Moving On - Next Book!

I've been writing more infrequently, I apologize, but I've started my new YA Dystopian book called "A World Gone Dark".  It's really got me hooked, so I wrote to my agent and asked if it was ok to work on.  I mean, I could work on the second book in the series, but Caitlin's response was "One of the luxuries of being an unpublished writer is being able to write what you want--so go for it on the YA!"

See, when you're actually working as a writer, you have deadlines, and a genre to stick to, and a "brand" that you're creating.  Nora Roberts will never truly compete with Stephen King, and Stephen King will never write a Harlequin Romance.  That's why writers write under pseudonyms -  when they want to reach an entirely different audience.  If J.K. Rowling writes a crime thriller next it'll throw her whole fan base off.

BUT - when you're still establishing yourself, you can take the time to try new things and to see where your skills lie.  In this case, after writing a historical fiction, time-travel piece for middle grade, I want to try an end of the world YA book targeting boys.  Part of me wants to tackle the challenge of that age-group - the stereotypical "non-readers".  Part of me just wants to tell this story.

Here's the pitch:  The world doesn't end with a bang, or a whimper, but when God shuts off the lights.  Literally.  Dylan is seventeen, and looking at colleges, when a massive sunburst right at the summer equinox blows a hole in the earth's protective atmosphere.  The resulting EMP or electro-magnetic pulse, blows out all electronics.  Everything that ran with a battery, an outlet, or even a spark, is dead.  The world shuts down as it regresses two and a half centuries.  Dylan loses his brother when a plane drops from the sky on the bridge their on.  Determined not to lose the rest of his family, he seeks out his father, sister and mother, all scattered across the country.

It's kind of a "coming of age" story with the age being the end of the world.  It originated from my thought of "what would happen to the world if everyone was fine, healthy, no zombies or war, but all electronics failed and couldn't be restarted".  In other words, could we really survive without them?


Whadda ya think?