June 5, 2015

"Modern Monsters" Blog Tour


Modern Monsters
Release Date: 06/02/15
Entangled Teen

Summary from Goodreads:
Vic Howard never wanted to go to the party. He’s the Invisible Guy at school, a special kind of hell for quiet, nice guys. But because his best friend is as popular as Vic is ignored, he went...

And wished he hadn’t.


Because something happened to a girl that night. Something terrible, unimaginable, and Callie Wheeler’s life will never be the same. Plus, now Callie has told the police that Vic did it. Suddenly, Invisible Vic is painfully visible, on trial both literally, with the police, and figuratively, with the angry and judgmental kids at school. As the whispers and violence escalate, he becomes determined to clear his name, even if it means an uneasy alliance with Callie’s best friend, the beautiful but aloof Autumn Dixon.


But as Autumn and Vic slowly peel back the layers of what happened that night, they realize that while the truth can set him free, it can also shatter everything he thought he knew about his life...


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Guest Post
Pulling from Personal Experience
 A common question I’ve gotten is “Which of your characters are you most like?” and my answer has  always  been  the  same:  Vincent  from Suicide Watch.  Not  because  our  personalities  are  the same,  but  because  writing  Vince—all  of Suicide Watch,  for  that  matter—was  a  very  difficult, therapeutic  experience  for  me  in  getting out a lot of toxic thoughts and  feelings I went through when I was his age. I’ve suffered from anxiety and depression for as long as I can remember, so when these traits show up in my characters...it may not always be intentional in my part, but it is some of me shining through in my stories. 

And  yes,  as  a  writer,  I  think  certain  plot  points  come about  as  a  result  of  experiences.  While discussing topics for blog tour posts, one of the lovely ladies at Entangled said, “I also know you worked in a  mortuary as a teenager so did  you ever pull  from anything that  you encountered  in the mortuary?” I don’t know how she remembered that about me, but bless her. 

Because,  yes,  as  a  teenager,  one  of  my  first  jobs  was as  a  receptionist  in  a  mortuary.  And  it was...definitely  an  experience  the  few  months  I  was  there.  I  got  to  learn  about  the  process  of embalming, I often went on deliveries to take bodies to the airport that were being flown out of state  to  their  families,  I  went  on  pick-ups  with  some  of  the  other  employees  to  pick  up  bodies from hospitals... 

Yeah, good time. Let me tell you, mortuary workers have the darkest, driest senses of humor of anyone you’ll ever meet. 

But the  point  I  was  getting  to  is  that  I  also  witnessed  a lot  of  loss  and  grief  working  there.  No customer  walks  into  a  mortuary  with  a  smile  on  their  face,  though  some  of  them  try.  Either they’re  coming  in  because  they’re  old  and/or  ill  and  want  to  discuss  a  pre-plan—where  they make their funeral arrangements and pay for it before they pass so their family doesn’t have to—or they’re coming in because they’ve lost someone important. 


It was hard, and your heart aches for these people. I witnessed a lot of tears, and a lot of different ways  of  expressing  grief.  Some  people  completely   fell apart  and  couldn’t  even   hold   a conversation. Others were still in shock, moving about the process mechanically. Others still you could tell were coasting along on adrenaline and would seem fine one second, and breakdown in the next.

This kind of ties into another post I did about different people handling situations like this. For as sad as it was, it did come across as interesting to me, being on the outside looking in at families handling  such  a  big  thing  like  death.  Sometimes  I  think  that  job  might  have  been  what  really interested me in learning more about psychology.

I didn’t mean for this post to be such a downer. Can I leave off with a funny mortuary story? One of  the  other  receptionists  was very skittish  around  the  bodies  and  refused  to  go  anywhere  near them. Two of the guys—sons of the mortuary owner—decided it would be fun to play a prank on her. One of them  laid on a gurney with a  sheet over  him while the other went into the office to ask Receptionist to come help him bring in some flowers delivered for a service.  I’m sure you can imagine the scream she let out when walking by a “body” and it reached out to grab her.

...Okay, so it wasn’t very funny for her.

We won’t go into some of the jokes they played on me.

I told you mortuary people have a dark sense of humor.

About the Author
"I like unicorns and cats and games...and stuff..." - quality author quote by Kelley

Kelley York was born in central California, where she still resides with her lovely wife, step-daughter, and way too many cats, while fantasizing about moving to England or Ireland. (Or, really, anyplace secluded.) She has a fascination with bells and animals and Disney. Her life goal is to find a real unicorn. Or to at least write about them. She occupies her spare time with video games,designing covers, playing on Tumblr, and watching anime.

Kelley is a sucker for dark fiction. She loves writing twisted characters, tragic happenings, and bittersweet endings that leave you wondering and crying. She strives to make character development take center stage in her books because the bounds of a person's character and the workings of their mind are limitless.
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