Saint Rose English Professor Hollis Seamon is debuting her first young adult novel entitled Somebody Up There Hates You on Sept. 3. The book is being published in the U.S. by Algonquin Young Readers (an Algonquin Books imprint).
Somebody Up There Hates You is the story of a smart-mouthed but deeply endearing adolescent hero Richard Casey, who hates rules, has a crush on a pretty girl, and has terminal cancer. Or, as he calls it SUTHY Syndrome, standing for “Somebody Up There Hates You. Casey and his also hospital-bound girl-next-door scheme to keep life in the hospice as entertaining as possible.
Seamon spent years visiting a children’s hospital caring for her own young son and was fascinated and touched by the young people she met there who remained teenagers. “No matter how ill, how miserably uncomfortable, how very real the mortal danger, those kids remained, stubbornly and defiantly, teenagers: rebellious; foul-mouthed; irreverent; and wonderfully funny,” explained Seamon.
Seamon has been a member of the Saint Rose faculty since 1986, teaching writing and literature. Though new to the young adult genre, she has authored three previous books.
Somebody Up There Hates You is on sale at IndieBook, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Powell’s, Workman’s and as an e-book for the Amazon Kindle and Barnes & Noble Nook. An audiobook edition is forthcoming.
A reading from her new book will be held at the Frequency North kickoff program at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 12 at The Book House in Stuyvesant Plaza. Additional Capital Region appearances are planned.
For more information, visit www.hollisseamon.com.
