Tales of Foster High is a series that if you've read you've had every emotion lit on fire. If you haven't than I highly suggest today you start. I remember my friend hounding me to read it. "You have to" over and over. I said, "Okay, I'll get the first book." Well, I didn't stop until there were no more left to read. Absolutely outstanding. One of the best series I have EVER read!
Let's take a look at the first few books in this series:
Kyle has worked hard at
being the invisible student, toiling through high school in the middle
of Nowhere, Texas. Brad is the baseball star at Foster High. Both boys
are damaged in ways that the rest of the world can’t see. When they bond
over a night of history tutoring, Kyle thinks that maybe his life has
taken a turn for the not-so-lonely.
He finds out quickly that the
promise of fairy-tale love is a lie when you’re gay and falling for one
of the most popular boys in school, and if being different is a sin in
high school, then being gay is the biggest sin of all. Now Kyle and Brad
need to come to an understanding amidst the scrutiny of their peers or
their fledgling relationship will crash and burn before it ever gets off
the ground.
Not too long ago, Brad
Greymark outed himself to his high school and the rest of the town of
Foster, Texas, with a fairly obvious public display of affection. Now
what? Brad had thought being Foster’s favorite son wasn’t that
important, but when it comes time to choose between high school fame and
Kyle, the boy he might just be falling for? It’s not an easy decision,
knowing his heart may break either way.
Tales of Foster High - Sequel to The End of the Beginning
Kyle Stilleno used to be the invisible student. Brad Graymark used to be the baseball star.
Then
they fell in love and Brad outed them both with a spectacular public
display of affection, and now everything is different.
After
spending a few days lying low, Kyle and Brad are going back to school.
It's time to face the music and see how Foster High deals with their
growing romance. But the school's reaction-and the staff's hostility-are
not what they expected. Everyone they know seems to be allied against
them.
Isn't there anyone they can count on to defend their happiness?
Here is the list of the Tales of Foster High books:Tales of Foster High on Goodreads
I have a wonderful interview with John Goode and after I'll tell you all about the giveaway:
This first question is actually from a friend and fellow fan: You're author bio on GR is genius. What made you go that route?
What made me go with that bio? Because the books aren't about me, they
are about the books. I don't think what my life is really like matter
sin the long run because it is the books and their message I want
highlighted. And, who doesn't like funny? I think it gives them a taste
of the insanity to come if they read one of my books.
Tales of Foster High *sigh* The serious impacted me. How close is this series to your own experiences?
I get asked this and I hate to tell people none of it. I grew up in the
Bay Area, was widely accepted as bi in high school, never got bullied
or teased for being gay. But these events, these feelings, they are
universal. Everyone, gay, straight, ugly, pretty, fat, everyone, they go
through them. That is what John Hughes taught us, we can be a multitude
of things on the outside but we are all only one thing on the inside.
Scared.
Having experienced the loss of a very close friend myself in high
school I related a great deal to End of Innocence. You talk a lot at the
end of your books about your life. You open up to us in ways many
authors don't but for people who haven't experienced these books yet can
you tell us why that book in the series was so vital?
Because in the real world people die. And in the real world an
overwhelming number of gay kids kill themselves. I wanted to show how
truly horrible that is to the people around them. What happened in the
book didn't need to happen for that character to find happiness and I
wanted to show that. I wanted to show kids out there who are thinking
about it, look at the pain and suffering you can cause for nothing. You
can make it through this, it does get better, Just hold on one more day.
Just tough it out 24 more hours. Nothing in the world is as bad as we
imagine it. I promise you, we can all get through it.
I live in Connecticut and two years ago, 10 minutes from Sandy Hook
Elementary School. It was one of the scariest days of my life. You
address that as well. A very controversial area, what made you choose to
add that to your series?
Well a few things. One, how badly it seems to be handled in the media.
Every single time the shooter must be a monster because of what they did
and it came out of nowhere. One, the person who did it was sick and did
evil things, yes, but a monster? None of us are monsters. And if we are
we aren't born that way. For people to say things like that come out of
nowhere just shows how little attention kids like that get and why they
do the things they do. I wrote that book for the kids who are thinking
about it. Again, there is another way and it doesn't always have to go
down like every single television show portrays it. You can literally
just put the gun down and walk away. You don't have to kill anyone and
you don't have to die. I am in no way making excuses for the actions of
people, instead I am trying to warn them off before they get there.
Before they do something like that, they are human beings in pain and
maybe if we can just reach out to them before they get to that point,
then we don't have to watch another group of kids kill another group of
kids and shake our heads wondering what went wrong.
This series should be a bible for young adults, and parents. Schools
should make it readily available. What is your highest hope with this
series? What do you hope the LGBT community, kids, parents, everyone
takes from it?
I hope they read it and see, if only for a second, what it is like to be
gay and abused. For one glimmering moment to understand what it is like
to be hated and shunned for simply being you. People think being picked
on for being fat or unpopular is bad but those are things you can
change. Things you can modify with time and effort. Being hated for
being gay is like being hated for being left handed. You will never
change and spend your entire life wondering why it matters so much to
other people. So if these books can get people to understand how stupid
bigotry is, then I have done my job.
I have to ask, a little... okay more for myself lol... Where do we go after 151 Days? It felt like the end.
It is the end in many ways. It is the end of Foster High School but not
of Brad and Kyle. Kyle said it best in his graduation speech, They are
going to go out to the world and take these stories of what happened to
them and they are going to tell others and it is going to slowly change
the world. What's next? Kyle and Brad move to California and try to be
grown ups. But as anyone who has been there before knows, it is never
that easy. The next book, When I Grow Up coming out this summer, is
about that time after high school where you are assumed to know what you
are supposed to do. You're a grown up now, in college, now go. The
story telling changes, the focus of it is more about them but there are a
lot of old friends back to help out.
How do you map out such an intricate, and emotional series?
At the end. You have to know where you are going before you plan a trip
and I knew that scene, with them at the city limits forever. That one
moment, Brad and Kyle were here, that is the entire series wrapped up in
one sentence. Once you have your ending you backtrack and find out the
best way to get there. Also a lot of help from beta readers.
Outside of Tales of Foster High, is there anything else in the works for you?
Well I have a fantasy series called Lords of Arcadia, three book so far
the fourth on the way. Going the Distance is the story of Danny, the
gay basketball player introduced in 151 Days and I have a short story
called Last Dance with Mary Jane coming out soon which has a paranormal
flavor to it.
Can you tell some of us what YOUR favorite books are?
Catch Trap by Marion Zimmer Bradley, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams and American Gods by Neil Gaiman.
Where can your fans find you? Twitter, FB, website etc...?
And now for the giveaway. John will give ONE person their choice of any of the Tales of Foster High books (Ebook) So if you haven't had a chance to start this is a great chance. If you started but haven't gotten to get one, well, here's your chance for that too!
Contest will run until February 13th! Winner will be notified via email so check your spam.
I want to thank John for being here today and for his generosity to all of us with this giveaway and for his talent.
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