Now available: The Vessel
Scientists attempt to save humanity by implanting all the world’s evil into one human vessel. Will it work?
The Vessel is the heart-pounding second book in The Devil Particle dystopian YA series. If you like flawed characters and world-shattering stakes, then you’ll love Kristin A. Oakley’s gripping tale.
Book One: The Devil Particle
A skyscraper filled with deception. A troubled teen seeking redemption. Will his race to the top become a fatal dilemma?
Paul Salvage longs to prove himself. So the loyal seventeen-year-old is thrilled when he’s selected to compete in the trials to determine who is worthy enough to save society by accepting all of humanity’s evil. But when his brother is murdered, the gallant young man gives up his dream to comfort his grieving father.
Persuaded not to drop out by a powerful family friend, Paul sets aside his own feelings and joins the group of fifty teens chosen to battle to the top of a tower filled with tests and traps. But as he grapples with one horrible choice after another, the haunted young man fears he isn’t noble enough to be the hero who will rescue everyone on Earth.
Can Paul escape the endless doubts and dangers to climb his way to victory?
The Devil Particle is the explosive first book in the Devil Particle dystopian YA series. If you like flawed characters, deadly competitions, and world-shattering stakes, then you’ll love Kristin A. Oakley’s dark tension.
Award-winning Carpe Diem, Illinois is the first book in the Leo Townsend Series
For decades, the small town of Carpe Diem, Illinois has quietly unschooled its children, eschewing tests and classrooms for real-life experiences. Now, long-smoldering political feuds and deep personal secrets threaten to explode. More
The second book in the Leo Townsend Series
Chicago Examiner reporter Leo Townsend has landed the interview of a lifetime with openly gay, front-running US presidential candidate Griffin Carlisle. But when Leo is forced to abandon the interview to rush to the side of his estranged father, Leo’s personal and professional worlds collide.. More
Latest Newsletters and Posts
Revitalization at Let’s Just Write! An Uncommon Writers Conference
Two weekends ago, I attended the Chicago Writers Association Let’s Just Write! An Uncommon Writers Conference at the Warwick Allerton Hotel. This conference was ready to go in March of 2020 when the world shut down. It was postponed to September of 2020, then to March of 2021, then to last weekend. Would it be postponed again?
A Writer’s Book Club – Never Let Me Go
In this month’s Writer’s Book Club, I discuss Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature and author of Remains of the Day.
Never Let It Go takes place in England in the late 1990s at a boarding school called Hailsham. The book is told from the point of view of Kathy H. as she recounts her childhood at the school and her teenage years at another institution called “The Cottages”.
The novel centers around Kathy, Tommy, and Ruth and their struggles growing up together in this sequestered environment. There are jealousies, miscommunications, and hurt feelings typical of children. But there is a haunting undercurrent of tension as the reader comes to realize these aren’t typical kids.
I’ve Hired a Book Cover Designer!
Exciting news — I’ve hired a book cover designer for my Devil Particle Series! His name is Patrick Knowles and his clients include HarperCollins, Little Brown, and Random House. He’s designed covers for George R. R. Martin and Charlaine Harris (author of the Sookie Stackhouse novels which the TV series “True Blood” is based on).
How on Earth did I find him?