Writing Young Adult Fiction

The tyranny of the Vollen Empire is written in the scars on Tove's face. But a chance encounter with Brie, a Desulti assassin, awakens a hunger in Tove. She'd seen Brie fight. The Desulti was a small woman, like Tove, but Tove doubted Brie ever felt small. Not like Tove did.

#1 New York Times bestselling author Ruta Sepetys is known for creating vivid characters and harrowing plots. After five award-winning works of historical fiction and countless hours of meticulous research, she can affirm that the secret to strong writing is embedded within your life experience. You: The Story is a powerful how-to book for aspiring writers that encourages you to look inward and excavate your own memories in order to discover the authentic voices and compelling details that are waiting to be put on the page.

Meet Braelin, a young woman in the year 2056, whose life is soon to be changed forever by a virus known as C47 - a virus that wipes out much of the world, including her parents and her twin.

I'm determined to prove to Liam that we aren't over. I need him to understand that I can handle the part of him that he revealed to me. I'm not weak. But it doesn't seem to matter. Not to Liam. So, I'm trying to move on. Christopher, my home economics partner, seems like a good distraction. He's sweet and kind and interested in me. But everywhere I go, Liam seems to be there. I'm trying to forget the one guy who stole my heart, but that seems easier said than done.

Fifteen-year-old Natalie Ryba reluctantly moves from the Illinois suburbs to Rapid City, South Dakota, when her mom accepts a new job in the Black Hills. More than anything, Natalie wants to find the same peace and sense of belonging she had in Illinois with her friends and track team. But moving across the country, living minutes from her estranged, eccentric grandmother, and developing a crush on her next-door neighbor put that dream out of reach.

Amanda Lester wouldn't be caught dead going into the family business. Her ancestor, Sherlock Holmes's colleague Inspector G. Lestrade, is a twit. Nevertheless her parents refuse to see his flaws, and she's going to a secret English school for the descendants of famous detectives whether she likes it or not. When Amanda arrives at the dreaded school, she considers running away - until she and her new friends discover blood and weird pink substances in odd places.

Fourteen-year-old Kirby Renton is a gifted theatre kid who wants to fix things: his dads’ marriage, his younger brother’s epilepsy. When ten-year-old Baxter’s seizures start involving visits from “the lightning people,” who descend from the sky and show him strange symbols, Kirby knows he needs to protect his brother, but how? He thinks he’s found the answer when the neurologist advises his family to consider a seizure-alert dog, but the cost is too much for his family to afford.

"Where is my son?" Asher's mother screamed as they loaded her husband's body into the ambulance. Five miles up the trail, Asher was going deeper into the wilderness. His compulsive need for routine, hike to the lake at the same time on the same trail with the same gear, is now amplified by his father's last wish, to find their friend and deliver supplies. In Lincoln, Wyoming, fourteen-year-old Caleb is stunned when the sheriff asks him to urgently bring search dog "Boo" to find Asher. When they find Asher near the lake, the adventure is just beginning.

It was their passion...that's all people talked about. True love...it's complicated. Madeline and Elliot's partnership was the envy of the dance floor. Their story, an unspoken truth. Star crossed lovers focusing all their emotions into their craft...like I said it was complicated. Until the day, everything was taken away. Until they fell harder than ever before. It was always Elliot and Madeline, but now...What would you do? Would you fight for true love?

Things weren't so peachy in Cathy's life before she and her boyfriend Victor broke up. Her father died unexpectedly, she's failing school, and her best friend Emma is mad at her. But when Cathy decides to investigate Victor's reasons for ending their relationship, things suddenly go from bad to very, very, very bad as her findings produce more questions than answers. Through Cathy's unique and irresistible voice listeners will enter a strange and fascinating world where things often aren't how they appear.

Plagued by a strange recurring dream that reveals a secret gift, 12-year-old Sammy Greene sets off to save the little white dog from his dream and fulfill his destiny. But when the dog leads Sammy to an animal-testing operation deep in the woods, Sammy unwittingly discovers Max and Bets, two rookie criminals, and their harebrained internet scam to make millions. Kidnapped and tied to a chair—surrounded by suffering animals—Sammy is armed with only a pet mouse, a nearly dead cell phone, a hoodie, and his dead grandmother's cryptic advice.

On planet Delphi, a secret government experiment leads to babies born with supernatural powers. As they grow older, their powers and abilities become stronger. Government leaders, fearing their secret will be discovered soon, decide to take the children away from their parents. But five rogue families flee Delphi taking their children to begin a new life on Earth in 1947.

Abandoned as an infant, 15-year-old Bonnie Hartwright doesn't know who she really is. And that just might get her killed. After her latest scrape with the law, foster girl Bonnie is abruptly carted off to a "reform sailing camp" on the Carolina coast. There, she discovers the camp is actually a training compound of a centuries-old secret society, all of whose members are descendants of a notorious pirate.

Whereas only a few months earlier he would not have believed any of it, Salem Swan now finds himself faced with sinister enemies and, equally surreal, surrounded by close friends. He has gained powers as a mythlinguist, and with it a responsibility to reunite the world of humans with the world of myth, known as the Fringe. With his uncle Ulysses and Captain Fern taken prisoner by a growing Regulat force, it's up to Salem and the crew to seek help in old allies. This takes them to the heart of the Amazonian rainforest, where a city concealed in waterfalls tests the measure of their resolve.

Girl Under Glass is the story of a rootless, rebellious young girl sinking deeper into juvenile delinquency. Given one more chance to avoid juvenile hall, a judge assigns her to community service with a cranky botanist studying plant communication. When he is beaten and left for dead, Kelsey must convince the lead detective that an entire greenhouse full of plants is witness to the crime, and she knows how to prove it.

The universe is a hamburger. That’s what sixteen-year-old Nicole Taylor learns when a mysterious time-bending stranger saves her from a rampaging cyborg centipede. See, the top bun? That’s our dimension. The bottom bun? That’s the monster’s dimension. And the patty? That’s a dimension where the two worlds meet—and the Reavers can attack. The Reavers are horrific cybernetic killing machines, and their plans for the top bun? Well, they’re as terrifying as you’d expect. But Nicole isn’t helpless. She has a rare gift. She can bend time around her and even stop it completely.

A hidden world waits, a dark society schemes, and a ship sails to protect that which cannot be lost. Salem Swan knows none of this as he arrives in Easterly. He knows only that he misses his recently deceased mother, that his new guardian, his uncle Ulysses is unique, and that the boat which will now be his home is unlike anything he has ever seen. Fearful of this new reality, Salem starts to ask questions that uncover the truth about his distant uncle, his long-gone father, and the true nature of the ship.

Twyla’s been living in hiding on Earth, hoping to leave her past behind. But when her mother, Madam Cassiopeia DeConnett finds her and kidnaps her back to the Paraxous Star Cluster, she expects her daughter to take her rightful place within the family business. The DeConnetts are Dashia—a group of genetically- engineered telepaths who use their powers to control some and ruin others. Their criminal organization is rich, powerful, and spans The Cluster.

Imagine, if you will, an eleven-year-old boy with an imagination so powerful that he uses it like others would use a compass. Our hero, Jimmy Hamilton, loses his fort on three separate occasions all in the span of one summer. He must battle both his wits and unwanted squatters. He comes to discover each new unwanted tenant proves more difficult to evict than the last. His plans have a modicum of success but each come with unintended consequences.

Seventeen-year-old horror fan Cain Shannon thought helping a ghost find her killers would be the supernatural adventure of a lifetime. Now, he just hopes to survive long enough to protect his family and friends from her. When he discovers Sarah has been hijacking his body, he realizes she wants retribution instead of justice. With the help of friends, Cain fights to save himself and his loved ones and searches for a way to stop Sarah before she kills again.