Meet Teen Author: Taylor Bennett

Getting traditionally published is hard. A whole lot of work and heart spills over pages and pages before ever seeing a publishing contract. So how in the world did Taylor see her contract at seventeen-years-old?

And wait for it, the sequel to “Porch Swing Girl” releases today.

Check out “Sand Castle Dreams” and get her secret sauce below:

Q: What’s your newest release about?

A: My new release (happy book birthday to me!!) is called Sand Castle Dreams, and it’s the sequel to my debut novel, Porch Swing Girl. Picking off where my first book left off, Sand Castle Dreams revisits the lovely island of Maui while diving deeper into the lives of my secondary characters. Protagonist Olive Galloway still has a lot to learn after book one, but she’ll have to heal first. This book was a true labor of love—I wrote the first draft in its entirety 2.5 times before I finally found the “right” story. In the end, things came together more beautifully than I ever could have imagined, and I can only attribute the end result to the wonderful, powerful (AND TALENTED) hand of God! Here’s the official back cover blurb:

Sometimes we have to face our greatest fears in order to become whole again.

Returning to Maui after one of the most challenging summers of her life, sixteen-year-old Olive Galloway is ready for things to return to normal—or, at least, a new normal. But even though she and her sister are back on the island they love, nothing is the same since they left for Boston a few months ago. Olive’s friend Jazz is hiding a secret—possibly something even worse than the cancer diagnosis she received earlier in the year. Can Olive ever stop running from memories of all they’ve lost?

When their friend Brander suggests Jazz attends the church’s teen support group, Olive thinks it’s a great idea—until Jazz insists that Olive join her. While the group is the perfect place for Olive to share her struggles, she wants nothing to do with it. Instead, grief threatens to roll over her like the ocean waves, and tiny fibs turn into looming secrets. When a scruffy puppy and one viral video send another storm rolling into Olive’s life, she ends up face-to-face with her biggest fear. And the only way to make it out of the tempest is to go straight through.

Q: When did you get started writing?

A: I got started writing as soon as I could speak! Before I could even spell or recite my ABC’s, I was telling stories to my parents and begging them to write them down. As soon as I had a (very, very loose) grasp on my spelling abilities, I began to fill notebooks and stray scrap paper with half-baked stories about kittens, fairies, and the like. By age eight, I had a (slightly) better grasp on my spelling, and I began to learn more about story structure in school. I was hooked! By the time I was thirteen, I’d written my first “novel” (more like a novella, but still!) and had fallen head-over-heels in love with every single aspect of the writing life.

Q: How did you get started writing professionally?

A: As I mentioned above, at the age of thirteen, I wrote my first novel. This accomplishment birthed the desire to see those words—my words—sitting on a bookstore shelf, bound between a beautiful cover. But my dream went beyond simply being published—I gave myself a time limit. I wanted to see my story get traditionally published before my 20th birthday. Although I eventually “outgrew” that story on my quest to become a better writer, my second full novel, Porch Swing Girl, ended up being my ticket to publication. By connecting with Mountain Brook Ink at the Oregon Christian Writers Conference, I ended up being offered a three-book contract just one week after my seventeenth birthday. Thanks to getting fast-tracked for the release of book one in my series, I was able to check “published author” off my bucket list three full years before my self-imposed deadline 😉

Q: What would you say to young writers aspiring to become young authors?

A: READ!! It might sound trite, overstated, or cheesy, but the best thing you can do to become a better writer is to simply READ. Before I started writing, I’d had no formal instruction (save for my writing classes in school) and everything I knew about the craft of writing came from what I’d read in books. Because of this, and because of my penchant for rereading my favorite books over and over again, my voice was already strongly developed by the time I first put pen to paper—er, fingers to keyboard 😉 

By reading in a host of different genres and rereading books that especially touch your soul, you’ll begin to discover what you like and don’t like in each book—and these attributes will make their way into your writing, strengthening your own voice and helping you sound like a seasoned pro.

Q: How do you balance your author life with your high school life?

A: I graduated!

Okay, so I’m kidding there, but honestly, finding time to write has been exceptionally easier this year, after I graduated last spring. Before I graduated, I had to use a lot of discipline to stay on track with both my schoolwork and my writing deadlines. Being homeschooled definitely helped, as I got to take a “creative writing elective”—AKA since I started high school, my mom made sure to include time in my schedule that I could devote completely to writing. Even still, it was sometimes a challenge, and I definitely had to prioritize. Thankfully, I was raised from a young age to be self-motivated and work hard for everything I dreamt of achieving. This definitely came in handy as I found myself working under the pressure of a deadline. In fact, sometimes my parents had to remind me to stop working so hard 😉

Learn more about Taylor and stay in the know by checking out her social media pages:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TaylorBennettAuthor/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/writer__taylor

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/taylor.bennett.wanders/

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/Taylor__Bennett/

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/66039360-taylor-bennett

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCY14wY1VlyfoQlEJ_D6kkxQ