Absolute Brightness
by James Lecesne
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Release Date: May 31st 2016

Genre: Young Adult, Realistic Fiction, GLBT, Teen, Mystery, Contemporary, Coming of Age

Synopsis:

Phoebe’s life in Neptune, New Jersey, is somewhat unremarkable. She helps her mom out with her hair salon, she goes to school, and she envies her perfect older sister. But everything changes when Leonard arrives.

Leonard is an orphan, a cousin who Phoebe never knew she had. When he comes to live with Phoebe’s family, he upsets the delicate balance of their lives. He’s gay and confident about who he is. He inspires the people around him. He sees people not as they are, but as they hope to be.

One day, Leonard goes missing. Phoebe, her family, and her community fight to understand what happened, and to make sense of why someone might want to extinguish the beautiful absolute brightness that was Leonard Pelkey.

This novel by the cofounder of The Trevor Project inspired the critically-acclaimed Off-Broadway show The Absolute Brightness of Leonard Pelkey.

For over 25 years I've been telling stories. Whether I'm writing, acting, producing or trying to create social change, it's usually the story that got me involved. But in the process of getting things done and trying to make the world a better place, I've also been telling the story of my life. This website is my best effort to provide the general gist. But my hope is that you find something here that will inspire you to live your life more fully and continue to tell your story.

Hello FFBC Team! We are now announcing a new tour we're hosting for Absolute Brightness is being released on June 1st 2016 by Feiwel & Friends.

Reviewers will receive a digital copy of the book via email in PDF format.

As always, there will be a tour giveaway provided by the author. Details to come soon!

Absolute Brightness
by James Lecesne
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Release Date: May 31st 2016

Genre: Young Adult, Realistic Fiction, GLBT, Teen, Mystery, Contemporary, Coming of Age

Synopsis:

Phoebe’s life in Neptune, New Jersey, is somewhat unremarkable. She helps her mom out with her hair salon, she goes to school, and she envies her perfect older sister. But everything changes when Leonard arrives.

Leonard is an orphan, a cousin who Phoebe never knew she had. When he comes to live with Phoebe’s family, he upsets the delicate balance of their lives. He’s gay and confident about who he is. He inspires the people around him. He sees people not as they are, but as they hope to be.

One day, Leonard goes missing. Phoebe, her family, and her community fight to understand what happened, and to make sense of why someone might want to extinguish the beautiful absolute brightness that was Leonard Pelkey.

This novel by the cofounder of The Trevor Project inspired the critically-acclaimed Off-Broadway show The Absolute Brightness of Leonard Pelkey.

For over 25 years I've been telling stories. Whether I'm writing, acting, producing or trying to create social change, it's usually the story that got me involved. But in the process of getting things done and trying to make the world a better place, I've also been telling the story of my life. This website is my best effort to provide the general gist. But my hope is that you find something here that will inspire you to live your life more fully and continue to tell your story.

Alice in No-Man's-Land
by James Knapp
Publisher: Curtis Brown Unlimited
Release Date: June 10th 2015

Genre: Science Fiction, Dystopia, Thriller, Fantasy, Apocalyptic

Synopsis:

When her escape pod falls to earth, crashing in Ypsilanti Bloc, privileged seventeen-year-old Alice Walshe is dashed from the wonderland of wealth and prosperity into a ruined, walled city overrun with militias, gangs, and even cannibals. On top of this horror, her younger brother’s escape pod is missing.

Alice isn’t naïve – she’s always known blocs like Ypsilanti exist, left behind after a foodborne illness ravished the country decades earlier and left pockets of severe urban decay in its wake. Men like her father - a major player at Cerulean Holdings - renew the devastated blocs and bring stability back into the areas. But, Ypsilanti is even worse than the tales she’s heard, and rumor has it the bloc is faced with the threat of extermination by Cerulean, not renewal.

Trapped within Ypsilanti’s borders and left for dead, Alice teams up with a pair of teen scavengers who tracked the wreck of her pod. Despite their rough exterior and vulgar speech, they’re her only option for navigating the hostile and violent environment of Ypsilanti, finding her brother, and getting out of No-Man’s-Land alive..

James Knapp was born in New Hampshire in 1970, and has lived in the New England area since that time. He developed a love of reading and writing early on, participating in young author competitions as early as grade school, but the later discovery of works by Frank Herbert and Isaac Asimov turned that love to an obsession.

He wrote continuously through high school, college and beyond, eventually breaking into the field with the publication of the Revivors trilogy (State of Decay, The Silent Army, and Element Zero). State of Decay was a Philip K. Dick award nominee, and won the 2010 Compton Crook Award. Ember, The Burn Zone, and Fallout were all written under the name James K. Decker.

He now lives in MA with his wife Kim.