Help me brainstorm something. [View all]

[Pab Sungenis]

When I started writing my novel The Sidekick (coming March, 2013, from Month 9 Books -- how good it feels to say that) I wanted my hero to be a High School Senior trying to get into college. I also wanted his foster father to have been recently killed, setting the plot into motion. I didn't want to bother much with having him deal with CPS or DYFS as a result of this, so the easiest answer to it was to start the book on his 18th birthday.

Now my publisher wants the protagonist to be 17 in the first novel and 19 in the sequel I never even dreamed of writing.

I'm not philosophically opposed to having him only be 17, and since the kid is reasonably bright I could always use the "skipped a grade" excuse if needed. Likewise, I could have used the "held back" trope if needed to have him graduating late. But what I can't find my way around is having a minor, even a 17 year old, just left on his own by the state and the school system.

So here are some questions:

(1) The novel starts in January, just as kids are coming back from winter break. It opens with our protagonist at his foster father's funeral on his birthday. For various reasons I would rather not move his birthday or the funeral. I like having both be happening at the same time and the "trying to get into college" subplot works best in that current time frame. For a January birth, at what age would an average kid graduate from High School nowadays? 17 or 18?

(2) Is there any conceivable way for a 17 year old whose long-term foster father has died to be emancipated easily, quickly, and painlessly? Help me figure out a way.

Of course, this is a superhero novel aimed at young adults so it doesn't need to be so horribly close to reality, but I'd at least like it to be plausible.

Ideas?