Alex was quite sure giftedwas a term delusional parents applied to their strictly average children, vampires were gorgeous dead guys in her eighth-grade girls' novels, and Seers was a middle schooler's misspelling of a department store famous for power tools. Teachers, however, don't know everything–it’s Alex’s turn to be educated.
Hoping just to clear her mind Alex Crocker leaves work for a late night run across the small city of Bristol, Mass. Instead she is dragged violently into a feud she never would have known existed had she not become the newest quarry. She quickly learns she’s being hunted for possessing a gift she never wanted, one that could kill her or provide her the power she’ll need to protect herself and those she cares for.
Despite her desire to maintain her independence, Alex quickly becomes tied to the Rectinatti vampires through bonds of friendship, loyalty, and most surprisingly, love. These bonds, coupled with the new knowledge that she is in grave danger are enough to make her want to stay. But it’s learning what is really at stake that drives her to fight.
From the Mouths of Babes
by Lauren Grimley
Since
Caron's books are geared towards young adults and we're both teachers who enjoy
this age group, I thought it appropriate during National Teacher's Week to turn
the tables and thank my students.
Because, although Unforeseen
and the rest of the series is adult urban fantasy, I never would have written
it if it hadn't been for "my kiddos," as I call them.
I'm
an eighties baby born just three months into the decade, so naturally my first
foray into fantasy came from playing Star
Wars in the woods with the neighborhood kids. Being short and chubby back then (not much has changed), I was
nearly always assigned the unexciting role of Ewok, while the older girls got
to play Princess Leia and the boys Jedi Knights. It was no wonder I shied away from the genre for years after
that.
It
wasn't until I was studying to be an English teacher at Boston University that
I returned. I grudgingly admitted that
if I were going to teach middle school, I'd have to read what the kids were
reading. So I picked up the first of
those "boy wizard" books with the enthusiasm usually reserved for
touching items infected by contagious diseases. It certainly was contagious.
Two years later my students lovingly referred to me as the crazy Harry Potter teacher. My love of fantasy had begun.
But
vampires? That seemed to be taking it
too far. It wasn't until the Twilight craze completely consumed my
fantasy book club, turning my Friday afternoons into a frenzy of giggling tween
girls, that I capitulated. Once again I
headed to the library with dread. There
was no way I was going to like these books or any others with fang-faced
protagonists. Once again I was
wrong. Within the span of one summer my
Harry Potter collection was fighting
for room on my bookshelves with vampire books ranging from Stoker's classic to
the Sookie Stackhouse series.
It
wasn't long before ideas for my own types of vampires began creeping into my
imagination. Two years ago I officially
set aside the realistic fiction novel I'd been struggling to finish since
college and set out to write my first fantasy.
The rough hand-written draft of Unforeseen
was completed less than three months later.
It just goes to show that teachers have as much to learn from our
students, as we have to teach them. I'm
not saying I'll read any book my middle schoolers recommend, but from now on,
I'm going to be much less leery to try something new.
About Lauren:
Links to connect with Lauren and learn more about her and her writing:
Available on Barnes & Noble:
http://bit.ly/M7v5MK
and Amazon: http://amzn.to/Iyas63Personal website with an excerpt and a trailer for Unforeseen: http://www.laurengrimley.com/
Blog: http://blog.laurengrimley.com/
Shelfari: http://www.shelfari.com/laurengrimley
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5825387.Lauren_Grimley
Twitter @legrimley http://twitter.com/#!/legrimley
Facebook: www.facebook.com/AuthorLaurenGrimley
No comments:
Post a Comment