Andrew McCarthy will make his fiction debut with a young adult novel

Good news for ‘80s kids who preferred Blane McDonough to Duckie Dale: “Pretty in Pink” star Andrew McCarthy, who went from Brat Pack actor to travel writer and television director, is coming out with his first novel.

Algonquin Young Readers will publish “Just Fly Away,” McCarthy’s first work of fiction, in spring of 2017. The novel is about a 15-year-old New Jersey girl who learns that she has an 8-year-old half-brother living in the same town as her.

McCarthy praised his new publisher in a news release, saying, “I’m delighted to have my debut novel land at Algonquin, a house that has a great reputation for not just publishing great books, but also nurturing books and authors both at launch and over a lifetime.”

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This will be McCarthy’s second book. His first, “The Longest Way Home: One Man’s Quest for the Courage to Settle Down,” was a memoir that chronicled his personal life and his love of visiting faraway destinations. McCarthy, who is an editor at large for National Geographic Traveler, has had his travel writing published in several publications, including The Times.

McCarthy discussed his approach to travel writing in an interview with The Times, saying, “I was writing about an internal journey and it played itself out in 3-D. In travel writing there’s the story you’re sent to report and then there’s the story behind the scenes, and the latter is always vastly more interesting.”

Although his young adult novel won’t be released for over a year, McCarthy, who recently directed episodes of “Orange Is the New Black” and “The Blacklist,” is keeping busy. He’ll be costarring in the ABC drama “The Family,” which is set to debut later this year.

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