Todd Strasser published his first novel in 1978. "I didn't know there was a YA market at the time," said Strasser. "I just wrote about what I knew. A group of boys in my high school were selling drugs. One turned against the others and turned them all in. There was a lot of interesting subject matter--not just selling drugs, but what friendship, deception and loyalty meant." That was over two decades and more than 130 novels ago.
A enthusiastic blogger and budding social networker, Strasser keeps putting real life into his novels, including his latest, Wish You Were Dead. The YA novel is a compelling story of an anonymous blogger who posts a wish that one of the more popular girls at Southview High was dead. When the girl disappears, as do others who are named one-by-one, Madison Archer sets out to unravel the mystery. She is desperate to find her friends, stop the disappearances that are paralyzing her school, and uncover the truth--before her name is the next to appear on the list.
More than creating a great thriller, Strasser also shattered some of the all-too-common high school stereotypes. "One of the things I wanted to show was that sometimes the mean cheerleader types really can have unhappy lives underneath." By deviating from stereotypes, Strasser brought his characters to life, especially in his protagonist.
"I wanted to take the popular girl, who is typically cast as shallow and only having popular friends, and make her a concerned, caring, sensitive person," said Strasser of Madison Archer. "Now here she is, taking some huge risks. Obviously there is a threat to her, but she could have just sat behind the gates of her house and been safe...maybe."
Risk is certainly something that Strasser himself is not afraid to take. His YA novels have covered some powder keg issues like Nazism, sexuality, school shootings, homelessness/poverty, and the challenges of inner city life. "I found that in order to make my stories interesting while trying to get my points across, I used a lot of thriller elements--suspense, mystery, deceit, and a certain amount of violence." But in Wish You Were Dead, Strasser took a different approach, "I decided to flip it around. Instead of a serious social commentary novel with thriller elements, (I wrote) a thriller with some social commentary."
Strasser found this approach helped him continue to resonate with his YA readers--an audience that, with the help of rapid-fire technology, is changing faster than ever before. "I'm really not on the cutting edge of the hippest teen kids anymore. One way to get around that is with a thriller. There are elements of a thriller that kids will want to read."
In fact, Strasser noted that the elements of a great thriller touch our very humanity--young or old. "It's only been the last couple hundred years that humans have been able to walk down the street without being scared (at the primordial level). That part of our genetic code still needs to be satisfied; we still need to feel scared." Strasser saw this firsthand as a young reporter covering the opening night of the movie Jaws. "These kids keep running out into the lobby because they're so scared. Then, they take a deep breath, get a drink of water, and run right back in to the movie!"
Wish You Were Dead is the first installment a new "thrill"-ogy, with the second novel well underway. Strasser also created the Help! I'm Trapped In... series, and numerous YA novels including The Wave, Give A Boy A Gun, Boot Camp, and If I Grow Up. His books have been translated into more than a dozen languages, and several have been adapted into feature films. He has written for television, newspapers, and magazines such as The New Yorker, Esquire, and The New York Times.
Dan Levy works from his Lincoln, Nebraska home as a freelance writer for the aviation and financial industries. His first novel, THE BLOWDOWN LIMIT, is an aviation-thriller winging its way in search of representation and publication. Bestselling author Jon Land noted, "Dan Levy's THE BLOWDOWN LIMIT reminded me of Michael Crichton's AIRFRAME and Thomas Block's MAYDAY in all the right ways. Here is a thriller that will remind high-altitude reading devotees of Ernest K. Gann at his best. Levy pilots his tale in a smooth and seasoned fashion that will make this the next book to make people think twice before flying the friendly skies."
