Elissa J. Hoole: KISS THE MORNING STAR

BIO: Elissa Janine Hoole has a longstanding love of road trips and beat writers.  It was a summer-long ramble out West that inspired her debut novel, when she and her husband set off across the country with a backpack full of Kerouac books. Now settled in her home in northern Minnesota, Elissa teaches middle school English full time and writes until midnight, sipping cold coffee and ignoring the laundry. She is represented by the extraordinary Sarah Davies of Greenhouse Literary Agency.

She still suffers from acute wanderlust from time to time, but road trips now involve a mini-van and a chorus of "Are we there yet?" from two small dharma bums-in-training. 

DEBUT: KISS THE MORNING STAR (Marshall Cavendish, Spring 2012)

The summer after high-school graduation, a year after her mother’s tragic death, and Anna has no plans – beyond her need to put a lot of miles between herself and the past.  With forever friend Kat, a battered copy of Kerouac’s DHARMA BUMS, and a car with a dodgy oil filter, the girls set out on an epic road trip across the USA.  Maybe somewhere along the way they’ll prove or disprove the existence of God. Maybe they’ll even get laid . . .

It’s a journey both outward and inward. Through the Badlands and encounters with predatory men and buffalo. A crazy bus ride to Mexico with a bunch of hymn-singing missionaries. Facing death, naked in the forest with an enraged grizzly bear . . . Gradually, Anna realizes that this is a voyage of discovery into her own self, her own silent pain – and into the tangled history that she and Kat share. What is love? What is sexual identity? And how do you find a way forward into a new future – a way to declare openly and without fear all that lies within you?

FIVE ROAD TRIPS TO TAKE BEFORE THE APOCALYPSE: The Alaskan Highway, Going-to-the-Sun Road in Glacier National Park, Lake Superior Circle Tour, Pacific Coastal Highway, Literary New England.