Sparked
by Helena Echlin and Malena Watrous
Publication
Date: October 3, 2017
Publisher:
Geek & Sundry
Fifteen-year-old
Laurel Goodwin wakes up to find her older sister Ivy missing from their
Airstream trailer in the Oregon redwoods. A recurring nightmare convinces her
that Ivy was abducted, but no one takes her dream seriously, including her mom.
Laurel, a loner, has to learn to ask for help, and Jasper Blake, a mysterious
new kid who shares her love of old books, quickly becomes her ally. Together
they find their quiet town holds a deep secret and is the epicenter of a dark
prophecy.
Laurel
soon learns that her worst enemies, mean girls Peyton Andersen and Mei Rosen,
are developing powers that she needs to find and save Ivy. With time running
out, Laurel realizes that power doesn’t always take the form that you expect.
And once she learns to look beyond her snap judgments, she develops an
unexpected gift of her own.
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EXCERPT:
CHAPTER
2:
ENGLISH CLASS HUMILIATION AND FIRE SCENE
When the novel opens,
Laurel wakes up to find her sister Ivy missing from her bed. Their mom is sure
that she must have stayed out all night to try to teach her a lesson—because of
a fight they had the night before—and that Laurel will see her at school. When
Ivy isn’t there, Laurel becomes increasingly convinced that something terrible
must have happened to her. Not knowing what else to do, she goes to class. In
first period, her English teacher returns a short story that she’d submitted
the week before. Laurel has always considered herself a writer, and English has
always been her best subject in school, so the following exchange comes as a
blow on what’s already a horrible day…
“This
was a clever idea,” Ms. Owen said, “but the characters never really came to
life.” She dropped the story I’d submitted for a creative assignment on my
desk. My words were covered in so much red ink, I could barely read them
anymore.
“I
mean who is this girl really?” she said. “What does she see in this boy,
aside from the ‘sparkle of his ultraviolet eyes’?” She put those words in
finger quotes. I shrugged, my face burning. “And what about him?” she pressed.
“If everything he touches turns to stone, how does he eat?”
Ouch.
“I
don’t know,” I mumbled. “It’s just, like, a fantasy story.”
“Well,
I think you can do better,” she said sternly.
My
eyes prickled with tears. I hoped she’d go away—but Ms. Owen was like a pit
bull, jaws locked on its prey.
“If
you’re serious about becoming a writer, I suggest you spend more time thinking
about what makes people tick,” she said. “Use your real-life observations to
create fictional characters with a pulse.”
My
vision filmed over and I tried not to blink. Normally, I wouldn’t have broken
down like this over a stupid story, but I didn’t know how much more I could
take today.
Everyone
was staring at me.
Except
for Jasper.
He
seemed to be gazing at some point at the front of the classroom, oddly
focused, although there was nothing in particular to see there.
Then
I smelled it: very faint at first, but unmistakable.
Burning.
Behind
Ms. Owen, a curlicue of smoke rose from the garbage can. Something crackled
quietly, like a twig snapping in the woods. Then a flame shot up over the rim.
Half the class screamed, not so much in fear as in delight that something was
happening for a change. As the flame whooshed up, Ms. Owen scuttled backward,
as if hoping to use the students in the front row as a buffer between herself
and the fire.
People
leaped to their feet. Stu Sheers smashed the glass on the fire alarm, and the
air filled with the pealing of the bell. Everyone rushed out the door, pushing
and shoving. Ms. Owen yelled at us to hurry, and I grabbed my backpack. Only
Jasper didn’t move. When I left the room, he was still pinned in his chair,
staring at that blaze as if he didn’t want to get an inch closer to it.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Hello!
We are both novelists, but if you’ve ever tried to write anything, you know
that writing can be a lonely, angst-filled business. So one night over a
cocktail or two, we came up with a solution: write our next book together.
Malena already had an idea: a girl’s sister is kidnapped and she has to rely on
mean girls with superpowers to get her sister back. We couldn’t resist seeing
where that story would take us – a wild ride that includes a loner girl who
wants to be a writer and a gorgeous boy who can shoot fire from his eyes but
also loves to talk about books. And an ancient Zoroastrian prophecy. And pie
shakes. (OK, so maybe we got a little carried away.)
We’ve
both published solo novels (check them out here and here) and had no idea how
co-writing would work out, but we pounded out the first draft in a white-hot
frenzy of inspiration we called “the Vortex.” One of us would write a scene and
send it to the other with a note: “My apartment is a pigsty and I haven’t eaten
all day. #inthevortex.” We wrote the book we wanted to read as teenagers: a
supernatural thriller with healthy doses of horror and humor. Oh, and of course
there’s romance. You have to wait a long time for the only kiss in the book,
but isn’t that the case with all the best kisses in books?
Giveaway:
·
Two (2) winner will receive a copy of Sparked by
Helena Echlin and Malena Watrous (INT)
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