In 2006, I wrote a book about a time traveler, Shamus Katooee, who warns a little girl about the Chernobyl explosion. My editor at the time didn’t like the time travel feature so I deleted my time traveler from that book and wrote a whole new one for him to star in. Justin Cronin, now a best-selling author of the blockbuster novel The Passage, who was my writing teacher then, suggested that I set the new book in the Twin Towers.

In 2007, I submitted my time travel book now named The Newest Recruit, to Highlights Foundation Workshop for children. Tim Wynne Jones, a well-known author, fine teacher and nice guy, critiqued it, saying, “I don’t buy your premise.” That’s like a diagnosis of terminal cancer for a book. Based on his recommendation, I rewrote the book from start to finish. When I finished my rewrite, Alex Parsons, another fine author and outstanding teacher, read The Newest Recruit for me and suggested, among other changes, that Shamus Katooee become a girl. I made Alex’s revisions and wrote book two of Shama Katooee’s  adventures.

In 2008, I submitted The Newest Recruit to Namelos, an editorial service run by Stephen Roxburgh who edited Roald Dahl and Madeleine L’Engle. Stephen told me in the kindest way possible that he couldn’t accept the manuscript because it wasn’t good enough. I asked him to reconsider, and he relented, saying, “If you prove to me you can revise.” When I rewrote the first fifty pages of the manuscript and resubmitted it to him, Stephen agreed to read both book one and book two of The Newest Recruit. His assessment:” There’s energy in the first half of book one and at the end of book two. I suggest that you combine the two into one book.” Following his suggestions, I cut the book from 750 pages to 200 pages. At that point, we named the book Flade Street. (Flade means Fate, Luck and Destiny.)

In 2010, I got an agent for the first time in years. The agent said the title Flade Street would take me nowhere. She suggested that the series be renamed UPcity Chronicles and that the first book be called Windows on the World. She loves the book but she has a few changes….She asked, “Can you revise?”