Happy One Year Of Junior High!!
When Sara and I signed the publishing deal for our graphic novel Junior High, we had just completed the deal for our adult memoir High School. No one expected us to write Junior High for a couple of years—we signed on to do it in 2018 but didn’t plan to start on it until winter 2020 after we had written and released High School. Conveniently, a world pandemic hit, leaving us with no excuses and nowhere to be, so we began writing on schedule in March 2020. Our wonderful editors at FSG Kids sent us some sample scripts to model our script for Junior High after. When they arrived, the first thing I Googled was “How to write a script.”
Book one leaned heavily on things we had experienced, but even then we were given creative license to fictionalize our story to make it a bit more aspirational for young readers (and us). It was so fun we leaned in big time on book two. The subsequent process of seeing Tillie Walden bring these characters to life, and releasing them into the world has been unbelievably cool. Though the book is about teens, we know it resonated with a lot of adults, which we are so grateful for. I cannot believe a year has already passed and it’s almost time for BOOK TWO!! WHAT!?
In the second book, Junior High: Crush, out October 1st, some of the new characters, conflicts, and major story beats are inspired by real people and events, but a lot of it is pure fiction! I can’t wait for you guys to get to know this cast of kids from Junior High. So here is a little about them.
A reminder that Roshini is Sara’s best friend in the book. But like “BEST FRIEND” you know? Wink wink. There’s some major drama for those two coming.
Noa is Tegan’s ex-best friend. At the end of book one Noa and Tegan have a falling out and Noa and Tegan don’t speak all summer. But Noa is determined to get back into Tegan’s good graces in book two, and it’s good timing because Tegan needs a friend when she gets a crush on local sensation, DJ Kukumber.
And when Tegan and Sara agree to let Ramona Singer, big-time manager of NITE FEVER, Tegan and Sara’s FAVOURITE singer, manage them things get out of control pretty fast, threatening the future of Tegan and Sara.
Okay, that’s all you get. Enjoy a few sneak peeks of some of my favourite pages from Junior High: Crush. You can buy book one and sing it happy birthday right now, or pre-order book two if you’re already a fan! Crush comes out October 1st!
Enjoy, Adult Tegan
P.S. We’re gifting limited quantities of our Junior High audiobook to YOU. All you have to do is comment below to win. Winners will be notified by Friday, May 31st!
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