Guest post by Nova Ren Suma
Source: misterkey.deviantart.com via Nova on Pinterest
Today’s image is a piece of street photography by an artist who calls himself MisterKey. I didn’t know anything about the image when I first saw it (where it was taken; who of). It was the reaching hand that bothered me. It bothered me so much, I had to write about it.
Another girl could go today. She could be pulling her scarf tight around her face to protect it from the cold, searching through her coat pockets for her car keys so they’re out and ready when she reaches her car in the dark lot. She could glance in through the bright, blazing windows of the nearest restaurant as she hurries past. And then when she’s out of sight the shadowy hands could grab her, the sidewalk could gulp her up.
—from 17 & Gone, page 2
There was something about the idea of shadows coming to claim someone, the simple thought of a girl crossing a parking lot and never making it to the other side, that haunted me.
In fact, I discover now only after doing some research to find the source of this photograph, this image was taken in Budapest, far from the parking lot I imagined in a made-up town in the Hudson Valley area of upstate New York. But the place itself doesn’t much matter, does it? It’s the sinister feeling. The way you want to shout at her to run, worried she won’t escape. So much of that made its way into the novel.
For spotlights on more images from my 17 & Gone inspiration board on Pinterest, keep following this blog tour!
About The Book:
Seventeen-year-old Lauren is having visions of girls who have gone missing. And all these girls have just one thing in common—they are 17 and gone without a trace. As Lauren struggles to shake these waking nightmares, impossible questions demand urgent answers: Why are the girls speaking to Lauren? How can she help them? And . . . is she next? As Lauren searches for clues, everything begins to unravel, and when a brush with death lands her in the hospital, a shocking truth emerges, changing everything.
By: Nova Ren Suma
Published by: Penguin Teen / Dutton
To Be Released on: March 21st, 2013
Pre-Order from: Amazon | Barnes & Noble
Add it to Goodreads
About the Author:
Nova Ren Suma is the author of the YA novel Imaginary Girls (Penguin/Dutton, 2011) and the tween novel Dani Noir (Simon & Schuster/Aladdin, 2009), reissued as Fade Out for a YA audience (Simon Pulse, 2012). Nova’s new YA novel, 17 & Gone, is forthcoming in hardcover from Penguin/Dutton on March 21 in the US (March 26 in Canada).
Nova has an MFA in fiction from Columbia University and a BA in writing & photography from Antioch College. She’s been awarded fiction fellowships from the New York Foundation for the Arts, the Djerassi Resident Artists Program, where she was awarded the Erik A. Takulan Memorial Endowed Fellowship for 2012, the Millay Colony, the Corporation of Yaddo, and, twice, from the MacDowell Colony. She was selected to attend the 2012 Launch Pad Workshop, a NASA-funded astronomy workshop for writers, and for summer 2013 she was awarded an NEA fellowship for a residency at the Hambidge Center for Arts & Sciences in rural Georgia. She teaches YA novel writing with Mediabistro.
Nova grew up in small towns across the Hudson Valley and can now be found in New York City.
Visit Nova via her: Website | Blog | Twitter | Facebook | Tumblr
Blog tour schedule:
Monday, 3/18: Mundie Moms
Tuesday, 3/19: Confessions of a Readaholic
Wednesday, 3/20: The Compulsive Reader
Thursday, 3/21: The Mod Podge Bookshelf
Friday, 3/22: Anna Reads
Monday, 3/25: The Story Siren
Tuesday, 3/26: A Good Addiction
Wednesday, 3/27: Radiant Reads
Thursday, 3/28: Presenting Lenore
Friday, 3/29: Book Chic
Tuesday, 3/19: Confessions of a Readaholic
Wednesday, 3/20: The Compulsive Reader
Thursday, 3/21: The Mod Podge Bookshelf
Friday, 3/22: Anna Reads
Monday, 3/25: The Story Siren
Tuesday, 3/26: A Good Addiction
Wednesday, 3/27: Radiant Reads
Thursday, 3/28: Presenting Lenore
Friday, 3/29: Book Chic
That shadow pic. Haunting. Beautiful.
ReplyDeleteI love this cover! I am excited to meet this author this coming Sunday!
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