Middle Grade Fiction
Date Published: Feb 24, 2026
Publisher: Small Circles Press
Ivy’s life is a swirl of turbulence and change. It’s been
almost a year since her sweet momma has died. Bottled up feelings tear her
apart inside. Grandma wants to take her little dog away. Her BFFs pressure her
to change. The cutest boy in school has a crush on her.
“It’s the universe, Ivy Leigh, welcoming in a little
change.” Mr. Winters, her neighbor, a wannabe cowboy, tells her one day.
But change is so confusing. When a pair of bullies taunt her on the bus and
tease her at school, Ivy makes a giant mistake.
With a mix of humor and poignant moments and a quirky cast of neighbors and
friends, Ivy finds a way to understand herself and make up for that mistake
she’s made. Best of all, Ivy remembers Momma: Feelings are like
fireflies caught in a jar, Ivy Leigh. They belong in the open, where a warm
breeze can carry them away!
Interview
What is the hardest part of writing your books?
I love to write…maybe a little too much?! I take revision to the extremes and have to stop myself, come up for air and cut back the details, the little short vignettes—that I may love, but may take them too far away from the plotline.
What are your most played songs?
I am a bit of a Dead Head, so Sugaree and Althea come to mind, but I’m also an eclectic music fan…love Goose’s Give it Time, Taylor Swift’s Shake it Off, The Allman Brothers’ Blue Sky, and anything Aretha or Whitney, of course. Landslide/The Chicks or Stevie Nicks.
Do you have critique partners or beta readers?
Yes! I don’t know what I’d do without my critique partners. I belong to the Coastal Writers Group in Southeast NC. I also have a longstanding group of children’s writers/critique partners from Connecticut. We grew close through a Writers Workshop we attended regularly, mentored by Patricia Reilly Giff.
What book are you reading now?
Children’s: Just starting Coyote Lost and Found/just finished Ferris, by Kate DiCamillo.
Adult: Heart the Lover by Lily King
Audible (when walking my pup): The Irish Goodbye by Heather Aimee O’Neill
How did you start your writing career?
I was an education major in college, however two of my professors pressed me to reconsider and think about becoming a writer—which was not done at the time. Writing was considered a dead end. I wrote a picture book in one of my kid lit classes, and that was the professor I’d meet years later in the halls of the school I was teaching at. She asked me about my writing work. It was serendipitous, really. When I told her I really didn’t have time to write, that most of my writing was done alongside my students, she steered me toward Patricia Reilly Giff’s workshop in Fairfield, CT. Pat loved me as a writer until I finally learned to see my work as having value. She was an amazing mentor, and the class was loaded with talented authors. Pat was always the first editor of my work, commenting in her tiny letters right on the typed pages I’d send her. The combination of all those great writers and Pat’s unwavering support, made me truly believe I belonged in their midst!
I continued to write, novels, short stories, poems…I wrote a 300-page, multiple point of view novel, which, after a few rejections, got shelved. I was way too thin skinned back then. I let the Critic in me take over. Something no writer or artist should ever do! But I kept writing and blogging and hid under the radar, rather than putting my work out there for way too long.
When I retired from my teaching career, I set myself up as a full-time writer, determined that nothing would hold me back. I love kids and especially love those preteen voices, the fourth through sixth graders I’d immersed myself in for so many years. Teaching that age group really paved the way for all that would come next! Currently, I’m getting myself back into the classroom with Ivy Leigh, visiting schools and hoping to inspire a next generation of writers.
Tell us about your next release.
I’ve completed a couple of drafts of the sequel to Ivy Leigh Ever After. I’m still playing around with a title, but it does showcase Ivy at the end of her summer, just before she’s about to jump into the true middle school years and all the apprehension that swirls around her. My hope is to get it off to my editor and then complete her revisions by early fall of this year.
I also have a YA, complete draft, that I’m loving and definitely want to get out into the world. So, while I am hyper focused on that sequel, I am working with more than a few pots on the fire! Writing is my life!
About the Author
Gael Lynch is a writer and storyteller, a teacher whose love of kids and furry
creatures has followed her throughout her life. She now lives in coastal
Carolina, a place of sunny beaches and warm breezes with her husband Tom and
her rambunctious golden retriever, Wrigley. However, Newtown, Connecticut,
with its pastoral beauty and kind-hearted people will always be a place she
calls home.
Contact Links
Website
Facebook
Twitter @gaellynch
Goodreads
Instagram: @lynchgael
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