Haunted Halloween Bits from the SSA Authors

We're sharing our personal haunts this week. Feel free to share your own when you're finished reading -- if you dare.

Scariest book I ever read.....

The Marbury Lens by Andrew Smith, and its sequel Passenger. -- Elle Cosimano



Salem's Lot by Stephen King - "I read it while visiting my aunt over Christmas in sixth grade. She had this old radiator that hissed when it came on and it was right under the window. I didn't sleep the entire time -- but I didn't stop reading the book either!" -- Laura Ellen



 It by Stephen King -- Deron Hicks 


The Hot Zone by Richard Preston -- Elisa Ludwig



The Sandman by Neil Gaiman - "I know it's not really straight-up horror, but some story arcs in that series are profoundly chilling and disturbing." -- Mary McCoy


A House in The Sky by Amanda Lindhout - "Nonfiction, but reads like a novel. Captivity narratives in general freak me out, but this one packs a punch." -- Diana Renn

 

 

 

 Spookiest place I ever visited...

St. Mary's

"I spent four nights in the St. Mary's Art Center in Virginia City, Nevada during the NV SCBWI Mentor Retreat. http://www.hauntedhouses.com/states/nv/saint_mary_louise_hospital.htm" -- Elle Cosimano

Holy Trinity Church

"In college I used to cut through a cemetery to get to work. I t freaked me out every time. I'd get jumpy and hear things -- I took to timing myself to see how quick I could get through." -- Laura Ellen

"Holy Trinity Church in Stratford-upon-Avon. We were there on a cold, overcast day. The grounds surrounding the church are packed with ancient graves. If ghosts are real, that's the place you would find them." -- Deron Hicks

"The cemetery behind my college campus, when a few of us decided to visit at midnight with a Ouija board. " -- Elisa Ludwig

The Capuchin Crypt from debbzie.com

ParaPedia

"The Capuchin Crypt in Rome - each room is decorated wall-to-wall with the bones of friars. In one room, there's a plaque that reads 'What you are now, we once were; what we are now, you shall be.' In another room, a woman's heart is entombed in the wall." -- Mary McCoy

"Zelve National Park in Turkey. Lunar landscape, centuries of buried civilizations, caves, isolated hikes, creepy guys following my husband and I around." -- Diana Renn

The one thing that creeps me out the most. . . 

 

"I really, REALLY dislike spiders and scary clowns." -- Elle Cosimano

"I am with Elle on the clowns -- and dolls with porcelain faces. Just too creepy." -- Laura Ellen

"Snakes. Ugh." -- Deron Hicks

"Rats. And serial killers." -- Elisa Ludwig

"Anything having to do with demon possession I just cannot handle." -- Mary McCoy

"Spiders! I grew up in a house by a lake, and we always got supersize spiders on all our windows. They would spawn more spiders, and eat their dinners right in front of us, and fight -- I am truly traumatized by this." -- Diana Renn

 

The freakiest thing that ever happened to me . . 

"I used to sell real estate. One day, I was showing an historic property (an old farm house built in the 1800s on the edge of a Civil War battlefield) to a lovely couple who were considering a purchase. The house itself had some very strange features. The upstairs bedrooms on both sides of a long, crooked hallway had padlocks that locked from the outside, and the entire house had a very creepy, cold feeling about it. In the dining room, there was a hidden stair behind a door in the wall (an old servant staircase). While we were discussing the property, the door unlatched and swung all the way open, very, very slowly and all three of us felt we weren't alone. Needless to say, we left post haste!" -- Elle Cosimano

"I was staying with my sister in her rental house in Eugene, OR. Alone in the house and taking a shower, l I heard someone yell something outside the bathroom door. When I came out, no one was there, but the microwave was on and I heard a shuffling sound in the living room closet. To get out of the house, I would have had to pass the closet so instead I stood watch  in the hall with a kitchen knife, scared out of my mind, until mys sister and brother-in-law got back a few minutes later. When we checked the closet, no one was in it."  -- Laura Ellen

"My grandmother had a large old photograph of some distant, stern looking relative that she hung in the extra bedroom in her home. The house was old and constantly creaked and groaned. When I was young, I had to sleep in that room. It always seemed that the moonlight would illuminate that photograph. My creepy relative would stare down at me in bed from his spot on the wall as the house creaked and groaned around me." -- Deron Hicks

"I was pretty sure at the time that I saw a UFO during a high school Astronomy Club visit to a field at night. Not sure I'd be as convinced now." -- Elisa Ludwig

"My dorm room sophomore year may have been a little bit haunted. More than once, I saw a shadowy figure standing by the window that disappeared the moment I reached out to touch it. I did some research and found out that somebody had died in my room a few decades before. I might add that I relate this story as a person who doesn't believe in ghosts AT ALL." -- Mary McCoy

"I can't think of one single freaky thing, but I've often felt that I have a vague psychic connection. I will think of someone, or dream something, and soon after find my thoughts or dreams are true, something really happened to that person (nothing horrific), or I will run into that person somewhere. Unfortunately I have not been able to channel this vague, intermittent psychic vibe into anything useful like predicting lottery numbers." -- Diana Renn

BLIND SPOT Releases in paperback and giveaway!

Today the paperback edition of Blind Spot released!

It has a cool new cover. And I have to say, I was a bit surprised by that when first told it would be reprinting in paperback. I was in love with my original hardcover art. In a world where readers often do judge a book by its cover, I felt the original cover helped Blind Spot jump off the shelf. It was ‘eye-catching’ – pun intended! 

Original hardcover art

Despite loving the original though, I did fall in love with the paperback art too. The icy blue color scheme and the way the eye looks like it is peering through ice, fits the plot well. I was excited to share it with friends, family, and readers. But as I began preparing for its release, I found myself in a marketing dilemma – do I now totally ditch the original artwork for this new cover art? I had been so attached to my first cover, it seemed wrong somehow.

Well I got over that as soon as I saw the cool new bookmarks Amber at Me, My Shelf and I designed for me :) but it did get me thinking about what other authors have done when new editions were printed with new covers -- so many classic novels have had numerous cover changes over the years. So....for fun I thought I would post some of my favorite books and the different covers they have sported.

Nancy Drew mysteries have spanned decades and have needed updating from time to time. Here are two popular covers for The Clue in the Diary. I believe the one on the left is the original.

 One of my all-time favorite books is Don't Look Behind You by Lois Duncan. It has seen several covers over the years. Here are three. The one on the left is my copy from 1989.

 And how about The Giver by Lois Lowry? This left cover is the one I will forever identify with the book:

But the cover on the right I have seen often in classrooms and bookstores. It looks like a totally different book, doesn't it?

What are some of your favorite cover changes? Share them in the comments! :) 




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Book Nerd Tours is giving away a BLIND SPOT prize pack which includes signed copies of BLIND SPOT and DEAR TEEN ME as well as BLIND SPOT swag. Click here for details and to enter.

12 Days of Mysteries: Day 5

It's Day 5 of our 12 Days of Mysteries, demystifying holiday gift-giving for book lovers! Today we're mixing it up and NOT giving our usual book suggestions. If you're looking for a book-related idea that's a little different, check out these programs and charities!

Laura Ellen recommends the Letters in the Mail program as a great kid gift. Authors send subscribers a letter in the mail each month for only $5 a month.

Elisa Ludwig suggests Girls Write Now, which works with high school girls in NYC's public schools to help develop their writing and provide other opportunities for intellectual/emotional growth and career development. Elisa says, "Last year my agent made a holiday donation to the organization in my honor, and this year I want to continue the tradition!


Do you know a budding writer working on a young adult, middle grade, or new adult manuscript? Why not give them a manuscript critique! No, you don't have to do that yourself; you can outsource it! Diana Renn recommends a great freelance editing service run by four kidlit authors called -- clearly enough -- Manuscript Critique Services. (Clarity -- trust us, you want that in an editor!) And . . . do you have a writer in your life who is going the indie publishing route? Or who needs help with graphic design? Send them to Renee Combs Design for all their design needs and even help with promotion!

Miss any of our Days of Mysteries? Looking for kidlit mystery/thriller books that would make great gifts? Scroll back in time here:
Day One
Day Two
Day Three
Day Four

Writing In the Dark: A Few Technical Tips

SSA has been around for over a year now, and the Sleuths having been digging in the crates, pulling out some Golden Oldies for all of you loyal readers out there. Here's one of my favs from last year...

Our theme this time around is Writing in the Dark, so I thought I'd get a little technical on how to make your mystery, well, dark. While you need a good plot and great characters with believable motives and events to get your mystery rolling, there are also ways you can rev it up. Here are a few tips:

1) Be Aware of Tone: Tone is the overall emotional feel that your reader gets as they read your story. It can be serious, sad, dramatic, funny . . . any emotion really . . . and readers pick it up through the language the author uses. As you write, be aware of the tone you wish to convey and choose your words accordingly. A mystery can be told in any tone, humor even, but if you are trying to set a mysterious, eerie tone, choose words that when you hear them or see them, dark, uneasy feelings are conjured up. Words with the letter 's' for example, often make us think of creepy, slithery snakes, while words with the hard 'c' or 'k' can sound sharp and jagged. So take the time to look at the words you are using in key scenes as you revise - a simple verb change - like  'walked' to 'crept' - can darken your story quickly!

2) Use Sentence Structure to Build Suspense - Ever notice in a movie, right before the main character heads into danger, how the music speeds up, and, like clockwork, so does your heart rate? Well authors can do the same thing, despite no music, through sentence structure. When the scene is meant to be slow - your MC is collecting information for example - your sentences should be longer, more descriptive, in larger paragraphs. However, as a situation arises putting your character in danger or something else that would warrant the music in a movie, shorten your sentences. Why? Because when we read longer sentences, our eyes go nice and slow across the page, but short, quick sentences, and very short paragraphs, make our eyes go fast down the page. It makes our heart rate speed up and tells us something is about to happen - without actually TELLING us :)

3) End-of-chapter Hooks - My last bit of Writing In the Dark technical advice is about chapter endings. I know it seems natural to start and end a chapter like a complete thought, in a nice tidy bundle. But don't. Try ending your chapter at the height of suspense - like when the MC is about to get caught breaking into a room, or when the MC has just discovered a clue and is about to look at it. Stopping it in the middle of the heart-pounding action adds to the suspense and thrill of your novel. It also keeps the reader from putting your book down. Sure, they need to turn the light off and go to sleep, but let them do it while reading someone else's story!

That's my two cents Good luck Writing In the Dark!

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Laura Ellen is the author of Blind Spot, an issue-oriented YA thriller about 16 year old Roswell Hart whose desperate attempts to prove she is 'normal' despite her visual imapirment, lands her in the middle of a murder investigation as a prime suspect -- and she isn't sure ifr she's innocent or not.

What's Your Favorite Debut Novel?

We have a lot of exciting news here at Sleuths, Spies and Alibis this month. Did you hear about Laura Ellen's BLIND SPOT that launched this week? You can win a signed copy--pretty awesome, huh?

Since I have a debut novel out myself this month, I've been thinking a lot about first novels. The commitment it takes to get to that launch date, and how exciting it all is. Added benefit to being a debut? I get to make friends with fellow debuts, and discover their great novels. Like my fellow detectives' books right here.

I've also visited my library to take a look at now-famous authors' debuts. Like A is for Alibi by Sue Grafton. Patterson's early novels. Agatha Christie's, Michael Connelly's. They often have a freshness, sometimes a little wobbly like a toddler, but exciting and new.

How about you, fellow Sleuths? Any favorite debuts, new or old?

Interrogation Room #22: Laura Ellen, author of BLIND SPOT

Internal Affairs here at Sleuths Spies & Alibis has been in overdrive! We've had a great run of book launches this fall -- first W.H. Beck, then F.T. Bradley, and now it's Laura Ellen's turn. Her mystery/psychological thriller BLIND SPOT (Harcourt Children's Books) hit shelves yesterday! Since one of the tag lines on her website says "Nothing is at it Seems," we thought we'd better look into that and get to know our fellow sleuth a bit better.

Laura Ellen is a full-time writer and mother of three who began her career as a teacher in both Language Arts and special education. Diagnosed with juvenile macular degeneration as a teen, she drew upon her own experiences with vision loss to write her first YA novel, BLIND SPOT. She was born and raised in Alaska, where her novel is set. She's lived in many states since then, and most recently moved to Scottsdale, Arizona.



So what's BLIND SPOT about? Here's a glimpse!

Seventeen-year-old Tricia Farni’s body floated to the surface of Alaska’s Birch River six months after the night she disappeared. The night Roz Hart had a fight with her. The night Roz can’t remember. Roz, who struggles with macular degeneration, is used to assembling fragments to make sense of the world around her. But this time it’s her memory that needs piecing together—to clear her name . . . to find a murderer.

This unflinchingly emotional novel is written in the powerful first-person voice of a legally blind teen who just wants to be like everyone else. Roz is obsessed with proving she's "normal" despite her visual impairment. But her obsession makes her lose sight of everything else, including clues to her classmate's death.

Here's Diana Renn's interview with Laura Ellen!
(And be sure to enter our giveaway at the end of this interview!)

DR: I love the unusual structure of this mystery, as a missing person case morphs into a murder mystery case. (In so many mysteries, we get the murder in the first few chapters or pages). The result is we get to spend some real quality time with the victim, Tricia, before she becomes a victim. What drew you to this approach, and did you begin the novel with this structure in mind?

LE: Awesome question, and the answer is no, I didn't start out with this structure. Blind Spot walks a very fine line between thriller/mystery and contemporary “issue” book. The premise I wanted to create was a character so wrapped up in her struggles to prove herself, she misses everything around her, i.e. a muder of a classmate. To do this, I had to show her struggle first to make the reader see how she'd been “blinded” by her personal issues. However, I found that starting that way, sent the wrong “promise” of an emotional issue type book to readers. I had so many agents/editors be disappointed when it spun into a murder mystery. So, I started with the promise of the murder and went from there.

DR: Did you know who the villain was from the outset? Or did anything surprise you as you wrote? And do you think mystery writers should always know who the perp is, and all the details of the crime, before they begin writing?

LE: My perp changed three times! When I write, I have a vision in mind and as long as I achieve that vision, I don't care how much the plot changes. Every writer is different, but for me I like painting several into the role of villain and then seeing who steps up to the plate -- that to me is the fun of writing. I'm 'reading' the story for the first time, so I want to be as surprised as my readers are by the outcome.

DR: What was the most challenging aspect of writing a mystery/thriller for young adults?

LE: I think the most challenging part of writing a thriller, or really any novel, is making sure that the choices the characters make are the only choices that character could have made. When you have plot points that have to occur in order to unfold the story, it is tempting to give your character the easy way there. "'I'm trapped in this hole with no way out. Good thing I found this rope ladder on my way to school today."  As hard as it is, you have to find creative and realistic ways to get your characters where they need to be.

DR: Some of the aspects of Roz’s school were more horrifying to me than the crime itself! The way in which Roz got thrown into a Life Skills for no clear reason – and had no voice – disturbed me. Her teacher Mr. Dellian’s controlling behavior and dismissive attitude – not to mention his suspicious activities outside of school – also alarmed me. Don’t get me wrong – these elements contribute greatly to the suspense of the book! But I’d love to know what motivated your decision to make school so nightmarish for Roz and others, and to make some adult characters so difficult to approach or to trust.

LE: I’ve had a lot of people find Mr. Dellian unbelievable as a teacher; I’ve also had many tell me his character brought back painful memories of their own school/childhood experience. I made Roz's experience so nightmarish because I wanted her (and readers) to see that despite everything they can rely on their own strengths, their own voices to get them through tough spots in life. I based this story on my own experiences growing up with a visual impairment (I had three Dellians!) and it took me a long time to find my voice. I wanted readers who are experiencing similar things with teachers or classmates or adults in their life to find their voices sooner than I did – I wanted them to say, “Hey that's me” and then "wait, I'm not taking this anymore."

DR: I love how Roz’s macular degeneration is a part of her character but not the focus of the novel. In fact it’s her failure of memory that she’s wrestling with, piecing together events of one strange night, and not the vision failure per se. What motivated your decision to include yet downplay her visual impairment?

LE: Too often books that have characters with disabilities make it about the disability -- or they go the opposite route and have characters who just 'happen' to have a disability without addressing what it really means to deal with that in your everyday life. I wanted my character to be real, which means being imperfect, not the fake perfect characters so often portrayed in these books. I wanted her to be angry and self-conscious and to make stupid mistakes; I wanted that to be her tragic flaw -- not her visual impairment.

DR: You handle the role of law enforcement and investigative procedures in a way that felt very plausible to me. How did you go about researching this?

LE: I watch a lot of Law & Order :) but I also have a good writer friend who is also a police officer, so I asked her many questions and ran those key scenes by her to make sure they were realistic.

DR: When I think of BLIND SPOT, one word comes to mind. SUSPENSE. Can you spill any of your secrets to good suspense writing?

LE: Wow, thank you. I'm glad you think so! I always try to keep my characters in jeopardy - either directly or indirectly. I also make a point of ending a chapter with something that keeps the reader from putting it down.

DR: Did you grow up reading mysteries? What mysteries did you read as a teen, and which authors do you enjoy today?

LE: Not only did I grow up reading them, I grew up listening to them on an evening radio show called Mystery Theater. They'd act out stories by authors like Alfred Hitchcock and Agatha Christie over the radio. I lived for that show! Growing up I read all the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys books, Edgar Allen Poe, Lois Duncan, Joan Lowery Nixon, Mary Higgins Clark, Phyllis Whitney, and Stephen King. Nowadays I read anyone who can spin a good mystery!

DR: Can we expect more mysteries from you in the future? Do you plan to stay with this genre?

LE: Definitely! I don't think I could write anything without having at least a little mystery in it. Right now I am working on two new thrillers, both set in Alaska, but like Blind Spot, they will be stand-alones with all new characters.

Thanks, Laura! 

Looking for Laura Ellen online? Here's where she lurks!
Her website and blog
Facebook
Twitter: @lauraellenbooks

Ready for a giveaway? Click on the Rafflecopter thingie to enter to win a signed hardcover of Laura Ellen's BLIND SPOT, plus swag! (Note: This contest is U.S. / Canada only! Sorry!)
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