We are absolutely delighted to announce that the incredibly talented and wonderful Colorado Book Award winning author DARBY KARCHUT has written the foreword for this year’s all-teen Choose Your Own Adventure anthology! We specifically invited Darby to write this foreword because as an adventurer, traveler, and biker, she has explored the highest peaks and the farthest corners of the earth. She has sold film rights to books, written award-winning series in YA and MG, and she has self-published. She has taught at countless writing conferences and schools…and she has sat on the carpet with the smallest of readers to discuss talking horses. She is the embodiment of kindness and grace. She is the epitome of a life and career filled with adventure.
Darby’s foreword is one that will inspire writers everywhere, not just teens. There’s a sneak peek below, but first, a bit more about Darby:
Darby Karchut is an author, dreamer, and compulsive dawn greeter. A proud native of New Mexico, she now lives in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, where she runs in blizzards and bikes in lightning storms. When not dodging death by Colorado, Darby is busy wrangling words.
Her award-winning books include Del Toro Moon (Colorado Book Award Winner and Moonbeam Children’s Book Silver Award) and Finn Finnegan (IPPY Silver Award). Coolest thing ever: her YA debut novel, Griffin Rising, has been optioned for film.
And here’s a sneak peek at her incredible foreword:
“Throughout time and in every culture, you will find the storyteller. The bard. The narrator. The raconteur. The minstrel, the fabler, the spinner of yarns. The stranger who waves us over. Come, come, take a seat. Make yourself comfortable because it’s going to be a long and glorious night filled with tales of unknown lands, hopeless quests, enemies defeated, and hearts explored. Of adventures chosen.
While the story’s setting may be as varied as an alien planet, a museum in Amsterdam, the ruins of Machu Picchu, uptown Manhattan, downtown Seattle, the canyonlands of Utah, an inner-city high school, or the courtyard of a medieval castle, the power of story is the same. Some stories may feel oh-so-familiar, others will be as new to us as a foreign country, and all will touch us, maybe disturb us, maybe even plant seeds within us that won’t germinate for years to come. But, when they do sprout, we will climb that beanstalk, and like Jack, become a different person.
That’s what stories do. They change us. They challenge us to be bigger than we are. To be better than we are. To be bolder than we are.”