I am so excited for my friend Sharon Bayliss over at The Blue Word. She has made it as a quarter finalist in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award with her YA novel, THE CHARGE!
Please go here to read the rave reviews and shower her with stars to show her your support. She's giving out friendship points and everything if you do! Also, please feel free to repost this on your own site. There's no such thing as too much publicity for us writers, right?
Check out The Charge here, and you'll see why ABNA has chosen her.
Here is the excerpt:
Eighteen-year-old Warren King has been protecting his brother, Isaac, from bullies ever since Isaac decided to wear a top hat to the third grade. So when Isaac is kidnapped, Warren heads out to bust some faces. But Warren didn't expect the bully to be the King of the Texas Empire. Warren's mother confesses that Warren and his brother are some of the last members of the Texas royal family and now the new King is hunting down his relatives before the true heir decides to say, "Hey man, you're in my seat." On his journey to save his brother, Warren discovers that the legend about the Texas royal family being genetically "special" isn't a legend. The extra bioelectricity in their brain must be why Warren's brother is freaky smart, but it just makes Warren's brain buzz like a hive of killer bees. His supercharged brain doesn't add to his charm when he meets the first girl that ever made him want to do things like iron creases in his pants. She's ready to help him take on the King, but since she's an anti-monarchy activist dating the son of the President of the United States, he's not sure if she's going to kiss him or shoot him. Gone are the days when choosing a major was a big deal. Now he must embark into a West that stayed wild and choose to be King, follow a King, or die before he can retire his fake ID.THE CHARGE is set in an alternate present day after a dictator took over the Republic of Texas in 1836 and built his own empire in the West. This quirky "what-if" and its lovable and laughable anti-hero appeals to teenage fans of popular dystopian fiction and has strong crossover potential into the adult market.
I can't wait to read it! It is a truly original idea.
The best of luck to you, Sharon!
