Troy High sneak peek

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There’s a mention of my next book Troy High in the newest Publisher’s Weekly, as part of their article on Fall 2009 sneak previews. You can see it here, under the Abrams/Amulet list.

Now that there’s a little bit of info about the book out there in the world, I’ll tell you a bit more: It is a modern day retelling of the Trojan War and the Helen of Troy story, and follows the rivalry between two neighboring high schools. The rivalry has been going on for many years, but it heats up when Elena, the Helen of Troy character, is forced to change schools and ends up at Troy High. The story is told through the eyes of Cassie, the modern day Cassandra the Seer, who is caught up in the war between the schools and has to decide between love or family.

I’m excited for this book to come out! It has been the hardest piece of writing I’ve worked on so far. I read The Iliad a few times (not exactly leisurely reading!) and other interpretations of the story (I highly recommend Troy by Adele Geras), and did a lot of research on Greek mythology and history, high school football, and pranks. Because the two schools play a lot of pranks against each other throughout the book. It was frustrating at times to create my own world and interpretation of the events while also staying true to the central story, but it was also a lot of fun and I hope you’ll all enjoy it! You don’t have to have read The Iliad in order to follow the story in Troy High. Troy High is written in a way that it can stand alone as its own story, just a tale of friendship, rivalry, and romance. But if you have read The Iliad and are familiar with it, you can pick up on the parallels between the two.

I’m working on some inside notes about Troy High that I’ll post on my website when the book is released. It’ll go more into detail about the parallels in the stories and the liberties I took with a few things in my retelling.

Also, Troy High has an Amazon page now! No info there yet, but there should be some added in the coming months.

5 comments

  2. annewriter says:

    What a fantastic premise! Can’t wait to read it!

    (My oldest daughter loved STBA. Now that I’m done with revisions, I’ll be attacking the TBR stack…)

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