Celebrating Debut Authors 2020-21

I’m so happy to be celebrating a 2020 debut release with fellow Canadian author, Tara Ross.

TARA ROSS young adult fiction

DEBUT BOOK TITLE: Fade to White

RELEASE DATE: May 30, 2020

PUBLISHER: Illuminate YA

Thea Fenton’s life looks picture-perfect, but inside, she is falling apart. Wracked by anxiety no one seems to understand or care about, she resorts to self-harm to deflect the pain inside.

When a local teen commits suicide, Thea’s anxiety sky-rockets. Unexplainable things happen, leaving her feeling trapped within her own chaotic mind. The lines between reality and another world start to blur, and her previously mundane issues seem more daunting and insurmountable than ever.

Then she meets Khi, a mysterious new boy from the coffee shop who seems to know her better than she knows herself—and doesn’t think she’s crazy. His quiet confidence and unfounded familiarity draw her into an unconventional friendship.

Khi journeys with her through grief, fear, and confusion to arrive at compassion for the one person Thea never thought she could love.

ASKING TARA

What are some fun facts or discoveries you made while researching that didn’t end up in the book? I love creating characters and, with each one, an elaborate backstory, but as many authors are aware those backstories rarely find their way into the actual novel in any prominent way. However, for my main characters, Thea, Khi, and Malin, I actually created an entire short story for each around the one critical wounding event that largely impacts who they become in the story. You can read each of them as part of my mini-note perks, in my monthly author newsletter.

Do you have a “go-to” author To Read? As someone who hosts an author-interview podcast, I get introduced to new favorite authors every other week, but my one “go-to” author that we are still waiting patiently to have on The Hope Prose Podcast, is Sara Ella. I adored Coral and she has a Wonderland retelling that I can’t wait to read, coming out later this year from Enclave Publishing.

What’s the next project you’re working on? My next YA novel is loosely connected to Fade to White‘s story world and explores a parallel timeline, but this time I transport readers to a northern Ontario technology addiction camp. It explores the power that social media can hold over young people and the importance of IRL friendships. It’s taken a rather personal impact on me as I’ve been off screens myself after sustaining a concussion this spring. I’ll be sharing more details about this story in my newsletter in the coming months once my own brain is healed!