Christine Bailey, professor of English and director of composition support, is publishing a young adult fiction novel called “Girl in the Middle.” Its tentative release date is August 2013.
“Girl in the Middle” started as a project in Bailey’s Master of Fine Arts program at Murray State University in Murray, Ky., in 2009.
It took Bailey about three years to write, she said.
The novel is about three sisters, with a focus on the middle sister who feels her life is very ordinary, Bailey said. The girl’s life becomes extraordinary when her older sister disappears.
“The book takes a look at the aftermath of a family crisis and what happens to a family when a child goes missing,” Bailey said, adding that the book also touches on the subject of bullying.
Bailey said the novel began as a response to her own experiences and the way she remembered high school but developed into something beyond her own background.
“It turned from having fun writing memories here and there to a serious fictional work that we work-shopped in that [master’s] program,” she said.
She became interested in the idea of kidnapping as a topic in a novel after the April 13, 2011 disappearance of 20-year-old Holly Bobo, of Parsons, Tenn., when her brother said he saw a man lead her into the woods.
Last fall, Bailey used three chapters of her novel as a teaching tool in her editing class. As she taught students about the editing process involved in book publishing, she felt practicing with her novel-in-progress would be a fun way for them to learn.
A group of four students continued to work through the entire book to assist Bailey in the editing process, she said.
The group includes Jamie Mitchell, senior English major; Gracie Wise, junior English and history double major; Holly Owens, senior English major; and Sarah Halbrook, senior English major.
“As students, our editing team was closer to the age of the audience that Professor Bailey is trying to reach with her young adult novel,” Wise said. “We were able to offer her a fresh perspective on her work.”
Wise also said she valued the experience because it gave her the opportunity to enhance her skills as an editor and “confirmed her love of the editing process.”
Mitchell agreed, adding, “I think our group was able to provide a solid foundation of edits for other, more experienced editors to springboard off of and continue working toward making the book ready for publication.”
“Girl in the Middle” will be published by Vinspire Publishing, based in Goose Creek, S.C. Bailey said she learned of the company from a conversation that took place on an airplane.
She was on her way home from the Association of Writers and Writing Programs conference, a conference about book publishing and writing, held in Chicago in 2012.
The man she sat next to on the plane said his daughter-in-law is an author. He told Bailey her name, and when Bailey arrived home, she looked the woman up to see what publishing company she used.
Bailey said the most ironic aspect of the story is that during one of the sessions of the conference, a speaker said that authors have to be in the right place at the right time to find a publisher.
The marketing plan has not been discussed yet, she said, so specific prices and locations regarding where the book will be sold are still uncertain.
She is sure, however, that it will be available on Amazon.com.
“[Writing a book] is some- thing I needed to do, something I wanted to do,” she said.