Dave Casler
PO Box 98
Ridgway, Colorado 81432

Young Adult Novels by Dave Casler...

I've been told by publisher after publisher that there's no market for Young Adult novels. I think they're wrong! So I'm putting my novels on-line for you. Forget the publisher! Read to your heart's content--it's free! And, I'd like to hear from you, too! Contact Page.

So far I have two novels completed and a third on the way, About Jared. All concern a group of teens in Boulder, Colorado, who know each other. Each novel tells the story of a particular person. Why do I write about boys? Because everyone else writes about girls! And why teens? Because when my kids were teens, I found I enjoyed not only them but their friends. Through my work with their school, at church, and while teaching ham radio to teens, I found teens delightful! Contrary to what some adults think, the teen world is a marvelous one, full of discovery, intelligence, humor, and just plain real life.

About the Author

It takes a long time to write a novel. More than a year, in fact, in the case of About Dan, and nearly that for About Phillip. I have a day job (I work for a large computer company), and both About Dan and About Phillip were put together nights, weekends, on vacation, in hotel rooms on company business, on airplanes, and just about anywhere I could get to my computer or a laptop. I would carry around the manuscript file on a memory key so I could work from anywhere!

Once I started with a book, it became an obsession. I would even dream about it. In idle moments I'd visualize scenes. In fact, when I wrote, I was simply recording what I'd already seen. Both Dan and Phillip were like sons to me. Except, of course, I didn't treat my own son the way Dan and Phillip were treated!

Ok, so I'm no spring chicken. I was born in 1951, which is a loooooooooong time ago. I tell kids I was born back when the world was in black and white--back before Kodak invented color. I even remember the days when color photographs were something very few people could afford. So why am I writing about teens? Simply put, the stories are universal. Believe it or not, the teen years are much the same independent of generation. Yes, issues come and go; for example, Dan's dad is gay. But some fathers have been gay for years--it's just that now we can talk about it.

So how do I pretend to know what today's kids are like and what vexes them? I listen. I'm around kids. And I'm imaginative enough to put myself in their shoes. And minds. And hearts. I absolutely do not buy the idea that today's kids are lazy, don't know how to work, and are not imaginative! I heard that tripe when I was a teenager, and I didn't believe it then, either. When I was 16, I was asking candidates for elected office why I couldn't vote. Some say that teens aren't yet human, that they're only in the process of becoming human. Well, I don't know about that!

Yes, teens are still growing up. But it's a lack of experience, not a lack of intelligence or humanity, that keeps a teen a teen. Experience then comes along and blunts natural curiosity, tones down vivaciousness, makes a person hesitant to volunteer, and otherwise inflicts many of the penalties of adulthood. I've told teens that the only difference between teens and adults is age. To some extent that's true. The other difference is experience. Adults have often seen things before and have that experience to fall back on. Teens, by and large, are seeing things for the first time. Experience is a cool thing, if handled properly, but it can also blind us to seeing old things in a new way. Teens aren't hampered by this, and when they ask why, they actually want an answer!

I think they deserve one. That's why I started work on the About Series. I'm exploring some very vexing problems that can lay anyone low, even adults. These are problems with no easy answers. Dan doesn't find any, nor does Phillip.

I also don't talk down to teens. Nothing is pre-digested here! I haven't yet met a teen worth his or her salt that can't carry on a worthwhile discussion on politics, family dynamics, interpersonal conflict, school, serious illness and even (in Dan's case) death. Just because teens are still kids living at home doesn't mean they're sheltered from these things.

Let's make this website a dialog! Use the contact page to get in touch with me.

Oh, yeah. So why am I publishing online? I really did try the traditional publishing route. But everyone says that no teens read anymore. One wonders who reads Harry Potter then. Anyway, Dan's and Phillip's stories need to be told.