Ever since the story of a boy named Harry who attended magical school called Hogwarts took the world by storm, readers have been captivated by paranormal coming of age stories sent on school campuses. Witches, wizards, vampires and more have found life in hundreds of books with an academy theme.
Academy books reached their peak a year or so ago, but still have a strong following, especially those take a unique approach.
As an author, I’ve struggled to find a home for my young adult series ExtraNormal. It crosses multiple genres—science fiction, paranormal, romance and suspense. While choosing a cover for the series—as I was writing the second book in the series—I had an ah ha moment that the one place I hadn’t classified it was academy.
And to be fair, it’s not a traditional academy. Yes, it’s paranormal. But there’s also the little detail of aliens. It’s unique enough, though, to fill the unique approach requirement of current academy books.
I’ll admit I feel a little like a fraud, putting the series into the classification after book one came out. I didn’t do it lightly. As I struggled with the decision, a wise friend said to me, “You’ll be called out with unhappy readers no matter what you do. What’s important is that you get it in front of the people who will appreciate it, and with your book that’s academy readers.”
So I went for it. And so far, feedback has been incredible. What about you? Are you an academy fan? Do you like yours traditional, or with a bit of a twist?
The first book in the series is available here.
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