Guest post written by author Morgan Matson
Morgan Matson was born in New York City and grew up there and in Greenwich, Connecticut. She attended Occidental College as a theater major, but halfway through, switched her focus to writing and never looked back. She received an MFA in Writing for Children from the New School, and then a second MFA in Screenwriting from USC. Morgan’s new middle grade novel The Firefly Summer is out now.
It was a surprise even to me that, six books into a YA writing career, I zoomed into the Middle Grade lane. Writing for a younger audience was always something I thought I would do at some point in the future – if only just because I love reading MG so, so much. I find it difficult to read YA while I’m writing it, so when I’m actively drafting, I tend to read either books for younger readers, or for adults. My MG favorites are some of my favorite books of all time, in any age range – The Penderwicks series, the Vanderbeekers books, everything Rebecca Stead writes. They’re truly my comfort books, and the ones I return to when a day has been particularly long or trying. So given all that, I assumed at some point, I would write for younger readers. My only problem? I didn’t have a story.
Every now and then I would brainstorm, trying to think of ideas for younger characters. But most of them just seemed like something that could be one of my YA novels, but with a 12 year old instead of a 17 year old. Sometimes I’d get a few pages in, only to realize there was no life on the page and nothing I was really excited about – and so I’d put that idea aside and focus on my teen books.
But then one day – out of the blue – I suddenly had my idea. It felt truly Middle Grade deep in its bones, not just a YA in MG clothing. Just like that, I could see the setting, the characters, the vague arch of the story. And I was so excited about it. This was in late 2019, so I was just noodling on the idea, but without any real deadlines. And then – in March – the pandemic happened! (Perhaps you heard of it?)
Suddenly I realized I was about to have a lot more time on my hands, since I was no longer going to be traveling, or seeing friends, or, you know, leaving my house. I jumped into writing The Firefly Summer just two weeks into the pandemic.
In retrospect, it was the perfect book to be writing at that moment. Writing it gave me the most wonderful vacation from the current state of the world. Every time I sat down to write, I was so excited to be spending my time at a lake, in a former summer camp, eating ice cream and s’mores, stargazing and chasing down treasure. And when I look back on it now, I realize that I was putting into the story everything I currently wished I had. It’s a story about a family all living together, spending time together and having adventures.
It has been such a fun experiment, this middle grade jaunt. I’m not done with YA, don’t worry – after Firefly was done, I immediately jumped into writing my next teen book. But I’m also working on my next middle grade. It was a world I was so excited to get to finally enter – and now that I’m here, I think I’ll stay awhile.
