Spring 2005 Flying Starts

Teens already rule at the multiplex and the music store. Now, more than ever, they're also showing their clout at the bookstore. For our semi-annual Flying Starts feature, we profile three of the most exciting debut novelists writing for teens: An author whose plans to become a priest got derailed by a job at Booklist; another who took a writing class that saved her from "a really boring job at AT&T"; and a singer/songwriter whose childhood ambition to write a sequel to Star Wars eventually led her to create a novel that's all her own.