Stupid Fast is the story of Felton Reinstein, a fifteen-turning-sixteen-year-old in a rural Wisconsin town whose sudden growth spurt turns him from a small, sad, jumpy, picked-on kid (called squirrel nut) to a powerful athlete.  In Felton’s voice, speaking from his bedroom in the middle of the night, we learn of his broken home, his mother’s intensifying depression, his little brother’s pirate-clothed struggles, and the seeming root of all trouble – his father’s suicide ten years earlier, against the back-drop of his growing athletic success, his first love – a young African-American pianist named Aleah, and growing relationships with the same kids who tortured him through-out his childhood.  As his home crumbles, literally and figuratively, Felton finds triumph on the field born of real kindness from new friends, from the support he’s given by Aleah and her father, from his once estranged grandmother’s rescue mission, and, most importantly, from his new understanding of his father, his self, and his potential for both destruction and magnificence.  Stupid Fast asks us to know ourselves, to be compassionate, and to be unremittingly passionate about what we love.

A BLUE SO DARK by Holly Schindler

• Publisher: Flux
• Release Date: May 1, 2010
• ISBN (hardcover): TBD
• ISBN (paperback): ISBN-10: 0738719269 ISBN-13: 978-0738719269

As A BLUE SO DARK opens, Aura Ambrose struggles to hide a secret.  Her mother, a talented artist and art teacher, is slowly being consumed by schizophrenia, and Aura has been her sole caretaker ever since Aura’s dad left hem.  Convinced that “creative” equals crazy, Aura shuns her own artistic talent.  But as her mother sinks deeper into the darkness of mental illness, the hunger for a creative outlet draws Aura toward the depths of her imagination.  Just as desperation threatens to swallow her whole, Aura discovers that art, love, and family are profoundly linked—and together may offer an escape from her fears.

Author Visit Information

I’d prefer to keep personal appearances to the Southwest Missouri area.  But I’m always available for a Skype visit!  Don’t hesitate to get in touch…

SOMETHING LIKE HOPE by Shawn Goodman

• Publication Season/Year: December 2010
• Publisher: Delacorte Press
• Release Date: December 28, 2010
• ISBN (hardcover): 978-0-385-73939-9
• ISBN (paperback): TBD

Shavonne is a fierce and desperate seventeen year-old who finds herself in a large juvenile lockup hundreds of miles from home.  She wants to turn her life around before her eighteenth birthday, but her problems seem too big, and time is running out. Amidst corrupt guards, out-of-control girls, and shadows from her past, Shavonne must find the courage to fight for a redemption she’s not sure she deserves.

RUNNING FOR MY LIFE by Ann Gonzalez

• Publication Season/Year: Spring, 2009
• Publisher: WestSide Books
• Release Date: March 25, 2009
• ISBN (hardcover): 978-1-934813-00-3
• ISBN (paperback): TBD

RUNNING FOR MY LIFE is the powerful story of Andrea McKane, a fourteen-year-old who struggles to cope with her mother’s schizophrenia. The book accurately portrays the difficulties a teen faces when dealing with the illness, the abuse and the absence of a psychotic parent. RUNNING FOR MY LIFE shows the effects of mental illness on a family, and a teenager’s attempts to manage the changes that have shaken her life. With courage, strength, and the loving support of her friends, her father, and her therapist, Andrea finds salvation through running. RUNNING FOR MY LIFE represents a breakthrough effort in portraying the challenges children deal with when they have to protect themselves from a guardian.

BREAK by Hannah Moskowitz

• Publication Season/Year: Summer, 2009
• Publisher: Simon Pulse
• Release Date: August 25, 2009
• ISBN (hardcover): N/A
• ISBN (paperback): 978-1416982753

Jonah is on a mission to break every bone in his body. Everyone knows that broken bones grow back stronger than they were before. And Jonah wants to be stronger-needs to be stronger, because his family is falling apart around his bickering parents, his allergic-to-everything brother, and the screaming new baby. Maybe if he breaks and heals enough times, he’ll show his family how to pick itself up after a fall. But how does he keep from destroying himself in the process?

THIS IS WHAT I WANT TO TELL YOU

• Publication Season/Year: Spring, 2009
• Publisher: Flux
• Release Date: March 1, 2009
• ISBN (paperback): TBD

The stories people tell are always about the things we left behind, and about the things we wish we could do again. The real story isn’t about what you know; it’s about what you wish you knew then. When my brother and my best friend fell in love-that was the end of everything I knew.

Fraternal twins Nadio and Noelle share a close connection-and as Noelle’s best friend since they were five, Keeley Shipley fit perfectly into their world. But everything changes after Keeley spends the summer before junior year at Oxford. When Keeley returns, Nadio falls in love with her. Noelle, ripped apart by resentment, sees her as an ungrateful rich girl. But Keeley has a painful story that she can’t tell yet. As Nadio and Keeley hide their romance, Noelle dives into something of her own-a destructive affair with an older boy.

Beautifully presented by dual narrators in a haunting stream of memories, this is the deeply moving story of how secrets can consume a friendship-and how love can heal it.

Dirty Little Secrets by C.J. Omololu

• Publication Season/Year: Winter 2010
• Publisher: Walker
• Release Date: February 2, 2010
• ISBN (hardcover): TBD
• ISBN (paperback): TBD

When 16 year-old Lucy comes home to find her mother dead under a stack of National Geographics in their garbage-filled home, she hesitates as she starts to dial 911. She hardly notices the mountains of stuff that fill every available space in the entire house or smells the decay anymore – but she knows the paramedics will, and so will the news cameras that will follow. They’ll notice the garbage and the smell and wonder how anyone ever lived like this. Only freaks live like this.

As she stares at the cell phone, Lucy can already hear the echoes of “Garbage Girl” and picture the look of disgust on everyone’s faces. With a normal life finally within reach, Lucy has to decide how far she’ll go to keep the family secrets safe.

BLEEDING VIOLET by Dia Reeves

• Publication Season/Year: Spring 2010
• Publisher: Simon Pulse
• Release Date: January 5, 2010
• ISBN (hardcover): 1416986189
• ISBN (paperback): TBD

BLEEDING VIOLET summary:

Sixteen-year-old Hanna Järvinen is an unusual girl with a head full of hallucinations, a medicine cabinet full of pills, and a closet full of frilly, violet dresses. Everything a girl needs–except love.  But that’s what mothers are for, and Hanna is sure she can reconcile with hers, even though she was abandoned as a baby.

Unfortunately, her mother lives in Portero, an odd East Texas town with doors that lead out of the world, flesh-eating creatures, and parasitical spirits–not an ideal environment for winning a mother’s love.

Hanna, however, refuses to let a few monsters interfere with her plans. If she has to flirt a little, lie a little, kill a little, or even bleed a little, she’ll do it. Hanna can live with monsters and mayhem, but she would rather die than live without love.

CRACKED UP TO BE by Courtney Summers

• Publication Season/Year: Winter 2009
• Publisher: St. Martin’s Press (Griffin)
• Release Date: December 23, 2008
• ISBN (paperback): 031238369X (isbn13: 9780312383695)

Perfect Parker Fadley isn’t so perfect anymore. She’s quit the cheerleading squad, she’s dumped her perfect boyfriend, and she’s failing school. Her parents are on constant suicide watch and her counselors think she’s playing games… but what they don’t know, the real reason for this whole mess, isn’t something she can say out loud. It isn’t even something she can say to herself. A horrible thing has happened and it just might be her fault. If she can just remove herself from everybody–be totally alone–then everything will be okay… The problem is, nobody will let her.