Hey there,
Happy New Year! I hope this email finds you well and ready for a whole new adventure.
As promised, we are about to embark on an epic literary journey. Over the course of this year, I'll be sharing with you my entire book - "Middle Grade Monster Hunter". Yes, you read that right! The whole enchilada, from cover to cover, one tantalizing chapter at a time. Look for it at the end of this message.
I’ll also be letting you know what I’m working on and give you sneak peeks into what’s on the horizon. (MGMH book 2 is in a second round of edits.)
Every fortnight (that's two weeks for those who prefer plain English), I'll be sending out a new chapter of this middle-grade marvel. These are bite-sized pieces of literary delight designed to fit snugly into your or your middle grader’s busy schedule.
But this isn't just about me sharing my work with you. Oh no! This is about us embarking on an adventure together. I want this to be a conversation - a two-way street where your thoughts, ideas, and feedback are as much a part of the journey as the words I've penned.
So whether you're captivated by a character or puzzled by a plot twist, don't hold back! Let me know what you think. After all, what's an adventure without some hearty conversation along the way?
Enjoy the ride!
Until next time, Kahi
Middle Grade Monster Hunter
CHAPTER 1
Do you believe in monsters?
Until a few days ago, I didn’t believe in them either. Monsters weren’t real; they were make-believe things from movies, video games, and comic books. Nothing more. Just something that parents used to scare kids to keep them in line when they were misbehaving. They were definitely not things that lurked in middle schools.
Boy, was I wrong about that!
Belmont Middle School is an enormous school that hosts grades six through eight and feeds its student body out to three different high schools. The school itself isn’t just a building, it’s more of a massive complex, sprawling with eight interconnected wings, and an endless array of students that roam its halls. During some parts of the day, there are entire areas of the school abandoned and void of students and staff. Despite its enormous size, that doesn’t mean that it isn’t just like any other school. There are tests and homework, after-school activities, and everything else that goes along with it.
Two days ago, school life for me had been normal. Routine. Boring. It was just school and nothing unusual or exciting ever happened. Little did I know that something was about to happen, and it would change my life forever.
Belmont School is so huge, it feels like it’s the size of a city. I was running late for class. It felt like the schedule gods had teamed up to play a cruel joke on me, scattering my classes to the far corners of the school. Every one of my classes this year was on opposite sides of the building. I spent most of my day running between classes, just trying to get there on time. This was the most awful thing ever.
If it wasn’t enough that I was constantly dashing from one end of the building to the other, today would be especially horrible. My math book was currently collecting dust in my gym locker. In between homeroom and first period, I had to rush off to my gym locker to get it. Racing through the hallway, I bobbed and weaved my way unnoticed by the other students as I ran. I’m not one of the popular kids at school, but I’m no social outcast, either. Everybody knows who the popular kids are and who the outcasts are. Me? I’m just an average vanilla student. Kids like me make up the bulk of the student body, easily overlooked by others. The side effect of this is that there is zero social pressure on me. I like it that way.
As I ran, my lungs burned, and I felt a searing cramp in my side. Running is pure torture. It’s the worst possible thing a kid could do, besides homework. Why in the world would anyone do this for fun? After what felt like I had been running for days, I finally reached the locker room. I was sucking on air so hard I felt like my head was going to explode and my lungs were going to burst from my chest. I stumbled into the locker room, bent over, hands on my knees, struggling to catch my breath.
The gym locker room has these old lockers with built-in combination locks. My locker, locker 215, has the worst lock ever. The lock sticks and doesn’t want to unlock. It doesn’t happen only sometimes; it happens every time. Today it stuck. Again. I was struggling to get it open. It took skill and precision to get the numbers lined up, then it required pulling the handle at the perfect moment to get it popped. I had a long way to go to get to math class and the pressure of being late caused me to rush. After three tries, I sighed in frustration, took a deep breath, and tried again. This time, the lock opened. Grabbing my math book, I slammed the locker shut with a bang, which probably didn’t help the lock at all.
Leaving the boys’ locker room, I could see the halls were clearing fast and my stomach dropped. Great, I was going to be late for class. Dashing down an empty hall, I stumbled and my math book slipped from my grasp and hit the floor with a thump. Groaning, I squatted to pick it up.
That was when I noticed movement out of the corner of my eye. I looked up, and my life changed forever.
Chapter 2 in two weeks. Stay tuned, and thanks for reading!
I like the premise of your story, and I appreciate the larger premise here -- serializing your story while involving us readers in an ongoing conversation about "the process." I taught middle school for 12 years, and have written several middle-grade novels myself, so I can tell you have a good sense of what that audience likes and how to speak their language. This book is off to a great start!
Enjoyed that very much. Welcome to Substack Kahi. I look forward to the next episode.