Want to see the original book cover for WANTED: DEAD OR IN LOVE?

Authors need to create lots of original content for blogs.

It wouldn't be right if I copied my blog post from Uncommon YA here, so click HERE to see my old versus my new book cover.

YOU JUST WON'T BELIEVE YOUR EYES!

Vote on the HALF-DEAD SOCIETY logo!

Sometimes I think I write some seriously weird stuff and wonder if people who read it are going to scrunch up their faces and say, "What was she thinking?" (This happens a lot with my critique group).

Case in point:  in WANTED:  DEAD OR IN LOVE (due out in May with Merit Press), I came up with a group of people who belong to the Half-Dead Society. Yup, you read that right.

The Half-Dead Society is a group of people who have someone dead sharing their bodies with them. Like inside of them. Living and coexisting as one. Creepy, huh?

This week, a fabulous writer-artist-friend of mine, Michael Kelly, designed a logo that I explain in my book. I can't tell you how cool it is to describe and see something in your head and have it come to life before your very eyes. (Kinda like the "Grow Your Own Boyfriend" kit I got as a white elephant gift from a colleague at my work Christmas party. Yes, I'm looking at you, Laura Jaeschke! Just one of the lovely things you can win!)

WHICH LOGO DO YOU LIKE BEST? 

The logo with the most votes will end up on my bookmark!

(Unless no one votes and then I'll close my eyes and point at the screen - very scientific!)

1. MAROON WITH GRAY TONES

2. MAROON WITH SKIN TONES

3. AQUA WITH GRAY TONES

4. AQUA WITH SKIN TONES

5. SLIME GREEN and RED

To be eligible to win the prize package of:

One "Grow A Boyfriend" kit (you know you want it)

One Bullet keychain (A real bullet! Everyone need this. It's significant in my novel)

One Wanted: Dead or In Love Sticky-Notes Notepad (oh yes!)
One bookmark with logo (you'll be the first! Amaze your friends!)
and
One Really Grateful Author (I'll put you on this list: GOOD-LOOKING PEOPLE I LIKE AND ADMIRE)

All you have to do is:

Vote in the comments (your name entered once)
Follow my Blog (your name entered twice) *There's a little blue sign "Follow This Site" on the left side of this blog to click and add your name OR you can subscribe by email - let me know in the comments.
Add Wanted: Dead or In Love to your Goodreads "Want to Read" List (name entered thrice!) Again, let me know in the comments if you did this. :)


THANKS to all who wandered in here (even if it was by accident!) I'll email you if you won so I can get your address. (US & Canada residents only for this one, unless shipping's less than five bucks. Vote and we'll see what happens. Hey - I'm from Chicago. Voting is always shady.) ;)

Catch you next time! KYM

Clyde Barrow Talks to You From the Grave (seriously!)

In my dual MC (main character for you non-writers out there), Clyde alternates chapters with Monroe Baker, a teen waiting tables at her dad's 1920's style, speakeasy dinner theater. Clyde Barrow was one of the most bizarre/unique characters I've ever (re)created in my writing career thus far. I  have to admit that I had a blast imagining his dialogue and would often linger over my words, disturbed (okay, and sometimes delighted) at what I made him say––which may mean I have a criminal mind lying deep inside of me. Be scared, people. (Mom, don't worry. I don't blame you.)
Here is a peek from Chapter Two from Wanted:  Dead or In Love (in which Clyde Barrow first awakens in his coffin). Strange, I know, but I swear it'll make sense if you read the book.

A drum roll please...

Oh - and make sure you read with a Texan twang in your head. That's how I imagined him anyway.

*Excerpt from Chapter Two

* Clyde *

A sudden jolt runs through my bones, swift as lightning and strong as a Texas twister in May. I blink twice, three times, but I can’t see nothing. I must be in the bottom of a mineshaft on a moonless night because it’s dark and I’m cold. Real cold. I concentrate hard as I can to move my body, one finger even, and finally, after what seems like forever, I give up.

I search my brain trying to figure how I got trapped down here. Last thing I remember was me and Bonnie heading down Potter Lane to go pick up Henry at his pa’s house in the middle of nowhere. We’d all visited our kin for two days but we needed to get back on the lam. I slowed down to drive around a fool truck driver who lost his load, when––Christ. It’s all coming back.

As I veered past the crates, rounds of gunfire blasted through my head, my neck, my arms and legs–-jolting me right outta my seat. Bonnie’s spine-chillin’ scream was the last thing I heard before blackness came. It’s obvious to me looking back now that the sheriff’s posse brought along enough ammo to shoot a herd of buffalo. Cold-hearted bastards never even offered us a chance to surrender.

Not that I would, but they dint know that. At least I coulda taken down a few of the laws before me and Bonnie got smoked.

I realize then that I ain’t in any mineshaft––I’m in my final resting place.

LIVE! From Chicago...It's My Very First Snippet of WANTED: DEAD OR IN LOVE

*Deep breath and...


Every day since signing the contract with Merit Press to publish my debut YA novel, Wanted:  Dead or In Love has brought new "firsts."  Today on Darkly Delicious YA is the first sneak peek I'm sending out into the world. Nervously excited for people to check it out. *bites nails.

CLICK THIS LINK to read the Tuesday Teaser on Darkly Delicious YA of WANTED:  DEAD OR IN LOVE:  http://darklydeliciousya.blogspot.com/2014/01/exclusive-first-look-at-kym-brunners.html

OK for Writers to Depict Criminals in a Positive Light in YA?

Good question. 

My short answer is:  it's fiction. Fiction is written to amuse, entertain, and possibly make the reader question things in his or her own life. That's my job as an author…making the reader feel something––rage, happiness, regret, or maybe joy.

I expect there will be some (maybe even a lot) of readers who will get bent out of shape over the depiction of Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow in my YA novel. After all, Bonnie & Clyde were downright nasty criminals from the 1930’s who were in love. In WANTED:  DEAD OR IN LOVE, they come back to life, and they’re not necessarily typecast as “the bad guys.” No doubt about it, Bonnie and Clyde did a lot of horrific things in their day and were eventually gunned down for it by a posse of tough crime fighters called The Texas Rangers. I’m not making excuses for Bonnie and Clyde––they deserved to have been stopped. 

I think what I tried to show is that most of us––Bonnie and Clyde included––are not solidly “all good” or “all bad.” Many of us make decisions that seem like a good idea at the time that later turn out to be not-so-great. My main character, a teen girl named Monroe, has always lived by the motto, “You Only Live Once,” but when she faces the counterpart to that, “Don’t do the crime if you can’t do the time,” she starts to reconsider.

If she could do it all over again, she might say, “Yes, you are in charge of your own destiny. Just make sure it’s the destiny you really want.”

Actual footage taken from Bonnie & Clyde’s death scene in 1934.

Aside from telling what I hope is a unique, suspenseful tale, maybe it'll make someone stop and think before making stupid mistakes that can follow them their whole lives. Or maybe not––it's their choice. Take it from me––I've made plenty. :) 

'Til next time,

KYM

Meet Monroe, infected by Bonnie Parker, in Wanted: Dead or In Love

I'm so thrilled to be featured in Cherie Colyer's blog today! Thanks, Cherie.

Monroe Baker, my main character featured on my book cover (left), pops in to  talk about what it was like being infected by the famous female outlaw, Bonnie Parker. 

Check it out here:

YA author Kym Brunner: Friday Feature on Cherie Colyer's Blog