The Golden Band (7th Grade Edition)

E.L. Wright Middle School
Columbia, SC
1987

We were asked by our Seventh Grade English teacher to start a journal. We would have time to write in the journal every day. We could write whatever we wanted. Since I instantly disliked this woman who wore too much mascara, I decided I didn't want her to know anything about my personal life...so I announced that I would write a book. I was 11 years old. The "journal" was a SuperShades wide-ruled notebook, with robin's egg-blue paper and stickers all over the cover. It still has my teacher's smiley-faces and checkmarks in it.

There are many authors out there who say they would rather die than publish their first attempt at a novel. I am not one of these authors.

This first attempt, originally titled "Seventh Grade Magic," only goes to Chapter Seven. (The dates in the notebook and teacher's checkmarks only run through October 22nd...I guess we stopped journaling, but I never stopped writing.) By that point, the title of the book had changed to "The Golden Band," and the plot had taken on a life of its own.

The summer before eighth grade, I sat down and rewrote the entire book, continuing the story well in to my high school years, all the way up to the penultimate chapter. I will publish that separately as "The Golden Band (High School Version)" so as not to lose this original story.

Other than a few (surprisingly few) spelling, punctuation, and formatting fixes, this manuscript is as intact as the original handwritten version.

I hope you enjoy my childhood fantasy.
xox
~Alethea
June 23, 2013

Cover Illustration by Casey Cothran, circa 1988