In early January, I got a gushing email from Louise. I sent Magicballoonbook to my agent Louise Fury a few days after turning in Finding Center with a 'don't rush on this, but I'm very very hopeful about this book' note. I am so incredibly grateful to each and every reader who considered all the angles of this book, all the nuances and all the hopes poured into it.Between the whole new draft and revisions, I sold Second Position, Turning Pointe, and Finding Center, edited Second Position, wrote and edited Turning Pointe, and wrote Finding Center. Magicballoonbook has had so many beta readers my acknowledgements page is as long as the book. I rewrote it in less than five weeks.One line survived the first draft of 93,000 words to the final draft of 78,000 words. I added 2 timelines, one whole new character, and 2 points of view. In March 2014, I sat down, replotted it, and rewrote it from scratch. I picked it up a few times, replotted it a few times, but couldn't get it right. One of those things was Second Position, which became my debut novel). I put it down and wrote a few other things (literally.

It barely had a plot, wandered around for 10,000 words somewhere in the middle, and had no purpose. When I sat down at my computer, I typed the first 1700 words of what would become the first draft of a book I call/ed #magicballoonbook.The first draft of Magicballoonbook (MBB) clocked in at about 93,000 words.

I asked my imagination, Where, and my imagination said Berlin. Suddenly, instantly, in my head, I saw a girl being carried over the median, and then a wall, by a floating red balloon. Just over three years ago, I was driving and I was late so I was driving maybe, a tiny bit fast, and 99 Red Balloons came on the radio. A conspiracy tied to her grandfather's miraculous escape from a death camp in 1943. This is the story of Ellie Baum, a girl who accidentally time travels back to 1988 East Berlin with a magical red balloon, and who gets caught up in a conspiracy to manipulate time and magic. This is one of THOSE posts, so please, bear with me while I tell you a story.

Playing with Matches by Suri Rosen