Brenda Drake Shares Wisdom & Guardian of Secrets (Library Jumpers #2)

I am so excited to have this author and her latest book take a stroll through YA in the Alleyway! She's not only paying a visit to celebrate all the pretties of her latest tale. But also to share some writerly wisdom with you. For you writer folks out there, if you've ever trudged through the transition of carrying your story from book 1 to book 2 then you'll want to listen up. I can't wait to read what she
has to say! So please give a warm welcome to NYT Best Selling Author Brenda Drake!

"How to successfully move from the end of book 1 to book 2 in a series." 

(Methods, fun, continuing threads...)

by Brenda Drake

Writing a series takes a lot of care and mapping out each book with one central plot that arcs over all the books in the series. When moving from book one to book two in the Library Jumpers series, I had to weave in many things introduced in the first book into the second one. Keeping a story bible filled with details on characters, settings, and the rules of the world you’ve created.

World-building is so important in my fantasy book. I have to keep track of how the magic works, what’s the rule of the land in the Mystik realm, the cultures in the havens and covens, and the environment in each one. This also goes into the story bible. Keeping one is very helpful when I forget what a character looks or haven looks like.

Each of my books in the Library Jumpers series has its own arc and threat. At the end, there’s a resolution to that threat, but there isn’t one for the plot arc that arches over all three books. I leave my readers with a “happy for now” feeling at the end of each book. Writers of series need to decide if they’re going to end each book on a cliff hanger or do as I do with mine.

It’s important to keep the voices the same across the books in a series. I’d read a chapter in book one before starting to write book two. To get back into my narrator’s voice. Setting is important in a series. It’s like its own character and should feel the same throughout the series. The details matter and they should be the same in all books of the series. You don’t want everything to stay the same. Introducing new characters and new places will keep the reader interested in the world you’ve created.

A great way to keep track of the characters and settings in your story is to create a Pinterest board. I have one for each of my books. It helps to look back at book one’s board while I’m writing book two. You don’t have to make the board public. I only make mine public after a book releases. You can also do your own story board on poster and keep it by your desk if you don’t like doing things on the computer. Anything, to help you visualize your world will work.

Staying organized and jotting down all the important information about your world will help you transition from one book to another in a series. What tips do you have that help you keep organized while writing?

Brenda Drake is a New York Times bestselling author of Thief of Lies (Library Jumpers #1), Guardian of Secrets (Library Jumpers #2), Touching Fate (Fated Series #1), and Cursing Fate (Fated Series #2). She grew up the youngest of three children, an Air Force brat, and the continual new kid at school. She hosts workshops and contests for writers such as Pitch Wars and Pitch Madness on her blog, and holds Twitter pitch parties on the hashtag, #PitMad. When she’s not writing or hanging out with her family, she haunts libraries, bookstores, and coffee shops, or reads someplace quiet and not at all exotic (much to her disappointment).   

Find her: Website | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | Goodreads

Now let's take a peek at her pretties!

Guardian of Secrets (Library Jumpers #2)

by Brenda Drake

Release Date: February 7, 2017

Publisher: Entangled Teen

Description: Being a Sentinel isn’t all fairytales and secret gardens.

Sure, jumping through books into the world’s most beautiful libraries to protect humans from mystical creatures is awesome. No one knows that better than Gia Kearns, but she could do without the part where people are always trying to kill her. Oh, and the fact that Pop and her had to move away from her friends and life as she knew it.

And if that isn’t enough, her boyfriend, Arik, is acting strangely. Like, maybe she should be calling him “ex,” since he’s so into another girl. But she doesn’t have time to be mad or even jealous, because someone has to save the world from the upcoming apocalypse, and it looks like that’s going to be Gia.


Maybe. If she survives.

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For your convenience, here's the first book in the series.

Description: Gia Kearns would rather fight with boys than kiss them. That is, until Arik, a leather
clad hottie in the Boston Athenaeum, suddenly disappears. While examining the book of world libraries he abandoned, Gia unwittingly speaks the key that sucks her and her friends into a photograph and transports them into a Paris library, where Arik and his Sentinels—magical knights charged with protecting humans from the creatures traveling across the gateway books—rescue them from a demonic hound.

Jumping into some of the world's most beautiful libraries would be a dream come true for Gia, if she weren’t busy resisting her heart or dodging an exiled wizard seeking revenge on both the Mystik and human worlds. Add a French flirt obsessed with Arik and a fling with a young wizard, and Gia must choose between her heart and her head, between Arik's world and her own, before both are destroyed.

Brenda,
Thank you for stopping by to share such great advice with us. Wishing you all the success in the future!

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Alleywalkers! I want to thank you for sticking around, while I learn to navigate the business of having a book out in the wild. Your patience and loyalty amaze me! Ooh, and make sure you enter Brenda's great giveaway. 

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Share one thing that struck you about what Brenda shared. Please and thank you!

YA in the Alleyway is my meme to give young adult literature the spotlight it deserves. It also gives YA authors the opportunity to share their signature with the world! 

YA in the Alleyway~HAIR IN ALL THE WRONG PLACES by Andrew Buckley

Here's this week's YA in the Alleyway spotlight - Meet Author Andrew Buckley and his new release about a boy who finds himself in a real hairy situation. And there's a giveaway! But first the book because I'm all fangirl over it.

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HAIR IN ALL THE WRONG PLACES by Andrew Buckley

Release Date: June 7, 2016 Pages: 231 Editions: Paperback, ebook  Publisher: Month9Books, LLC
Description: What has he done? 
What's happening to him? 
And what on Earth is that smell? 
For Colin Strauss, puberty stinks. Blackouts, hallucinations, and lapses in memory are the perils of growing up werewolf. 
Worse than that, Colin worries he might have had something to do with the recent attacks on the townspeople. He may have eaten a person. It doesn’t matter that it’s someone he doesn’t particularly like. What kind of boy goes around eating people? 
Foolishly, all Colin can think about is how Becca Emerson finally kissed him for the first time. Yep, hormones are afoot. Yikes! 
But girls will have to wait. Collin better get himself under control before someone else ends up hurt or worse . . . dead.   Now, let's meet the mastermind behind this story, *waves author over* 
Hi Andrew! It's great to have you here. Tell the readers something about Andrew as a young boy and how he became intrigued with storytelling.  Funnily enough my love of stories came from having a very weak left eye. I was maybe 6 when I had to wear a patch over my right eye most evenings in order to strengthen my other eye. During this time I couldn’t really do anything (lack of depth perception meant I’d just walk into walls a lot) so my parents read with me. I grew to love stories and storytelling and always found creative writing to be my favourite subject throughout school. The rest is history . . . or future history . . . or whatever.
What a wonderful way to help a young kid deal with a physical issue. Kudos to Mom and Dad! Colin definitely has the whole puberty thing rough. How were you able to use that staple of teen-dom to fuel this premise? Puberty is rough! It’s terrible! We all remember it. It’s such a transformation process for tweens/teens on a physical, emotional, and mental level that running it alongside the transformation into a werewolf isn’t exactly a vast stretch of the imagination. However, Colin’s awkwardness with the girls, his lack of athleticism, and his general smart-ass-ness is something I did pull directly from my own teen-dom experiences.

The story sounds like it's overflowing in humor, but also mystery. As a writer, how did you sprinkle those elements to keep the story forging ahead?

When I originally sat down and put pen to paper, or fingers to keyboard rather, I was writing a horror novel. But it became quickly apparent that I’m unable to write anything without including humour so it transformed (tee-hee) into a teen-coming-of-age-supernatural-murder-mystery. The Town of Elkwood has a lot more going on than what people see on the surface, and when a rogue werewolf shows up in town at the same time a local student gets eaten, there’s a lot of mystery to be solved. 

Using two other book or movie titles, describe your book for readers? Feel free to explain your choices.

I was quite influenced by the 1987 movie The Monster Squad and also by The Goonies. Both those movies deal with the age group of the main characters so very well and, Monster Squad in particular, put a great spin on the classic Universal monsters. Other movies I could factor in would be The Lost Boys, Abbott and Costello Meet the Wolfman, and Teen Wolf (the Michael J Fox one).

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The Goonies!! One of my absolute favs as a kid. And The Lost Boys??? Very, very cool. What's up next for you?

I have a number of books in the works including sequels to my first two novels, a sequel to HAVELOCK (writing as Jane D Everly), and of course a sequel to HAIR IN ALL THE WRONG PLACES. I also have a new book series I’m developing based around a comedic re-telling of the true story behind Jack the Ripper (you can find the prologue chapter in an anthology called CHRONOLOGY under the guise of a short story called ‘Whitechapel’.) Plus I have a secret project on the go and a TV Development Concept . . . but alas, I’ve said too much!

Ooh...secret projects are always the best. Thank you so much for sharing yourself and your work with the Alleyway. Best of luck to you! 

Andrew Buckley attended the Vancouver Film School’s Writing for Film and Television program. After pitching and developing several screenplay projects for film and television, he worked in marketing and public relations, before becoming a professional copy and content writer. During this time Andrew began writing his first adult novel, DEATH, THE DEVIL AND THE GOLDFISH, followed closely by his second novel, STILTSKIN. He works as an editor for Curiosity Quills Press.

Andrew also co-hosts a geek movie podcast, is working on his next novel, and has a stunning amount of other ideas. He now lives happily in the Okanagan Valley, BC with three kids, one cat, one needy dog, one beautiful wife, and a multitude of characters that live comfortably inside of his mind.


Andrew is represented by Mark Gottlieb at the Trident Media Group.

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Do you remember the awkwardness of the younger years and your high school days? Care to share?

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YA in the Alleyway! ALMOST THERE by Laurel Garver

YA in the Alleyway is my revised meme to give young adult literature the spotlight it deserves. It also gives YA authors the opportunity to share their signature with the world!  Feel free to join me any Wednesday. 
This week's featured author and book:

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iTUNES |  CREATESPACE

ALMOST THERE by Laurel Garver
Genre: YA inspirational Release date: May 26, 2016 Pages: 309
Fave passage: In Paris, art seeps into your feet and drips from your fingertips. Dark-eyed buskers in berets squeeze out sweet accordion songs, and the birds trill along. The air tastes like crème brûlée; the light is melted butter. Or so I’ve heard. In two weeks, I’ll find out for myself. I can see it all now: In the golden mornings, Mum and I will set up matching easels on the banks of the Seine and paint side-by-side. She’ll be too excited to sleep till noon, too inspired to stare blankly at the wall. Her sadness will fall away like a too-heavy coat, and she’ll once again fill canvas after canvas with works of aching beauty. 
Description: Paris, the City of Lights. To seventeen-year-old Dani Deane, it’s the Promised Land. There, her widowed mother’s depression will vanish and she will no longer fear losing her only parent, her arty New York life, or her devoted boyfriend.
But shortly before their Paris getaway, Dani’s tyrannical grandfather falls ill, pulling them to rural Pennsylvania to deal with his hoarder horror of a house. Among the piles, Dani finds disturbing truths that could make Mum completely unravel. Desperate to protect her from pain and escape to Paris, Dani hatches a plan with the flirtatious neighbor boy that only threatens the relationships she most wants to save. 
Why would God block all paths to Paris? Could real hope for healing be as close as a box tucked in the rafters?
Hi Laurel! It's great to have you visit the Alleyway. Gosh, this story sounds fantastic. What inspired you to write it? My story ideas come from curiosity ("what if?" questions) followed by research (discovering numerous solid answers to those "what if?" questions), which are then sifted and stitched together. Research is truly the most central part of my process, helping me not only discover essential details, but also plot ideas and thematic threads. 
Give us a peek inside the world you created. Much of the story takes place in rural north central Pennsylvania, where I grew up. It's mountainous, with old deciduous forests and some truly magical state parks with waterfall-dotted hiking trails. My city-girl protagonist Dani finds nature both intriguing and a bit scary. For example, she describes summer night sounds as "a billion crickets chirp a threatening cacophony."  
Dani's grandparents' home is something of a character in itself. Her widower grandfather has filled the house with collections to make living alone bearable. There's a mysterious outbuilding on his property that Dani will discover holds key pieces of her family's deepest secrets.  
What about your main characters? How do they fit (or not) into this world? Dani is an arty, imaginative high school junior with a strong sarcastic streak. Despite being deeply rooted in her faith, she has a tendency to worry and catastrophize. Since losing her dad when she was 15, she has become fiercely protective of her mother, worried she'll end up an orphan. Dani's boyfriend Theo is a sweet, funny guy who rows crew and hopes to one day become a psychiatrist. Weathering his parents' messy divorce has made him empathetic and insightful on the one hand, and a bit self-protective on the other. 
In the course of the story, Dani meets a new guy, Laughlin O'Donnell, her grandfather's neighbor. He's a gruff, rifle-toting, chain-smoking country boy who helps support his single mom doing landscaping, odd jobs, and working as a groom at a horse farm. He's the least likely person a girl like Dani would ever befriend, let alone seek for help. But he needs her help as much as she needs his. 
Playlist or favorite songs of inspiration? Mad World (Tears for Fears / Gary Jules)  Pompeii (Bastille) Atlas (Coldplay) Fix You (Coldplay) Kingdom Come (Civil Wars) Home (Phillip Phillips) Burn (Ellie Goulding) Ho Hey (Lumineers) A few common themes here--broken relationships, a sense of displacement, and ultimately reconciliation and finding a sense of belonging
Yes, I can see that. But you've chosen some great gut-wrenching tunes! What can your fans expect from you next? I'm currently working on a Christmas novella that fits between Never Gone and Almost There, told in alternating points of view from both Dani's and Theo's perpsectives. It's their first Christmas as a couple--and the first anniversary of Dani's father's death--so the pressure is on for Theo to find the perfect gift. 
YAY! More Dani & Theo and in alternating POVs. Nice! We'll all be on the lookout for its release. Thank you for sharing yourself and your work with us.

Laurel Garver is an editor, professor’s wife, and mom to an arty teenager. An indie film enthusiast and incurable Anglophile, she enjoys geeking out about Harry Potter and Dr. Who, playing word games, singing in church choir, and taking long walks in Philly's Fairmount Park.  Find her: Facebook | Twitter | Blog | Goodreads | 
Laurel has been generous enough to offer up a paperback copy of the prequel, Never Gone to one lucky visitor. So leave your thoughts below. (If your email is not attached to your blogger profile please leave it in your comment.) 
GOOD LUCK! What's the last contemporary book you read? 

YA In The Alleyway~THE UNMOVING SKY by K. L. Hallam & Giveaway!

YA in the Alleyway is my revised meme to give young adult literature the spotlight it deserves. It also gives YA authors the opportunity to share their signature with the world!  Feel free to join me any Wednesday. 
Let's give a big Alleyway welcome for my next featured Young Adult Author, K. L. Hallam - an air force brat as a young child, who moved around to more schools than she can list, gathering the stories that would connect to her heart! She also writes middle grade tales, short fiction, and anything else she hasn't tried. Her other creative endeavors include being a singer, songwriter, illustrator, and mom. And to top it all off, she's one of my publisher sisters!
Hi K. L. It's wonderful to have you here. Let's start with childhood. Did you have a favorite book or story and why?  My mother’s first language is Greek, she spoke little English, and I can’t remember a time when she’d read books the way I do for my sons. But when my fifth-grade teacher read The Secret Garden aloud to the class, my world changed. Forever. I still recall that time, listening to her read I can almost smell the day. 
Ooh, The Secret Garden... <3 With the emotions of that story in mind, I'd like to introduce the readers to your moving story.

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THE UNMOVING SKY

by K. L. Hallam

Publisher: Leap Books: Shine Imprint

Release Date: May 16, 2016

Genre: Young Adult, Thriller

Description: There is nothing darker than the woods, until you meet your worst fear.

Jackson Bower has a lot on his mind lately. His younger brother hasn’t been the same since his mother’s death. His father’s drinking is out of control. Then there’s Jackson’s girlfriend and the grief that ties them together even as it threatens to drive them apart.

He distances himself, hoping for a little perspective at the family lodge. But when their father gets drunk and dangerous, he and his brother escape into the woods.

Night creeps in, and the rains come fast. Artie slips down a ravine. He’s wounded and the brothers seek shelter in a cave, only to find someone else already taking refuge there.

A desperate man with plans to destroy their town.

Jackson must get him and his wounded brother out of the cave and over the mountain to warn everyone in time. Without getting them both killed first.
Here's a peek at the book trailer: 

How did you approach the topics of parental death and alcohol use (or alcoholism) to develop these characters?

My father was an alcoholic. My mother left him when I was eight years old and my brother was five. I had to look after him a lot, while she worked. Growing up without your parents talking to each other for years, not until I graduated high school, feels like a death. I wasn’t allowed to talk about him or his new life around my mother. 

What other books do you feel are comparable to this story and why?  

Hm? This is hard. I’ve searched for stories that might be comparable. When talking with others about The Unmoving Sky, I’ve heard that it sounded like the Mathew McConaughey’s film, MUD, 2012. I haven’t seen the film, but it sounds as if there might be a few elements of similarity. Two young boys, find a drifter … etc. Maybe that’s the one similarity? 

One of my children watched that film. I believe he got the same impression. What can your readers expect from you next? 

I have a middle-grade, SFF launching with GMMG in 2017. (And a few in the hole!) I’d love to write a prequel to The Unmoving Sky. Brianna, Jackson’s girlfriend, has her side to the story. Hopefully I can complete the song of her POV and have it ready by the time TUS publishes on May 16th. Or maybe it will be a pet project. 

A prequel would be cool! I always love to learn more about a story's characters before and after. :) One last - and silly - question. You're in the mall and all the stores are closed except three of them: a kitchen utensil store, a gag gift store, and a gallery art store. Which do you patron, why, and what do you buy?

Gallery Art Store. Because I paint with watercolors and I’m out of supplies. I know I’ve used all of my blues and yellows. I might even grab more clay for the figurative sculptures I used to make. 

Sculptures...whoa. You really do dabble in all creative arenas. Thanks you so much for sharing your signature in the Alleyway, and congratulations on your release!

Readers, what are your thoughts on reading true-to-life teenage struggles such as dealing with an absent parent, death, or battles such as alcoholism?

Want more of K. L. Hallam? Find her: Website | Blog | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter

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Meet Melanie McFarlane, author of THERE ONCE WERE STARS

YA in the Alleyway is my revised meme to give young adult literature the spotlight it deserves. It also gives YA authors the opportunity to share their signature with the world!  Feel free to join me any Wednesday. 
I'd like to introduce you to another #WO2016 (Waiting On 2016) fellow author! She's a passionate writer of other-wordly adventures, a little excitable, and a little quirky. Whether it’s uncovering the corruption of the future, or traveling to other worlds to save the universe, she jumps in with both hands on her keyboard. Though she can be found obsessing over zombies and orcs from time to time, Melanie has focused her powers on her YA debut There Once Were Stars, and her YA urban fantasy Summoner Rising.   She lives with her husband and two daughters in the Land of Living Skies.
Hi Melanie! Love chatting with you in our #WO2016 Facebook group, but I'm even more thrilled to have you visit me at my cyber home. Let's start with you as a child. Were you a reader? I was a ferocious reader, thanks to my mother, but was also told totally made up tales, thanks to my father. My favorite childhood story is one called Little Blue Ben. Haha - I think I still have it around here somewhere.
Aw, very cool. Here's a fun question: You're in a grocery store checkout line. What catches your eye? a) Gum! One can never have too much gum (plus it freshens your breath)!  b) Chapstick! I rarely wear lipstick, preferring the lovely moisturizing abilities of chapstick (Cherry Carmex is my fav). c) Coffee Crisp - only the best chocolate bar ever!! 
Any thoughts about author platforms or the ever-changing publishing world you'd like to share? Keep learning and find things that play on your strengths. I LOVE visuals, so I've really been spending a lot of time with Instagram. Is that right or wrong, I don't know, but if you feel like your platform is taking up all your time you probably need to scale back and pick the parts you love, because you'll shine!
Such heartfelt advice! <3 (Gosh, you have me all mushy... #blushes) One valuable piece of writerly advice you want to offer to aspiring writers. Patience. Patience. Patience. Everything takes time, from signing, to each round of edits, to cover reveals. Sometimes schedules change, people change, and even your release date can change. Just be patient. It's not you, it's just how the industry works.
Now for your beautiful book baby! What inspired you to write TOWS? When I got the idea for There Once Were Stars, I had just finished an episode of The Walking Dead. The season had ended and I was thinking about how much I loved that the series was character based, rather than fully focused on the zombies or virus. I started thinking of the last series I read, Divergent (I didn’t start reading until after Allegiant released), and how much I enjoyed its unique take on dystopian. My two favorite things … zombies and dystopian … and then my mind exploded with this image of Nat—a girl in a dystopian world—who watches the stars glitter along the glass of her dome covered city … and the rest is history.
I love the image that "...along the glass of her dome covered city..." creates. You mention Nat. What two super heroes adequately describe her? And what two villains adequately describe your main antagonist? Two - wow I don't know why that sounds so hard! How about part video game characters and part super heroes. My main character, Nat, is best described as a cross between Lara Croft from Tomb Raider and Alice from Resident Evil. It's not because she's an orphan or a clone (she's one but not the other), but it's because she doesn't want to get involved in trouble, but ends up choosing what's right. She didn't ask or go looking for trouble...it came for her. But my villian, (whose name I will leave out for spoiler reasons), is a definite Kingpin x 2 (Spiderman version, not Daredevil - before he became the family man).
Okay, so if that description doesn't get folks to rush out to buy the book and read I don't know what will. Wow! Speaking of which, let's show off your book.




THERE ONCE WERE STARS by Melanie McFarlane
Publisher: Month9Books Release Date: April 26, 2016
Description: Peace. Love. Order. Dome. That’s the motto that the Order has given the residents of Dome 1618 to live by. Natalia Greyes is a resident of Dome 1618, a covered city protected from the deadly radiation that has poisoned the world outside for four generations. Nat never questioned the Order, until one day she sees a stranger on the outside of the dome. Now Nat wants answers. Is there life outside the dome and if so, what has the Order been hiding from everyone?

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Thank you for sharing yourself with us, Melanie. All the best to you and your bright future! 
Want to know more about Melanie or keep in touch with her. Feel free to visit her at any of her social media sites:  Website | Blog | Twitter | Facebook | Tumblr | Pinterest | Instagram | YouTube | Goodreads

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YA in the Alleyway~MYSTIQUE by Shari Arnold & Giveaway!

YA in the Alleyway is my revised meme to give young adult literature the spotlight it deserves. It also gives YA authors the opportunity to share their signature with the world!  Feel free to join me any Wednesday. 
When I first heard about my next YA featured book, I thought the premise was so intriguing that I just had to share it with you. It's due out later this fall, so watch out for it. And as an added treat today, the author has stopped by to answer a few writerly questions.

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MYSTIQUE by Shari Arnold
Publisher: Month9Books Release Date: November 17, 2015 Genre: YA Paranormal
Description: Only Bauer Grant can pull off gorgeous while dead. But staying dead is another thing entirely. When he wakes up at his own funeral, the town of Mystique calls it a miracle, until it happens again. Something is bringing the residents of Mystique back to life, but what? Presley Caine finds herself caught up in the mystery when Bauer asks her to visit him. Presley can’t figure out why the most popular guy in school is so drawn to her. And when Bauer is kidnapped soon after, she looks to Bauer’s brooding best friend Sam, whose dad works for the powerful Mystique military base, for answers. In her quest to discover the truth, Presley’s relationship with Sam deepens, her feelings for Bauer are tested, and it becomes clear that her own mysterious past is somehow connected to these strange events. But is she strong enough to handle the truth when it is finally revealed?



Hi Shari! It's great to have you join us in the Alleyway. Tell the readers a little bit about yourself. We'd love to know more about you. I grew up in California and Utah. Met my husband while we were both attending photography school in Massachusetts and I now live in Connecticut. I take pictures of people and things and get rather bitey if I’m not creating something. 
What about a fun or unexpected fact about yourself? I was born on Christmas Eve and came home from the hospital wrapped in a red stocking.
The premise for your story is so cool. Where did the idea for MYSTIQUE come from? It was one of those moments when I was thinking about what hadn’t been done… MYSTIQUE was conjured and written back in 2009 when everything was vampires, werewolves and such and I didn’t want to go the zombie route. But I liked the idea of death being something you could conquer. 
Is there somewhat of a 'love' or 'romantic' triangle between your three leads? How important is that tension (or any tension) to this story and how did you create it?   I hate love triangles. They make me want to throw the book across the room. MYSTIQUE started as a romance between Presley and Bauer but then, when I was writing the first chapter, Bauer’s friend, Sam, appeared and suddenly I knew things weren’t going to go the way I’d planned. He stepped in and quickly made it known that something else was going on. I think in this instance it becomes pretty clear from the beginning that the “love triangle” is a bit different than usual.
I really appreciate the way you describe this. <3 the honesty! If you would, sum up MYSTIQUE in 140 characters or less. When what you wish for comes true and yet it’s not what you really wanted because there is something bigger happening. Plus magic and love.
Could you describe your writing process for this story? I have never been an outliner. I guess I’m more of a pantser. I have an idea page that I work from and add to consistently, but I brainstorm the story and create as I go.
What's your favorite writing snack? Junior mints. 
Ooh...Yum!
Recently, because of Easter, I have a large amount of Hershey Kisses so they are now taking up residence in the jar on my desk.
Lastly, what's the most valuable advice you've ever been given - per writing or life? On the back of my cell phone I had engraved: Faith = Wings 
It’s taken from the quote: “To have faith is to have wings” from J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan and Wendy. You must have faith in yourself. There are too many ready to throw defeat your way. And I truly believe that faith will give you wings. It holds you up when everything else is telling you to give in.
'There are too many ready to throw defeat your way....' I will never forget. Those are powerful words. Thank you so much for sharing them with us and all the best with your release!

About The Author

Shari Arnold grew up in California and Utah but now resides in Connecticut, with her husband and two kids, where she finds it difficult to trust a beach without waves. She writes Young Adult fiction because it's her favorite. And occasionally she takes photographs. Website | Twitter |Goodreads

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a Rafflecopter giveaway Readers, ever read a book about dead people? What about dead people who come back to life? Throw some titles at me. I love books like this! Uh...not sure what that says about me but... ;)

YA In The Alleyway~THE REQUIEM RED by Brynn Chapman & Giveaway

YA in the Alleyway is my revised meme to give young adult literature the spotlight it deserves. It also gives YA authors the opportunity to share their signature with the world! Feel free to join me any Wednesday. 

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As promised last week, I come to you today with a new young adult read! I became a fan of this author's work after reading her YA take on Sherlock Holmes daughter, Arabella, in BONESEEKER. I really enjoyed that book, and you can find my thoughts on it HERE if you're interested. On that note, here's a peek at her latest release.

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THE REQUIEM RED  by Brynn Chapman Publisher: Month9Books Released: April 5, 2016 Pages: 300
Description: Patient Twenty-nine.
A monster roams the halls of Soothing Hills Asylum. Three girls dead. 29 is endowed with the curse…or gift of perception. She hears messages in music, sees lyrics in paintings. And the corn. A lifetime asylum resident, the orchestral corn music is the only constant in her life.
Mason, a new, kind orderly, sees 29 as a woman, not a lunatic. And as his belief in her grows, so does her self- confidence. That perhaps she might escape, might see the outside world. 
But the monster has other plans. The missing girls share one common thread...each was twenty-nine's cell mate. 
Will she be next?

Born and raised in western Pennsylvania, Brynn Chapman is the daughter of two teachers. Her writing reflects her passions: science, history and love—not necessarily in that order. In real life, the geek gene runs strong in her family, as does the Asperger’s syndrome. Her writing reflects her experience as a pediatric therapist and her interactions with society’s downtrodden. In fiction, she’s a strong believer in underdogs and happily-ever-afters. She also writes non-fiction and lectures on the subjects of autism and sensory integration and is a medical contributor to online journal The Age of Autism.

She also writes under the pseudonym R.R. Smythe. Find her: 

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a Rafflecopter giveaway Are you into the spooky and creepy of an asylum? What books or movies have you read/viewed with this setting?