Hi there. This is my first foray into this forum, but I have a question that it hit me maybe the editor was who to ask. I am writing a middle reader, almost done, my first novel.
My problem is that I have created a character who, though lives in modern day times, may not be hip or cool enough, I may not be using the most updated tween language that will satisfy young readers, and I fear I may bore them with her simple town life. But I don't want to change her to follow the commercialism factor, write to the market, I guess you'd say.
I am wondering if I should change the timeline of my novel and make it back in the past, when what was cool did not decide if you lived or died, or if I should try to educate myself enough to make her at least not a pariah to today's readers. Getting published and having a successful book is my focus, after all, besides the fact that I have a protagonist that other 12 year old girls will relate to, because it's about feeling unwanted when she's not swimming in the creek or hanging around her odd, quaint Texas town.
I hope I have made this clear enough to get my point across without sounding like I have written a dinosaur or something for only a Christian market, she doesn't go to church, she says "crap" a bit, and the grown ups even have a party where they drink and smoke, my Maddy is self conscious and cares about style, but she detest what her geek friend Corey describes as Stepford Girls, those marketing people's dream come true girls. Maddy is a tomboy, but she plays with Barbie's, Corey is so smart, he fixes people's computers
Dear Editor, are you the one who can answer my letter?
It said question, but it turned into a letter. I asked the short version in the Children's Section of Genre, but I am searching for a good, solid, informed answer. Maybe I should ask the publisher!! LOL (a joke, I don't have one yet, and that's why I wrote this letter, I want one someday) 
Thanks in advance for any advice you can offer.
Denise
My problem is that I have created a character who, though lives in modern day times, may not be hip or cool enough, I may not be using the most updated tween language that will satisfy young readers, and I fear I may bore them with her simple town life. But I don't want to change her to follow the commercialism factor, write to the market, I guess you'd say.
I am wondering if I should change the timeline of my novel and make it back in the past, when what was cool did not decide if you lived or died, or if I should try to educate myself enough to make her at least not a pariah to today's readers. Getting published and having a successful book is my focus, after all, besides the fact that I have a protagonist that other 12 year old girls will relate to, because it's about feeling unwanted when she's not swimming in the creek or hanging around her odd, quaint Texas town.
I hope I have made this clear enough to get my point across without sounding like I have written a dinosaur or something for only a Christian market, she doesn't go to church, she says "crap" a bit, and the grown ups even have a party where they drink and smoke, my Maddy is self conscious and cares about style, but she detest what her geek friend Corey describes as Stepford Girls, those marketing people's dream come true girls. Maddy is a tomboy, but she plays with Barbie's, Corey is so smart, he fixes people's computers
Dear Editor, are you the one who can answer my letter?
It said question, but it turned into a letter. I asked the short version in the Children's Section of Genre, but I am searching for a good, solid, informed answer. Maybe I should ask the publisher!! LOL (a joke, I don't have one yet, and that's why I wrote this letter, I want one someday) Thanks in advance for any advice you can offer.
Denise
