I would like welcome YA Author Jessica Bayliss to the Bookish Delights Blog! She is here to tell you all about her YA Horror novella, Broken Chords, which releases next week on October 9, 2017! How exciting! Especially with Halloween just around the corner, I'm sure you are all just dying to find the perfect spooky read this month. Well her book, Broken Chords, fits all the requirements with astral projection (out of body experience) and a demonic creature. It also has some romantic elements as well! I definitely loved it! (My review will be up this weekend, so look for that). Check out what people are saying about Broken Chords:
Sounds amazing, doesn't it?!! Jessica describes Broken Chords as "Poltergeist meets Insidious at a music festival." So you definitely do not want to miss out on this YA Horror novella. Look at the cover. It looks so creepy! You can read all about the book below.
AUTHOR: JESSICA BAYLISS
PUBLISHER: LEAP BOOKS
GENRE: YA HORROR (NOVELLA)
BOOK FORMAT: eBOOK
PUBLICATION DATE: OCTOBER 9, 2017
ASIN: B075CPBYLK
TAGLINE:
They RIP, they TEAR, they FEED, and you NEVER come back
again.
JACKET COPY:
Here’s how last year’s Gypsy Cob Music Festival should have
gone. Lenora “Lenny” Ragno was supposed to rock her duet with her long-time
crush, Jeb, during the open-mic competition. Then, swept up in the glow of
success, he’d finally kiss her. Instead, Lenny choked on stage and spent the
whole year dodging him online. And avoiding playing her fiddle in public. She
thought her worst nightmare was behind her, but she was way wrong.
Now, she’s back at Gypsy Cob where avoiding a public
performance is about as impossible as hiding from Jeb. She thinks facing him
will be the scariest part of the festival, but when one of their friends talks
everyone into trying astral projection, Lenny catches the eye of a demonic
entity that marks her as its own.
Whenever it wants, the demon can pluck Lenny from her
reality and transport her to a hellish between-world, haunted by its countless,
gruesome victims. If she doesn’t want to become one of them, she must discover
the nature of the demon’s hold on her and remove it. But how can she defeat a
literal demon when she can’t even get over her personal ones?
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Check out this interesting author interview!
INTERVIEW OF AUTHOR JESSICA BAYLISS:
What was your inspiration for writing this book?
The inspiration really came because I had to pee in the
middle of the night. Not what you were expecting, right? So, there I was,
camping on Martha’s Vineyard with my husband, and I had to pee in the middle of
the night. For anyone who’s ever camped, you know that the bathrooms are never
conveniently located. To reach it, I had a bit of a walk, and the fastest route
was through a playground. So, there I am, wee hours of the night (no pun
intended), and it’s all cold and misty. And I’m in this playground, and I
think: If those swings start moving right now, I’m so out of here.
As for the astral projection, that came from the fact that I
read and enjoyed a YA about astral projection back in my teen-aged days. I
often start my books with the question: what would I want to read? (Or, what
did I like to read back in the day?)
What about your musical inspiration?
Ah, yes. Many bands show up in BROKEN CHORDS, including some
of my favorites: The Greencards, Nikel Creek, and Crooked Still. Fans of these
folks will definitely pick up on some references in the book. One traditional
folk song, in particular, was a huge inspiration. It’s called Wind and Rain. I did some research on
this song, and it turns out, there have been versions of this—in song and in
poem form—for hundreds of years. It dates back to mid-seventeenth century and
its origins are the UK. It’s had different names, including The Two Sisters and
Twa Sisters, but every version includes the story about how one sister killed
the other. In most versions, including the one in my book, the older sister
kills her younger and yellow-haired sister out of jealousy over her having
landed beau. Creepy for sure. And, in all versions—creepiest of all—the
murdered sister’s body is turned into a fiddle! I can’t remember if I decided
to use this song first OR if I decided Lenny was a fiddle player first, but
needless to say, it all came together so beautifully (or, perhaps the best
words is horrifyingly).
Why horror?
That’s one of those questions I can’t exactly answer. I just
love it. Ever since I was a kid, I’ve been totally fascinated by scary stuff. I
do believe that my very first short story was about a haunted house. I wrote
that in 2nd grade for a classroom assignment. Needless to say, my
mother received a call. My relationship with the frightening, creepy, and
macabre was quite love-hate in those early days. In other words, I was a
chicken. I’d read scary stories (SCARY STORIES TO TELL IN THE DARK comes to
mind), but I was totally afraid to watch scary movies until I was around
twelve. But, once I did, I was hooked.
And paranormal horror is my favorite. I like to describe
BROKEN CHORDS as POLTERGEIST meets INSIDIOUS
at a music festival. Maybe that comes from some of the ghost stories told
by members of my family (I still have nightmares about my grandmother’s attic
and that house has been out of the family for seven years).
How do you meld the supernatural with the human?
Lenny’s story is not only one of surviving a
paranormal/demonic attack, it’s also about facing fear and trust and so many
other things?
Ah, yes. But that’s what I love the most about really good
horror, fantasy too. These kinds of books allow us to explore all sorts of
things but under the guise of other. I
will be honest, I’m not much of a drama fan. Partly, that’s because my work as
a psychologist is drama enough, but also because it’s just too much in your
face. But, when you throw in horror or a speculative element, now I can go to
those deep emotional places without feeling swamped. It’s like how I hide my
dog’s pill in some sliced turkey. You can hide the tough human experiences
within stories with speculative elements.
In BROKEN CHORDS, we get to see Lenny face all sorts of
things: fear and phobia (like, legit stage fright), she learns how to trust
others, and, perhaps her biggest journey, she learns to trust herself.
Thanks Jessica for sharing your insightful thoughts regarding Broken Chords!
Thanks Jessica for sharing your insightful thoughts regarding Broken Chords!
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Dive into this novella! Check out these interesting excerpts.
BOOK EXCERPTS:
Excerpt #1:
The frozen playground equipment came alive as ghost children
capered and played. The words to “Wind and Rain” came out of each of their
mouths, but with a singular voice, high and breathy and laced with that slimy,
rotten smell.
They spun on the carousel, catching me each time around with
the ragged, torn pits that used to hold their eyes. They soared skyward on the
teeter-totter—up and down and up and down and up and down—grinning gleeful
smiles full of charred coal. Their skin…no, that stuff wasn’t skin. Not
anymore. Dead. Colorless. Dried out like scaly tree bark. Grown over by mold
and time. Every twitch of cheek or wave of hand tore a little more away from
their bones. If they had bones.
Excerpt #2:
I forgot everything except Jeb and our music. I lived in each
pitch, each resonance. Each attuned moment where that magical thing
happens—individual notes becoming more than the sum of their parts, allowing
our song to surge in ringing sound that was sometimes sad, sometimes bleak,
always longing.
We breathed as one, moved as one. Our eyes locked, and part
of my brain could hear part of his brain, could anticipate a sudden fermata or
when he was aiming for a crescendo. Not a duo; a singular being. A singular
soul. Heat flooded me, filling up every space within my body, and my cheeks
flamed. I was raw, wide open, naked for him to see and to hear. From the inside
and from without. Every twitch of his lips became a kiss. Every motion of his
hands, a caress.
He touched me with his sound, tickled me with his breath—breath
that was my breath too—and longing surged through every ounce of my being.
When the song was over, the last plink of mandolin echoing in
my ears and my bow completing its final trip across the strings, I blinked. A
single tear slipped down my cheek. One look at Jeb, and I knew he was equally
disoriented. Equally affected. He fixed me in his gaze like he could see deep
within me, to my very soul.
To my
chord.
Excerpt #3:
Jeb’s voice ebbed and
flowed, his fear growing and sending out seedlings of dread to take root in my
own chest. He must have woken the entire camp by now. I fumbled open my tent
flap, stumbled outside, and zipped the flap shut with trembling hands. When I
turned around, I knew immediately why no one put a stop to Jeb’s
calls.
He wasn’t
in the normal world anymore.
Neither was I.
Despite not asking for it,
something twisted and bitter in this universe had bestowed it anyway. We’d
been transported to the astral plane.
The world was bathed in dark
beauty, like velvety gauze or some tranquil digital camera filter, making
everything hazy and wavery with dim blue-white light. I could actually see the
air – or matter or ether or whatever it was – that made up the world around me.
When I waved my hand, contrails showed its swishing progress long after I’d
ceased movement. Like, whatever I was made of in this form could interact with
the very construction material holding this universe together. Or, maybe
whatever I was made of in this form was the very construction
material of this universe.
“Oh
God,” I whispered.
That meant, behind me,
within the tent I’d just fled, my body lay prone. Not
in sleep, and not a trance. Not dead, but not really alive either.
An empty shell.
I stared at the dark green
vinyl before finally getting up the nerve to look inside. My body lay on my air
mattress, curled up as if I were merely sleeping. My chest rose and fell as my
organs responded to signals from the most primitive part of my brain, which
kept the basic functions of human life online even though the system user had
abandoned the controls.
I breathed in time with my
body. I wasn’t sure if I was really moving air
around in my spectral form, but the reflex to carry out the action was strong,
and it still felt soothing when I blew what might be nothing out of lungs that
probably weren’t there anyway. I took another deep, fake breath and closed my
eyes. My brain attempted to point out the ridiculousness of this – how I still
felt normal even though I was nothing but a ghost now. A spasm of laughter
escaped my throat, but I swallowed it down. If I let my mind think too hard
about things like where? and what? and how?, I’d
crack. Game over.
Instead, I chanted Jeb’s
mantra: “Just go with it.” Then I turned to face the astral plane.
SHORT EXCERPTS:
Short Excerpt #1:
I’d projected my soul from my body and Jeb’s with it as if he were some astral hitchhiker. Everything else was exactly the same. People still called and laughed outside. The sun still shone. We were just no longer in our mortal shells.
Short Excerpt #2:
When I looked up again, I couldn’t tell where I was. My lifeline was so weakened, its tell-tale glow no longer served as a sure path home. Not even a weak flicker remained. I was lost. A castaway in a sea of churning horror.
Short Excerpt #3:
I stopped worrying about how long I had left, because time stopped. The world, and all the other worlds attached to it, disappeared. If it had come at that very moment, the demon would never have found me. Jeb and I were suspended in a reality of our own. All that lived there were kisses and caresses and soft words whispered in tickling breath against my neck.
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Here is the fabulous Jessica Bayliss. If you would like to know more about her or her books, just check out her social media below.
 |
| ABOUT THE AUTHOR |
In the psychology world, she has more
than fifteen years of experience and training in the cognitive-behavioral
model. She’s a psychotherapist, a teacher, and a researcher. One day it hit
her: Why not combine writing and psychology? Just like that, PsychWRITE, her
series of lectures, workshops, and coaching services for writers was born.
Because one cannot live on work
alone, Jessica also spends a great deal of time with friends and family. She is
a lover of all animals especially one very special Havanese. She also loves to
eat, cook, and exercise—in that order—and is a firm believer that coffee makes
the world a better place.
Jessica is a member of SCBWI
and RWA; and her short fiction has been published in several anthologies and
lit mags; and she is an Associate Editor for Allegory eZine. Her YA horror novella, BROKEN
CHORDS, comes out next week (October 9th, Leap Books Press)! Look for her
upcoming YA debut novel release, TEN AFTER CLOSING (Sky Pony Press, spring 2018). For more
information about Jessica and about PsychWRITE, her series of courses and
workshops for writers, visit: www.JessicaBaylissWrites.com
Follow Jessica through social media!
AUTHOR LINKS:
PsychWRITE resources, workshops, and coaching for writers
Sign up for Jessica's Newsletter (all subscribers get automatically
get entered for a monthly drawing to win a free first chapter
critique)
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Did you like what you read?! If it piqued your interest, feel free to Add Broken Chords to your TBR list on Goodreads by clicking the link below. If you'd like to add Ten Past Closing, spring 2018, I've provided the link below as well as the synopsis. I am super excited about Ten After Closing, a contemporary YA novel!
BROKEN CHORDS on Goodreads
TEN AFTER CLOSING ON Goodreads
TEN AFTER CLOSING SYNOPSIS:
Sky Pony Press has acquired Jessica Bayliss's debut novel Ten After Closing, a contemporary YA thriller chronicling the events before and after a hold-up at Café Flores, during which two teens from very different backgrounds are held hostage and explore a relationship that might have been, all while scheming to stay alive. Publication is tentatively scheduled for spring 2018.
Also, feel free to visit any of these links to PRE-ORDER an ebook of Broken Chords by Jessica Bayliss for only $2.99! The release date is next week on October 9, 2017!
BOOK LINKS:
Help spread the word about Broken Chords & Ten After Closing by Jessica Bayliss through your social media. Remember to add Jessica to your social media to be up to date with her upcoming book releases.
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And now onto the fun stuff! Jessica Bayliss is offering a giveaway of her book Broken Chords! Enter the Rafflecopter form below. Also, feel free to leave a blog comment below if you are excited about Broken Chords! I'd love to hear what you think.
Giveaway:
One free copy of BROKEN CHORDS + SWAG!!!
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