After 13 years, a new “Choose Your Own Adventure”!

I got my start writing fiction for young readers by doing eight titles for “Choose Your Own Adventure,” a unique series of interactive novels that was highly popular in the 1980s and 90s. The Underground Railroad, published in 1996, was my last one — until now.

On October 10, Chooseco, LCC will bring out The Curse of the Pirate Mist, my first “Choose” book in 13 years. It’s exciting!

“Choose” novels are unique in several ways — they’re told in the second person (that’s “you”), the reader makes choices along the way that determine your personal path through the story, and every book has multiple endings. Millions of readers have loved the series, often because they get power over the story and the reading experience. For me, writing “Choose” books was a very powerful introduction to the art and craft of telling good, gripping stories for young readers.

Originally published by Bantam Doubleday Dell, “Choose Your Own Adventure” — one of the best-selling series in children’s publishing history — was revived in 2006 by its creator Ray Montgomery and his wife Shannon, both fellow Vermont writers and my good friends. Under Chooseco, the Ray and Shannon’s publishing enterprise, the series is again going great guns, with over 2 million books sold since the relaunch. When I was asked recently to do a new Choose book, I was delighted.

Curse of the Pirate Mist is the story of a modern-day treasure hunt, based in part on real events. It’s set off the coast and inside the capital of Guyana, the nation in northeastern South America that is the only English-speaking country on that continent. Guyana’s shoreline lay on the path of the old Caribbean pirates, and those legends figure into the story — as does Guyanese culture, today’s treasure-hunting technology, and the old World War II battles between Allied ship convoys and German U-boat submarines.

It’s a good story! I hope you’ll try it. To learn more about the book and this great series, go to www.chooseco.com.