PopSyndicate.com

Battle-ax teachers, politically-correct girlfriends, corporately-controlled lives, demons and sleuths. These are just a few of the many colorful characters that came alive when Stefan Petrucha is at the keyboard.

The Massachusetts-based author taps into an imagination that even kids could envy to create funny, thoughtful, adventurous tales that appeal to adults young and old. His sharp literary tongue adds a sarcastic, truthful wit to tales that make you want to jump up and fight against the droning machines that keep the good guys down.

In last year’s Teen, Inc., protagonist Jaiden is owned by a corporation that killed his parents. He gets tired of his life choices being made by Corporate America, so he takes matters into his own hands. In this month’s release, Rule of Won, Caleb is a slacker who accidentally gets involved in a cult-like school club that promotes positive thinking to the detriment of members. Alone, he must face down with peers who have gone crazy – sometimes violent – to keep the If you wish it, it will come alive and kicking at one of the crappiest schools in the nation.

These two youthful protagonists show incredible humor and discernment in the midst of teen angst (and girlfriend longings) and their observations will strike a chord with anyone who was once an outsider in school, clubs or life.

“There’s a bit of me in both (characters),” Petucha tells Pop Syndicate. “I was never as rebellious as Jaiden, or as much a slacker as Caleb, but they’re both introverts and thinkers, and that’s me.”

These aren’t the first novels for the father of two daughters. Petrucha has penned dozens of titles including last year’s Beouwolf, and stories for graphic novels like X-Files and Nancy Drew. He also pens the wickedly twisted young adult Twilight Zone-like series, Wicked Dead, with Thomas Pendleton.

“In my teen years I tended towards comics, then sci-fi books, branching out as I got older,” Petrucha says.

Born in the Bronx, Petrucha spent his formative years moving between the big city and the suburbs. Instead of living in the droll reality, he chose to spend time in comics, science fiction and horror novels. In high school and college, he embraced different genres and eventually learned that the very best fiction always brings readers back to reality. An obsessive compulsion to create his own stories began at age ten and has since taken many forms, including novels, comics and video productions. At times, the need to pay the bills made him a tech writer, an educational writer, a public relations writer and an editor for trade journals, but fiction, in all its forms, has always been his passion. Every year he’s made a living at that, he counts a lucky one.

Fortunately for Petrucha – and his fans – there’ve been many. 

This week, we chat it up with Stefan Petrucha about his latest, Rule of Won, and find out what he really thinks about The Secret and other positive thinking fads that have spurred generations. We also get a sneak peak into Rule on Tuesday.

A note from Stefan Petrucha:

A limited number of Advance Review Copies for The Rule of Won remain available on a first-come, fist serve basis, to anyone who sends me a note (via leaving a comment here with your email address, or via the Contact button on my website at http://www.petrucha.com) promising an honest online review.  These are paperback, not as shiny and sturdy as the hardcover (which has a dust-jacket to die for), but do contain a “Reading Group Guide” not available in the release version.  A collector’s item to be sure, signed by me upon request!  I’ll post reviews, interviews and sundry at my website as they become available.