Welcome Today's Featured Author
Marina McAtee!!!
Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things
(Dead Things Series Book 1)
Synopsis:
17
year old Ember Denning has made an art of isolating herself. She
prefers the dead. She spends her days skipping school in old cemeteries
and her nights hiding from her alcoholic father at the funeral home
where she works. When her own father dies, Ember learns her whole life
is a lie. Standing in the cemetery that’s been her sanctuary, she’s
threatened by the most beautiful boy she’s ever seen and rescued by two
people who claim to be her family. They say she’s special, that she has a
supernatural gift like them…they just don’t know exactly what it is.
They take her to a small Florida town, where Ember’s life takes a turn for the weird. She’s living with her reaper cousins, an orphaned werewolf pack, a faery and a human genius. Ember’s powers are growing stronger, morphing into something bigger than anything anybody anticipated. Ember has questions but nobody has answers. Nobody knows what she is. They only know her mysterious magical gift is trying to kill them and that beautiful dangerous boy from the cemetery may be the only thing standing between her and death.
As Ember’s talents are revealed so are the secrets her father hid and those in power who would seek to destroy her. What’s worse, saving Ember has put her cousins in danger and turned her friend’s lives upside down. Ember must learn to embrace her magic or risk losing the family she’s pieced together.
They take her to a small Florida town, where Ember’s life takes a turn for the weird. She’s living with her reaper cousins, an orphaned werewolf pack, a faery and a human genius. Ember’s powers are growing stronger, morphing into something bigger than anything anybody anticipated. Ember has questions but nobody has answers. Nobody knows what she is. They only know her mysterious magical gift is trying to kill them and that beautiful dangerous boy from the cemetery may be the only thing standing between her and death.
As Ember’s talents are revealed so are the secrets her father hid and those in power who would seek to destroy her. What’s worse, saving Ember has put her cousins in danger and turned her friend’s lives upside down. Ember must learn to embrace her magic or risk losing the family she’s pieced together.
Dark Dreams and Dead Things
Synopsis:
17-year-old
November Lonergan spent her whole life feeling like an outsider; like
she was different. She was right. She’s a reaper like her mother; like
her two cousins, Kai and Tristin. The supernatural world believes they
are part of a prophecy to save them from an evil known as the Grove.
Ember just wants to survive high school and fix the fallout from
bringing back her friend.
Old enemies are lurking; waiting for their opportunity to strike but the pack has a new problem. A group of legendary hunters has resurfaced, threatening the reapers and anybody who stands with them. They are making good on their threats too; attacking those closest to the pack.
Their only hope of defeating the Legionaries involves trusting a stranger to perform a dangerous spell to advance Ember and her cousin’s powers. But Ember has a secret; a secret she can’t tell the pack. One that leaves the pack vulnerable.
An attack on pack allies, leaves one member of the group injured and another missing, along with a mysterious girl named Evangeline who may play a bigger part in this than any of them realize. As the Legionaries are closing in, the pack must trust their enemies, enter hostile territories, and play a dangerous game of cat and mouse with a psychopath. Their entire plan lynches on a dangerous bargain, but rescuing one member of the pack could mean losing another in their place…possibly forever.
Old enemies are lurking; waiting for their opportunity to strike but the pack has a new problem. A group of legendary hunters has resurfaced, threatening the reapers and anybody who stands with them. They are making good on their threats too; attacking those closest to the pack.
Their only hope of defeating the Legionaries involves trusting a stranger to perform a dangerous spell to advance Ember and her cousin’s powers. But Ember has a secret; a secret she can’t tell the pack. One that leaves the pack vulnerable.
An attack on pack allies, leaves one member of the group injured and another missing, along with a mysterious girl named Evangeline who may play a bigger part in this than any of them realize. As the Legionaries are closing in, the pack must trust their enemies, enter hostile territories, and play a dangerous game of cat and mouse with a psychopath. Their entire plan lynches on a dangerous bargain, but rescuing one member of the pack could mean losing another in their place…possibly forever.
About Martina McAtee:
Martina
McAtee lives in Jupiter, Florida with her teenage daughters, her best
friend, two attack Chihuahua’s and two shady looking cats. By day she is
a registered nurse but by night she writes young adult books about
reapers, zombies, werewolves and other supernatural creatures. She wrote
her first story when she was five with an orange crayon on a legal pad
she stole from her mom’s office. She’s been writing ever since. Her
influences include Christopher Pike, R.L. Stine, Joss Whedon, L.J. Smith
and even J.K. Rowling. Living in South Florida provides her with plenty
of material for the weird worlds she writes about. When she isn’t
working, teaching or writing she’s reading or watching shows involving
reapers, zombies, werewolves and other supernatural creatures.
Interview With Martina McAtee:
1. Can you tell us a little about your books?
I
write really long, really snarky YA paranormal romances about reapers,
shifters, witches, fae and any other supernatural creature you could
imagine. There is an underlying thread of Celtic mythology in my books
but I so grossly bastardize the mythology for my own personal needs that
I hesitate to even call it mythology based.
2. When did you know you wanted to write a book?
Long answer: I was always writing. I don't actually remember a time in my life when I wasn't creating stories. My first book, Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things
was a story idea I had kicking around for almost six years before I
pulled the trigger. I was in the process of writing it four years ago
when my hard drive crashed and I lost almost 200 pages. I was so
depressed, I didn't try writing it again until National Novel Writing
Month in 2014. That's when I created my rough draft of book one. Even
then, I still wasn't sure I was going to publish it but I finally gave
in and just did it. Short answer: 2014
3. Do you work with an outline or just write?
With
book one, I started with a beginning and an end and just let everything
else happen as it played out in my head, it took two months to produce a
rough draft. Book two, I created an outline of sorts, I gave myself a
synopsis to work from it took me ten months to write. I think that
safely confirms that I am definitely not a plotter. I find it stifling.
For book three, I'm going to go back to following my bliss and just see
what happens.
4. Do you have a favorite spot to write?
I
can write just about anywhere but I prefer my office because I can cart
my giant soft grey blanket with me and wrap myself in it while I write.
I'm like Linus; if I'm home, my blanket is not far from me.
5. . Do you have a favorite food or drink you must have nearby when writing?
Yes.
Starbucks knows me by name. I always have the same thing Strawberry
Acai Refresher, light ice, no water, no berries. It's basically ten cups
of coffee in a pretty pink drink that tastes like you melted jolly
ranchers and poured it into a cup. Someday, I'll convince them to just
sell me the box it comes in so I can do away with having to return for
refills.
6. Do you listen to music while you write?
Yes.
I am obsessed with music and creating playlists for each of my books.
Hearing any song from one of my writing playlists has a practically Pavlovian response
and makes me want to start writing immediately. I put my playlists up
on my website so people can listen while they read if they like.
7. What's your favorite summertime activity?
This
is going to sound so lame but I don't really have one. I live in South
Florida, the biggest vacation spot on the planet but I am terrified of
the ocean, I'm too pasty to spend much time in the sun and I genuinely
find outdoor activities to be akin to torture. I spend my summers how I
spend my winters (which in Florida is all basically the same) reading,
writing or watching Netflix.
8. What are you working on next?
I'm
doing the final edits on my second book in my Dead Things Series, Dark
Dreams and Dead Things and then I will begin working on book 3. I'm also
fleshing out outlines for a novella about one of my characters, Mace
and an adult series based on another of my characters, Silas, that
readers will meet in book 2.
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