Post by Angie Taylor

Many thanks to you, Kelsey Garmendia, for spending some time with all of us at BOD to spotlight you as an author and member. It’s a privilege to share with everyone a little bit about you.

Thank you for having me here! 😀

Kelsey, on Goodreads you mentioned that Burn Our Houses Down was written as part of your participation of NaNoWriMo a couple of years ago. Was this the first time you had written a full novel, or have you been writing forever?

I’ve been writing for what seems like forever, but I mostly focus on microfiction or creative non-fiction. I started several novels, but Burn Our Houses Down (BOHD) was the first novel I was able to complete.

Burn Our Houses Down is the first apocalypse book I have read that focuses so much on how an apocalypse can happen or be perpetuated because of our perception and understanding or lack of reality. Can you tell us a little bit about how this theme came to fruition in this book?

When I write, I like to put the world we live in and the people that we know into the novel. I call myself a supernatural realism author. I believe as a society, we’re very unaware of how vast the world really is and how much we all affect one another. It seems to me that everyone lives in a comfortable bubble. When we’re inside of it, nothing can touch us. We grow our little worlds and walk among everyone else day-to-day without a second thought. In BOHD, I pop that bubble. Now, everyone and everything the characters know is shattered. I focus the storytelling on how they cope with that.

You use dreams as a means to communicate or foreshadow warning events to your characters in Burn Our Houses Down. How much do you feel our dreams play a part in our everyday decision making?

When I have a vivid dream, it’s all I can focus on throughout the day. I’ve had certain ones that steer me clear of doing things sometimes. I think a lot of people trust their dreams as much as they trust gut decisions. If your brain is telling you in your sleep that something is wrong or off, there’s a good chance that you’ll try and steer clear of whatever it may be.

One of the things I enjoyed about your book was how unpredictable it was. So on those lines, and without spoiling the plot of Burn Our Houses Down, can you tell us what a wendigo is?

There’s tons of different lore on wendigos, but I’ll keep a tad bit vague for you. They are believed to be demons that possess humans and make them crave human flesh.

What can we expect from Hayley, Xavier, and Aisley in the next book, and when we will be able to read it?

The second book in the series, If I Lose, is out and available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, the iBookstore, Kobo and Lulu.com. This book continues the story right where you left off in BOHD (I won’t give away any spoilers for you all who haven’t read it 😉 )

Painted Red, the third (and possibly final) installment is due to hit electronic shelves in early 2015!

Do you write in any other genres?

Yes, I do! I just recently released a supernatural realism novel entitled, Disenchanted. It’s about two extraordinary people being thrown into everyday life. It’s available now!

I know you recently got married. Has your real life romance played a part in writing the love story of Hayley and Xavier? Has it influenced any of your other writing?

It actually hasn’t surprisingly. Each love story is different. I believe knowing what love feels like helps big time. But with Hayley and Xavier, their entire backstory is different from mine and my husband’s. That’s what makes love so interesting. It’s unique for everyone.

If you could be mentored by any author of your choice, who would it be and why?

I would love to be mentored by Edgar Allan Poe. I know he’s long gone, but the way he compelled me to keep chugging through his stories was something that I try and recreate in all of my work. It would be amazing if I could just experience him telling and writing a story.

What is an odd, quirky detail about yourself that no one knows about until they meet you in person?

I sing covers of songs on YouTube. I have an affair with music that I don’t think I’ll ever break off.

Thank you so much, Kelsey, for taking this time to share a little bit about yourself and your writing. As a fellow BOD member, and from all of us, we wish you the best.

Thank you so much again for allowing me to be featured here! It means the world!

Burn Our Houses Down (Book 1)

Hayley and Xavier, two young adults from the small town of Pine Bush, N.Y. have been friends since childhood.

After Hayley’s twin sister dies in a car accident, Xavier is determined to get her out of her funk. They go on a camping trip that is ended abruptly by a wildfire.

When they make into the town in the valley of the Shawangunk Mountains, everyone is missing, all the food is gone and something is in the woods.

Something, not quite human, is at the top of the food chain now.

Amazon  |  Goodreads

ABOUT KELSEY

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Kelsey D. Garmendia, 24, is an alumnus of the State University of New York at New Paltz. She obtained a Bachelors Degree in English with a concentration in Creative Writing. Garmendia is featured in Confettifall, Embodied Effigies, Penduline Press, The Stonesthrow Review, My Unfinished Novel, Poydras Review, and Midnight Screaming. She also has three self-published novels: Burn Our Houses Down and If I Lose are both part of a book series with the next installment to be published early in 2015 and her newest novel, Disenchanted, is a stand-alone. Besides writing, she has sports photography published on the student-run journalism site, The Little Rebellion.

Post by Angie Taylor

Thank you Allen Longstreet for taking part of this week’s BOD author spotlight interview!  It’s a great chance for all of us to peek into the mind of one of our member authors.  So, thank you!

It’s my pleasure! Usually I’m the one asking other authors questions, to try and better myself… So, this is a nice change. 🙂

Your bio mentions you’ve been writing all your life.  What is the first story you wrote, and when did you know writing was one of your passions?

When I was in second grade I wrote poems.  I tried to sell them around my neighborhood.  My teachers told me I was ahead of my classmates in writing.  I got a level 4 on the state mandated writing tests in 4th and 10th grade. The first story I wrote was called “Fantasy.” I was in 5th grade.  At the time I was into Kingdom Hearts and especially Final Fantasy X video games. I’d dream up different characters with superpowers. I loved a world where every person had a power.  I wrote “Fantasy” with an ink pen on a 180 page 5 subject notebook.  In middle school, I put it on the backburner. I still have it.  Maybe I’ll make it into a YA series someday.

What is your favorite thing about being a writer?

I always reply with the same answer, and it will never change…My favorite part of being a writer is creating a world, a story, and people that didn’t exist before I made them. I also love that the written word can bring tears to a reader’s eyes.  It’s the most beautiful thing.

Rebearth is your first published book.   Can you tell us a little about it and what inspired you to write it?

Rebearth is a story about the Rebirth of Earth.  Hence the name. It follows Everett Tucker and Ellie Andrews as they struggle to survive with minimal resources after the largest solar flare to hit earth since the Carrington Event in 1859—which to this day was the biggest flare to have ever hit the Earth.  I used to be obsessed with Mexican/Central American/South American culture for a while. Especially the Mayans.  So, placing the event on Christmas Eve of 2012 felt natural.  My favorite author is Wade Davis.  He is a non-fiction author with a PhD in Ethnobotany; the scientific study of the relationships between plants and humans.  Also, my Botany teacher from high school, Mr. Campbell, gave me the inspiration to put my ideas on paper. The man changed my life, in a good way!

Many post-apocalyptic books deal with humankind searching for higher meaning and purpose in humanity when faced with destructive and uncertain futures.  Can you tell us how this idea resonates with Rebearth?

Like you said, this idea is found in many apocalyptic works, and for good reason. In Rebearth, the main characters, especially Ellie, realize that the “Old World,” as they begin to call it, isn’t coming back. During the first two days they are faced with circumstances they never even imagined having to think twice about: using the bathroom, keeping a fire burning, and conserving drinking water.  Early on, after Everett’s supply of canned goods runs out, he and Ellie go 72 hours without food.  Everett sees weakness overcoming Ellie, and he realizes the catch 22 of their new life.  They have to keep themselves nourished in order to hunt, and hunting is the only way to keep themselves nourished.  As an author, this is one of my favorite moments. In a post-apocalyptic world, everything becomes more difficult.

In the climax of the novel, Everett is faced with something he could have never imagined. How do you think this affects his agency to choose and become what he wants, and do you think this same idea pertains to humans off the page?

Yikes! Answering a question about the climax…. How can I answer this without giving the climax away?… Well, for one, the lessons that were learned throughout the novel definitely resonate with the main characters, as with the supporting characters they meet towards the end. I feel it does affect his agency to choose.  But in reality he doesn’t have a choice, because he was chosen, in a sense. The Earth is being reborn, and regardless of if he chooses to turn a blind eye or not—things will still keep moving on in the direction the climax indicates. Book 2 of the Rebearth Trilogy, Reconnect, will move into a lot more of a dystopian setting.

One of the things I really enjoyed about Rebearth was the importance of creating strong familial and friendship bonds.  Are Everett’s relationships influenced from personal experience?

Yes. I have to admit, a few of the characters are based off of real people, some of the names changed to protect the people.  As a newbie author, I thought to myself, “If I want to create vivid imagery for the reader, what better way than to base it off of some experiences and locations I know in real life.”  I wanted to give the reader the movie-reel feel as they read.  Mr. Campbell was the only character that I had permission to use his real name, including his son, Jack Campbell.  He was such a sport through the whole thing! He helped me with many of the plants I chose to use in the book. Keep in mind, every location, school, street, etc., is a real place in Hickory, North Carolina.

What can you tell us about your soon to be released book, The Gambit, and are there other projects you’re working on?

If you look up the definition of “Gambit” here is what you will find.

1)    (in chess) an opening in which a player makes a sacrifice, typically of a pawn, for the sake of some compensating advantage.

2)    device, action, or opening remark, typically one entailing a degree of risk, that is calculated to gain an advantage.

The Gambit is a Political-Thriller, but part of me wonders if I should classify it as a dystopian thriller. I had this idea as I was finishing up Rebearth of a story involving a main character who in a sense was a pawn, a sacrifice, to a more ominous plan. All I can say is I wanted to create something that was a fast paced page turner.  Something like The Bourne Series movies combined with the complexity of a Christopher Nolan film. I like my novels to come full-circle. I am not a fan of cliffhangers, unless it’s in a series.

If you could go anywhere in the world, where would it be, why would you go there, and who would you go with?

The list is gigantic, but if I had to, I would choose to go to the Seychelles Islands; an archipelago that lies in the trade winds, perfect weather all year round and no cyclones, and some of the best beaches in the world.

Thanks again Allen for spending time with all of us at BOD!

Glad I could join!

REBEARTH

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Hunt, eat, starve, repeat. This is the new life of Everett Tucker, and Ellie Andrews. On Christmas Eve, a colossal X-Class solar flare larger than any in history directly hits the Earth. All technology is useless. Their parents are gone; Everett has only a shotgun and a backpack filled with survival gear to assist them. They are alone. The Western North Carolina winter is brutal, and the people cruel. Despite the hardship, there is a small flame of hope on the horizon. There is a light in the darkness. Something is changing—the Earth is being reborn.

ABOUT ALLEN LONGSTREET

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Allen Longstreet is a fiction author who resides in Hickory, North Carolina. Now at 21, he has been writing ever since he was a child, and novels have always been the goal. With a background in Botany and Ecological sciences, he has a preference in Post-Apocalyptic and survival. Allen has a strong interest with contemporary issues and problems society faces in this day and age. He plans on writing across a broad-spectrum of fiction, creating characters and stories we all can become attached to.

Another great BOD author took the win for last week’s Writing Prompt. Check out the original photo prompt: here. 

Congratulations Hanna Elizabeth! Great job! Your story was original and clever. 

I walked into what I was hoping would be a safe haven but there was already someone inside. He looked up and pulling off his mask, said, “Well, this is awkward.”

I gawked. “But. What? What’s going on here?” I stumbled over the jumbled thoughts pouring from my mouth like water. “I don’t understand. You’re…” I broke off, my mouth hanging open. I couldn’t finish the thought.

“Yep. That’s right.”

“But how?”

“You got me. But you’re not the first to traipse through here.”

“What? There’s more?”

“You’ve seen them.”

“I don’t understand. Seen who?” Really needing for him to say the words that lodged in my head and refused to let go.

“Those people out there, you been killin. Who do you think they are?”

The horror sunk all the way to my toes, rooting me to the dirt-covered floorboards. Bending over, I dry-heaved, thankful my stomach was empty.

“Now. Now. You couldn’t have known. I mean, how could you?”

“But. You’re…” There it was again. That same damned word. The one my brain refused to acknowledge. ‘Just say it!’ I screamed at myself. But I couldn’t.

“Why don’t you sit down. You’re as white as a sheet.”

I didn’t want to sit. I wanted to run, but my traitorous body moved to the bed along the wall, my knees creaking as I sat. Cradling my head in my blood and dirt-streaked hands, I said, “I’ve killed so many.”

“There, there. We all have.”

“How’d you get here?”

“The same way as you, I reckon. I woke up this morning and the shooting had already started. I fled. Ended up here.”

Swallowing hard, I managed, “So, we’re at war with ourselves?”

“It would seem that way.”

“I don’t understand, are y’all clones?”

“Hey now, maybe you’re the clone.”

“Well, that’s insulting,” I muttered.

“I thought so,” he said.

BOD group member Genesis Blue won our most recent writing prompt contest and we’ve posted her story below for your enjoyment!

To view the photo and original prompt, visit this post. 

“Yeah, this place looks safe…” With the way he said it, I couldn’t tell if he was being sarcastic or not, but it was definitely not safe. I turned around, surveying the walls. The place was built in colonial style, like many of the houses we’d seen here in Guatemala, all the rooms opening into a central courtyard. This building, though, housed the prisoners that had been collected over the past two weeks.

“Let’s find Grant and get out of here.” I moved toward the first door. We’d taken out the guards, but there would be more coming, I was certain.

“Wait up, we don’t know who’s in these cells,” Jake trotted to catch up. “We could be letting some really nasty felons out.”

“An enemy of the government is no enemy of mine,” I said, lifting the heavy latch and throwing the first door open.

Light streamed through the door, highlighting the huddled women against the back wall. A quick glance told me that Grant wasn’t here and I moved on, leaving them to trickle out the open door like frail leaves in a breeze.

The next room held men, none of them familiar. I heard shouts in the distance. The slain guards had been discovered. “Hurry!” I called to Jake and we ran to the next room. More women. It wasn’t until the fifth door that we finally found him.

“Mama!” His voice rang through the large room, packed with children. Grant hurled himself into my arms, burrowing his face in my neck. “I knew you’d find me, Mama.”

“Hey, kiddo,” Jake ruffled our son’s blond hair. “Hon, we have to get moving. There’s an army headed this way.”

I looked at the small, dirty faces staring at me from the dimness. “We can’t leave them.”

With all the Zombie Crawl craze, we decided to hold off on posting our last two Writing Prompt winners so these awesome winners could have the spotlight to themselves. So without further ado, here is John Gregory Hancock‘s winning story! 

To see the photo and prompt the story is based on, visit this link. 

I had searched the city high and low. I thought I was the only one left. I was barely surviving day to day, and then HE showed up.

He said his name was Albert. But I knew it was AL-Br8t. It was right there on his chest plate. I didn’t know if he was pretending he wasn’t an android to make me feel better, or if he really didn’t know.

They made some of them like that, unable to know they weren’t real. It was supposed to make integration of the androids easier. A lot of things were supposed to make it easier.

“Have you found any food caches?” He asked me. Going along with the ruse, acting as if Albert needed to eat, I nodded.

“Good. I’ve been looking everywhere. All I found was this,” he held out his fingers, and showed me the can of peaches he had stowed in his backpack. The fingers were beautiful, graceful. More perfect than perfect.

He looked up at me, with silver-hued irises.

Expectant. Awaiting orders, whether he realized it or not.

“That’s great. I haven’t had peaches in a while. If you want to share, we can go to my stash.” I offered.

So we climbed the stairs and the levels overgrown with moss and lichen. Not quite rock, and not quite metal, the building refused to decay or die. But the world, the plants, birds and insects tried in vain to grow over it.

By the time the sun had set, we found my stash of unopened cans and jars I’d been saving up for a long while.

“That’s impressive,” he said, whistling.

“Your name is Sally, right?”

I stopped. “How did you know that?”

“It’s right there on your breast plate: SA-LLE12.”

I looked down.

“Damn.”

Thank you so much, Megan, for being a part of this BOD author spotlight interview.  I feel like even though we have never met in person, I’m getting the chance to interview one of my good friends, and it’s all because of BOD, so thank you.

I feel exactly the same way about you and many of the other BOD members I’ve had the privilege to speak with both on and off the page.  One of the reasons I think BOD works so well is because it brings so many people from various walks of life and centers them around this strange bookish world, some might even say the worlds we enjoy are ‘taboo,’ we have the gore and the ghouls, and no one thinks we’re morbid or weird because we’re just like them. Authors aren’t placed on a pedestal, they are equals, they (we?) are approachable. How BOD created this unspoken equal-footing-for-all on a book-related page is revolutionary and has proven to be a major success. And FUN.

How long you have been a member of BOD, how did you hear about it, and what interested you in joining?

I was added by Cheer about 5 months ago and did a happy dance when I fully realized what the page was about. There are thousands of book pages on Facebook, mostly focused on the romance genre and its subsequent sub-genres, but never have I seen a single one for Dystopian & Apocalyptic/Post-Apoc fans. It was definitely a breath of fresh air to see an invite from a group that was unique and stayed focused on the topics of interest.

As I have interacted with you on BOD and from my reading of “The Supremacy,” I can see that you are one of those people that has such a fun and unique way of expressing yourself through words. Can you tell us how you got into writing or when you first knew you wanted to write?

I have always loved writing and creating new worlds, but I didn’t make the conscious decision to publish until I was faced with a battle I couldn’t physically fight against. When I was 21 I was diagnosed with cancer. To put it lightly, I was angry at the world. All I really had were my stories. When life became too hard to handle, I’d escape into a world that was so unlike my own that I could forget all the bad around me and live vicariously through the characters I created. All the female characters I have ever written had the strength and determination to survive what I didn’t think I had within myself, but through them, I became stronger. I write characters the way I wish to be, not how I really am.

Thank you for sharing that with us. I find it inspiring to know how your characters were created. I bet a lot of your female characters have more of you in them than you think.  So on those line, do you feel like writing is a task or a job that needs to be done, or do you get lost in the process?

Both. Strangely, I feel a duty to these characters that have presented themselves to me to get their story out. It sounds crazy when I type it like that but once I get started on a new story, or a continuation of one of my already exciting stories, I cannot stop until their story in complete. Whether good or bad, we are following someone’s journey that I don’t even know the ending until we get there.

I had such a fun time reading The Supremacy.  It was a scary thriller, and yet had gentle emotion throughout.  Can you tell us a little bit about it and where your idea originated from?

It is always hard to talk about the book without spoiling it, but I’ll try my best. The Supremacy has a very basic premise written in a very complex way. Who are we and what makes us, as humans, better than another species? There was one quote that really grabbed my attention when I first started the beginning drafts of the novel, “If you are not outraged, you are not paying attention.” Many have said The Supremacy was too gory, more like a horror novel than a dystopian novel, and that was the point. I wanted readers to be appalled by what they were reading because, even though it doesn’t happen to us (humans), every scene in the book does happen, every day, not to us, but by us.

Without ruining the book for those that haven’t read it, how would you explain what the beings are that make up The Supremacy?

Without telling exactly what Supremes are in the fictional sense, I can tell you what they are meant to represent in reality—us, humans. Are you angry yet? We are the apex species, but what if we weren’t? What if there was another species out there that was stronger, smarter, faster? What if we weren’t top of the food-chain anymore? We’ve killed entire species out of greed, what if there was a species that thought as little of us as we’ve thought of others?

What can you tell us about the sequel?  When are readers going to be able to find out what happens to Rin and those fighting for freedom from The Supremacy?

Soon! The 2nd book is titled The Keeper and is Declan’s POV from The Supremacy. The Keeper is a book that shows us who Declan really is, what motivated him to turn away from what he is and show so much compassion to a species that he was raised to believe meant as much to Supremes as cattle meant to humans. The Keeper shows us the behind-the-scenes action we missed out on in the first book, and is critical to know for the third, but it doesn’t stop where the first The Supremacy ended.

What was the first book that made you fall in love with reading?

Gosh, I’m not really sure. My parents instilled a love of reading in me from a very young age, but the first book that truly grasped my attention for more than the short time I was reading/being read to was ‘I Am the Cheese’ by Robert Cornier. It was a novel that had my head spinning from the minute I picked it up and it still never stopped. It made you think. It was one of those books that you loved to hate because the questions kept coming even after the book ended.

When you’re not writing or reading, how do you spend your time, and who do you spend it with?

I am very lucky to be blessed with an amazing, supportive family. And, for me, the question is backwards. When I’m not spending time with my family, I’m writing. I am a mom first and foremost, and when it comes to my writing, I never want my daughter to know the phrase, “Wait, I’m busy.” No fantasy world I could ever create could hold a flame to the reality that my daughter and I are able to share together.

If today was your last day on earth, how would you spend it and what would you want your legacy to be?

However the day would be spent, it would be with family. I think I’d let my daughter decide what we’d do because when the day was over, I’d be gone, but the memories would live on through her.

A legacy? I’ve never really thought about it in the large scheme of things. I am beyond grateful to be alive and try not to think about death and what I will be leaving behind. If I had to choose something to be remembered by, it would be that I loved with all I had and tried every day to remind myself that living is a gift.

ABOUT MEGAN WHITE

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Raised as a ‘Military-Brat’ I’ve had the pleasure of living in many different locals–some amazing and eye-opening, others boring and dull. Being raised in the military lifestyle gifted me the opportunity to meet people and see things I never would have otherwise.I refuse to grow up and become a boring adult. It will never happen.When not writing my stories you can probably find me advocating for Human Rights in many different venues. Some of those topics include the right to your own body, the right to love whomever you choose and the right to speak openly and freely without fear of persecution (whether that be personal or from the government).But most of all, I’m just me and it’s always hard to write a bio on myself. If there’s anything you’d like to know feel free to ask!