Arclight is ... #8

**Arclight is not a book where kids rule the world**

The teenagers in Arclight are, well, teenagers. They aren't superstars or geniuses, and they aren't "The Youngest [insert leadership title] EVER!!!"

They're kids.

Kids trying to live long enough to call themselves grown-up.


One wants to be a teacher. One wants to make his father proud. One just wants her life back so she can actually live it. They all make messes (sometimes the fun kind). They all fail and they all succeed.

It was important to me that the heroine (and heroes) in Arclight make their own way. 

They're stuck in that awkward place where they aren't truly children, but still aren't considered peers by those of the older generations. They don't want to ask for help, but sometimes need it. They make bad decisions, and sometimes they find that they can't make any decision at all. And they figure out that sometimes  respect isn't so much given or earned as it is taken by force and stubbornness. They have a right to make mistakes.

As younger members of their society, there are restrictions on their movements. There are rules they're supposed to follow, and those rules come with consequences for breaking them. It's up to them to decide if those consequences are something they can live with.

These are characters who are as real as I could make them, and I think the review that would hurt the worst (if anyone ever uses it) is to hear that they're coming off as caricatures or cardboard. They get angry and ashamed and scared and resourceful and every other emotion that seemed to fit the bill. I honestly hope you enjoy meeting them on the page.