Backstory

Things weren't supposed to go this way.

I tried to write this book for a while, and nothing came out. Then it rained, and it poured -- the first draft, I wrote in 25 days on a huge pile of scrap paper.

I'm really, really proud of it.

The story deals with what some people call adult situations. In the book, the adult situations happen to a 16-year-old. You can decide whether you should read it.

This book was rejected by some of my favorite presses. The overwhelming reason was, they said it's a book for teen guys, and teen guys don't want to read about relationships and sex and assault.

One publisher, Fig Tree Books, bought my book and was really excited about it. But before they could print it, they had a considerable list of demands -- a 53-page single-spaced list of corrections, with a word count nearly half as long as the book itself.

At first, I was actually really happy. I love feedback. I live for the stuff. It means people are actually reading me, and thinking about what I wrote. But after I dove into the feedback, it still wasn't working out, and now I'm just setting the book free.

No small amount of credit goes to Katie Skau, who designed the cover and guided me on the crazy interior fonts and alignments. She's an artist, and a genius, and more flexible than anyone with her talent has a right to be, and if you ever need design work, please head in her direction.

Okay, now that's out of the way. If you're not all readed out, go read it.