Visiting with Katy Newton Naas… Giveaway Alert

 

I’m pleased to welcome Katy Newton Naas on my blog today. Ms. Naas is a talented author with Clean Reads.  I have to say, her  new book looks fascinating. If you agree, stick around because she’s offering a giveaway.

 

Katy Naas:  I would like to say a big THANK YOU to Ms. Lynn for hosting me on her blog today. I am so excited for the release of my fifth novel, a young adult ghost story, The Deep End.                

I am one of those sick people who kind of loves to be scared (reading a book or watching a movie from the comfort of my own safe home, of course), even though I end up staying awake through the night watching cartoons in order to stop jumping at every little sound and looking over my shoulder when I move throughout the house. There are a lot of scary stories out there, but my favorite ones have always involved ghosts. Ax murderers, stalkers…that’s all freaky, too, but the idea of spirits bothers me even more.                

When I had the idea for this story, I had just become pregnant with my second child, who is now four months old. I already had one son, a four-year-old, and I was teaching full-time. We had recently moved into a new house and were doing some remodeling on top of all that, so life was pretty busy. I was sort of on a hiatus from writing, but I just couldn’t shake the story from my mind. So, I did what a lot of writers do…I sacrificed sleep. I stayed up after my husband and son were sound asleep and wrote into the wee hours of the night. Or, sometimes, I would set my alarm for three in the morning and write until it was time to begin getting ready for my day. And using this method, I cranked out my first draft of the novel in about three months. I just couldn’t stop until the story was out of my system.                

Of course, with it being a ghost story, and with the setting of the story in a home somewhat similar to the one we had just purchased, I scared myself often. When I wrote a scene involving the ghost girl, I usually turned on the TV and watched an episode of The Office or Friends or something equally goofy and non-threatening. I’m embarrassed to admit this, but I even once resorted to Yo Gabba Gabba!, the last show my son had been watching before he went to bed. (All you parents out there will understand that one. You just can’t watch DJ Lance Rock and feel scared. Or, I don’t know…maybe you can. The show’s a little weird, I’ll admit.)                

And now, I am so excited to share this story with the world. It has become one of my favorite novels I have written and I hope that my readers will enjoy it as much as I enjoyed writing it. I am thrilled to be able to give away a copy of this novel to a reader of this blog, and I welcome your feedback!     

 

When shy sophomore Kaci Lynn Richards moves to a small town, she is nervous about the change. That is, until she befriends the outgoing Jo and meets popular senior James Mitchell. Kaci quickly learns to love her new life…until she begins to see the ghost of a teen girl in her new home. The mystery girl haunts her, giving her visions that leave clues as to who she was and how she met her violent fate. But the more she learns about the girl, the more she finds that life in this sleepy town may not be what it seems.

 Some things are even more terrifying than ghosts…

 

EXCERPT:

 

As soon as I close the cabinet door, my whole body is chilled. I shiver, turning toward the microwave to find myself face-to-face with her. Her dark eyes gaze into mine, her cold breath so close I can feel it on my cheeks. My heart racing, I jump back, colliding with the counter behind me.

What happens next is a blur. I feel a sharp pain in the back of my head and I am on the floor. She stands over me, her tangled hair hanging down, covering parts of her face while she stares down at me, her eyes wide and intense. I am unable to look away from her, unable to scream or move or even breathe.

Suddenly, she is gone and the room spins. I can finally blink, and I try to steady myself as the room finally settles. I am still on the floor, still in my kitchen, except it looks…different. Mom’s mixer that sits on the counter is gone. Instead, a wine rack sits in its place, and I count nine glass bottles resting inside of it. The walls are a dark brown color, and the lights seem dimmer. “Aven?” I call out weakly, but the voice I hear is not my own. I try to use my hands to push myself up off the floor, but I can’t; they are behind my back, stuck on something.

I twist my neck around, trying to look at them so that I can figure out how to get them loose. That’s when I feel the shooting pain go up through my arms, and I realize it’s because my wrists are bound together with rope and it’s cutting off the circulation from my hands to the rest of my body. Desperately I try to pull them apart, but the fibers of the rope dig deeper into my wrists and the pain is unbearable, so I let them go limp behind me, giving up that fight.

Calm down, I order myself. Breathe. Don’t panic. I ignore the throbbing pain in my arms as I squirm, inch by inch until I am in a sitting position. Looking down, I see that the red long-sleeve shirt and jeans I had on have been replaced by a white nightgown. The blood stains around the collar and down my sides make my heart race faster – even more so when I realize that they’re mine.

“Help!” I cry out, again surprised when the voice I hear is a little deeper than mine. “Somebody please help me!”

“You’re wasting your breath,” a deep, masculine voice says from somewhere behind me. There is a hint of laughter in his words when he says, “There’s no one here but you and me.”

The voice is vaguely familiar, but I don’t have time to analyze it as a cold, pressing fear weighs down my body. It is then that I realize that he’s right; there’s no one here to help me and I am going to die.

 

*This giveaway will conclude on November 7, 2015. I will post the winner here on November 8, 2016.

 

TAGS: ghost, spirit, possession, possessive boyfriend, high school, new school, best friend, rivalry, country life, stepfather, pond, little brother, shy girl, homecoming

About the Author:

From the time she was old enough to talk, Katy Newton Naas has been creating characters and telling stories. As a child, they sometimes got her into trouble. She knew she wanted to write books when she won a Young Author’s competition as a second-grader for her short story titled, “The Grape Pie.” (Don’t let its tasty title fool you – it was actually a sad little tale!)

 

Katy devoured books as a child and young adult, always doing chores and odd jobs in order to make enough money to buy more of them. Though she continues to age, her true literature love is and has always been children’s and young adult fiction. ​ Katy currently teaches middle school reading and high school English in southern Illinois, as well as children’s church. She graduated from Southern Illinois University-Carbondale with a bachelor’s degree in English Education and a master’s degree in Reading and Language Studies. She enjoys her life out in the country with her husband, her two sweet and rowdy young sons, and all her other “kids”: four dogs, three cats, and eight ducks.

 

She loves creating both realistic and futuristic stories about kids, tweens, and teens, and feels so fortunate to get to work with them every day as a teacher.

Connect with Katy Newton Naas: Website: http://katynaas.wix.com/katynewtonnaasauthor

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/katynewtonnaasauthor?ref=hl

Twitter: https://twitter.com/KatyNewtonNaas

Instagram: https://instagram.com/katynewtonnaas/

Blog: https://katynewtonnaas.wordpress.com/

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8562833.Katy_Newton_Naas