By Guest Blogger: Cara Buckingham
Royce has been on a roll. As you may know, his book, The Dead Boys won Washington State’s 2014 Sasquatch Children’s Book Award. Naturally, you might be wondering what middle grade readers can expect next. Well…he has more stories to tell for that age, it’s just that they’ll have to wait. You see, Royce’s first YA title, The Terminals just came out and he has an adult legal thriller called Impasse due out next March.
The Terminals is a spy thriller for young adults with a twist. Royce started developing the story several years ago when he wondered ‘what if group of teens with only a year to live could spend their remaining time completing dangerous spy missions?’ The result is an action-packed, entertaining read that is still fun but more grown up than his middle grade monster stories.
And talk about growing up, Royce’s next book, Impasse, is a full-fledged adult legal thriller. The story follows Stu, a washed up attorney who’s sent into the Alaskan wilderness for a week by his law partner to ‘man up.’ Royce says his experience as an attorney prepared him to be a technician when it comes to writing. He never thought he’d come home from work and write about work – he’s a prosecuting attorney having worked in the criminal justice system for 13 years and has practiced law for more than 20.
For all of his middle grade fans, don’t you worry, he has many stories to tell and feels lucky to be able to be creative and try out new genres. And he has several outlines prepped for more middle grade novels. In the meantime, feel free to recommend Demonkeeper, The Goblin Problem (formerly Goblins! An UnderEarth Adventure) and The Dead Boys to your friends…and stay on the look out for the Kindle release of Demonkeeper II and III.
