Blog Guest: Meet Laura Bickle
Happy Nanowrimo month everyone! Today, I take a quick break from my merman WiP to welcome a special guest to my blog.
Laura Bickle, my fellow RWA-FF&P chapter-mate, pays a visit to tell us about her Young Adult Thriller The Hallowed Ones and reveal some fun facts about herself.
Hi Laura. How long have you been writing?
I’ve always been scribbling, ever since I was old enough to hold a crayon. I loved stories – my mother was a librarian and was constantly reading to me – so I always wanted to try to tell my own.
Writing as Laura Bickle and Alayna Williams, I wrote four urban fantasies. Two are best summed up as “Ghostbusters in Detroit with dragons and arson” (Embers and Sparks). The other two, Dark Oracle and Rogue Oracle, are about a criminal profiler who uses Tarot cards to solve crimes. My newest release is The Hallowed Ones, a YA thriller described as “Witness meets 28 Days Later.”
What’s on your bookshelf and/or in your To Be Read pile?
At the moment, my TBR pile includes: Phillippa Ballantine’s Wrayth, Lizzie Stark’s Leaving Mundania, Alice Hoffman’s Incantation, Mike Mullin’s Ashfall, Tahereh Mafi’s Shatter Me, Jon Ronson’s The Psycopath Test, and Rosemary Ellen Guiley’s The Vengeful Djinn.
Do you have a favorite author?
My all-time favorite is Robin McKinley’s Hero And The Crown. I read it when I was a pre-teen, and fell in love with fantasy ever after. It was the first book I’d read that had a female protagonist who slew her own dragons. I was hooked.
What two authors would you love to chat with over a meal? Better yet, what two authors would you take on a writer’s retreat?
I would love to get five minutes of writing advice from Lauren DeStefano and Melissa Marr. I really admire their work, and would love to hear about their creative processes.
If the Earth was about to be destroyed to make way for a Hyperspace Bypass (Hello, Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy) and you have mere minutes to vacate, what book would you grab to take with you? In addition to your towel, of course.
LOL. Is there a WORST CASE SCENARIO SURVIVAL GUIDE for space? I think I’d need that. I’m also taking my Hypnotoad figure with me.
Favorite food:
Spaghetti. Especially if my mom makes it.
Favorite color: Red.
Favorite supernatural creature?
Fire salamanders. They don’t get enough press, but the little firebugs need love, too.
Favorite TV show? Fringe. Walter is my hero.
Milk chocolate or Dark chocolate? Close call, but I gotta go with milk chocolate.
Vampires or werewolves? Vampires.
Sexy demons or sexy angels? Sexy angels!
Dragons or witches?
Dragons. Especially ones like Toothless in How To Train Your Dragon.
Tell us about your new release.
My newest release is The Hallowed Ones, a YA thriller. Katie is on the verge of her Rumspringa, the time in Amish life when teenagers can get a taste of the outside world. But the outside world comes to her when a helicopter falls out of the sky near her house. Katie must confront not only a massive disaster unfolding in the world outside her community, but also the threat of darkness in her own increasingly fragile society.
Here’s the cover blurb:
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 can get a taste of the real world. But the real world comes to her in this dystopian tale with a philosophical bent. Rumors of massive unrest on the “Outside” abound. Something murderous is out there. Amish elders make a rule: No one goes outside, and no outsiders come in. But when Katie finds a gravely injured young man, she can’t leave him to die. She smuggles him into her family’s barn—at what cost to her community? The suspense of this vividly told, truly horrific thriller will keep the pages turning.
Buy links:
Amazon | Barnes and Noble | Powell’s | Books A Million
Excerpt
Read a free excerpt of The Hallowed Ones on Laura’s Web site.
More Laura Bickle
Laura Bickle’s professional background is in criminal justice and library science, and when she’s not patrolling the stacks at the public library she’s dreaming up stories about the monsters under the stairs (she also writes contemporary fantasy novels under the name Alayna Williams).
Laura lives in Ohio with her husband and a herd of mostly-reformed feral cats. The Hallowed Ones is her first young adult novel.
Book Cover Design / Image Credit:
Cover by Shane Rebenschied. Used here with permission of author Laura Bickle.
Celia Breslin
celiabreslin 