We are excited to announce this year’s finalists for the 2019 Soon To Be Famous Illinois Author Project. Our librarian judges from across Illinois have scored the semi-finalists and have narrowed the submissions down to three finalists in our two categories (Adult and YA fiction). Congratulations to these finalists!

Adult Fiction 2019 Finalists

	Controlled Descent by K.M. Herkes The inventor of a gadget that could change the world--or end it--claws his way back from death's door after a failed murder attempt and goes on the hunt for the people who want him dead. A mystery-thriller set in a dystopian socialist future. Forty-two years have passed since the Restored United States emerged from decades of chaos and revolution. The future is a brave new world, but some things never change. Money still talks, power still corrupts, and trust is a rare and precious commodity.
	The Bone Shroud by Jean Rabe Irem Madigan’s wedding trip to Rome turns into a desperate search for historical relics, and a struggle to stay ahead of a killer. Irem, an archivist at the Chicago Field Museum, flies to Italy to be the “best man” in her brother’s wedding. He’s marrying an archaeologist who lures Irem into a centuries-old mystery. Unfortunately, there are other players in the game, and some of them are playing deadly. Can she survive and uncover the ancient secrets?.
	Renegade Pawn by Craig S Wilson Lucas Rocha didn't know he'd be a reluctant hero.Lucas Rocha never meant to become a drug dealer. But when he picks the wallet of vacationing DEA Agent Daniel Burke, Lucas becomes a pawn in the battle between Rio's drug cartel and lawmakers' attempts to bring them to justice. The lives of these two strangers quickly become permanently—and dangerously—intertwined when Lucas is asked to infiltrate the cartel and navigate the deathly politics of its powerful drug lords. Hell-bent on beating the odds and escaping alive, Lucas not only survives but begins to rise in the cartel's ranks. Life on the inside is dangerous, but the tradeoff is that he can gain power, protection, and money. The temptation is great for one who comes from so little and also has two little sisters he must protect as they have no one else but him.Nor does Lucas know that his many years as a street kid will now offer him the perfect path to power.

Young Adult Fiction 2019 Finalists

	The Chronocar by Steve Bellinger Imagine being born the son of a slave with the mind of a genius. That was Simmie Johnson in the years following the Civil War. After a perilous escape from lynch mobs in Mississippi, he manages to earn a PhD in physics at Tuskegee, and in his research, discovers the secret of time travel. He develops a design for a time machine, called a Chronocar, but the technology required to make it work does not yet exist.Fast forward a hundred and twenty-five years. A young African American Illinois Tech student in Chicago finds Dr. Johnson’s plans and builds a Chronocar. He goes back to the year 1919 to meet the doctor and his beautiful daughter, Ollie, who live in Chicago’s Black Belt, now known as Bronzeville. But, he has chosen an unfortunate time in the past and becomes involved in the bloodiest race riot in Chicago’s history.
	The Remedy Files: Illusion by Lauren Eckhardt A life without feelings, a life without decisions; that’s the only life Evangeline knows. Because of the manufacturing of Remedy, her community of Impetus has discovered a way to survive and prevent the self-destructing mistakes of The Before by inhibiting feelings, creating a society that relies wholly on logic and entrusts Impetus to make all the decisions for its people. A chance encounter results in a friendship between Evangeline and a boy outside of Impetus named Gavin who challenges Evangeline to reassess her conviction in the world she has always known and introduces her to a choice she never thought she had.When she defies Impetus on her 18th birthday, Evangeline journeys through awakened truths, divided worlds, power struggles, and love triangles. For the first time in her life, the vitality of physical and emotional feelings forces her to understand and see Gavin in ways like never before. Broken, tested, and challenged, Evangeline must make decisions on her own for once, determining who she trusts, who she loves, and who she’s willing to sacrifice in pursuit of what’s right and to fight what she believes is wrong.
	Orbit by Leigh Hellman Ciaan Gennett isn’t green, despite the brand of light hair that betrays her heritage: an Earth mother. A mother she remembers but doesn’t know, who left one day and never came back. Ciaan’s as metal as her home planet—cold and hard and full of so many cracks she’s trying to ignore that she doesn’t have time to wonder about questions that don’t get answers.After one too many run-ins with the law, Ciaan finds herself sentenced to probation at a port facility and given an ultimatum: Prove that your potential is worth believing in. With help from her best friend Tidoris, Ciaan stays away from trouble—and trouble stays away from her. But when a routine refueling turns into a revelation, Ciaan and Tidoris find themselves forced into an alliance with an Earth captain of questionable morality and his stoic, artificially-grown first officer. Their escalating resistance against bureaucratic cover-ups begins unraveling a history of human monstrosity and an ugly truth that Ciaan isn’t so sure she wants to discover.Now they all must decide how far they are willing to dig into humanity's dark desperation—and what they are willing to do about what digs back.

Congratulations to the six authors listed above (in alphabetical order). We thank everyone who took the time to submit their work. And if you didn’t make it to the finalist round this year, we encourage you to keep writing and editing. And perhaps, try again next year. The 2020 contest will open in the Spring 2020.