Today I want to introduce you to Death Wish by Megan Tayte, a young adult romance with a paranormal edge. Death Wish is the first in a series called The Ceruleans.
Keep reading to discover the synopsis and read a guest post from the author about ‘writing what’s raw’.
About the Book
IN SEARCH OF THE MEANING OF DEATH, SHE’LL FIND THE MEANING OF LIFE.Seventeen-year-old Scarlett Blake is haunted by death. Her estranged sister has made the ultimate dramatic exit. Running away from school, joining a surfing fraternity, partying hard: that sounds like Sienna. But suicide? It makes no sense.
Following in her sister’s footsteps, Scarlett comes to the isolated cove of Twycombe, Devon, with grand plans to uncover the truth. Alone. But she hasn’t reckoned on meeting two boys who are determined to help her. Luke: the blue-eyed surfer who’ll see the real Scarlett, who’ll challenge her, who’ll save her. And Jude: the elusive drifter with a knack for turning up whenever Scarlett’s in need.
As Scarlett’s quest for the truth unravels, so too does her grip on reality as she’s always known it. Because there’s something strange going on in this little cove. A dead magpie circles the skies. A dead deer watches from the undergrowth. Hands glow with light. Warmth. Power.
What transpires is a summer of discovery. Of what it means to conquer fear. To fall in love. To choose life. To choose death.
To believe the impossible.
This had me hooked straight away! I love the cover and I’m intrigued about the mysteries hinted at in the blurb!
About the Author
Once upon a time a little girl told her grandmother that when she grew up she wanted to be a writer. Or a lollipop lady. Or a fairy princess fireman. ‘Write, Megan,’ her grandmother advised. So that’s what she did.
Thirty-odd years later, I write the kinds of books I love to read: young-adult paranormal romance fiction. Young adult, because it’s the time of life that most embodies freedom and discovery and first love. Paranormal, because I’ve always believed that there are more things in heaven and on earth than are dreamt of in our philosophy. And romance, because I’m a misty-eyed dreamer who lives for those ‘life is so breathtakingly beautiful’ moments.
I grew up in the Royal County, a hop, skip and a (very long) jump from Windsor Castle, but these days I make my home in Robin Hood’s county, Nottingham. I live with my husband, a proud Scot who occasionally kicks back in a kilt; my son, a budding artist with the soul of a paleontologist; and my baby daughter, a keen pan-and-spoon drummer who sings in her sleep. When I’m not writing, you’ll find me walking someplace green, reading by the fire, or creating carnage in the kitchen as I pursue my impossible dream: of baking something edible.
Guest Post by Megan Tayte: ‘Writing What’s Raw’
When people ask me what inspired me to write my YA series The Ceruleans, I can talk easily – and at length – about scenic Devonshire coves, and music that moves me, and artworks with soul, and the age-old exploration of light versus darkness, good versus bad. All of these things, and many more, inspired Death Wish and the subsequent four books. But lying beneath them all is the main inspiration, the foundation for the series, and it’s not a subject I shout about. (In a whisper) I’ll explain…
I believe that to write well, you have to write from a place of knowledge. That’s not to say that if you’re writing a tale of werewolves, you need to be a werewolf. But when you write the pain of the hero’s transformation into werewolf, that needs to come from a place of knowing physical pain. And when you write all the emotions that the hero struggles with, you need to really understand those feelings. Bottom line: you need some experience of ‘the deep stuff’.
The Ceruleans is a series that explores plenty of highs, but also lows: suicide, disability, illness, loss, death, separation, violence, family strife and an overriding struggle with self: to be who you are at your core, and loved and accepted for that. For me, as an author, the series was a means of exploring all sorts of questions and emotions my own life experiences had thrown up: therapy, of sorts.
Ernest Hemingway wrote: “There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.” That’s what writing The Ceruleans felt like to me at times. Of course bleeding means there’s a wound there, and the wound is painful – but the bleeding is release, and it’s cathartic.
There were days during the writing process that the words flowed out of me easily and quickly, and I had no trouble shutting the laptop and stepping straight back into being a fun and cheery mum. But there were other days that it felt different; days when writing about loss made me ache, and after I finished writing I’d take my kids on my lap and hug them tight for a little while and tell them how much I loved them.
An easy choice would have been to quit writing books so full of emotion – to write something light-hearted and fun instead. But when there are books in you that clamour to be put down on paper, turning your back on them is no simple matter. The only way out is through.
Writing what’s raw takes a willingness to surrender, to be vulnerable – and it takes faith. My writing mantra is this: trust the process. If you’re true to yourself, if you write what you really need to write, you’ll be happy with the finished manuscript. And just maybe, there will be readers out there who’ll see how deep you went in the writing, and who’ll respect you for that.
Do you agree that to write about difficult subjects you have to experience those ‘raw emotions’ Megan talks about? Would you like to read Death Wish? Let me know in the comments!
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