Book feature: Vin and the Dorky Duet by Maggie Lyons

Magnetic compost heaps, man-eating bubble baths and other disasters erupt when an inventive seventh-grader meets a challenge to win a David Beckham autographed soccer jersey if he can befriend an unsociable nerd and introduce his sister to the nerd’s hunky brother.

The story is about the disasters that pile up when a seventh-grader’s brilliant plan to meet his sister’s challenge takes more than one wrong turn. Life tosses challenges at all of us. It would be incredibly boring if it didn’t. What matters is what we learn from them.

Title: Vin and the Dorky Duet

Publisher: Halo Publishing Int. & MuseItUp Publishing (Canadian e-book publisher)

ISBN: 978-1-61244-091-0 (paperback)

ISBN: 978-1-77127-073-1 (eBook)

Genre of Book: Children’s Chapter Book Adventure

  

About the Book:

A twelve-year-old boy named Vin, goes on a mission—reluctantly. He doesn’t share the optimism of the knights of old who embarked on impossible missions without a doubt they’d succeed. When magnetic compost heaps, man-eating bubble baths and other disasters erupt, Vin comes close to packing in the whole ridiculous business. He calls it Operation BS, his code name for a mission to introduce his sister to a boy she has a crush on. He doesn’t want to play matchmaker, but Meg’s promise to reward him with a David Beckham autographed soccer jersey is a decisive incentive.

Get a sneak peek of the book at http://youtu.be/Qtgtp_rnAZ4

Available wherever books are sold and online.

About the Author: 

Maggie Lyons

Maggie Lyons was born in Wales and brought up in England before gravitating west to Virginia’s coast. She zigzagged her way through a motley variety of careers from orchestral management to law-firm media relations to academic editing. Writing and editing nonfiction for adults brought plenty of satisfaction but nothing like the magic she discovered in writing fiction and nonfiction for children. Several of her articles, poetry, and a chapter book have been published in the children’s magazines Stories for Children Magazine and knowonder!

Follow Maggie Lyons at

Website http://www.maggielyons.yolasite.com

Twitter @maggielyons66

You can find out more about Maggie Lyons’s World of Ink Author/Book Tour at http://tinyurl.com/9t24kgy

  

Mini Interview:

What are some jobs you've had in your life? Have they influenced/inspired your writing?

For many years I gave private piano lessons to children of all ages, which probably influenced my writing for children in an indirect way. Writing program notes for concerts of the National Symphony Orchestra, Washington, DC and other orchestras in the USA and UK provided the basis for a career of writing in other business fields—yes, the performing arts is a business.  All that nonfiction writing helped my efforts to become a better writer of both nonfiction and fiction, though I’m far from fluent in the art. That’s still an aspiration.  My middle-grade adventure story Vin and the Dorky Duet is directly inspired by my love of music, which found an outlet in my work in performing arts. 

It has been my experience, some things come quite easily (like creating the setting) and other things aren’t so easy (like deciding on a title). What comes easily to you and what do you find more difficult? 

The first sentence isn’t too difficult, but everything after that is.

Do you consider yourself a born writer?

Not really. I struggle with it because I’m fatally attracted to challenges and because, especially in my dotage, writing offers a wonderful exercise for the “little grey cells,” as Monsieur Poirot would say. 

Who is your favorite author and what is your favorite genre to read?

That’s a supremely impossible question to answer. A recent addition to my “adult” favorites is Jane Gardam whose Old Filth is a treasure of beautifully crafted language and storyline. A recent addition to my “children’s” favorites is Jerry Spinelli whose Maniac Magee is another example of powerful writing. Though, with this book, I suspect adults appreciate Spinelli’s powerful prose far more than the young readers it’s written for. I don’t have a favorite genre. Any book that won’t allow me to do anything except read it is a favorite. 

Is there anything you'd go back and do differently now that you have been published, in regards to your writing career?

I wish I had started writing for children decades ago, when my son was young enough to draw me directly into his world and keep me up-to-date on kidspeak and kidthink. I now have to consult my friends’ grandchildren to keep current on the children’s world, which is my approach to continuing education.