Dear Reader, it's true...

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Many of you don't know that I worked on a full-length play--for over for twenty years. It was based on my experience of having a part-time job at a family-owned winery in a little town outside of Kansas City. I named it Defiance, Missouri (which yes, is an actual location just southwest of Saint Louis) and I had the joy of hearing it read in its entirety by a group of wonderful theater students at a community college in Maryland--just before the pandemic hit. Despite the fact that it was never performed (and I missed the chance to direct it as well) I then began another journey I never thought I'd take: entering graduate school (again) to earn my doctorate. Writing my dissertation was an adventure unlike any other and when I defended this research, my advisors encouraged me to turn those qualitative findings and poignant themes into a book--but after two failed pitches to publishers, this mission pivoted into a surprising twist. After several cancellations of a reunion with friends in Raleigh last summer, I found myself renting a car and taking a totally unexpected solo trip to an unknown Carolina beach--and all that I had learned began speaking to me...through the voice of a 13-year-old girl from Ohio. While I rested by the waves for the first time in years, the sound of the sea began whispering secrets of this highly sensitive soul named Sadie.

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I never thought I would write a "young adult novel" or try my hand at drafting a "middle grade book" but I am now working on that manuscript--and much like my play, for better or worse--it won't let go. So I have now taken a seminar at Highlights called a "crash course in children's publishing" and am (always) learning more about this world of writing. Though I have taught many novels to my beloved students, there is nothing like trying to craft one. I don't know how it will go but that's truly not the point--because Sadie's story of sensitive struggle must be told...so I will do my best to give this young muse a voice and we will see what happens.

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As Emily Dickinson once wrote, "This is my letter to the World." Thank you for reading the first glimpse of it--

And please, dear Reader, "Judge tenderly--of Me."

-S.E. Clifton, aspiring author *