Chicks Writing Rocking YA: September 2013

To Know Me
by Marcy Blesy
Published: August 21, 2013
Available: Amazon

Synopsis:
To know me is to die...

Seventeen-year-old Mae is convinced that the consequences of her poor decisions have caused the untimely deaths of her dad, sister Laura, and grandma who all die within a year, no matter how ludicrous her thoughts seem to those she loves. The solution? Run away so no one else she cares for gets hurt (even if she has to keep a GPS tracker on her phone at all times).

Desperate to earn her diploma and salvage something of her life, she transfers schools when people get too close. After switching to Woodson Prep with only two months to go until graduation, Mae keeps her goals in sight. But when she meets Ty, the "perfect boy" with his own secrets and a relentless interest in Mae, she must decide if she can stop running from the past and still protect those she loves.

Excerpt:
To know me is to die. I mean, to really know me, like when you know I can run for hours without so much as a water break, or that cinnamon sugar doughnuts are my weakness, or that my dad gave me a whole different name. But I don’t let people get that close. I’ve learned the hard way. Too many people die in my life. Grandma said I was only unlucky.

“It’s not your fault all those people you love die. It’s just bad luck that you’ve had to deal with grief so young. Not fair at all,” she’d said. That was right before she died on my seventeenth birthday and right after my sister Laura, my dad, and my dog Petie.

I direct Mom Number 4 toward the front door of the high school. I always get a new mom when I transfer schools. I have yet to find a school that allows a seventeen-year-old to register herself. I wanted to graduate in Ohio, but too many people started asking questions. They weren’t important questions. Just stuff like, “How come I can’t ever come over to your house?” or “Why won’t you ever talk about yourself?” or when I do, “That’s not what you told so-and-so.” I had to leave. To let people into my life isn’t an option anymore. But, there’re no worries anyone will start to ask questions here. It’s already March. That diploma is as good as mine. Then I can enroll in online college and try to salvage something of my pathetic life.

Author Bio:

I am a former elementary school teacher and currently run an elementary library which is the perfect job for my interests.

In October 2010 I had an essay published in Chicken Soup for the Soul: Devotional Stories For Mothers. Another essay will be published in November 2013 in Chicken Soup for the Soul: Just Us Girls.

In 2012 my debut picture book was released by Bronze Man Books. Am I Like My Daddy? follows the journey of a child who seeks to learn if she is anything like the dad who died when she was young.

My middle grade novel, Confessions of a Corn Kid, as well a YA short story trilogy, The Lexie and Rhett Chronicles, and To Know Me, were released direct to kindle in 2013.

I am a great eavesdropper and person profiler which proves a fabulous advantage for a writer. As my favorite shirt says, Be careful or you’ll end up in my novel.

Author Links
Website / Goodreads / Twitter

GIVEAWAY:
2 e-book copies of To Know Me (mobi) (US)
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Sliding Beneath the Surface (The St. Augustine Trilogy, Book 1)
Author: Doug Dillon
Release Date: August 24, 2011
Genre: YA Paranormal

Hello St. Augustine Fans! Let’s not forget the YA Paranormal Fans! For five days, the Kindle version will be available FOR FREE on Amazon—a special promotion, September 4th - 8th. Help spread the word and tell everyone you know! Click here to get your copy today — Sliding Beneath the Surface.

The Spirit of St. Augustine

Have you ever been to St. Augustine, Florida, America’s oldest city? To me, it’s a magical place, just bubbling with the spirits of bygone days. This is especially true at Christmas when the historical district is ablaze with tiny white lights. The Nights of Lights, they call the time from December through January.

It isn’t just the beautiful old buildings, some from the time of the Spanish, that has captured my soul. No, it’s also the ghostly presences arising out of that past that seem to tap you on shoulder, a few even of Native American origins from thousands of years ago.

Oh, yes! Ghost stories abound in this ancient location, as do the ghost tours. By day and by night, guides will walk with you, transport you by tram or hearse, and even take you aboard a sailing ship while telling their tales.

As a former history teacher and writer well experienced in the paranormal, you can see how St. Augustine might hold some appeal for me. But it’s much more than that if you want to know the truth. Seems at times as if that old city is using me to channel its innermost essence. Can I explain what I mean by that exactly? No, not really. Words are often a poor substitute for a felt sense.

What I can tell you is this. I’ve spent weeks on end in St. Augustine, haunting its ancient streets and buildings, doing endless research in the city’s historical society and talking with people—even homeless folks. And the more I do this, the more I know I made the right choice in selecting St. Augustine as the central location for my young adult, paranormal/historical series that I’ve titled, The St. Augustine Trilogy.

In the process, what I also know is that there are no coincidences. My connection to this old city and writing about it in the trilogy was definitely meant to be. What was also meant to be is the linkage now being established between St. Augustine and readers of my series. This includes the wonderful relationship I have established with Julia Hendrix, my friend and assistant who hails from Tulsa, Oklahoma. I live just north of Orlando.

You see, as I continue to study the paranormal in general, I increasingly perceive reality as endless layers within layers. And when I’m in St. Augustine, it’s as if the city hold a lens up to me so I can look deeper into the nature of existence and the connectivity my work holds for readers. That’s why on the cover of Book I of the trilogy, Sliding Beneath the Surface, I show a picture of an exquisite Chinese puzzle ball with all those multiple layers carved beneath its surface.

What an incredible journey I’m having. Thank you so much for being part of it.
— Doug Dillon

SYNOPSIS
In old St. Augustine, Florida, fifteen-year-old Jeff Golden’s recurring dream of being stabbed in the chest and bleeding all over his bed is driving him crazy. It’s causing him to lose sleep and giving him severe headaches. When his psychically gifted friend Carla and an ornery Native American shaman named Lobo try to help, Jeff is inundated with terrifying paranormal experiences.

Reaching out of Florida’s distant past, something increasingly entangles Jeff in tentacles of danger that threaten his sanity and eventually his life. But the harder he tries to understand, the deeper he gets. When comprehension finally dawns though, time has almost run out. Lobo does his best to prepare Jeff for what he must face in order to survive but it may be too little and too late.

It’s at this point that both Jeff and Carla find themselves swept headlong into an alternative reality from which they may never return. If they don’t quickly and fully adapt to this situation, all hope is lost. From Lobo they know how it might be possible to change what is happening but the question is, can they? Repeatedly, Lobo has told both teens, “You create your own reality whether in this world or in another.” If acted upon properly, that advice just might save their lives and end suffering on an even wider scale.

AUTHOR BIO
A former award winning educator, Doug writes about things paranormal and historical. His interest in the paranormal comes from personal experiences as detailed in the nonfiction adult book he and wife wrote titled, An Explosion of Being: An American Family's Journey into the Psychic. Out of those events and extensive historical research, he then created Sliding Beneath the Surface for young adults, Book I of the St. Augustine Trilogy. Doug set his trilogy in the oldest and most haunted city in the United States, St. Augustine, Florida. Books II and III of the trilogy are on the way.