Giveaway: And the Trees Crept In & The Dead House

Happy Friday Everyone!

Yesterday I reviewed And The Trees Crept In, Dawn Kurtagich's newest YA horror/thriller novel, and to celebrate the release of that book I'm offering up a giveaway of both And the Trees Crept In and her previous novel, The Dead House. Dawn's writing style and the format of these books is super unusual and makes for quick reading, so I'm excited for more readers to give her a try!

Before we get to the giveaway though, the team at Little, Brown has put together a few teaser quotes from And the Trees Crept In so I wanted to share those to get you in the perfect creepy mood:) Hope everyone has a fantastic weekend!

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When Silla and Nori arrive at their aunt's home, it's immediately clear that the "blood manor" is cursed. The creaking of the house and the stillness of the woods surrounding them would be enough of a sign, but there are secrets too--the questions that Silla can't ignore: Who is the beautiful boy that's appeared from the woods? Who is the man that her little sister sees, but no one else? And why does it seem that, ever since they arrived, the trees have been creeping closer?

Over two decades have passed since the fire at Elmbridge High, an inferno that took the lives of three teenagers. Not much was known about the events leading up to the tragedy - only that one student, Carly Johnson, vanished without a trace...

...until a diary is found hidden in the ruins.

But the diary, badly scorched, does not belong to Carly Johnson. It belongs to Kaitlyn Johnson, a girl who shouldn't exist Who was Kaitlyn? Why did she come out only at night? What is her connection to Carly?

The case has been reopened. Police records are being reexamined: psychiatric reports, video footage, text messages, e-mails. And the diary.

The diary that paints a much more sinister version of events than was ever made publicly known.

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GIVEAWAY

Thanks to the team at NOVL/Little, Brown, I have a copy of The Dead House to give away to one lucky winner! I'll be adding a copy of And the Trees Crept In as well, so the winner will receive copies of both books. To enter, please fill out the Rafflecopter form below. Giveaway is open to US addresses only.



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Poet Anderson Blog Tour + Giveaway: Interview with Suzanne Young

Today I'm so pleased to have author Suzanne Young stopping by the blog to chat about Poet Anderson...Of Nightmares, a new novel she co-wrote with Tom DeLonge. Suzanne was nice enough to answer a few dream and nightmare-related questions for me, so I hope you guys enjoy the interview. I'm already shuddering in anticipation of the spider question. *dies* Be sure and check the bottom of the post too for all the details on a fabulous giveaway!

If you could take a walk through the Dream World and see into the dreams and nightmares of any fictional character, whose unconscious mind would you most want a peek into?

This is random, but I’m a fan of True Blood and the Sookie Stackhouse series. I would love to wander into Eric Northman’s dreams.

A Night Terror is fear that takes the form of a snarling beast. My personal Night Terror would also likely be crawling with spiders since they have me curling into the fetal position whenever I see one. What additional element might a Night Terror have if it were to reflect one of your personal phobias? 

WHAT DID I JUST READ?? I’m totally freaking over the spider comment. To be honest, I find spider crabs to be the most terrible things on the planet. So my Night Terror would have long, gross legs like that. *shudders*

What piece of advice might a Dream Walker have for me should I ever find myself facing one of the Dream World’s many nightmare-inducing creatures?

Uh, if it’s some spider concoction the Dream Walker would tell you to “RUN FAST!” He might also tell you conquer your fears before they destroy you.

While the Dream World is clearly full of many things dark and scary, what’s one thing about it that makes Jonas grateful he’s a Lucid Dreamer?

I think he’s grateful to feel like he’s in control of his own destiny. After losing his parents and his brother, his life is happening TO him. I think Lucid Dreaming is a way for him to be himself without the trauma of the outside world. He can be stronger than he is in the waking world. I think he finds comfort in that. 

If we were to ask the Jonas at the beginning of Poet Anderson…Of Nightmares his greatest fear, what would he say? The Jonas at the end?

On the car ride to Seattle, I think Jonas would have said that his greatest fear was disappointing Alan. But by the end, I think his fears are bigger than his brother. He’s scared that he won’t be able to save the world. Now he’s afraid of disappointing everyone.

Thanks so much Suzanne!

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POET ANDERSON...OF NIGHTMARES

Poet Anderson…Of Nightmares follows the epic journey of two orphan brothers, Jonas and Alan, who are Lucid Dreamers. After a tragic car accident lands Alan in a coma, Jonas sets out into the Dream World in an attempt to find his brother and wake him up. What he discovers instead is an entire shared consciousness where fear comes to life as a snarling beast called a Night Terror, and a creature named REM is bent on destruction and misery, devouring the souls of the strongest dreamers to get closer to the Waking World. With the help of a Dream Walker—a guardian of the dreamscape, Jonas must face his fears, save his brother, and become who he was always meant to be: Poet Anderson.

Goodreads | To The Stars | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Book Depository 

| Indiebound
 Animated Excerpt | Novel Teaser

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SUZANNE YOUNG

Suzanne Young is the New York Times bestselling author of The Program series. Originally from Utica, New York, Suzanne moved to Arizona to pursue her dream of not freezing to death. She is a novelist and an English teacher, but not always in that order. Suzanne is the author of THE PROGRAM, THE TREATMENT, THE REMEDY, and HOTEL RUBY.

Blog | Twitter @suzanne_young | Instagram @authorsuzanneyoung

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TOM DELONGE

Tom DeLonge is an award-winning American musician, producer and director best known as the lead vocalist, guitarist and songwriter for the platinum selling rock bands Blink-182 and Angels & Airwaves. His home is San Diego, where he focuses on creating entertainment properties that bridge music, narrative and film through his multimedia company To The Stars. For the full experience of Tom’s work, visit www.tothestars.media.

Facebook | Twitter @TomDeLonge | Instagram @TomDeLonge

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GIVEAWAY

 

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Trollhunters: Top of the Food Chain Giveaway!

Today in celebration of the fact that it's finally Friday, I have a very exciting giveaway (prizing provided by Disney-Hyperion) to share with you guys! Guillermo Del Toro, horror filmmaker extraordinaire, just released a young adult novel (along with Daniel Kraus) so I hope all you horror lovers out there add Trollhunters to your lists!

Before we get to the giveaway though, I have a sneak peek at a few of the interior pages from illustrator Sean Murray:

The look of pure terror on that kid's face? Would absolutely be mimicked on mine if I ever ran into that beast under a bridge. *shudders*

TROLLHUNTERS

"You are food. Those muscles you flex to walk, lift, and talk? They're patties of meat topped with chewy tendon. That skin you've paid so much attention to in mirrors? It's delicious to the right tongues, a casserole of succulent tissue. And those bones that give you the strength to make your way in the world? They rattle between teeth as the marrow is sucked down slobbering throats. These facts are unpleasant but useful. There are things out there, you see, that don't cower in holes to be captured by us and cooked over our fires. These things have their own ways of trapping their kills, their own fires, their own appetites."

Jim Sturges is your typical teen in suburban San Bernardino— one with an embarrassingly overprotective dad, a best friend named "Tubby" who shares his hatred of all things torturous (like gym class), and a crush on a girl who doesn't know he exists. But everything changes for Jim when a 45-year old mystery resurfaces, threatening the lives of everyone in his seemingly sleepy town. Soon Jim has to team up with a band of unlikely (and some un-human) heroes to battle the monsters he never knew existed.

From the minds of horror geniuses Guillermo del Toro and Daniel Kraus comes a new illustrated novel about the fears that move in unseen places.

Amazon • B&N • IndieBound • Goodreads

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THE CREATIVE TEAM

Guillermo del Toro is best known for his critically acclaimed feature films, such as Pan's Labyrinth, Helllboy, The Hobbit, and Pacific Rim, as well as his best-selling Strain Trilogy.

Daniel Kraus is the award-winning author of Scowler and Rotters, and is the director of six feature films. He lives with his wife in Chicago.

From Pan's Labyrinth to Hellboy to his best-selling novel The Strain, del Toro has captured the imagination through his works. His co-author Daniel Kraus is another award-winning author and filmmaker with a penchant for horror stories. Kraus' debut novel, The Monster Variations, was selected for New York Public Library's "100 Best Stuff for Teens." Fangoria called Rotters, his Bram Stoker-finalist and Odyssey Award-winning second novel, "a new horror classic." Kraus' 2013 title, Scowler, also won an Odyssey Award for best audiobook produced for children and/or young adults.

Sean Murray is an illustrator, concept artist, author and teacher known for his work on video games such as Dungeons & Dragons Online and The Lord of the Rings Online, as well as the creator of The World of Gateway, which includes his fantasy guidebook Gateway: The Book of Wizards and the upcoming card game Gateway Uprising.

***If by any chance you know someone attending San Diego Comic Con today, be sure and tell them to head to the Disney Worldwide booth (#1129) at 2:30 for a TROLLHUNTERS signing with Guillermo & Daniel!***

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GIVEAWAY

Thanks to generosity of the team at Disney-Hyperion, there is an epic prize pack up for grabs today. One lucky winner will receive a Top of the Food Chain Prize Pack, including:

• Branded Trollhunters zip-up hoodie and pins
• Candy bones
• A copy of Trollhunters

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Interview: Camille DeAngelis + Bones & All

Today I have the pleasure of welcoming author Camille DeAngelis to the blog to answer a few questions about her newest release, Bones & All. Bones & All is a slightly strange but intriguing tale of a teen cannibal, something I've never read about before, so I was excited to have a chance to pick Camille's brain (in a distinctly non-cannibalistic type of way, obviously). I hope you all enjoy the interview!

Maren is a highly unusual young woman given her desire to cannibalize anyone who shows her affection. If she had to describe herself to those who have yet to experience her story, what three words might she say are most fitting?

I'm sure Maren would employ the same words we'd all tend to use when journaling about ourselves at age sixteen, when the tempestuousness of our feelings magnifies every disappointment and every failure: words like trapped and hopeless and desperate. I have never eaten another person and I haven't been a teenager for a good fifteen years now, but I still recall those feelings of frustration and helplessness; and as disconcerting as it may sound, that was all I needed to write a good monster.

One of my recurring nightmares always involves getting eaten–mostly by sharks–but now thanks to this book, humans are joining the list ;-). What’s one thing you weren’t necessarily scared of before that a piece of fiction made absolutely terrifying?

I recently read Pet Sematary, which was my very first Stephen King novel—crazy, right??—and I kept putting myself in the little girl Ellie's shoes, having all these prescient nightmares in the days before my whole family falls apart. That novel made me afraid of evil, an ancient and completely unfightable kind of evil, precisely because the author nailed all the mundane domestic details. I would read a line of dialogue from one of his child characters—the breathless excitement and impatience, so perfectly captured—and think “even if I didn't already know this guy had kids, I'd know it from reading this book.” We're conditioned for stories in which good wins out in the end, so it chills you to the core to realize that the hero and his family really do not have a snowball's chance.

If you suddenly found yourself face to face with a cannibal bent on making you their next meal, what would the first words out of your mouth be to convince them otherwise?

Wouldn't you rather find someone with a bit more meat on them?

If you could choose one author, past or present, to write a retelling of Bones & All, whose version of this story would you most like to read?

Ooh, this is a great question! I'd have to say Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, the Anglo-Irish gothic writer best known for his story collection In a Glass Darkly. His vampire tale, “Carmilla,” predates Dracula by about twenty years, and I admire it partly for the lesbian undertones. It feels so ahead of its time. I like to think of Le Fanu as one of my literary godfathers (I can have more than one, right?), so it's only fitting that I should choose him. (You can read about Le Fanu's tragic real-life ghost story on my blog.)

http://www.cometparty.com/2009/11/yet-more-spookery/

What’s one thing about the way Maren’s story unfolds that, had a future version of you popped back in time to tell you about it once all was said and done, would have thoroughly shocked the you currently staring at a blank page?

At the Bones & All “click” moment—the everything-slotting-into-place epiphany that needs to happen pretty close to the start of a project—I was taking a shower and Maren began to talk to me, and I hurried out of the tub and started scribbling. But in that first exhilaration of a new story it did not occur to me that I wouldn't ultimately be able to provide Maren with some sort of redemption. Her curse isn't like an addiction—it can't be battled through and overcome. It is literally in her genetics.

Thanks so much for taking the time to answer my questions Camille!

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BONES & ALL

(available now from St. Martin's Press)

Maren Yearly doesn’t just break hearts, she devours them.

Since she was a baby, Maren has had what you might call "an issue" with affection. Anytime someone cares for her too much, she can’t seem to stop herself from eating them. Abandoned by her mother at the age of 16, Maren goes looking for the father she has never known, but finds more than she bargained for along the way.

Faced with love, fellow eaters, and enemies for the first time in her life, Maren realizes she isn’t just looking for her father, she is looking for herself. The real question is, will she like the girl she finds?

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CAMILLE DeANGELIS

Camille DeAngelis is the author of Bones & All (St. Martin’s, 2015), Petty Magic: Being the Memoirs and Confessions of Miss Evelyn Harbinger, Temptress and Troublemaker (Crown, 2010), and Mary Modern (Crown/Shaye Areheart, 2007), as well as a first-edition guidebook, Moon Ireland (Avalon, 2007). She is a graduate of New York University (B.A. in Fine Arts, minor in Irish Studies, 2002) and the National University of Ireland, Galway (M.A. in Writing, 2005). Her fourth novel, tentatively titled Immaculate Heart, will be published by St. Martin’s Press in 2016. She is a board member of the Writers’ Room of Boston.

A longtime vegetarian, she went vegan in April 2011, and in June 2013 became a certified vegan lifestyle coach and educator through Victoria Moran’s Main Street Vegan® Academy. She is also planning to receive her yoga teacher training in 2015.

Originally from New Jersey, Camille now lives in Somerville, Massachusetts.

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Review: The Girl from the Well

THE GIRL FROM THE WELL
Rin Chupeco
Paranormal Young Adult
272 pages
Sourcebooks Fire
Available August 5th
Source: ARC from publisher for review

THE STORY (from Amazon)
I am where dead children go.

Okiku is a lonely soul. She has wandered the world for centuries, freeing the spirits of the murdered-dead. Once a victim herself, she now takes the lives of killers with the vengeance they're due. But releasing innocent ghosts from their ethereal tethers does not bring Okiku peace. Still she drifts on.

 Such is her existence, until she meets Tark. Evil writhes beneath the moody teen's skin, trapped by a series of intricate tattoos. While his neighbors fear him, Okiku knows the boy is not a monster. Tark needs to be freed from the malevolence that clings to him. There's just one problem: if the demon dies, so does its host.

MY THOUGHTS
A darkly unusual story, The Girl from the Well has us acting as cheerleaders throughout for a truly horrifying and vengeful spirit as she kills her victims in the most nightmare-inducing way possible. To go along with a tale that is both fascinating and off-putting is a rather unique format, one that includes sporadically placed indentations, one-word lines and various parenthetical asides that include numbers thanks to our ghostly narrator's mild obsession with counting. Okiku is a seemingly omniscient narrator (though being completely clueless as to official point of view definitions, I have no idea if this is in fact an omniscient POV), able to travel back and forth between a number of different characters and share with us their thoughts and feelings while occasionally jumping in with an “I” or “me” to remind us of her presence.

Okiku, given she's been wandering the earth for hundreds of years freeing the spirits of dead children from the shackles binding them to their murderers, is extraordinarily detached from the world itself, refusing for majority of the book to refer to anyone by name, instead calling them “the tattooed boy” or “the girl” when letting us know which character she happens to be following. As a result, we too are a touch detached from the story with the exception of the fervent hatred we feel when it comes to her victims, making the moments when she tortures and kills them, however terrifying, the times we feel most engaged in the story. Those who began this tale with no particular feelings towards dolls, mirrors, bathrooms or ceilings will likely find themselves looking at each with new eyes after reading, glancing at them with no shortage of wariness or fear while hoping against hope that we won't catch anything moving out of the corner of our eyes.

Okiku's journey with Tark (the tattooed boy) and his cousin Callie (the girl) is a bit of a wandering one, moving forward quickly and easily but also bouncing us around from one crime scene to the next before moving us to Japan and immersing us in their numerous ghost stories and demonic legends. Though we never find ourselves emotionally attached to either Tark or Callie, Okiku's ability to be both protector and executioner keeps us riveted throughout, tense up to the very last page as we wonder if she'll be able to free Tark from his complicated demonic bindings. Those readers looking for something a little different–and a whole lot unnerving–will likely find themselves easily swept up in Okiku's bloody freedom mission, the story itself strongly unique enough to overcome a (likely intentional) lack of character intimacy.

Rating: 3.5/5

Find Rin:

Website • Twitter • Goodreads • Amazon

This book was sent to me by the publisher free of charge for the purpose of a review. 

I received no other compensation and the above is my honest opinion.

Review + Giveaway: The Violet Hour

THE VIOLET HOUR
Violet Hour #1
Whitney A. Miller
Young Adult/Thriller/Horror
312 pages
Flux
Available Now
Source: ARC from author for review

THE STORY (from Goodreads)
Some call VisionCrest the pinnacle of religious enlightenment. 

Others call it a powerful cult. 

For seventeen years, Harlow Wintergreen has called it her life.

As the daughter of VisionCrest's patriarch, Harlow is expected to be perfect at all times. She must be considered a paragon of integrity by the other Ministry teens and a future leader in the eyes of the world.

Despite the constant scrutiny Harlow is keeping a dark and dangerous secret, even from her best friend and the boy she loves. She hears a voice in her head that seems to have a mind of its own, plaguing her with violent and bloody visions. It commands her to kill. And the urge to obey is getting harder and harder to control....

MY THOUGHTS
The Violet Hour is a haunting story, the kind that terrifies on multiple levels due to some graphically detailed visions and an ending that has us wanting to wrap our reality up in a bear hug and thank it for being nothing like Harlow’s world. Though Harlow’s visions are not for the faint of heart or the extraordinarily squeamish, those who fall into that category (like myself) will still find themselves riveted while being simultaneously horrified, the strength of Ms. Miller’s characters anchoring us to the story even as we strongly consider curling up into a fetal ball and rocking. This story is not all horror however, the heart of it revolving around Harlow and the relationships she has to those closest to her, and it’s these bonds that have us flipping the pages, fully engaged and emotionally invested from beginning to end.

Harlow is an ideal young adult heroine, someone who handles her uncontrollable visions of gore and death with a strength we’re quite positive we'll never possess. Her relationship with best friend Dora is an absolute delight, the connection between the two of them full of humor, inside jokes, and genuine, unwavering support for each other, surprising us by making us smile amidst the truly terrifying backdrop of Harlow’s visions. There’s no cattiness between them, and the lines of communication are open almost all the time–secrets something that are reserved for lesser friendships–and we can’t help but be thankful for a friendship that plays as vital a role in the story as the romance.

The relationship between Harlow and longtime friend Adam is one of the highlights of the story, the history between them making the new distance Adam has recently put in place when we come into this tale all the more painful, our hearts immediately going out to Harlow as she struggles to understand why what used to be so close is now suddenly so far away. What makes us fall madly in love with Harlow however is the way she handles herself when the situation with Adam gets particularly difficult, never allowing his deliberate barbs to hit their mark without letting him know they’ve done so. She neither simply accepts the hostility thrown her way nor stoops to his level by returning fire, instead she lets him see her hurt even as she begins strapping on armor to protect herself from future blows. Despite his harshness with Harlow, Adam is not unlikable in the least as it’s very clear to us something huge happened to him to cause this shift in their relationship, and we read with breath held waiting for the moment when he'll let us know what he's been hiding.

Though there is a romance present, the limelight remains with the mystery of Harlow’s gruesome (and slightly traumatizing) visions, goosebumps and shivers as prevalent while reading as the warmth we feel toward Harlow herself. Things take an increasingly strange turn as the story progresses, the why’s and how’s of certain aspects not entirely clear as we reach the end of this first installment, but a revelation in the very last chapter has our questions fading to the background in the face of a pivotal final twist. Those who hate cliffhangers should be aware going in of this epic turn of events–making the release date for book two seem impossibly far away–but overall The Violet Hour is dark and gritty yet also beautifully emotional, and I can’t wait for more from Ms. Miller.

Rating: 4/5
 

Find Whitney:

Website • Facebook • Twitter • Amazon • Goodreads

 

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GIVEAWAY

Thanks to Whitney I have a $20 Amazon gift card to give away on the blog today! To enter, please just fill out the Rafflecopter form below.

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Interview: J.L. Bryan + The Unseen

I'm excited (and a little scared) today to welcome author J.L. Bryan back to the blog to answer a few questions about his newest paranormal release, The Unseen. I have no doubt this book would absolutely terrify me (just look at how gorgeously creepy that cover is!) so I told J.L. my extreme wimpiness would prevent me from reading it, but I like to think he'll eventually forgive me for chickening out so spectacularly. At least I hope so anyway ;-) I'm always happy to have him on the blog though, so I hope you all enjoy the interview!

The Unseen deals with a demonic cult and sounds truly frightening. What’s one scene from another piece of fiction that made you want to look behind you just to check and see if anything was there?

The scariest thing I think I’ve read was Pet Sematary by Stephen King. I read that when I was about nine. The scenes with the cat, Church, after he came back from the grave were extremely scary and gave me nightmares. I’m not sure that cat ever actually did anything, he just kind of hung around being creepy and wrong. The main character was the only one who knew the cat had died and crawled back out of its grave, and he grew scared to be in the same house with the cat, to turn his back on the cat, to sleep while the cat was around. It was so effective because the cat never did much, but managed to be extremely scary and was always just there, being quietly menacing.

If you and Cassidy were spending the night in a place rumored to be haunted, which one of you would be the first to scare?

The would definitely be me! Cassidy is more accustomed to seeing evil things nobody else can see. I, on the other hand, can be scared by a closed shower curtain or a strange sound in the attic.

You wake up late at night after a particularly bad nightmare and hear strange whispers in the room with you. What’s the first thing you do?

You know, something like this actually happened. My wife and I were staying at a friend’s house, which was a very old rental house in a college town—there’s no telling how many people have lived there or what has happened there over the years. So we were lying there in the dark, almost asleep, and we heard a deep male voice say directly into our ears something like “Shoo, shoo, shoo.” Like something you’d say to get rid of a pesky animal. We naturally both looked around and didn’t see anything. My wife asked, “Did you hear something?” and I said “Yes.” We didn’t dare talk about it again until the next day, because talking about it would only make it more real and scary—but comparing notes, we found we’d both had the exact same experience at the same moment. We didn’t tell our friends about it until after they moved out of that house. They say they never experienced anything, but they were remarkably not interested in hearing any details.

If The Unseen were made into a movie, how many times do you estimate the audience would jump in their seats?

I have no idea, but I think it would happen early, in the Ouija board scene in chapter one (which is kind of a prologue). I’ve always been fascinated by Ouija boards and I don’t think we’ve heard much about them since the 1970’s and 1980’s, when they were a big deal. Maybe they’ll make a comeback!

If Cassidy could seek help from one of the characters from your other books, whom would she most want to come to her aid?

I suppose the Jenny Pox characters wouldn’t be too much help, since their powers seem to affect the physical world, while Cassidy is dealing with threats from the nonphysical world. Only Esmeralda, the one who can speak to the dead, might be particularly useful. She’d probably get more help from some of the magic-using characters in the Songs of Magic series, maybe one of the wise old fairies, or possibly Grizlemor the goblin, who could probably chase away evil spirits through sheer force of crankiness.

Cassidy is a tattoo artist. What is the scariest and/or funniest tattoo she’s ever done?

She has some latent powers that are expressed through her art and begin to come alive during the story. At one point, she draws a tattoo of a Picasso-style eye on a customer’s arm, and he comes back fairly terrified because he can see out of his eye tattoo, as if there’s a real eye on his arm. I think that’s both funny and scary.

Let’s say promotional posters or postcards are being designed to promote the release of The Unseen, but the design is strictly limited to tattoos only. What does one of the tattoos look like?

They would probably reflect Cassidy’s own tattoos. She’s drawn to poisonous plants like belladonna and hemlock, which also reflect her own occult nature that she gradually learns about during this story. Another possibility would be something on the demonic side, maybe a thirteen-point star decorated with Sumerian writing.

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THE UNSEEN

Cassidy is a young tattoo artist living in the Little Five Points neighborhood of Atlanta. She’s always suffered terrible nightmares, and sometimes the hideous creatures seem to follow her out of her dreams and into her waking life, though she’s the only one who can see them. Drugs and alcohol can blot them out, but never entirely chase them away.

When a demonic cult begins to take control of the people in her life, including her younger brother, Cassidy discovers that the unseen world of monsters is very real. She can no longer avoid it. To protect those she loves, she must accept her own hidden supernatural talents and face the forces of evil before the sinister cult achieves its twisted goals and casts the world into darkness.

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J.L. BRYAN

J.L. Bryan studied English literature at the University of Georgia and at Oxford, with a focus on the English Renaissance and the Romantic period. He also studied screenwriting at UCLA. He enjoys remixing elements of paranormal, supernatural, fantasy, horror and science fiction into new kinds of stories.

He is the author of The Paranormals series of horror novels (Jenny Pox, Tommy Nightmare, and Alexander Death) the Songs of Magic series for younger readers (Fairy Metal Thunder, Fairy Blues, and Fairystruck...so far) and other books. He lives in Atlanta with his wife Christina, their son, and some dogs and cats.

Website • Blog • Facebook • Twitter

Guest Post: Derek Taylor Kent and Scary School

Today Derek the Ghost is taking over Supernatural Snark (seems kind of fitting I think) to talk to us a little bit about the road to publication for his middle grade horror/comedy series. The first book is available now with the second book in the series, Scary School: Monsters on the March, releasing June 26th from HarperCollins. Take it away Derek!

THE SCARY PATH TO A BOOK DEAL

My name is Derek Taylor Kent (AKA Derek the Ghost). I recently received a three-book deal for my YA horror-comedy series Scary School, which came out June 21, 2011 (scaryschool.com). How this came to be is a bit of a horror-comedy itself.

March 1994. At the age of 15, I undertake writing an epic illustrated fantasy series. It’s an ill-conceived cross between Dr. Seuss and Lord of the Rings, but I spend six long years trying to get it published. Nothing ever comes of it.

April 2005. Painfully abandoning the illustrated book series and inspired by Harry Potter, I spend a year writing my first novel: Scary School, Book 1: My Homework Ate my Dog. After completing the first draft, I submit it to a few agents and publishers. All rejections.

Confused, I gave the manuscript to readers. I receive notes that suggest a heavy rewrite. Reluctantly, I spend months doing exhaustive rewrites, but I had to admit the book was greatly improved.

Early 2007. I feel the book is ready to submit once again. But I had a relentless day job and my spare time was filled with other projects. My Homework Ate My Dog goes on the backburner.

Another year passes.

July 2008. There’s a brief window of time off from my day job. I decide that it’s time to go full-out toward finding an agent or a publisher. If it doesn’t happen, it will probably be the end of my YA writing aspirations.

The task before me is daunting. I have the Guide to Literary Agents and the Children’s Marketplace books. It would take me a year to reach out to every agent and publisher, and I only have a window of a couple weeks. So, I hire an assistant. His job is to send out packages to every single YA lit agent in America. I spend my time focusing on online querying.

Responses start coming in. I’m getting bites. About one in every ten I sent out is asking to read my manuscript or sample chapters. Most are rejections, but if you have a 10% positive response rate to your query, you know that you probably have something good.

August 2008. Eric Myers from the Joe Spieler Agency requests sample chapters. A week later he requests the complete manuscript. On September 20, 2008, Eric Myers is my agent. He is very enthusiastic and has a great track record.

December 2008. Every publisher my agent has submitted to has passed.

The only glimmer of hope is from a junior editor at HarperCollins who says that she “really likes my writing and the humor of the book, but what I was expecting from a book called Scary School: My Homework Ate My Dog was not what I got. I was hoping for a light, funny book about a Scary School for a young audience.”

She was exactly right. My title was screaming: silly/funny book for 8-year-olds, but I had given her a darker Harry Potter fit for 12-year-olds.

The editor concluded with: “I do feel there is a market for a Scary School book series for a younger audience should he feel inclined to write it.”

There it was. A bite from a publisher. The only problem was my “bite” felt like an orca whale. I’d have to write a whole new book for her, and I’d have to write it fast so she didn’t forget about me or buy another book in the same genre.

I sequester myself and complete the first draft of a new book series, just called Scary School.

The first draft is done by January 2009. I send it to my agent. He’s a little shocked that it’s not a linear story like My Homework Ate my Dog, but we agree to send it to HarperCollins as is.

March 2009. The junior editor writes back: “This is exactly what I was hoping for. I love it! I think we really have something here!”

A few weeks later HarperCollins offers me a three-book deal for Scary School.

I dance around my apartment and weep with joy.

The advance is not enough to quit my day job, but it’s enough to create a website, hire a publicist, and print thousands of Scary School T-shirts.

As I write this, I am exactly one week away from the Scary School release date on June 21, 2011. I had to wait another two years before it was scheduled for release.

It was agony.

Over that time I have self-published what is now called Rudy and the Beast: My Homework Ate My Dog! There’s still an issue with the title, but I won’t surrender it. I also self-published an illustrated book called Simon and the Solar System.

This year, I finished a new YA novel called Principal Mikey about a kid who becomes principal of his school. I think it’s my most well-written novel and is absolutely hilarious.

No bites so far.

Thanks for stopping by Derek! More information on Derek and the Scary School series can be found here:

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SCARY SCHOOL

You think your school's scary?

Get a load of these teachers:

"Ms. Fang," an 850-year-old vampire
"Dr. Dragonbreath," who just might eat you before recess
"Mr. Snakeskin"--science class is so much more fun when it's taught by someone who's half zombie
"Mrs. T"--break the rules and spend your detention with a hungry "Tyrannosaurus rex"

Plus

Gargoyles, goblins, and Frankenstein's monster on the loose
The world's most frighteningly delicious school lunch

And

The narrator's an eleven-year-old ghost

Join Charles "New Kid" Nukid as he makes some very Scary friends--including Petunia, Johnny, and Peter the Wolf--and figures out that Scary School can be just as funny as it is spooky.