Synopsis

You know him, but you can't remember his name. He is the one that is always there, in the background, all but invisible to those roaming the hallways. What if he had a secret? What if it was a secret that even he didn't know?

Test Davis has always been a blur to those around him. He's a shadow like a million other kids--not smart enough for the academic team, not beast enough for the football team, not extroverted enough for the drama crowd. In all things Test is just...not, which is why no one ever notices him.

But what happens when someone does notice him--Nicole Paxton, a cheerleader, no less? What happens on the night that Test finds out there's nothing average about him and that a powerful gift has been hidden within, sectretly waiting to be set free and alter his life forever? The question is, will that power save him and those he loves or tear them apart?




Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Taking care to take care.

I end nearly every conversation, email, or forum post with the phrase "take care". I don't even think about it, it's just what I say. But I mean it. I never want to be the one thought of as the jerk who thinks he's better than anyone else; the one who thinks that he is somehow higher in rank than another person. When I say "take care", I want you to do just that. "Take care" in your interactions with your family. Those moments are precious. "Take care" when you go to work. Jobs are hard to come by and you can't afford to do something careless. "Take care" when you are driving, when you are walking, when you are jogging; life is short. Show respect, be kind, and be generous with aid if needed. Aid comes in many forms and doesn't have to be monetary. Just being there to grieve, to celebrate, to encourage, or to help someone is necessary. Yes, I said necessary. In my mind it's required.

Take care. ;)

J.M.

Friday, October 15, 2010

Thanks to Steven Windwalker and Kindle Nation Daily, Failing Test is having its best day yet!

Mr. Windwalker said this about Failing Test on his enormously popular "Kindle Nation Daily" blog:

"At the risk of "creeping you out," to borrow from the parlance of my 12-year-old son, I have a confession to make. When his older sisters were teenagers, I used to actually read the latest issues of YM and Sassy when they came into the house, initially because I figured that part of my job as a Dad was to kind of be inside their heads enough to know what the challenges and dangers were. Then I branched out a bit and started reading the fiction that they were reading. Not so much the things they had to read for school, but the things they read on their own. One of the things that I discovered in the process, and it is something that I still believe, is that some of the best writing for adults is fiction that may actually be intended for teens. Some of the walls come down, the imagination is set free, and a sense of wonder is unleashed. Or, in the case of a dystopian novel like the one that Danny and I are reading together as a bedtime story just now, an essential sense of hope against an unutterably gloomy backdrop. I had a point here that relates back to the undiscovered, highly original 99-cent gem that is today's sponsoring novel, and here it is: you don't have to be a teenager to read, enjoy, and even recommend a book like J.M. Pierce's Failing Test. Don't read it because it only costs 99 cents or because 15 of its 18 reviewers gave it 5 stars. Read it because there are teenagers in your life and it may be a gateway not only to getting them reading but also to your ability to connect with them and learn something about their worlds. Just a thought. --S.W.)"

I am very happy to have been able to sponsor KND today and thank Mr. Windwalker for his kind words. As of this post (7:30 CST), Failing Test is currently sitting at a Kindle Store ranking of #484.