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Lamar Giles Books In Order

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Publication Order of A Legendary Alston Boys Adventure Books

The Last Last-Day-of-Summer (2019)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Last Mirror on the Left (2020)Description / Buy at Amazon

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Fake ID (2014)Description / Buy at Amazon
Endangered (2015)Description / Buy at Amazon
Overturned (2017)Description / Buy at Amazon
Spin (2019)Description / Buy at Amazon
Not So Pure and Simple (2020)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Last Chance for Logan County (2021)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Getaway (2022)Description / Buy at Amazon
Epic Ellisons: Cosmos Camp (2023)Description / Buy at Amazon

Publication Order of Graphic Novels

Static Up All Night (2023)Description / Buy at Amazon

Publication Order of Anthologies

Three Sides of a Heart(2017)Description / Buy at Amazon
Fresh Ink: An Anthology(2018)Description / Buy at Amazon
Black Enough(2019)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Hero Next Door(2019)Description / Buy at Amazon
Super Puzzletastic Mysteries(2020)Description / Buy at Amazon
Generation Wonder: The New Age of Heroes(2022)Description / Buy at Amazon

Lamar Giles is a young adult thriller, fantasy author, speaker and founder of We Need Diverse Books, an organization set up to change the face of publishing. He loved stories and storytelling right from the time he was growing up in Hopewell, Virginia his hometown. After he graduated from high school, he went to Old Dominion University and it was while he was there that he got interested in a career as an author. He wrote and sold his first short story when he was twenty-one years old. From there, his short fiction went on to be featured in the anthology “Dark Dreams.” He was also a Top 10 finalist in the TorUK/ScifiNow International War of the Worlds Competition and was a fellow of the Virginia Commission of the Arts. “Fake ID” his debut young adult novel was published in 2011 and went on to achieve critical acclaim. Lamar has also won several awards including the Mystery Writers of America Edgar Award in 2015 and a 2016 Readers Choice List from the Virginia State Reading Association. Giles has taught and spoken at several prestigious conferences, high schools, middle schools and organizations such as BookExpo America, Virginia Children’s Book Festival and Society for Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. His work has also been featured on Mother Nature Network, NPR, Flavorwire, CNN, Kirkus Reviews and Publishers Weekly among others. He currently lives with his wife in Chesapeake, Virginia and when he is not writing he is playing video games and reading.

Lamar had always wanted to become an author though it was not until he was in his twenties that he thought he could make a career of it. Since he was brought up in blue-collar settings, he believed anything that he could tolerate to support himself would be fine. As such, he moved between vague thoughts of business and computers though he was still writing in the meantime. As a teenager, he abandoned reading and writing since they were not cool pursuits in his neighborhood. He eventually realized that there was no use in trying to impress people by giving up on his dreams. Moreover, he was miserable not following his goals and decided he would go his own way. The fact that he found books written by black authors in his late teens was a huge inspiration as he believed that he could follow in their footsteps and become a professional author. Lamar was particularly inspired by the likes of “Blood Brothers” by Steven Barnes and found “My Soul to Keep” and “The Good House” by speculative fiction author Tananarive Due very appealing. As for children’s fiction, he was inspired by “Fallen Angels” by Walter Dean Myers that had a black character about the same age as him. All these novels made him believe that a black author could write and become a professional author. But everything changed when he read “On Writing” By Stephen King when he was in college. His journey to publishing and how it was very difficult to get his first book published resonated with Giles and he was determined to emulate him.

Lamar Giles was inspired to write his debut novel when he read a non-fiction novel by the man who founded the Federal Witness Protection program, Gerald Shur. He wrote about witnesses that got into the program but were reluctant or refused to obey the rules, which caused a lot of headaches to their minders. It felt like some good material for a thriller and he started writing his manuscript. His first manuscript was about a woman that had given witness against her crime boss father and then gone one to become troublesome in WitSec. It was horrible and she had to start over. Since he was reading a lot of young adult fiction at the time, he changed his characters to a teenager and within nine months had the first draft that would be bought by Harper Collins about a year later. Since he had grown up on a military base, he also mixed in some information from articles and his experience with military families that had kids who had to move all over the world when their parents moved. He decided to shift from contemporary young adult to middle-grade novels in his debut series “Legendary Alston Boys.” The novels especially “The Last Last Day of Summer” is a weird and funny novel with a lot of idioms and wordplay inspired by “Phantom Tollbooth.” He also threw in a little of the horror elements of the Roald Dahl novels such as “Great Glass Elevator” and “Charlie.” He went back to contemporary realistic fiction with his 2020 published novel “Not So Pure and Simple.” The novel was part of a school project that he began writing after he went back to college for his MFA in creative writing after he was laid off from work. Since he had already achieved much success with teen and middle-grade fiction, he though a change of genre would be a good challenge.

“The Last Last-Day-of-Summer” tells the story of Cousins Sheed and Otto who go by the name The Legendary Alston Boys. They reside in Logan County with their grandmother and they have a lot of fun as they find a lot of magic to play with in their neighborhood. They have a knack for solving problems though they are rivaled by the Ellison twins that are also very good. On the last day of the summer, they are preparing to go on another adventure and Otto is in charge of the logistics. They procure a camera and once they are out on their adventures, they bump into the mysterious Mr. Flux and another man that is just as bizarre. They soon learn that their town is freezing over, even as odd characters around town start to appear in increasing frequency. There are the Second Guessers, the Stylists PM and AM, a variety of Clock Watchers, creatures such as Time Suck and Miss Nedraw and her mirrors. The boys manage to thaw out several people with the help of Petey who has created a lot of inventions given that he works at the local hardware store. Petey is also the best weapon against Mr. Flux and the other odd characters around town. But things get interesting when a strange man comes into town and tells them secrets about their future and Petey’s past.

“The Last Mirror on the Left” is the second novel of the Legendary Alston Boys series by Lamar Giles. The lead characters of the novels are Sheed and Otto embark who on a dangerous quest to bring justice to the world that looks just like their own but plays on a different set of rules. Unlike many of the residents in Logan County, Missus Nedraw still remembers that Sheed and Otto had taken her mirrors without asking even though they had asserted that it was for a good cause. Their action would typically result in a sentence of a million years but she is willing to overlook their oversight this time but only if they can assist her with a problem she has. One of her worst prisoners burst out of jail and they are the only ones that have the skill and determination to find the fugitive. The search makes for an off the wall and funny adventure.

Book Series In Order » Authors » Lamar Giles

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