Guest Post: Lindsay Cummings, Author of The Murder Complex

Hi everyone! I'm so happy to have Lindsay Cunning, 2014 debut author of The Murder Complex stopping by today to talk about what she thinks about writing YA and how she has found pride in it.

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Finding PRIDE in Writing YA

When I first started writing books, I used to be totally embarrassed when people would ask me what type of books I wrote.
I’d say, “Well…um…I write books for young adults. Like, you know…teens.”
I don’t know why I was embarrassed. Maybe it was because most people who asked me were adults, and some of them, on some occasions, would respond with a long, drawn out, “ooooh. Cool.”
I wanted them to take me seriously, and for some stupid reason, I felt like writing books for teens was lame. It would have been infinitely cooler to say “I write really grown-up, serious things for brilliant adults.”
Right?
…WRONG.
Writing for teens is amazing. It’s exciting. It’s an incredible journey, and one I’m proud of now. Because regardless of WHAT you write, it’s all difficult. It’s all something you have to work for, and work super, super, SUPER hard at to get to the end result.
Writing YA is awesome, because there are so many feelings in YA. So many rights and wrongs. So many major decisions that can change a characters’ life, because in youth, everything matters. Everything is a big deal.
I’d look at those people, who looked at me and said “oooh,” and I’d say, “Yes. I write for teens, you know…like people who read The Hunger Games. Divergent. Harry Potter. Twilight. Percy Jackson. The Fault in Our Stars.
I write for teens, people that feel and obsess. I write for people that fall in love with characters, whose minds turn words on black and white pages into entire worlds in Technicolor.
YA is something to be proud of.
It changes lives. It saves them. It gives the kid who has no friends a million friends, in millions of other worlds.
YA is awesome.
And if you write it…be proud. Write on.

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Publication Date: June 10th 2014  
Publisher:Greenwillow Books
Series: The Murder Complex#1

An action-packed, blood-soaked, futuristic debut thriller set in a world where the murder rate is higher than the birthrate. For fans of Moira Young’s Dust Lands series, La Femme Nikita, and the movie Hanna.

Meadow Woodson, a fifteen-year-old girl who has been trained by her father to fight, to kill, and to survive in any situation, lives with her family on a houseboat in Florida. The state is controlled by The Murder Complex, an organization that tracks the population with precision.

The plot starts to thicken when Meadow meets Zephyr James, who is—although he doesn’t know it—one of the MC’s programmed assassins. Is their meeting a coincidence? Destiny? Or part of a terrifying strategy? And will Zephyr keep Meadow from discovering the haunting truth about her family?

Action-packed, blood-soaked, and chilling, this is a dark and compelling debut novel by Lindsay Cummings

About The Author:
Lindsay Cummings is the 20-year-old author of THE MURDER COMPLEX, as well as its sequel, coming 2014 from Greenwillow Books/HarperCollins, and the MG trilogy THE BALANCE KEEPERS, coming Fall 2014 from Katherine Tegen Books/HarperCollins.

Lindsay deals with chronic fatigue, can’t get enough of her two pesky German Shepherds, wolf cub, and two horses. She's still waiting on her letter from Hogwarts--it was probably just lost in the mail. 

You can also find Lindsay on Twitter | Website | Goodreads