'Cutting Edge' is a gritty quick-read series for young adults who find conventional fiction irrelevant to them or too hard to read. The titles in the series tackle contemporary issues such as gun crime, incest, domestic violence, alcohol abuse and mental illness.

Themes: Hi-Lo, Acceptance, self-esteem, sexuality (features lesbian character). This is a series for young adults who find conventional fiction irrelevant or too hard to read. The series takes an honest and hard-hitting approach to subject matter that many teens will identify with, such as self-abuse, family breakdown, suicide, and sexuality. At 25,000 to 35,000 words, the books are shorter than your average novel, but still look like a trade paperback. The clear, carefully chosen font is slightly larger than normal, and paragraphs are broken with a space. Themes include: acceptance, self-esteem, sexuality - Constance is not like the other girls. She prefers comfort and function over fashion. Even as a young girl, Constance has known that she's different. Her high school days are a journey through loneliness, shame, and anger because she does not understand who she is, and she's been taught that being gay--being a lesbian--is shameful. She feels different, and in her mind different is bad.

To write well, you must reach beyond the classroom basics of composition, get a grip on the more complex concepts, and learn how to create books, articles, and stories that move—not only from the editor’s desk to the bookstore, but also in the minds of your readers. In this book, accomplished writer Gary Provost helps you tackle that tough task. Here you’ll touch the soul of fine fiction and nonfiction. You’ll explore the intangibles: the relationships between form and content, proportion and pacing, slant and theme. And you’ll gain a new perspective on how words work together. In that newfound knowledge you’ll find power—power Provost helps you transfer to the page. In candid, conversational style, he shows you: • how to balance event and dialogue to keep the pace lively • why unity is essential to a story—and how to maintain it • how to make the written word pleasing to the ear • the value of fresh, strong imagery • how startling originality will keep your readers interested • how to make your story credible—even when it’s fiction • how subtlety allows your reader to participate in the action • how to tighten up the tension at every level of your story Provost makes no promise that the work will be easy. He promises only that your books, articles, and stories will get better. There are, after all, no magic words—except those you put on the page.

Themes: Hi-Lo, Cutting, self-abuse, teen pregnancy. This is a series for young adults who find conventional fiction irrelevant or too hard to read. The series takes an honest and hard-hitting approach to subject matter that many teens will identify with, such as self-abuse, family breakdown, suicide, and sexuality. At 25,000 to 35,000 words, the books are shorter than your average novel, but still look like a trade paperback. The clear, carefully chosen font is slightly larger than normal, and paragraphs are broken with a space. Themes include: cutting, self-abuse, teen pregnancy - Tom Hathaway's got it all, including style by the label-load. But intrigued by the mysterious, scarred Sylvia, he becomes increasingly drawn to the cut of the flesh rather than the cut of the cloth.

Themes: Hi-Lo, Bullying, sexuality (features gay character), suicide. This is a series for young adults who find conventional fiction irrelevant or too hard to read. The series takes an honest and hard-hitting approach to subject matter that many teens will identify with, such as self-abuse, family breakdown, suicide, and sexuality. At 25,000 to 35,000 words, the books are shorter than your average novel, but still look like a trade paperback. The clear, carefully chosen font is slightly larger than normal, and paragraphs are broken with a space. Themes include: bullying, sexuality, suicide - Perry and Dawn have been glued at the hip since first grade. Their bond was instantaneous. The two had their own little language for their own little world. Perry came from a broken home, but at Dawn's house, he was accepted for who he was--homosexual. But during her senior year in high school Dawn falls in love with Perry's secret crush. As Dawn dates the popular high school football player, their lifelong friendship is torn apart by jealousy.