KV Flynn Shares His New YA Release

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This Skate Safari Just Got Scary Real

 Callum Vicente and his middle school skateboard buddies are spending the best summer together ever, grinding and doing tricks all day at their SoCal skate camp, PEAK. But when a major war breaks out, they’re stranded, and use their wits and resources, along with a secret network of skate parks and message boards, to travel miles to the north and reach their families in the Safe Camps—skating all the way!

BACK-COVER BLURB—longer: Callum Vicente and his four best middle school buddies live in a Southern California beach town, and narrowly miss being grounded for life after they sneak out of town on the bus for a great skateboard day just before promotion from 8th grade. Their pal Justice ends up with a wicked broken leg, but their parents soon forget about it because weird, tense things are happening in the news. So Callum, Levi and his bff Apollo are soon deep into their best summer ever at PEAK skateboard camp where they learn tricks from the pros, grind on endless street courses, and careen off one awesome ramp straight into the lake. It is mad fun until the War breaks out: the teens watch major cities blown up on TV, have no idea what’s happened to their parents, and then lose virtually all communication with the outside world.

Stranded, the boarder buddies strike out on their own to find their families, travelling north through all of California and Oregon, following a network of underground message boards and savvy riders who they find holed up in skate parks along the way. They pick up their school buddy Mateo Beltran and hitch a ride with their Native friend Obbie, on his way to safety on his dad’s reservation in Washington state, and even get some surprising help as they try to figure out a world gone crazy while they are On the Move.

K.V. Flynn is a writer who lives in Southern California, kind of near Manhattan-Huntington-Malibu Beach. His action-adventure book ON THE MOVE about 14-year-old skater friends who are stranded at skate camp when a War breaks out, comes out on Sept.2. Follow the news about it at www.OnTheMoveBooks.com. His favorite ride is an 8.25″ Krooked deck, Independent trucks, and 53 mm Spitfire wheels. He is half Spanish and half Irish. K.V. has a dog, and has been watching “Pretty Sweet” by Chocolate Skateboards, “Stay Gold” by Emerica, and “The Deathwish Video” by Deathwish Skateboards. What about you!? He and his bros regularly cruise Venice, Stoner, Skatelab, and Van’s. Talk back: KVFlynnOntheMove@gmail.com.

 

Social Media Links:

 

a. www.facebook.com/OnTheMoveBooks

b. @OnTheMoveBooks

c. onthemovebooks.tumblr.com

d. www.goodreads.com/author/show/8420774.K_V_Flynn

e. K.V. Flynn is on Google+: google.com/+KVFlynn

 

One of my excerpts from On The Move: .

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ON THE MOVE: Excerpt #1

In a way, it had all begun on a normally great day. Maybe the best kind of skate day, if you ask me. Unfortunately, it had ended up as our worst in a long, long time. It was a Sunday, just before the last days of middle school. I’d met up with two of my other pals, Mateo and Obbie, to skate our school. Of course, skateboarding wasn’t allowed at Surfside High. And SSHS has a sleepover caretaker. But we were experts at eluding him. We still had some homework to do back home that weekend. And our final exams were coming up soon. But the local skatepark didn’t open until 1:00, so an early Sunday, skating the school, should have been righteous. Even the weather had been perfect, with just enough cloud cover for rolling tricks on asphalt without a blasting heat…

****

Mom dropped me off around eleven. It looked like nobody was around yet, but then, I heard the clatter roll of boarders behind the humanities block. A cheer went up. And then some laughter drifting through a gap in the locked fence. I promised Mom that I’d be home by three for sure.

My best friend, Apollo, was already there. His little brother, Kaspar, was with him, like always. The two of them were coasting down a handicap ramp next to the music room and then jumping the handrail. My band buddies, Mateo and Obbie, lumbered down the grass slope from where Mateo lived above the baseball diamond, their boards under their arms. Obbie seemed to tower over Mateo from that distance. Just then, our high school friend, Justice, arrived. He opened his dad’s car door before it had even come to a stop.

“Can I have the camera?” I saw him ask his father through the window. His eyes were hidden like a sheepdog’s under curly bangs. “And some money?” Already six feet tall, Justice had to fold down to his father’s level. His little blonde stepsisters passed him a beat-up HD camcorder case from the back seat. He ignored them, too.

“I gave you fifty dollars already.”

“Did not,” Justice was arguing as I rolled up. “Twenty.”

“Hi, Mr. V.” I peered into the car and grinned at the kids behind him.

“That’s Layne’s brother!” the preschool girl squealed.

“Hi ya, Callum.” The other sister waved.

I gave her a salute.

“What do you need it for? The bus is only a dollar fifty…”

“That, lunch… and, what if I need something?”

“Honestly, Justice.” His dad threw him another twenty, like he never believed a word his son said. “At least be careful with the camera.”

Justice was always on the verge of being kicked out. Of class. Of school. Of something. I’d heard moms whisper about him, as though he was already somebody to be afraid of. But to us, he was just a fierce skater.

“Ugh,” Justice exhaled then kicked onto his board as Mr. V drove the family out of the parking lot. “Let’s hit it.”

And we did just that. Apollo had grabbed Obbie and Mateo as they snuck into our high school from the sports field side. They were warming up together on the handicap ramps, doing little gap jumps into the grass.

“Wha’sup?” Apollo bumped my fist as I rode up with Justice. The day had just gotten even better. For the past twelve years — since we were two and a half — Apollo had been my best friend. His hair was as curly and golden as mine was straight and dark. His eyes were pale blue like stones under water. He could do anything athletic — skate, surf, play tennis — but he was also a really good student. Since preschool, we’d had endless fun together. There wasn’t anything I didn’t love doing if Apollo was there. He moved away from Surfside around kindergarten, but we still got together every few weeks to surf or skimboard. We’d race around playgrounds in his town or mine, nailing the slides or inventing goofy games. And we even rode matching kick scooters at the same time, before getting into the skater thing.

“Moving!” We followed Mateo as he snaked around our concrete amphitheater. Over by the loading docks were big green dumpsters that swallowed up our lunch detritus on school days.

“You in town for a while?” I asked Apollo, cruising next to him along a concrete walk way.

“Yeah, school’s out for us.” Apollo zigzagged back to do a front feeble on the music-room rail.

It felt weird not to know that he and his little brother were down for the weekend. It used to be, whenever I went to Cucamonga or he came to Surfside, we were there to hang with one another. He knew all of my buddies, of course, from birthday parties or surfing club. But today, he seemed to be spending the weekend with friends other than me. That was strange.

“Check it!” Justice had found a funky used gym pad poking out from behind the bins. Positioned off the metal dock, this could be a wildly fun landing spot…

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