GUEST POST: Tamara Rose Blodgett (author of Death Whispers)

Good morning, all! It's Wednesday, which means it's not only hump day, but it's also time for another stop along the The Virtual Book Tour Cafe's literary route, this time featuring Tamara Rose Blodgett, who has stopped by to promote her latest work, Death Whispers.

Tamara is a 'thinking-out-of-the box' paranormal enthusiast who believes there's a 95% chance zombies do not exist, but loves to write as if they do. From Alaska, she has worked as an online journalist in the past. She enjoyed writing Death Whispers and is hard at work on book two, Death Speaks (due to be published Aug. 2011). In addition, her paranormal romance, The Pearl Savage, is due to publish in mid-June. In her spare time she is a [reluctant] serial-re-modeler, project-slave and big time, in-her-pants reader (surprise!). She does a great deal of day-dreaming about impossible scenarios and events, writing books to capture them in stories for you. Side note: she believes gnomes should be exterminated.

Before we get into Tamara's guest post, let's take a quick look at Death Whispers:

Almost fifteen-year-old Caleb Hart is a Cadaver-Manipulator in the year 2025. When teens receive a government-sanctioned pharmaceutical cocktail during school, paranormal abilities begin manifesting... making the teens more powerful than the adults. After Caleb discovers he has the rare, Affinity for the Dead, he must do whatever it takes to hide it from a super-secret government agency whose goal is exploitation. Caleb seeks refuge in his new girlfriend, Jade, until he realizes that she needs as much protection from her family, as he does from the government. Suddenly, Caleb finds that hiding his ability while protecting Jade and his friends is a full time job; can he escape the government, protect Jade and lose the bullies that are making him miserable?

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Thanks so much for hosting me Sally!

“True Love,” in Young Adult Lit: Can it Happen?

Hi...let's talk about love. My name is Tamara and my debut novel, Death Whispers, is a coming-of-age story about a group of teens that become “government guinea pigs,” subjected to inoculations that allow paranormal abilities to manifest...with the consequence of such powers a gigantic gamble that pays off in ways that no one could have foreseen.

In my prior guest blog post in the tour, I touched on the trend for writing mixed-genre works...doesn’t everyone want the variety now of [a work] that is multi-dimensional; appealing to the reader on a lot of different levels? Yes! The next question is how young is too young for true love to blossom?

In DW, Caleb has his eye on an enigmatic and mysterious girl named Jade. When I envisioned the characters personalities I intuited immediately that who she was...was the perfect compliment for Caleb. Opposites attract...heat ensues. And as an author, I loved showcasing how as humans, we're all just “bottles in the ocean,” when it comes to attraction, or lack thereof. We float in the current, irrevocably caught up in where it takes us. In this novel it is obvious to the reader that Caleb's life would be so much easier without the inclusion of Jade. But Caleb knows, deep down, that he is more because of his relationship with her. He struggles to balance his new love for her with the old life he knows and chooses...her...over and over again. Those contrary directives are interesting to write about and watch unfold.

Now, before everyone says, “romance,” let's break my work down (and I'll use a few useful responses from people who I posed the question: what type of book is DW?):

Twenty-year old guy: Action/romance/sci-fi, Fourteen year old boy, “Cool paranormal powers, some romance,” Twenty-three year old book blogger: Naturally progressive romance, may deepen with time... and late 20s female book blogger: Dystopian/sci-fi with undertone of romance. A mixed bag of responses and except for the one quote, I'm paraphrasing...but the idea remains: DW means different things to each reader and so does true love.

As an author I look at my work as developing, with at least four books for this series. I don't have to “rush” the romance, but I have to show in this first work, how they were brought together as a couple, like magnets drawn irresistibly together. Will there be romantic suspense? Issues and complications? Definitely. However, the telling needs to be real. There cannot be true love without true strife. It doesn't do that “bell toll” that as readers we listen for so the story resonates. When finished, it's a little piece of reality we carry with us afterward, wrapped up in a tale of fiction.

Can we have true love in Young Adult Lit? You betcha! Caleb and Jade's love deepens...as we move through Death Speaks, and Death Screams. They grow, mature, struggle and triumph. That is what love does.

Thanks so much for reading my stories. Don't forget to check out my new YA paranormal romance with futuristic / steampunk / Victorian elements. The Pearl Savage, is publishing June 16. Enter the giveaway at: http://bookvacations.wordpress.com/ and read the review of the ARC. Thank you!

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Thanks so much to Tamara for stopping by. If you'd like to follow her virtual journey in support of Death Whispers check out her schedule on the Calendar of Events page at The Virtual Book Tour Cafe. You can also check her out on her blog, Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads, Shelfari, and Smashwords. 

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