While touring Northern Virginia and taking pictures of places that inspired The Travelers, I thought it might be fun to check out the cemetery adjacent to my mother’s childhood farmhouse in Manassas, right near the battlefield. (Yes, I realize my idea of fun might not be the same as everyone else.)
Yep, I admit it. I'm a total book nerd. I love Shakespeare. It all started in 9th grade… My English teacher introduced us via Romeo and Juliet. At the time, I rolled my eyes and groaned, mistakenly thinking I’d be bored to death by long-winded prose and overly flowery language. But, even though my moody, everything-sucks, 14-year-old self wanted to hate it, I couldn’t. (Thanks Mrs. McDermott!)
Yes, I’m clearly obsessed with Teen Read Week. Anything that encourages people to read more is great, in my book. (Sorry, I know that was a terrible pun. I couldn’t help it!) Sadly, Teen Read Week is coming to an end. In honor of that ending, I’ve compiled a list of books with crazy plot twist endings! Predicting the plot twists for any book, movie or TV show is one of my superpowers...
Break out the napkins, parmesan and red pepper flakes because it is National Pizza Month. Why on earth is a blog focused on books and writing talking about pizza? Well, firstly, pizza is a great. I feel like that is reason enough. But, in case you need something more book-y, it’s also a main food group for one of the characters in my book, The Travelers. So, I thought an ode to the pie would be appropriate. As a former NYC resident... You need to understand that pizza is very important to me.
Since it's October, I felt the overwhelming need (perhaps compelled?) to combine the awesomeness of Teen Read Week and Halloween. It just had to be done. And since my own book, The Travelers, is about witches, that seemed like an appropriate place to start. Therefore, here are some spellbinding YA books where the main characters are teen witches or thought to be.
It’s Teen Read Week from October 9-15! (Never heard of it before? Me either! I just learned about it and I think it’s AWESOME!) So awesome, I thought it deserved a little bloggy time. Therefore, in honor of Teen Read Week, I thought it might be fun to highlight some authors you may not have realized were mere teenagers when they wrote their now super famous books.
Halloween is just around the corner. In honor of it, I thought it might be fun to list the top 5 “scary” or “monster-themed” books that influenced me as a teenager or young adult.
From the first few scenes of Tim Burton’s Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, it’s pretty clear that the film won’t be a 100% faithful adaptation of the book. Therefore, if you’re someone who read and enjoyed the book, which I am, you must decide quickly – do you constantly compare the film to the source material or do you try to enjoy it as a separate piece of work. I’d suggest the latter.
My first book, The Travelers, just came out on October 2, 2016. The journey to this point took a long time and, along the way, I learned several important lessons. While I’m still on this path of publishing, I wanted to impart the wisdom I’ve gained on this crazy trip so far to help any other aspiring authors trying to find their way through the land of publishing. (Alright, I will dispense with the traveling puns now.) Best Advice I Was Given – What’s the harm in trying? Here’s the truth, it terrified me to let anyone read my book, let alone send it to publishers.
K.L. Kranes 