YA Author Stephen Hurley Discusses Paranormal Thriller Cease & Desist

Stephen Hurley lived in New York City where he was a professional actor for ten years, playing principal roles on daytime drama (All My Children) off Broadway and on national commercials. He grew interested in writing and creating characters who would stand out on the page. He fell in love with YA when he became a teacher and started listening to what young people had to say; what they love, what they're afraid of, and the conflicting messages they get from the world. He was standing on the corner of 43rd street and First Avenue in NYC when Cease, his protagonist in Cease & Desist, first came to him. "I imagined a girl looking up to the United Nations building; a great, big monolith filled with people who spoke every language in the world,  as she searched for the words that could help explain the guilt she felt over losing her brother."

Hurley is fascinated by faith, how it motivates some people and destroys others. He wanted to share a spiritual message with young people with Cease & Desist, but he knew most well-read teenagers don't care for the predictable plots and cardboard found in Christian fiction. Hurley now lives in San Francisco, where he teaches and coaches at independent schools and is writing another YA book: A Long Line of Strong Girls. He loves running and finished both the Boston and New York City marathons.

Radio host and author Laura Moe spent most of her working life as a librarian and English teacher in central and Southeastern Ohio, but has recently moved to Seattle where she writes full-time. Moe is the author of YA novels Parallel Lines (Fat Cats, 2015) and Breakfast With Neruda (Merit Press, 2016, ) named by the New York Public Library as one the Best Books for Teens in 2016. She is owned by a spoiled cat and is working on a sequel to Breakfast With Neruda.

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