Nathan Kotecki

Based in Durham, North Carolina, Nathan Kotecki is an accidental young adult novelist. A regular scribbler, he began telling himself a story about an unsuspecting girl who finds herself drawn into the darkly stylish world of an alternative/goth clique at her new high school - and kept on writing to find out what would happen next. The result was the first draft of THE SUBURBAN STRANGE.

As a reader, Nathan has an enduring love for the classics, which is why casual references to authors like Henry James, Virginia Woolf, Kate Chopin, and Albert Camus tend to pop up in his writing. Another major influence is his own love of alternative music from the eighties to today, which made writing the scenes at Diaboliques, where bands like Siouxsie & the Banshees and the Sisters of Mercy are played, a real treat.

One of the unexpected joys of being a young adult author has been the opportunity to go into schools and try to reinforce the literacy and humanities messages of teachers and librarians. Talking to students about the new literacy - both reading and writing - and the doors they open for virtually everyone, is both a pleasure and a responsibility.