Do I just write and write and let it hit the page as is and let my beta readers give me the whammy on the first chapter to set me on the right path regarding tone?

Yes. Then, send it to Suzi and see if CJ likes it and Hec to see if Emmett likes it. They're both 12 and you're writing for middle school, so it should reach them, too.

I agree. I think you just write the story you want to tell, and afterwards you can check it for age appropriateness.

Allyson, coming from writing for the YA camp, the worst thing you can do is overthink the age group you're writing for. Whatever you do, don't write down or try to write what you THINK they might like. Just write the story as it's coming to you-- the rest of it, like the dialogue, is all tweakable.

And if you need other betas, I have voracious readers of the 10 and 12 year old variety. And of course, if you'd like, I'll beta for you as well. Anything you need.

Oh, and keep in mind, kids always like reading up-- so a middle grader will want to read about thirteen/fourteen and up.

Thirding. Just let it onto the page, and tweak it later. If you're writing for your inner 10 year old, your tone should be pretty much dead on. But CJ and Emmett would be a good control group.

And if you need other betas, I have voracious readers of the 10 and 12 year old variety.

And I have a 10-year old niece who is also a great reader and animal lover (although she has recently decided that she wants to be an architect instead of a vet).

That's a great idea. I posed the question to JZ in natter. I hope it isn't an inappropriate request. The most I can offer is a bat named Emmett and his name in the acknowledgements.

I booked my ticket to Houston to stay with a friend and visit the Waugh bridge to see the bats (which are my species) fly out to hunt at dusk and am going to call the conservation folks today to see if I can make a bat appointment. An old Bronzer friend is married to a bat biologist, (she's a professor at A&M) and is checking to see if he'll be available to show me the lab.

I really do want to get behavioral/biological details right, even though the elements are in the realm of the fantastic.

Thank you, Allyson, from the bottom of my heart. I think that's of great importance. I know storytellers have anthropomorphized animals since the dawn of time, and I understand the reasons. But trying to re-teach a five-year-old that actual lions don't have the family dynamic of The Lion King is hard.

Not--that your story is in any way comparable to Disney travesties.

Bat caves! Such a great idea, Allyson. And echoing what everyone else said -- write the story the way you hear it, and worry about tweaking later.

Barb, that snippet is awesome. What's it for? Or is it just a seed so far?

visit the Waugh bridge to see the bats

Is that the group where they have to shut down flights at the nearby Air Force base every evening when the bats swarm out of the cave?

Thanks, Beverly. It helps the plot that bats (save a handful of species) don't mind roosting with other species of bats, And that bat mothers are single mothers that have a single pup (save a couple species that have twins, and one that I know of that has triplets).

But you know, internet research only takes one so far. I need to talk to some experts and observe bats.