Welcome Agents! Discover Finding Izzy & The "Granmance"

 If you are a literary agent looking for contemporary YA with a fierce emotional core, an unforgettable voice, and a highly commercial hook, I’d love to introduce you to my manuscript, FINDING IZZY, complete at 53,000 words.

 Teen fiction often teaches readers what romantic love looks like. FINDING IZZY explores another relationship that's equally transformative—the bond between a teenage girl and the grandmother who helps her discover compassion, courage, forgiveness, and purpose.  They share one unforgetable summer together in Los Angeles, becoming partners in crime as they check off items from a secret bucket list. Izzy sees how Sally throws herself into life in a way that Izzy is only beginning to understand. 

  When Izzy’s Hollywood-obsessed mother drags her to a script read-through at Warner Bros., instead of being starstruck, Izzy's words tangle as badly as her feet. If she doesn’t hatch a plan to escape her mother’s grasp, her summer in Los Angeles is going to be more painful than a vampire facial. It’s only when she discovers her dying step-grandmother’s secret bucket list that everything changes and the real adventure begins. 

 People are looking for connection. There is an epidemic of loneliness in our world. Teens report record levels of depression and anxiety and older adults are often aging alone without close family nearby. Arthur Brooks, in his many books about life happiness, tells us that one of the keys to a rich and satisfying life is to have close relationships: people who know us, who we know, and whom we can talk to and do things with—especially when life throws a curve ball. FINDING IZZY puts one of those relationships front and center in a narrative.

When Izzy meets Sally she is terminally ill with cancer and spending her days laying around, basically waiting to die. When Sally mentions her long forgotten bucket list, Izzy sees a glimmer of hope in her eye—a sparkle. Izzy wants to do something to ease Sally’s suffering. She’s also curious about the eccentric wishes on the list. And the great irony is that while Hollywood blockbusters are filming right down the street, Izzy and Sally’s adventures outshine them all because they are real, funny—

and high stakes because time is running out.

 (1) FINDING IZZY will spark questions such as: Who’s the Sally in your life? At book talks readers will walk away with a series of prompts designed to help them reflect upon their own granmances.

(2) #Granmance Challenge: Complete one bucket-list item with a grandparent or mentor. Post a photo or video to BookTok or Instagram.

(3) Book Club for Two: one copy for you, and the second copy for your grandmother, your mentor, or the woman who shaped you. Use the Discussion Guide in the back of the book to have deeper conversations.

(4) Write your Granmance Story: Imagine if FINDING IZZY inspired readers to share stories of the older woman who changed their life. Not celebrity stories. Ordinary stories. A retired teacher. A step-grandmother. An aunt. A neighbor. Someone who became family. Submit to granmance.com to be a part of the first Granmance Anthology—a non-fiction collection of granmance stories complementing FINDING IZZY.