by Liz Miles
www.matthue.com.
Sherry Shahan has written over thirty books, including Purple Daze, a provocative free verse novel in which six high school students navigate war, riots, love, rock ‘n’ roll, school, and friendship. When she’s not writing, she hits the dance floor, and even enters contests at dance conventions. She says, “It’s fun to wear clothes that sparkle, and glue-on false eyelashes.” Sherry lives in California in a funky beach town.
www.sherryshahan.com
Gary Soto is a highly acclaimed poet, essayist, and fiction writer who was born and raised in Fresno, CA. His was a breakout voice in Latino literature. He is the author of many much-loved novels, short stories, plays, and poetry collections, including Accidental Love, The Afterlife, and the acclaimed Baseball in April and Other Stories. He has received numerous awards and recognition for his work, including the Literature Award from the Hispanic Heritage Foundation, PEN Center West Book Award, Author-Illustrator Civil Rights Award from the National Education Association, and a National Book Award nomination.
www.garysoto.com.
Shelley Stoehr has authored four award-winning novels for young adults, including the popular, award-winning Crosses. Reviews have described her as “one of the new young breed of truth-telling, young-adult writers” (The Horn Book), and said her “narrative flow is a strength, as is her ability to capture the rhythms, attitudes, and feelings of teens” (School Library Journal). Shelley’s weekly posting of short fiction can be found at outsidergirlswrite.blogspot.com.
www.shelleystoehr.com.
Sara Wilkinson is new to fiction writing, but not new to teens. She was brought up on the cliffs of Cornwall but spent much of her life in London and Essex, teaching young people how to use mallets and chisels to attack pieces of wood rather than each other. She says that one of her happiest writing achievements was to feature both daughter and poodle in her book on how to carve bits of tree. As well as chiseling wood, she bashes stone into shapes and retreats into other worlds. She lives in Wivenhoe, Essex, with her partner and her two maladjusted dogs. Her daughter, along with a bad-tempered hedgehog, is her most frequent visitor.
Ellen Wittlinger began her writing career as a poet at the Iowa Writer’s Workshop at University of Iowa while studying for her Master of Fine Arts degree. Her focus changed to writing for young adults after having two children and working as a children’s librarian.
Ellen’s first teen novel was Lombardo’s Law. She has had numerous successes for teen readers since. Her Printz Honor Book, Hard Love, was highly acclaimed for its portrayal of an unlikely relationship based on “zines, alienation and dreams of escape.” Parrotfish received praise for its humorous and authentic look at the person behind labels such as “gender dysphoria.”
www.ellenwittlinger.com
Jill Wolfson worked as a journalist for newspapers and magazines around the country after attending Temple University. Her award-winning novels for young people include What I Call Life; Home, and Other Big, Fat Lies; and Cold Hands, Warm Heart. Jill has taught writing at several universities and is a long-time volunteer at a writing program for incarcerated youth. She lives in Santa Cruz, California, and has two college-aged children, Alex and Gwen.
www.jillwolfson.com
Copyright
Constable & Robinson Ltd
3 The Lanchesters
162 Fulham Palace Road
London W6 9ER
www.constablerobinson.com
First published in the UK by Robinson, an imprint of Constable & Robinson, 2011
Copyright © 2011 by Liz Miles (unless otherwise indicated)
The right of Liz Miles to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs & Patents Act 1988.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or to actual events or locales is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved. This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
A copy of the British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data is available from the British Library
ISBN: 978–1–84901–930–9