#yaauthors

Just 2 days to go!

See you all at the YA Midwest Festival 2024 at Neuqua Valley High School, IL on July 27 from 8 AM to 5:30 PM! Join me and over 30 incredible authors for an unforgettable day.

If you haven't secured your spot yet, click the link below for ticket details. Don't miss out on all the exciting offers on the day of the event! See you there!

Big News!

I’ll be joining over 30 incredible authors at The YA Midwest Festival 2024 at Neuqua Valley High School, IL on July 27 from 8 AM to 5:30 PM!

This is a must-attend event for all YA fiction fans. Your ticket ($20-$36.99) offers different packages tailored for each YA reader and guarantees a copy of the keynote speaker's book!

Plus, there are even more add-ons included with your ticket. Swipe to see the exciting offers! Mark your calendars, grab your tickets, and get ready for an unforgettable day filled with stories, insights, and lots of bookish fun. I can’t wait to see you there!

When writing Hey, Kiddo, my editor David Levithan offered me key advice. 

“Don’t write this book as if it will be the only chance you’ll ever have to write about your life.” 

Armed with that wisdom, we edited out an unwieldy chapter from an early draft. That chapter was about my time volunteering as a counselor at a camp for kids with life-threatening illnesses and summarized on page 263 of Hey, Kiddo. I needed the reader to know about that experience, as it motivated me to reply to my father’s introductory letter sent when I was sixteen. That story hinted at on page 263 is now the basis for my second memoir. Volunteerism was as consequential to my origin story as my artistic endeavors were. It shaped me into who I became through a radical growth mindset. 

Any camp experience has the power to change you, but this camp served seriously ill children and their families, which was incredibly profound. And you may find yourself asking, “But wait. All of those kids had cancer? Wouldn’t that be incredibly depressing?” It’s a question I’ve fielded for years, and the answer is an emphatic NO. These weren’t kids who were dying; these were kids living life to their fullest despite the unimaginable hovering. Camp was an incredibly life affirming and joyous experience, and I’m excited to share this experience with you via my new graphic memoir. 

As with Hey, Kiddo, I tell the story in part with ephemera — old sketches, letters, and memorabilia. I have also limited the color palette, but I add yellow to the mix when the Jarrett character leaves home for the first time and discovers an experience outside of the family unit. I also balance the heavy with the hilarious — two emotions that have comingled prominently throughout my life. 

I am so thankful to have had the experience of working with these spectacularly brave kids, and I cannot wait for you to meet them in Sunshine. 

Jarrett J. Krosoczka 

📚 BOOK OF THE WEEK 10: Scorpion Shards📚

While working on Thief of Souls, I came to realize I was telling a series of stories that mirrored Freud’s concept of the Id, Ego, and superego. Scorpion Shards was about a threat of the id: The uncontrollable, beast from within that is driven by instinct and basic need.

In Thief of Souls, our characters learn of their powers, and allow themselves to be seduced by them. A threat from the ego.

Finally in Shattered Sky, they must face moral questions of the universe itself. A threat from the Superego – the voice of conscience. The basic question that the characters must face in Shattered Sky, is perhaps the most terrifying question of all. Is the universe sentient? And if it is, does it care about us, or is it indifferent?

To me an indifferent universe is the most terrifying thought of all. In the story, the sky does, shatter as a hole is torn in the universe, but the title also refers to the shattering of our concept of our place in the universe.