Victory Lap

Josh doesn’t know what he wants to do with his life, which is exactly why he’s taking a fifth year of high school while his girlfriend goes to university. (Well, that and the fact that his best friend basically forced him into it.) The only thing he’s sure about is the love of his life—who promptly breaks up with him. High school senior, Kiki, quietly started transitioning over the summer to an audience of herself, her best friend, and her vaguely unsupportive parents. Now she has to deal with coming to her school as a new person, and when she’s partnered with Josh in Writer’s Craft, she finds herself developing maybe a little bit of an enormous crush. Everyone just wants to make it out of high school in one piece, but Josh and Kiki’s last year might not be so simple. Victory Lap is an own voices young adult novel about growing up in a world that expects teenagers to have everything figured out by the time they leave high school. Victory Lap was inspired by the likes of modern YA authors such as Rainbow Rowell, Becky Albertalli, and John Green, as well as classic, angsty teen dramas like Degrassi and Dawson’s Creek.

K.A. Mielke is the Nebula-nominated author of Goblin Girl, Losing Hit Points, and Lonely in Happy Town, as well as the co-author of Victory Lap with Riley Alexis Wood. They love drinking too much coffee and writing about queer heroes and hungry monsters. When not writing, they might be found struggling at the gym, sweating on stage at a stand-up open mic, or wondering if ghosts can hear their thoughts. They live in Guelph, Ontario, where all those skeletons were discovered. K.A.'s stories and writing news can be found at www.kamielke.com

Riley Alexis Wood lives in Toronto, Ontario in a cutesy apartment in Greektown. Most often found at her day job as a hotshot corporate producer, she can also sometimes be found at home... where she's busy producing esports events. In the rare moments she's not found working, she is often progressing through Rory Gilmore's reading list, playing chess, and drinking espresso. You can find her production work at www.pinecone.tv