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Albert Camus

Don't walk behind me; I may not lead. Don't walk in front of me; I may not follow. Just walk beside me and be my friend.

Sunday, April 19, 2015

a seemingly endless staircase into the sky - Where the Staircase Ends by Stacy Stokes

After her best friend orchestrates the lie that destroys her reputation, Taylor wants more than anything to disappear from her life. But when an accident turns this unspoken wish into reality, instead of an angel-filled afterlife, 


Description:

Published: April 14th, 2015

After her best friend orchestrates the lie that destroys her reputation, Taylor wants more than anything to disappear from her life. But when an accident turns this unspoken wish into reality, instead of an angel-filled afterlife, Taylor must climb a seemingly endless staircase into the sky.

Instead of going up, the journey plunges her into the past. As she unravels the mystery behind her friend’s betrayal, she must face the truth about life and find the strength to forgive the unforgivable — unless the staircase breaks her first.

GUEST POST
Writing Young Adult Fantasy Stories

When I was in sixth grade a friend lent me her copy of Christopher Pike’s Remember Me. At the time, I wasn’t much of a reader. I read the occasional Baby Sitter’s Club, tried Sweet Valley High and a few other books here and there. But I wasn’t excited to read them. They didn’t make me want to read.


Then I opened that well-read, slightly bent copy of Remember Me and started reading. And it blew my $%#*ing mind.

(If you’ve never heard of Christopher Pike here’s a little more on him and his books. In short, he was king of the YA paranormal/fantasy thriller back in the 90s. He even wrote about vampires before they got all sparkly and drank True Blood. But I digress…)

After reading that book, I felt like my life had been split in two halves: Stacy before Christopher Pike and Stacy after Christopher Pike.

The after C.P. Stacy read voraciously. She dragged her mother to the book store the day the next Pike book came out and read it in one sitting, barely breaking for food or sleep. She thrust her already read copies into friends’ hands, urging them to drop everything read it right that second. She started exploring other authors, include Stephen King and Tolkien. And she started to write stories of her own, always with fantasy elements and paranormal themes.

Fast forward several years (okay, fine, more than several) and my debut novel is about to be released on the world—a young adult paranormal mystery. Coincidence? I think not. Remember Me not only influenced my reading habits, but my writing habits as well.

These days when I sit down to write, I ask myself: would young Stacy want to read this? Would this story keep her up until 2 a.m. on a school night? If the answer is yes, I keep going. Which means there always must be something fantastical in the story. Because that’s what young Stacy fell in love with, and what the adult version of her still loves.

What about you? Did you have a book that made you fall in love with reading and/or writing?

About the author:
Stacy Stokes attended the University of Texas at Austin and The Wharton School of Business. She grew up in Dallas, TX, and currently lives in San Francisco with her husband. WHERE THE STAIRCASE ENDS is her first novel.

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2 comments:

collenga said...

This sounds like such an exciting read! I love books about the afterlife and the cover is gorgeous! Thanks for sharing

Fayth97 said...

I'm going to be reading "Behind The Staircase" whether I win or not. It sounds like my kind of book. Thank you so much for the heads up on it!!