Hi all! Today, I want to share about my upcoming release, Shadow’s Dissident. This is part of the Children of Chaos series being hosted by INDIE/pendent Book Services. It will have a sequel, Light’s Insurgent. Now, I’ve had mixed feedback from BETA and ARC readers, so I wanted to take the time to provide a little insight into what to expect for those interested in reading it.

First of all, while it is YA, it is not your typical YA like Divergent, Hunger Games, or Twilight. The female lead doesn’t whine, rely totally on the guy for everything, or go from being a strong heroine to a weak one in the next book. I hate when authors write these sorts of female characters. Drives me up a wall, and it makes me want to quit reading. So I promise you I will not do that. Gwen does some seriously stupid things in the book because she’s young, inexperienced in life, and totally out of her depth in the situation she finds herself in. But she learns. She learns, and she grows as a character, but one thing she never lacks is courage, spunk, and strong moral fiber. She may sometimes do dumb things, but my goal in writing her was to give young adults and teens a role model in her. One that is admirable, strong, and relatable to young people. So yes, she does act like a teenager or a silly child at times because she is one.

Second, the book focuses mainly on setting the scene within Oblivion as it relates to Gwen and S, the main characters, and on the character development/relationship development. The pace is slower, and it is not packed with fight scenes and action. This is because, in order for the sequel to make sense, all of this set up has to be done. If you’re looking for a book that will delve into the character relationships and slowly unravel the secrets simmering under the surface, this will fulfill that. Book two is going to dive headlong into the plot to bring Oblivion down that begins at the end of book one and on the further unraveling of the secrets that started to come out at the end of the first book. It will also feature more of the various abilities, more action sequences, and a broader setting. With the set up and the relationships set down, the lines in the sand drawn, and the sides decided in book one, book two is free to really get into the rest of it. If I had dumped the readers into all of that from the get go, the dynamic between the two MCs would make no sense, their reasons for wanting Oblivion destroyed would be less clear/would require way more tedious set up and info dumping, and would generally not ring quite so true as it does once the reader has seen what these two went through to get to where they are by the opening of book two. I understand this will distance those readers unwilling to wait for the setup. Of course, we can list any number of classics that required this slower start to set everything up too, and it didn’t make them less successful. It just meant the groups that enjoyed it were going to be ones willing to take a slower journey to the end. So the decision to do this was intentional and done with an understanding that some readers would quit when they realized it wasn’t your stereotypical YA novel packed with fast paced romance and a whirlwind of action.

While this is YA appropriate, it does deal with difficult and sometimes dark themes. I approach all of my work with the concept that children should not be sheltered from evil’s existence. Instead, the goal should be to present it as evil and in a form that is appropriate to their age. This means that, depending on the age range I am aiming at, my work may include difficult subjects that can become very dark. But it also means that I strive to show only what is absolutely necessary and to avoid too much discussion of certain subjects that may not yet be appropriate for an age group if that age group is on the younger end of the YA spectrum. For Shadow’s Dissident and Light’s Insurgent, this means that while Oblivion runs escort/brothel services as a means of control over key political figures on planets they’re trying to control, does some horrific things to those in their training programs for soldiers and trainers, and is extremely evil, these things are only mentioned in brief but generally are not shown. With the exception of one brief section where one of the villains beats the female lead or a scene depicting the aftermath of the abuse meted out on S, most of it is never described or is only hinted at.

This is done intentionally because, as I said, while I don’t believe in sheltering teens and young adults from the reality of the evil that can go on in the world, I also don’t believe the best approach to helping them to realize that evil exists is to hand them writing with graphic descriptions of all the horrible things that could happen to a person. It is enough to establish that it exists, what brand of it is being dealt with, and why it is evil without going into lengthy descriptions of its manifestations. However, this does mean that some parents may not feel comfortable with giving the book series to their teens. I leave that decision in their hands; my goal is to provide them and you as readers with the information they and you need to make an informed decision on whether or not you want to read it. It is not my job or my concern to determine your decision or to decide if it is a good one or a fairly considered one. For those who have dealt with abuse before, this may not be the book for you. It isn’t graphic in its descriptions, where the abuse is described at all, but I understand that even the presence or mention of it may make those who have been through abuse uncomfortable. If that’s you, please, for your own mental health, don’t read this.

And finally, this first book–though it does develop the romantic relationship between S and Gwen–contains no sex (nor will the second one) and doesn’t even contain kissing. The second may contain kissing but will, as it is YA, contain nothing beyond that. The first book is, therefore, a pretty good indication of the sort of content that will be in the remaining book of the duology.

I hope this helps to bring some clarity to readers and to let you all know what to expect! Usually I don’t put this kind of thing out, but in this case, as I’ve noticed the mixed responses between readers who read a lot of YA and were a little surprised (and not always pleased) with the difference in approach and readers who don’t usually read YA and loved the different approach because they found the differences refreshing, I wanted to make sure I was giving readers all a fair heads up. So if you like the YA genre and you’re looking to this expecting a Hunger Games or Divergent-esque story…. Don’t. You’ll be disappointed. It’s nothing like that. It won’t ever be anything like that in any of my books. I don’t write what I don’t enjoy. I’m not saying the books are bad or that people can’t enjoy them, but the types of characters and the way these books approach themes throughout the arc of the series drive me nuts, which means I don’t want to write them. Doesn’t matter to me how many potential readers it loses. I won’t write what I don’t find interesting any more than I am willing to write books with main characters that I find obnoxious or without any admirable qualities. For those who appreciate the cleaner content in the YA genre but also dislike Hunger Games or Divergent-esque YA because the leads become progressively weaker and whinier throughout the books, this book will not do that. You’ll find that, while it sticks to YA appropriate content, it is oriented around the goal of providing young people with role models in the main characters, showing the multi-faceted aspects of people, and presenting a world true to human nature even though it’s set in a science-fantasy setting. If that sounds like something you’d like to see, then you’ll probably like this set of books.