Intrigued? Well read on to discover the synopsis and an excerpt from Paula Chase’s Balancing Act, which is out now.

When Chyna gets a scholarship to the newest, most prestigious sports school in the city, it’s the best opportunity to do the gymnastics she loves. But between caring for her ailing mother and dealing with the elitist girls on her gymnastics team, she’s not sure she belongs.

Meanwhile, Jamaal is reeling from the death of his brother—who was also secretly Chyna’s boyfriend. Becoming star of the Power Panthers basketball team is his way to honor his brother’s memory and nothings going to stand in his way. Not even his health.

Filled with gossip, high-stakes sports drama, and tons of heart, Balancing Act is the first in a riveting new series about teens fighting for their dreams in a city where picking a side is no game.

From Balancing Act by Paula Chase. Copyright © 2025 by the author, and reprinted with permission of St. Martin’s Publishing Group.

CHYNA

Trampolines give life. They thrust you out of a chute and into air that not everyone gets to breathe. For a few seconds, gravity doesn’t mean anything. It’s not like flying.

It IS flying. And once you learn to fly, you want to do it all the time.

March is being fickle and can’t decide whether to change over to spring or hold on to winter with a grip. The wind is cold in my face as I bounce past the top of the tramp’s rails, nearly flying out of the net onto the scraggly grass of my tiny backyard. I push off, again and again, enjoying the milliseconds when my body leaves the earth, and the wind gets caught in the puff of my hair. My calves tense hard as rocks as I bounce off my toes high, high, higher until there’s enough space beneath me to curl my knees to my chest and spin once.

Sitting in the corner of the trampoline, watching, Jacque’s eyes ping-pong with my body. Watching him watch me gives me chills. I’m not sure if it’s because he’s my best friend’s brother

and we haven’t told Jamaal about us yet or because winter is wintering.

“Go for two,” he says.

“It’s not enough space for two tucks,” I say even as I calculate how true that is. If Jacque thinks I can do it, I probably can. He says watching me bounce makes him feel free. Still, the trampoline is old. It creaks like its joints need to be oiled. If I thought too hard about it holding my weight, I wouldn’t even do one tuck. But being on the tramp isn’t about thinking. It’s about doing. Flying. Living.

Even through the darkness I see the outline of Jacque’s head shake in disappointment. “Play to win or don’t play,” he dares me. Before I can back out, my body ignores my mind and revolves once then twice like it was waiting for the right moment.

He grins, the proud coach, teeth lighting my way to him. I plop down, heart racing. “Geezus, boy. Are you trying to kill me?”

“Nope. Just getting you ready to run with the A-Team.”

The A-Team.

The Heights gymnastics team. I’m still getting used to being connected to something that has the entire community talking. Divided. But talking.

Everything I know, I learned from Soar summer camp and testing flips on this rickety tramp. I’m still wondering how I got an invitation to apply to the school. I can’t say that to Jacque. He’ll say I worry too much. But sometimes worrying is all I have. Joining the team is either going to be a dream come true or a nightmare. Being part of these types of change-the-world places always is one or the other. It’s never something in the middle because it’s easy to want to change things. It’s having to keep that energy up day after day that starts to mess with the people who are supposedly changed.

In a way, I figure the Heights is going to be like all the other programs claiming to offer golden opportunities to “the youth”—like we’re a species that can be corralled, tagged, and studied—before sputtering out of gas.

There’s:

F.A.L.L. into Success, because playing off the Diamond Falls name shows you’re caring and witty. Forging A Legacy of Learning encouraged young people to get interested in teaching as a

career. That went about as well as you think it did.

Shiny Diamonds, “polishing our youth for the future.”

The Gem Project, “mining our communities for future jewels.”

Hell, even Soar, aka, broke kids gymnastics camp, played the game by hyping up that it “fosters confidence building and self-esteem development through the rigors of tumbling.” I’ll admit

that if you ignore the bad food and bug-infested cabins, they definitely weren’t my worst two weeks of summer the last three years.

I can go on. They all start with a bang, but eventually the people giving the money for this stuff would rather focus on the next new promise rather than admit nobody ever delivered on

the original one.

But the Heights feels different.

A sliver of excitement tap-dances in my heart. None of the other programs had the city’s biggest corporations promising the school money and internships for students. No other school in the city had media partners, basically a slick way of saying that Channel 11 and 90.5 Da City have to talk good about the Heights. Literally they are getting paid, by the school, to say good things.

Aunt Tam said she has no idea how that arrangement is legal.

“I thought the news was impartial,” she’d said to Momma when we were reading the thick admissions packet that covered everything from mandatory special events to the five clauses that

prohibit any of the athletes from participating in activities that might cause them injury.

Momma had swiped away a tear, put on her big sister’s voice, and tried to reprimand. “Tam, don’t overanalyze this. Let’s just celebrate Chyna getting in. This is huge for her.”

I could tell Aunt Tam wanted to argue. That’s her first, second, and only gear. Also, she doesn’t trust anybody. Momma is the opposite. I’m stuck somewhere in the middle. If the Heights ends up like the other feed-the-needy programs, I won’t be surprised. But I’ll be graduated by then, so it’ll be somebody else’s problem to scam proof it. For now, the expectations and the cold make me shudder. Jacque pulls me to him. My warm lips cover his cold ones.

“What if the Soar coaches and Dr. Walker are wrong about me?” I whisper, unable to fight my worry.

He nibbles at my lips. “They not. You the best gymnast nobody know about. I’ve seen the videos. You as good as that Alicia girl.”

Jacque never says something just to be saying it. But that Alicia girl is Alicia Swanson, daughter of 90.5’s Black Swan and Evening Gem’s Rodecia Taylor and more importantly, the reigning Blue Diamond champion. Self-proclaimed Gymnast chick since I was old enough to walk—according to her Chatter bio.

It sounds crazy to say I’m as good as her, no matter if Hot Lipz says I’m the Heights’ number one gymnastics prospect. Honestly, especially if Hot Lipz is the main one saying it.

The post Read An Excerpt From ‘Balancing Act’ by Paula Chase appeared first on The Nerd Daily.

We chat with Paula all about her new release, Keeping It Real, along with writing, inspiration, and more!

Hi, Paula! Can you tell our readers a bit about yourself?

I’m a Virgo and I take that pretty seriously…as Virgos are prone to do. Being a Virgo means I tend to be a bit of a perfectionist and by bit, I mean I am totally a perfectionist. That isn’t a brag. It can be a real problem! But it’s also likely what helps me maintain two very demanding professions, one of them being an author – which is my favorite of the two.

When did you first discover your love for writing?

Writing has always been the way I express myself best. My mom still has stories that I wrote in elementary school. I was on my high school newspaper staff (do high schools still have those?) and for a minute I thought I wanted to be a journalist. Then I got to college and took a journalism class and was cured of that thought very quickly.

Even though I’ve been writing a long time and it’s my strongest skill,  I never thought about being a novelist until back in 2006 when I woke up with a very specific character in my head who ended up becoming Mila – the MC of my Del Rio Bay Clique YA series.

Quick lightning round! Tell us the first book you ever remember reading, the one that made you want to become an author, and one that you can’t stop thinking about!

I’m fairly obsessed with Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry. And as a kid, I never really thought about the book’s impact. But after I’d written a few books and reviewers would often talk about my “earnest” style of writing I realized that Mildred Taylor’s style of being very candid and honest with young readers without being graphic had very much influenced me.

Your new middle grade novel, Keeping It Real, is out October 19^th 2021! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?

Fun

Fashion drip

Secrets (see, I only needed three lol)

What can readers expect?

Imagine being invited to do an internship at BET, MTV or Project Runway. Imagine having an interest in something like fashion and suddenly you’re one degree separated from a celebrity. But your still only 13 or 14 years old, so you can barely enjoy it because you’re still kirking out because your friend is shading you. That’s Keeping It Real. You can’t run from life. And the book will put readers into this really cool environment of the made up world of Flexx Unlimited, while reminding them that, at the end of the day they still have to figure out who they are and where they fit.

Where did the inspiration for Keeping It Real come from?

Books with Black characters are still begging to be unboxed. We’re seeing some progress, but the books that get the attention are still often the books about a very specific aspect of Black life. I’m always looking for an opportunity to write about the characters we don’t see enough. In this case it’s the upper middle class Black family and what that’s like when you’re rooted in both the Black culture but also in a very traditional and judgemental environment like Marigold’s private school.

Can you tell us about any challenges you faced while writing and how you were able to overcome them?

It was tough to write during the pandemic and while fighting to make it clear that Black lives matter and always have. Some days the world felt like it was on fire and writing didn’t put that fire out. Once I sat to write, I’d melt into the story eventually. But many days it was hard to get my butt in the seat.

What do you hope your readers take away from Keeping It Real?

My hope is always the same – I want readers to immerse themselves and have fun. I want them to pick sides. I want them to have empathy for all of the characters. I want them to walk away drained from the ride.

What’s next for you?

I have a Young Adult novel coming out in 2022 – Charm City Heights. It’s very Growing Up HipHop meets Tiny Pretty Things!

Lastly, do you have any book recommendations for our readers?

Please visit thebrownbookshelf.com. There are so many Black kidlit creatives and their work to discover.

Will you be picking up Keeping It Real? Tell us in the comments below!

The post Q&A: Paula Chase, Author of ‘Keeping It Real’ appeared first on The Nerd Daily.