When I first heard about the concept behind this series, The CEO Girls Club, I knew I had to feature it. It shares a lot of themes with The Baby-Sitters Club series by Ann M. Martin, a series that I first read at the age of seven and the one that made me want to write my own books. The voice in the CEO Girls Club series is just as snarky and fun, and I highly recommend this series to anyone who enjoys middle grade books.
Abby is excited for her first day of middle school, but her wardrobe needs a lot of help. And with the unreasonably low budget her mom allocated for shopping, she needs to do something drastic if she wants anything decent to wear. She’s able to work out a deal for a must-have jacket, but she still has to figure out a way to pay her mom back for the loan to buy it. When Abby is assigned a class project to start a club, she gathers up her closest friends and they start the CEO Girls Club. Creative. Entrepreneurial. Opportunities. Girls Club for girls who want to start their own businesses. Their first project is to help Abby and Emma start a babysitting business to earn extra money. But that’s not the only assignment on Abby’s mind. She also has to sing a song by herself on Back To School night. She’s terrified and doesn’t think she’ll be able to get up in front of the whole school and sing, but with the support of her friends and family…and a certain boy she really likes, she’s able to summon up enough stage courage to pass the test.
As one of the founding members of the CEO Girls Club, Peyton is excited to start her own business. Perfectly Placed by Peyton is the perfect match for her. She loves being neat and tidy and is great and helping other people organize their stuff to flow in a productive way. But there’s more to Peyton’s need for organization than just a hobby. She’s been struggling with ADD for most of her life and the only way she knows how to cope with her lack of focus is by staying hyper organized and detail oriented. None of her friends know her secret, not even Abby, so when she’s placed in a different math class that will teach her methods for learning that will make her more successful, she worries about her friends finding out the truth. It isn’t until Jonathan, the boy she has a crush on, opens up to her about his own learning difference that she realizes it’s time to be honest with her friends. If they really care about her, they won’t care about this one aspect of her life.
Sami spends most of her time chasing soccer balls up and down a field. She loves the sport, but it’s starting to lose the spark she once felt for the game. Now her interest is leaning toward photography. Only problem is, she doesn’t have the high-quality camera she wants to really learn the field. News of the CEO Girls Club has spread fast at Moose Grove Middle School, and if Sami has any hope of ever earning enough money to buy the camera she needs, starting her own business might be her only chance. Unfortunately, choosing to start a business isn’t always as easy as figuring out what the name of it should be. When she finally picks the perfect business of keeping soccer balls inflated during Saturday tournaments, she discovers there’s an added bonus to her plan. She gets to also hang out with Liam, one of the best soccer players at her school…and the cutest.
Kaitlyn was never one of the cool girls. She was the girl with her head down, hoping to not be noticed. Her friend Kennedy, though, had other plans. As one of the cool kids, Kennedy hopes to bring Kaitlyn out of her shell. While Kaitlyn’s reluctant to play along, she does agree that she needs help raising some money to buy the die cutting machine she so desperately wants. Who knows. Maybe while she turns something she loves into a business, she might also make some friends along the way.
According to your website bio, you were born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area. What did you enjoy the most about growing up here?
As most people can attest, the best part about the Bay Area is the weather. I never had to walk to school in the snow or spend recess indoors when I was a kid. I also had exceptional access to technology and entrepreneurship…which set me on a lifetime of starting side hustles and working in the tech industry.
Wonderful! I love the voice in the CEO Girls Club series! What do you think are the key elements of an effective middle grade voice?
The characters in that series were inspired by my friend’s daughters. The real-life Abby is a little entrepreneur and hearing her talk about her business ideas made me want to capture them and share them with other girls her age. Having access to kids can help inspire fun stories and using the language they use makes it more relatable to the people we want to read them. Of course, there’s a fine line between being relatable and being over-the-top, so I try to throw in funny moments without being cringy.
Being aware of the potential for cringe means you’re probably not cringy at all! You also write romance novels under a pen name. How did you know you wanted to write romance?
I actually wrote romance novels first. It started when I read the Twilight Saga and wanted stories about the other characters. Anyway, I wrote a few series for adults and then decided to write some books I could share with my friends and family. I truly enjoy writing in several different genres but I keep them separate so my middle grade readers don’t accidentally get a hold of my adult books or vice versa. But they are very different worlds. Middle grade books often focus on making everyday life situations relatable and hopeful, whereas the romance novels I write are very much escapism and fantasy and not what any of my readers experience in real life. But I like the challenge of trying something new. I’ve written how-to books and a fictionalized memoir and a mystery that I was told wasn’t very mysterious…so I think it’s fun to try new things and see how they go.
Sounds exciting! What are some of your current projects?
I’m mostly writing under my secret pen names but I’ve been thinking about adding a few new middle grade books as Kristina Renee. It’s an “open” world that other authors can also join so if there is renewed interest, I’ll probably write more of the CEO Girls Club books. If not, I might try a dystopian type story. I love a good post-apocalyptic tale.
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