This would be as good a time as any to introduce myself.
My name is Paul Briggs, and this is my first novel, Locksmith's Closet. It is about a boy named Lachlan Smith, 12 years old, who has recently lost his father. Having gotten settled in a new home, he discovers a portal to the future while investigating a strange noise in his room. Passing through it, he and another boy, Gary Thalberg, find a world that has been uninhabited for decades. They decide to explore the new world, learn what went wrong — or will go wrong — and stop it from happening. But Locksmith is introverted and secretive to a fault, and is determined to keep anyone else (especially his overbearing mother and older brother) from finding out about the portal. In the end, he will have to reach out to others and figure out who to trust — and who not to trust, because his family has an enemy who will go to any length to take their house and the portal for himself.
I featured two of the characters in Locksmith's Closet, Lucy Thames and Tara O'Brien, in my award-winning short play, "The Worst Super Power Ever."• Excerpts from Lucy's journal
• On writing Young Adult fiction