You Won’t Know I’m Gone
Kristen Orlando
(The Black Angel Chronicles #2)
Published by: Swoon Reads
Publication date: January 16th 2018
Genres: Contemporary, Thriller, Young Adult
Reagan has to prove herself to an elite group of special agents—and avenge her mother’s death—in the second book in the Black Angel Chronicles from the author of You Don’t Know My Name.
Going rogue in an effort to rescue her kidnapped parents has cost Reagan Hillis her automatic ticket to the Training Academy. But becoming a Black Angel is the only way Reagan will be able to exact revenge on her mother’s merciless killer, Santino Torres.
When Reagan is given a chance to prove that she’s worthy of training to be a Black Angel, she also gets the first chance she’s ever had to be her true self. No aliases. No disguises.
But when her friend Luke joins her at the Black Angels training compound, Reagan finds herself once again torn between the person she was and the person she wants to be. Reagan has to prove that she’s as good as her parents trained her to be, because she’ll never find Torres without the Black Angels’ help.
Guest Post:
What was the hardest part of writing You Won't Know I'm
Gone?
You Won’t Know I’m
Gone was by far the hardest and most emotionally-draining book I’ve ever
written. Granted, I’ve only written three books. My debut You Don’t Know My
Name, this second book in the trilogy and the third book in the trilogy (which
I’m currently editing). The first and third book were a total breeze compared
to You Won’t Know I’m Gone and I believe there are two big reasons this book
was so difficult.
Firstly, you’ve heard
of method acting, right? Where the actor truly becomes the character? They take
on that character’s way of speaking and personality and quirks twenty-four
hours a day. Well, if there is such a thing as a method writer, I think I may
be one. In the second book, my main character Reagan is dealing with so much
emotionally. Her mother is killed right in front of her eyes and she believes
it’s her fault. Her father can’t stand to be in the same room as her, plus
she’s lost her almost-boyfriend Luke and all of her best friends. She is empty
and grief-stricken and completely lost. Since this novel is written in first
person and present tense, I tried to put myself in her shoes to better capture
her emotions. I attempted to feel what Reagan was feeling in those chapters.
The anger and the depression and the regret. How the loss of her mother felt in
her head, in her heart, in her gut. And at the end of a writing day, I found
myself hollow and heartbroken. Even when I was away from the work, I was
overcome by sadness. And I realized it was the writing that was making me feel
so depressed. I was taking on Reagan’s emotions, which made it hard to separate
myself from her. I don’t think I fully came out of that gut-wrenching emotional
state until I was finished with the first half of the book (which is probably
the darkest). When I was finally pulling Reagan out of the black, I was able to
pull myself out of the black, too.
The second reason You
Won’t Know I’m Gone was so hard was the dreaded imposter syndrome. I had heard about
this phenomenon from other writers and…oh, boy! I had a severe case of
sophomore slump. The entire time I was writing this book, there was a mean,
horrible girl living in my head that constantly whispered things like “your
first book was a fluke!” and “oh my gosh, your editor is going to laugh at this
crap you’re writing” and “Macmillan is going to pull your book deal this is so,
so bad” and “you suck at writing, your agent is going to leave you.” The
self-doubt was pretty horrible. I am happy to say that while writing my third
book, I kicked the mean girl out of my brain. So mean girl, you can come around
for tea. But you’ve been evicted from your place in my head.
Author Bio:
Writing is one of the great loves of Kristen Orlando’s life and she has been lucky enough to make it her living, first as a television producer, then as a marketer and now as a novelist. Kristen graduated with a B.A. in English literature from Kenyon College. She lives in Columbus, Ohio with the other great love of her life, Michael. You Don’t Know My Name is her debut novel.
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