Friday, August 31, 2012

August Update... and 100th Post!



I'm sorry things have been so quiet here at the blog!

I've been busy, I promise. Like really busy. Teaching, taking classes, shooting videos, reading and reviewing books for my other blog, querying and pitching literary agents.

Most of all? Writing, writing, writing, writing!

Since March I've been working on a really special YA fantasy novel OVER THE RAINBOW that is currently being considered by agents (cross your fingers for me!), and on Monday I began writing the third and final book of the Grisly High trilogy, THE MONSTER APOCALYPSE! Arriving just in time for Christmas, the final chapter of this YA horror series is going to be the most insanely awesome installment of all.

And I've got lots of projects coming up even after that! I'm mulling over a prequel to HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME about Liesel's unconventional upbringing, I'm outlining a comedic gay YA novel about a videographer, and I'm even considering writing my first ever MIDDLE GRADE book!

So for now, I'm going to leave you with this: the storyline of OVER THE RAINBOW! So far I've only given you four words: Lesbians. The Rapture. Dinosaurs.

Now here's a bit more. Enjoy!


Sixteen-year-old Zippy Green never meant to fall in love with a girl, but when she does, her ultra conservative father tries to send her to anti-gay camp. But at the Kansas City airport, she hides inside a giant suitcase and sneaks onto an airplane headed not to the camp, but to Seattle, where her online love Mira lives. Halfway through the flight, the plane barrels out of control and crashes into the ground, knocking Zippy unconscious. When she awakens, she finds that most of the passengers have vanished. She doesn’t know what’s happened, but she’s determined to find out.

Zippy begins a quest on foot toward Seattle, and along the way, she meets an exchange student with a concussion, a homeless man with a heart condition, a child without a shred of bravery, and a terrier named Judy. The group discovers that more than two thirds of the world’s population has ascended to the sky and disappeared. Having grown up in a religious household, Zippy thinks what’s happened is the rapture, but others think it’s an alien invasion or a gravitational pull.

In the end all Zippy wants is to find her Mira, but before she can she has to contend with two outside forces. The first is her homophobic father, who survives the mysterious exodus and does everything in his power to keep her from the girl she loves. And the second is extinct creatures of all shapes and sizes, from dodo birds to dinosaurs, which have replaced the missing population.


ZIPPY. IS. COMING.