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
A Writer’s Book Club – Station Eleven
Welcome to my Writer’s Book Club! Once a month, I’ll review a book and discuss how the book has influenced my writing. This month I’ve selected Station Eleven, a National Book Award Finalist, by Emily St. John Mandel which has also been made into an HBO Max miniseries.
Station Eleven is set in two different time periods–right before a flu pandemic wipes out 99% of the population and 15-20 years later. This novel is beautifully and intricately written. It’s become one of my favorite books.
Revisions and Relative Morality
While revising the fourth draft of The Runner – Book Three of The Devil Particle Series, an odd sensation hit me. With only forty pages to go in this 340-page manuscript, I didn’t want to finish. It wasn’t because I found revising hard, though it definitely was. It was because I didn’t want to say goodbye to these characters.
A Writer’s Book Club – Scythe by Neal Shusterman
Welcome to the first installment of my monthly book club! This month’s book is Scythe, a young-adult dystopian novel written by Neal Shusterman which won The Michael L. Printz Award for exemplifying literary excellence in young adult literature.
Scythe is set in a near-future America where death has been cured. To prohibit overpopulation, young people are selected to become scythes who then kill, “glean,” other people.