Tackling YA and Mysteries: Snowed Nominated for the Anthony Award

Raw Dog Screaming Press congratulates Maria Alexander on her nomination of Snowed for the 2017 Anthony Award in the category of Best Children’s/YA Novel!

News of Snowed nominated for the Anthony Award comes on the heels of Snowed winning the 2016 Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a Young Adult Novel. Either YA readers are growing interested in dark fiction, or authors and publishers in these genres are embracing the YA readership.

When asked about the overlapping audiences of young adult fiction, mystery, and horror Alexander has a lot of insights. “In recent years, the YA horror market hasn’t been nearly as robust as, say, the teen TV market with runaway hits like MTV’s Teen Wolf, not to mention the time-honored tradition of teen horror flicks like Friday the 13th and It Follows.”

She adds, “But if you look at mysteries, they’re a bit different. That genre has been going strong because of its ability to mix with other genres, creating recent hit novels such as the Divergent sci-fi thrillers. I predict the future of YA horror will lie in its ability similarly to cross with other genres. Horror-mystery, horror-science fiction, horror-fantasy — let’s follow George R.R. Martin’s lead and start mixing it up more to see what happens!”

The field of YA mysteries, thrillers, and horror novels has been growing exponentially the last two years, so it will be interesting to see how the situation develops. In the meantime the Anthony Awards will be voted on by the attendees at Bouchercon 2017, being held in Toronto from October 12 to 15. The award will be presented at the Anthony Awards Ceremony to be held following Brunch (11:30 a.m.) on Sunday, October 15.

[bctt tweet=”Let’s follow George R.R. Martin’s lead and start mixing it up more to see what happens!” username=”RDSPress”]

About the Award

Anthony Boucher (William Anthony Parker White, 1911-1968) was a writer, editor, and critic of science fiction and mystery who came to be regarded as the cornerstone of modern mystery analysis. He championed many crime-writing greats long before the mainstream literary establishment recognized their talents, and remained an indefatigable fan and insightful reviewer of every category of crime fiction. He helped found Mystery Writers of America in 1946 and served as its president in 1951.
Both the Anthony Awards and the Anthony Boucher Memorial World Mystery Convention (commonly referred to as “Bouchercon”) are named in his honour.

For more information, and to register for the event, visit http://bouchercon2017.com/anthony-awards/

About the Book

Charity Jones is a 16-year-old engineering genius who’s much-bullied for being biracial and a skeptic at her conservative school in Oak County, California. Everything changes when Charity’s social worker mother brings home a sweet teen runaway named Aidan to foster for the holidays. Matched in every way, Charity and Aidan quickly fall in love. But it seems he’s not the only new arrival: Charity soon finds the brutally slain corpse of her worst bully and she gets hard, haunting evidence that the killer is stalking Oak County. As she and her Skeptics Club investigate this death and others, they find at every turn the mystery only grows darker and more deadly. One thing’s for certain: there’s a bloody battle coming this holiday season that will change their lives – and human history – forever.

Will they be ready?

What They’re Saying About Snowed

“Snowed was a whole ’nother nightmare about Christmas by that troublemaker writer, Maria Alexander. Her work always keep me up all night and Snowed was no exception! ! I’m already looking in my dusty, cobwebbed Christmas stocking for her next book. C’mon, Maria! Hurry up!”
—Nancy Holder, New York Times bestselling author, The Rules

“Sorry Katniss and Bella… Charity is the hero I’ve been waiting for. She is sharp, fierce, loyal, and not afraid to let her brain move in concert with her heart. If bodies started dropping in my neighborhood, she’s who I’d want by my side.”
—Lilla Zuckerman Writer / Producer Marvel’s Agents of Shield, Fringe

“…the fantasy elements are fully imagined, and the unique premise may attract horror fans, who will appreciate the teens’ creative solutions for fighting the villains.”
—School Library Journal

About the Author

Maria Alexander writes pretty much every damned thing and gets paid to do it. She’s a produced screenwriter and playwright, published games writer, virtual world designer, award-winning copywriter, interactive theatre designer, prolific fiction writer, snarkiologist and poet. Her stories have appeared in publications such as Chiaroscuro Magazine, Gothic.net and Paradox, as well as numerous acclaimed anthologies alongside living legends such as David Morrell and Heather Graham.

Her debut novel, Mr. Wicker, won the 2014 Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a First Novel. Publisher’s Weekly called it, “(a) splendid, bittersweet ode to the ghosts of childhood,” while Library Journal hailed it in a Starred Review as “a horror novel to anticipate.” Her breakout YA novel, Snowed, was unleashed on November 2, 2016, by Raw Dog Screaming Press. It won the 2016 Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a Young Adult Novel. She’s represented by Alex Slater at Trident Media Group.

When not wielding a katana at her local shinkendo dojo, she’s being outrageously spooky and writing Doctor Who filk. She lives in Los Angeles with two ungrateful cats and a purse called Trog.

Explore her website: www.mariaalexander.net. You won’t regret it.