R.W. Clay has to grow up in a hurry

R.W. Clay is my least-challenged protagonist, but smaller challenges don't look that way when you are 17 years old. At the start of my novel, he has everything going his way. He is smart, has a great family, the perfect girlfriend, and he can hit a baseball a country mile. Colleges line up to give him free education, and pro scouts follow him on a regular basis.

But perfect lives aren't that perfect once a kid has to grow up.

I will give a few more details about R.W. He is from my old hometown, The Dalles, Oregon, which is a baseball town. He grew up on a wheat ranch, and he was forced to be responsible at an early age. He is a tough competitor, and there is nothing worse to him than losing. He doesn't have to lose often. He is all-league, all-state, all-academic, all-everything.

Okay, that gives you the basic idea. So why do I go into this genre of new adult while all my other works are mainstream fiction? Every bit of advice tells an author not to juggle genres. The only thing I can say is that this story rattled around and felt comfortable, and I had to bring it to life. Besides, if James Patterson can put out an Alex Cross thriller and a young adult novel at the same time, the barriers of genre-bending are erased.

I hope to find out how this work will fare in the marketplace soon. I have a literary agent reviewing the first part of the novel. That's a necessary first step, but there are other steps I want to take.

In the meantime, I continue to write new material. I am loving it. It's in my blood. It's my daily life.

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