Our Red Light, Green Light competition is fast coming to it’s exciting end – in two weeks, we’ll have our finalists, who will each receive a critique from a published/soon to be published author or agent! Voting for our 10 finalists will begin Wednesday next week. In the meantime, we’d like to introduce you to your Top 25! Each of these writers has a completed Middle Grade, Young Adult, or New Adult novel, in genres ranging from Epic Fantasy to Contemporary to Historical Retelling, and each of these entries is awesome!
To remind yourself who our amazing judges are, click here. We can’t thank our judges enough for putting in the time to help these emerging writers!
For a refresher on the rules, click here.
The Adventures in YA Publishing RL/GL Top 25
THE BACKSLIDERS by Nicole Brake
YA Speculative Fiction
Goddamn his long gangly legs! I hover close to a crumbling brick wall and watch him navigate the darkness.
PAGEANT OF THE ROSES by Karen Day
YA Gaslamp Fantasy
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, I murmur, walking toward the shadowy silhouette of the park; I wonder if the man whose eye I hope to catch will find me beautiful enough to kill. Worried I have missed some crucial detail, I let my fingers slowly trail down the side of my face, but it is flawless–almost the exact replica of his very first victim.
SHELVED by Allison Diekhoff
YA Alternate History
Even though I’m expecting it, I shoot straight up in the air when the sirens wail to life from the towers on Main Street. It’s dark – the middle of the night – and the sound seeps in through my open bedroom window along with the sickly sweet aroma of grass and wilting lilac.
UNFORSEEN REALITY by Jen Dionne
NA Contemporary
“We should slit her throat straight away. Why wait?”
“Shut up, Heman!”
SECOND BASE by Cindy Dorminy
YA Contemporary Romance
In the back seat of my cousin’s police car is not how I pictured getting to know Abe, the new kid at school. One minute, I’m having a decent conversation with last year’s Nashville Teen Idol winner, and the next, we’re in hand-cuffs being carted off to jail.
SON OF THE REVOLUTION by K Orion Fray
NA Urban Fantasy
The story you are about to hear is mostly true, partially extrapolated, occasionally funny, but all of it real. My name is Alistair Clarimond, and I had a girlfriend once, I played the piano once, I wanted to be a psychiatrist once…and I could stand in sunlight once.
HAPPY by Bethany Harar
YA Suspense
I step out of the car and Brayberton Academy is in front of me, capturing the essence of dark, Southern gothic. Shadowed and complicated, with towering spires poking the sky, it looms alone on a huge span of land, surrounded by sprawling lawns and sculpted trees.
THE ALLERGY CLUB by Lauren Hild
YA Contemporary
Amazon sells scalpels. I assumed it would be the sort of thing that required a medical license, but there they were, available for purchase by the general public in packs of 10.
THE BULLET PROVERB by Kosoko Jackson
YA Contemporary Thriller
If I had my way, I’d burn this school to the ground. I’d draw my name in gasoline on the brick walls, claiming my crime with a fiery insignia of pride and vindication.
ROSEMARY AND TIME by Carleen Karanovic
YA Historical Fantasy
I was supposed to be born eight years ago, in the year of the dragon. My mother told me the story of the baby she lost before I took my first breath; that baby was full of fire.
WITH THESE WINGS by Wendy Knight
YA Urban Fantasy
Nyx scooted closer to the rocky precipice, and then just a bit further, so she could curl her toes around the edge. The wind howled, jerking at her hair and loose, black dress.
THE DARKER HEART by Caitlin Moore-Penaskovic
YA Contemporary Fantasy
Lies are easy to buy and sell in the dark. Lies between lovers and strangers, lies about who you are or what you’ve done – all of it’s easy comfort in the black of night.
30 DAYS WITH DR. DEATH by Colleen Oefelein
YA Thriller
It was not the best way to end the day, sandwiched in the front seat of my car between two thugs with garlic-laced B.O. Yeah, the guy in the trunk was heavy, but nothing I couldn’t handle—I didn’t need their help.
THE STAINED GLASS SUN AND MOON by Jennifer Pickrell
YA Contemporary
I locked myself in the bathroom stall and sat down, clutching the test. To my right, someone flushed, and a group of women by the sinks discussed their jobs.
FIREBIRD by Laura Pohl
YA Fantasy
In a tall white tower covered by snow, in a tall white castle that sat atop a tall white mountain, Koschei the Immortal grew restless with loneliness. He had survived thousands of years without company, and he’d survive thousands more, but with the winter growing cold and his castle empty, the blackness in his heart longed for another to share with the harsh winters of Russia.
WINGS, WRINKLES, AND WRAPPERS by Amanda Rawson Hill
MG Paranormal
Dear Dad, the apartment number on your door is crooked, and the hall light is flickering like a little kid is flipping the switch on and off. I thought you should know.
WHEN STARS ARE BRIGHT by Amber Riley
YA Historical Retelling
There’s a certain thrill in doing something forbidden. Sneaking out past curfew, dancing freely to a jazz band, stealing kisses in a dark corner.
THE DEMON HUNTER’S INHERITANCE by Christine Rogers
YA Fantasy
Matt’s birthday was Eric’s deathday, and that was how it all started.
Matt should have realized that something was wrong sooner; his cousins were normally annoyingly punctual to any sort of party.
THE DREAMWALKER’S BLADE by Michelle Brianna Ropp
NA Epic Fantasy
“This is suicide.”
“Maybe, but it’s our only hope.”
THE MESSENGER by Shari Schwarz
YA Historical Fiction
They say you can’t drown yourself on purpose, but I keep trying to prove them wrong. From the depths of our neighbor’s pond, I look up through the murky water to the fading sunset above.
CLEAN by Nikki Shannon Smith
YA Contemporary
If you didn’t know any better, you might think we were perfect. Mama had the whole act down.
THE MOON PATH by Esme Symes-Smith
YA High Fantasy
Cupping the moon in his hands, Dakin offers it to his little brother. “Go on,” he insists. “Try again.”
MARKS by Amanda Ungleich
YA Fantasy
The acrid smell of smoke and charred wood assaults my nose before I see the fire. I turn left, my heels clipping against the worn cobblestones as hatred flames to life inside me.
STILL BREATHING by Judi Weiss
YA Contemporary
The sun should never shine the day of a funeral. But the sun obviously doesn’t give a fuck because the day we bury my twin brother, there isn’t a cloud in the blue sky.
SUMMER THUNDER by K. Kazul Wolf
YA Fantasy
How long is the fall down to earth? I lean against the fence that marks the drop from the floating city to the desert below, digging my fingernails into the wet wood.
