Authors Promote New Novels At Peninsula

This February, authors Jeff Giles, Leah Thomas and Len Vlahos came to Peninsula to talk about their newly-released young adult novels. Giles visited on Feb. 1 and Thomas and Vlahos visited together on Feb. 9. Each author gave students the chance to learn about his or her writing style and novel.

Thomas talked about her first book “Because You’ll Never Meet Me” and its sequel, “Nowhere Near You.” The sequel is about a boy named Oliver, who is allergic to electricity, and his relationship with his penpal, Moritz. Thomas enjoyed writing about characters who understand each other because it gave the opportunity to teach the reader how to be empathetic.

“I wanted to write a story that helps people see they are not alone,” Thomas said. “I started writing the sequel before I even sold the first copy since I got attached to the characters and wanted to write about what happens next.”

Vlahos got inspiration for his novel, “Life in a Fishbowl,” from a listing of a man trying to sell his life on eBay. This encouraged him to write about a girl named Jackie and her dying father who sells his life to a reality TV show executive.

“I was trying to write something that would be interesting, so when I saw the listing, I thought about what would happen if people put their life [for sale online],” Vlahos said.

Giles discussed his debut novel “The Edge of Everything,” a fantasy about the relationship between a girl named Zoe and a bounty hunter named X. Because of his interest in fantasy, Giles spent two years writing and finally published the novel.

“Every year, I would write two pages for a novel, but I was not excited enough about the story to keep going,” Giles said. “When I had an idea for this book, it was enough for me to continue writing the story.”

Giles hopes to plans to make a movie for “The Edge of Everything,” publish even more books and receive more opportunities.

“I would see the movie because watching movies shows me what I could not visualize in the story,” junior Xander Wong said.

Giles, whose writing has been featured in Rolling Stone and Newsweek, believes that his career is headed in the right direction.

“I am interested in reading his book and I enjoy this genre,” English 1 Honors and English 4 teacher Kate Peters said. “He worked as a journalist for so long to get to the point where he is now and it is really inspiring.”