[Author Interview] Renee Pace – Off Leash

Renee Pace is our guest author today with her book Off Leash. Off Leash is a contemporary young adult book where which has two alternative endings. Before we get to our interview with Renee Pace, here is a book description of Off Leash: When life knocks you flat on your back, and you know you’ve had enough, try telling that to a dog demanding his walk. Jay Walker is a fake. He acts full when starved and happy when sad. How else is a guy who has a deadbeat for a mother and a sister battling cancer supposed to feel? And isn’t walking a pet just a chore? Too bad the dog doesn’t know that. The dog lives in the now, embraces life to the fullest and gives his whole heart when offering love. Off Leash is unique because it showcases issues of poverty that transcend countries, age and color. Alternatively told between the POV of both Jay and the dog, Ollie, it shows the reader how a boy who wants a job to make some quick cash so he can buy food for his cancer-stricken sister struggles with trying to do the right thing in a world that has treated him wrong since birth.

Interview with Renee Pace

Does Writing a YA book with Alternate Endings Work?

Renee: I must be nuts but I wanted to write a book for teens with two endings and I did it. Off Leash my debut contemporary young adult book is a story about a boy and a dog. The story is based around the complicated friendship that develops between the dog, Ollie and the teen, Jay. The book shows how Jay is forced to make difficult life choices that often compromise his friendship with the dog. It’s an issue-orientated teen book and because of that I thought it would be nice to allow readers to pick the ending. There is the Hollywood, happily-ever-after ending which really is a much more uplifting ending and the nitty gritty grounded in reality ending. In my mind I pictured it working much like how the DVD’s do when you get the choice to pick an ending for a movie.

What I will admit is that it was really hard to write two endings for the book. I first wrote the nitty gritty ending and I fell totally in love with the realistic approach. This ending shows Jay as he learns to cope as a functioning teen in the adult world. It’s not a pretty picture but the sad state of what happens to many teens who opt to drop out of school isn’t glamorous. I tried to lighten it up by linking him volunteering at a local dog shelter because I wanted to once again connect him with dogs. I don’t want to give away more so I’ll switch to the Hollywood ending. It took me well over a month to figure out where the point of the story should switch (that in itself was a monumental task) and then how to make it happily-ever after. And it’s here that I thought of my most far-fetched story idea. What could I do to this young teen to get him uprooted that would change his location and life? That’s when the idea of entering him into the Canadian Witness Program hatched and from there the story unfolded. Once I got into the swing of this ending I did love it. I think adding the girl at the end of the Hollywood ending worked best and when I gave her a dog this allowed me to introduce a fun element to Ollie.

So now that I’ve written one book with alternate endings the question is does it work? I won’t know until I hear more from readers but so far the reviews are favorable. I have three books mapped out in this nitty gritty series and work is underway on the sequel, Off Limits, which will showcase two endings. What it often feels like is that I’m writing two books because I have to go back again and again to find out where to make the switch for the reader and then get my head around the Hollywood ending. In case you’re wondering I always write the nitty gritty ending first because that’s the type of person I am—grounded in reality.

Love to know if other writers have written books with alternate endings and if it’s worked for you.

Digital Book Today: Thank you Renee for discussing what it is like to write a book with alternative endings.

Visit Renee at www.reneepace.com

Twitter @ReneePaceYA

Tags: Young Adult