LETTER FROM THE AUTHOR

THE FALLOUT, book 2 of the Warning Series, is finally here!

I am so thrilled to share THE WARNING series with you!

 I thought of the concept in 2013 during Christmas vacation while binge-watching Doctor Who. I thought, “Why would someone go into the TARDIS? It's absurd! Come on, if a TARDIS appeared and a strange person asked you to leave with them, how many people would actually go?”

That got me thinking about what would make people go with a stranger through a portal—and BAM. The series flooded my brain and has haunted me ever since.

This series is about making hard choices and fighting for the truth while struggling with anxiety. Seventeen-year-old Alexandra Lucas lives in Massachusetts with an anxiety disorder and suddenly has to deal with a life-or-death cosmic phenomenon. I wanted her honest struggle and the complex relationships in her life to give the story a gradual depth that would hit at a gut level. All the mental health issues in the book are based on personal and family experiences. Alex is strong, vulnerable, compassionate, and flawed, and becomes heroic. To do this, I decided to write in first-person, present tense to give Alex’s character the tight focus she deserved and to portray an anxiety disorder as realistically as possible.

If a hologram said you were in danger, but it could save your life, would you believe it? Would you give into the anxiety, listen to everyone else’s advice, or make your own choices? And what if you made the wrong choice?

After a global pandemic and the growing fears of artificial intelligence, I hope you find THE WARNING series more relatable and relevant than ever. Thank you so much for your support and encouragement. I hope you enjoy and tell others about it!

Bonus! We created a playlist for the Warning series to share with you book-music lovers! It’s over on Spotify, songs chosen by me and my teen daughter in collaboration with Sourcebooks Fire to set the tone of my dystopian series. Enjoy!