Escaping Eleven
Author: Jerri Chisholm
Genre: YA Science Fiction/Dystopia
Release Date: December 8, 2020
Publisher: Entangled TeenDescription:
In Compound Eleven, the hierarchy of the floors is everything.
My name is Eve Hamilton, and on my floor, we fight.
Which
at least is better than the bottom floor, where they toil away in
misery. Only the top floor has any ease in this harsh world; they rule
from their gilded offices.
Because four generations ago, Earth
was rendered uninhabitable—the sun too hot, the land too barren. Those
who remained were forced underground. While not a perfect life down
here, I’ve learned to survive as a fighter.
Except my latest
match is different. Instead of someone from the circuit, my opponent is a
mysterious boy from the top floor. And the look in his eyes tells me
he’s different…maybe even kind.
Right before he kicks my ass.
Still,
there’s something about him—something that says he could be my
salvation...or my undoing. Because I’m no longer content to just survive
in Eleven. Today, I'm ready to fight for more than my next meal: I'm
fighting for my freedom. And this boy may just be the edge I've been
waiting on.
My debut novel ESCAPING ELEVEN will be released soon—December 8th,
to be exact. And so it might seem like my “journey”, so to speak, is
just beginning. In fact, it began many years ago when I was working in
the legal profession, fresh out of school, flipping through files the
size of my fist, perusing insurance form after insurance form
after…insurance form. Fascinating as those insurance forms may have
been, I couldn’t help but daydream of something else. Something that had
been planted like a seed in my brain years earlier…
See, my childhood was spent mostly with books. No siblings to play with, not a great number of friends. Books!
My happiest memories from those formative years involved said books, a
comfortable couch, and a large block of unscheduled time. Probably some
snacks, too. And with every book that I read, that little seed
germinated, it grew into a desire to create stories of my own…
At
the time of flipping through insurance forms, however, it seemed purely
fantastical that creating—and selling—stories could ever come to
fruition. After all, my schooling had taken a purely professional turn:
policy studies, then law. Creative writing wasn’t something I knew how
to do. Right?
Right.
My first book-writing attempt turned out terribly. Even my attempt to
explain the plotline to family didn’t go so well, and what I thought
were powerful symbols—such as a dead deer, for instance—quickly became
memes within my own home. To make matters worse, it had taken two full
years to write, which felt like a huge waste of time.
But, of course, what our parents teach us is (usually) true. It wasn’t a waste of time…it was a learning experience.
Indeed, the next novel I wrote came into existence in a much more
efficient manner, thanks largely to an outline created at the front end.
Knowing exactly where I wanted the story to go before I
started writing meant I finished it in a matter of months, not years.
Progress—definite progress. Unfortunately, the final product still
wasn’t bookstore quality. Nonetheless, I sent it out to agents, a lot of
them, just in case they could see something magical sparkling inside…
They couldn’t. It was rejected across the board.
Another…learning experience.
And
then it struck me that perhaps I could learn a few things about
creative writing by doing some research. Some studying on the craft. I
bought up a bunch of books on the topic, my favorite being Stephen
King’s On Writing. All of this was so helpful that I was
a little embarrassed I hadn’t thought to do it sooner. Oh, and I did
that other imperative thing you must do if you want to become a writer…I
kept writing.
Finally, after a flurry of writing projects, some completed and some not, I came up with ESCAPING ELEVEN. Right away I thought it had potential. I thought that it was a page-turner, I even thought it had that elusive quality…voice. I thought maybe, just maybe, some agent out there and then some editor would think that too. And that’s what happened.
It
didn’t happen overnight, just as seeds don’t sprout into oak trees
without a great deal of time, patience, and nurturing. But eventually,
with perseverance, those daydreams I had while perusing insurance forms
turned into reality. A long, yet totally worthwhile, journey.
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