Today I'm pleased to welcome another author into the Den:
Karen Metcalf has recently released her first book,
In The Storm and has decided to share a bit of her history with the Young Adult genre.
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What I Read As A “Young Adult”I don’t really remember there being a “Young Adult” genre, per se, when I was a kid. The first books I really remember getting into were R.L. Stine’s
Fear Street series. My sister, Michelle, introduced me to them. We had a ton of them at home. I must have read every single one he wrote, and if we didn’t own it, I checked it out from the library. In fact, my collection grew so large that in 5th grade I brought them all to school to start a class library. I think these were the closest thing to YA that I came across at the time.
When I ran out of those, Michelle introduced me to Stephen King, and I haven’t stopped reading him since. I think horror novels are so much scarier than the movies. There is something about imagining a creature rather than seeing him that can truly make your skin crawl. I thought I would love scary movies for this same reason, but they always lost me when they finally revealed the monsters. The unknown is much more terrifying.
I think Stephen King is the sole reason I have been told I have a “sick imagination”. He was the first person to make me really consider monsters in my closet or under my bed. He was also the first person I was willing to read until 3 am, long after a twelve year old should be asleep. I think this is when my passion with reading really began, and it’s still going strong. Sci-fi would come along later, and stretch my imagination even further.
When I discovered YA, and that it has some of those horror and sci-fi elements in it, I fell in love. It might be a little in the reverse order, but I know I’m certainly not the only to experience that.
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No one escapes fate without sacrifice, but is the price more than Carly is willing to pay?
There’s a phrase in the South: “telling stories”, which means telling lies. Growing up, Karen Metcalf told a lot of stories, which wasn’t always a good thing.
She was raised on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, where she spent most of her time reading science fiction and horror. She continues to explore those worlds through her writing, today.
Karen is 23 years old, and lives in Tucson, Arizona.
Visit her at
http://www.karen-metcalf.com/ to learn more!
Karen has been generous enough to offer
2 Free E-Copies of In The Storm to my readers.
To enter, simply fill out THIS FORM!
Entries will be accepted through March 24th.
Thanks so much, Karen, for stopping by!
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