Stepping into the world of young adult novels

Near the beginning of “The Edge of Everything” the novel’s main character Zoe, 17, is faced with a difficult choice.

Still dealing with the death of her father and the mysterious disappearance of her neighbors from their home, during a blizzard one night Zoe and her brother are brutally attacked in the woods near their Montana home. They are rescued by a man they call X, who reveals himself as a bounty hunter from mysterious place called the Lowlands, and has been sent to claim the soul of the attacker. The bounty hunter shoves the attacker into a hole in the ice of a frozen lake and Zoe is forced to decide whether the man should live or die.

Whitefish author Jeff Giles formed these early scenes of his newly released book while he was still working at Entertainment Weekly, where he oversaw coverage of movies and books. Once Giles had written 75 pages of his young adult novel, he submitted it to an agent who had once told him if he ever wrote a novel she’d take a look.

“It was scary to show to people,” he recalled in a recent sit-down with the Pilot.

But he knew with his full-time job it would take him years to complete a full novel, so he had to rely on those few pages of the story to sell it.

“I needed to know can I make enough money to live,” he said.

His agent, Jodi Reamer, also represents successful young adult authors John Green of “The Fault in Our Stars” and Stephenie Meyer of the “Twilight” series. Giles eventually signed a book deal, left New York City and moved to Whitefish, where he had four months to finish the novel.

“I had to have that adrenaline to give me the ability to finish,” he said. “I looked it as a math problem — figuring out how many words I had to write every day to finish on time.”

“Montana has been a great place to write,” he added. “New York was distracting. I miss parts of it, but you have to have a clear head to write — it takes a lot of concentration.”

Two years later his novel is being released and has already received positive reviews.

Peter Jackson, Oscar-winning director of “The Lord of the Rings” and “The Hobbit” trilogies, praised the book as “utterly original.”

“Beautifully written,” Jackson says in his review. “At turns poignant and funny, the story of Zoe and her fight to save her family and the strange young man known only as ‘X’ will stay with you long after you finish this extraordinary book.”

Giles has written for Rolling Stone and The New York Times Book Review. While reporting on “The Lord of the Rings” movies for Newsweek, Giles met Jackson. When Giles finished his novel he sent it to Jackson on the hope he might provide a review.

“I was blown away because he did it,” Giles said. “His name means a lot, it’s been amazingly helpful.”

Giles was one of the first journalists to write about “The Lord of the Rings” movies when he traveled to New Zealand during the filming of the first movie. Through the years they became friends. When Giles returned to write about the filming of the third movie in the series, Jackson decided to put him in the movie as one of the extras so he would experience filming a movie from a different perspective. With yak hair glued to his face because he didn’t have a beard or mustache, Giles played a Rohan soldier in the film. Giles says it’s one of those opportunities as a journalist he couldn’t pass up when presented.

“It was sort of ridiculous,” he says with a laugh. “I spent about 12 hours standing in the cold with a group of people moving a little bit at a time. It was really fun.”

Giles has taken a similar journalist’s approach to writing his novel.

When his characters were going to participate in caving or spelunking, he found experts in the field which led him to go along with Bigfork High School’s cave club on a field trip and teacher Hans Bodenhamer, who lent his expertise on caving to the novel.

“You’re never going to feel the same way reading about something and actually trying it,” Giles said. “There is no comparison.”

When he needed inspiration for the brother character in the novel, he looked to his own son, who is 14 now. His daughter, 22, provided assistance when Giles wanted to lend authenticity to the voices of his teenage characters. The main character, Zoe, is a strong teenager who is dramatic and brave.

“I’m married, I have a daughter, I have many woman friends,” Giles said. “There wasn’t going to be a female in the book that wasn’t strong.”

Giles intent to make his female characters strong did lead to a suggestion by his editor that he give the male characters the chance to sometimes be the star of the heroic moments. But he wanted to make sure that the women weren’t “just sitting there watching the guys do everything.”

His daughter introduced him to the world of young adult novels and then as an editor at Entertainment Weekly he was involved when the magazine began covering the genre including hits like “The Hunger Games” series.

Giles was blown away about how passionate teens, and adults, can be about young adult novels. Once he became an author of his own young adult novel, he was amazed again.

“The young adult community of authors is so supportive of each other,” he said. “They are really helpful — even those authors who have big best sellers and sold millions of copies — and that’s not always the case.”

“The Edge of Everything” is available now. Giles expects to hold an event in Whitefish in March for the book.