RITA ® Award-Winning Author of Fantasy Romance
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I’m over at Word Whores today, where I punted and gave the ball to the lovely and talented Laura Bickle, who tells us how to make a story scary. AND I’m giving away a copy of her excellent – and very scary! – book, THE HALLOWED ONES.
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So today is the much-anticipated and exciting event! THE HALLOWED ONES, by my good friend and CP, Laura Bickle, is out in the world! Here’s her official summary, plus some enticing blurbs:
The Hallowed Ones
If your home was the last safe place on earth, would you let a stranger in?
Katie is on the verge of her Rumspringa, the time in Amish life when teenagers are free to experience non-Amish culture before officially joining the church. But before Rumspringa arrives, Katie’s safe world starts to crumble. It begins with a fiery helicopter crash in the cornfields, followed by rumors of massive unrest and the disappearance of huge numbers of people all over the world. Something is out there…and it is making a killing.
Unsure why they haven’t yet been attacked, the Amish Elders make a decree: no one goes outside their community, and no one is allowed in. But when Katie finds a gravely injured young man lying just outside the boundary of their land, she can’t leave him to die. She refuses to submit to the Elders’ rule and secretly brings the stranger into her community—but what else is she bringing in with him?
“This is a book to make you fear the shadows–a horrifying and gruesome tale of faith, and things that blink red eyes in the night. I began reading in the daylight, and read on into the late hours, leaning close, biting my lip. I could not look away; I was obsessed. Katie is an unbreakable soul.” –Lauren DeStefano, New York Times Bestselling author of the Chemical Garden Trilogy
“What an eerily believable, unique story! I can’t stop thinking about it—or shivering.” —Melissa Marr, New York Times best-selling author of the Wicked Lovely series
“Readers will find it hard to put down this suspenseful, scary, compulsively readable adventure…” –Kirkus Reviews
It bums me out that poor Katie never got to go on her Rumspringa. So I thought maybe my own dirty girls could show her a bit of a good time!
It’s nice for a good Amish girl to flirt with a bit of vanity and get the first pedicure of her life.
And a manicure. She might even have gotten some sparkly jewels on her nails!
Out to lunch in Santa Fe, with wine and some other wild girls.
Plus a special trip to Minneapolis to visit some shirtless mens!
Katie really wanted to see a movie, so we took her to see The Avengers. Plenty of man-candy plus inspiration for her own super-hero exploits to come!
You know what they’re saying, don’t you?
Yes! You will *love* this book!
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A big shout-out today to former, much-missed Word Whore, Laura Bickle on her Tuesday release of THE HALLOWED ONES! This one is YA, which is why she left the slutty boudoir. It’s also totally and completely awesome. So excited to see this hit the world.
I’m over at the Word Whores blog today, talking about what has surprised me about being an author.
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Big news today! One of my favorite people, whose writing I also just love – which makes for serendipity all around, because these two things don’t always come together – has a Big Announceament! (Yes, I always hear that in my head as in the Legally Blonde musical. This man is gay AND European!)
Ahem.
So, Laura announced yesterday that she’s signed a two-book deal for her new Young Adult series!!
Let the hooting and rejoicing begin!
The first book is called The Hallowed Ones. The official spiel is: pitched as “Witness” meets “28 Days Later” in which an Amish girl must protect her family from a violent contagion, even as fear and denial threaten to erode her community from within.
I can add that for an image for this post, I looked for a good one of a raven in a denuded field, since we don’t have a cover yet. I really need to get out and snap some corvid pics. It’s a great story and I’m proud to say I was there for the initial brainstorming. In fact, I don’t think it’s going too far to say this story was totally my idea. Maybe even 95% my idea. I mean, sure, Laura came up with a few things here and there. Well, and then she spent all that time actually writing it – but really, I think this could totally be all about me.
Don’t you all agree? Yeah, I totally thought so.
At any rate, for the writers out there, Laura’s agent is the ever-charming Becca Stumpf at Prospect Literary Agency. She sold the books to Graphia, the YA imprint at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, for a very decent advance on the two books.
SO exciting!
Congratulations Laura!
