea creeps up on me and sucks on my soul, turning me (albeit it briefly) away from my love of vampires, werewolves, fae and gore towards fluffy clouds with faces, talking animals and distant, magical lands.

Yikes!

When I think about the type of books I used to read when I was younger, or the books that were read to me, I’m FASCINATED that my tastes have evolved as they have. Maybe it was some sort of crazed, inner rebellion that made me say ‘pooo; now that’s enough of that, let’s go kill people!’ I dunno, who can say for sure?

Anyway, what I’m trying to get across is, that part of me is wondering if my writing will naturally change towards stories that are more ‘kid friendly,’ or if I’ll have to put especial effort into leaving out darker themes. Hell, I just wrote a piece of flash fiction about a woman burying her (still living!) husband beneath an apple tree on their anniversary. That’s not really the sort of thing you want your children to grow up with, is it?

I reassure myself by saying that I don’t think my writing will change. Even when I first started writing SORB, known back then as ‘To Be A Teenage Vampire,’ the tale included plenty of murder, lecherous secondary school teachers (with due consequences) and strong mental torture (otherwise known as angst, I suppose). How old was I then… fourteen? Fifteen? And teenagers now are very different to teenagers then (mid 90s). Hell, they’ll change again before my kids make it that far.

One thing that sticks in my mind from when I was pre-teen is one of those songs that we used to sing in the playground. Gross, silly, but funny to my adult mind even after all those years.

Mummy, oh Mummy there’s something in my nappy!
Its big and round; I can’t sit down.
Mix it up with wee-wee, make it nice and creamy,
That was nice! I’ll have another slice!

Now… I don’t know why this keeps coming back to mind – probably because its one I liked so much – but part of me thinks if its just poo, wee and fart jokes, that kids like, then it shouldn’t be difficult.

Then I look at ‘books for kids’ out there at the moment and realise, actually, its moved on soooooooooooo far from there. Its a whole new skill to write for children and I think while I may be able to make up stories on the fly with my babies, writing them down will be a bit trickier.

Hmm, maybe I’ll leave that to the pros.

Though saying that I did write something a while back that, in my mind, was ‘for children.’ I’ll have to see if I can root it out and maybe post it here on the Excerpts page. The Dead Tree I believe it was called. Hmm… not an especially light and fluffy title either. *snerk*