about the book
I expected bling. I expected over-the-top mansions overflowing with fabulously dressed movie stars and obscenely flashy stretch limos. Turns out Hollywood is just a normal city with a smoggy sky, congested freeways snaking off in every direction, and copycat houses creeping up the scrubby mountains like a fungus. This is my new home, like it or not.
My name is Willa. My mom and I just left safe, quiet Connecticut to move here. Mom remarried—a famous film director named. He really is a good guy, and Mom is so happy now. I’ve got to go along with this. It has to work out. There is no alternative.
My new home turns out to be a real jaw-dropper, an over-the-top mansion like I imagined. Jonathan says the huge Spanish house is over a hundred years old and was owned in 1933 by the famous actress Diana Del Mar. She died right here in a bathtub!
Mom fits right in and Jonathan does everything to make us feel at home. His assistant Reed is a real hunk, and I think he likes me. I also make a great new friend, Marnie.
Though things are going as good as to be expected, I am not doing well. I haven’t gotten over my dad’s death two years ago. Secretly, I have been trying to contact him psychically, and it may be working. Some really strange things have happened—messages on my bedroom walls, even a strange reflection in a mirror.. I could be receiving messages…or I could be going crazy.
As if I’m not stressed enough, a serial killer is murdering women right here in our area. He arranges the bodies to reenact famous movie murder scenes. Suddenly, I’m seeing the murders in my visions!
I’ve got to talk to someone, I’m freaking out! Not Mom. Not Jonathan. Not Marnie. They would all think I am nuts. Maybe Reed. He’s such an attentive listener. Maybe Wyatt, my snide chem lab partner. He’s super smart and creepily obsessed with the Hollywood Killer. Maybe Ms Del Mar’s ghost. I think she has been disparately trying to communicate with me! Who would you turn to?
about the author
Growing up in southern Florida may explain Katie Alender’s recurring alligator dreams. Or it might be just her vivid imagination. By third grade Katie was writing long stories, naming her characters after her friends. By eighth grade, her research project was “Do I Want to Be a Writer?”
Katie studied communications at a Palm Beach arts high school and went on to study film at Florida State University. She moved to Los Angeles and worked in the entertainment industry. She writes and produces two national dog championship shows. She still lives in Los Angeles with her husband and her dog, Winston. Katie says she suffers from extreme dog nerdism!
Film school taught Katie to tell a story through the lens—putting the emphasis on the visual. Katie writes visually. In her mind, she sees where her characters stand, how they move and look. She completes the whole first draft of the book before she starts her favorite part of writing—revising.
Katie says publisher rejections are the hardest part of writing. The best part is the “warm fuzzies” from readers who love the book.
Sources:
Author website
Author biography: Amazon
Author interview: Fantastic Book Review
Also by Katie Alender:
The Dead Girls of Hysteria Hall. Point Signature. 2015.
Marie Antoinette, Serial Killer. Point Signature. 2013.
As Dead As It Gets (Bad Girls Don’t Die, Book 3). Hyperion Press. 2012.
From Bad to Cursed (Bad Girls Don’t Die, Book 2). Hyperion Press. 2011.
Bad Girls Don’t Die (Book 1). Hyperion Press. 2009.
read more!
The Dead Girls of Hysteria Hall by Katie Alender
Delia has inherited Great Aunt Cordelia’s home, nicknamed Hysteria Hall, a former insane asylum. She and her family go there to prepare it for sale. Right away, Delia realizes that something is terribly wrong with the building, and before she can save her family and escape, it kills her! Now Delia wanders the halls of the house with other ghosts—and a secret evil force. Delia has to uncover the house’s secrets before her sister suffers the same fate.
Dead and Buried by Kim Harrington
Jade thinks her biggest problem is making new friends and getting along with her stepmother. She didn’t count on the vengeful ghost of Kayla, who haunts their new home after she died there under mysterious circumstances. If Jade doesn’t find Kayla’s murderer, the angry spirit will take it out on Jade’s entire family. Not an easy assignment when just about everyone at school had a motive to kill the cruel girl!
Paper Valentine by Brenna Yovanoff
After her best friend Lillian died, Hannah cannot let go of the past—and Lillian’s ghost is haunting her bedroom. Lillian wants Hannah to investigate a string of murders, all connected by a simple valentine. Could it be possible that Lillian did not take her own life? Meanwhile, though Hannah knows she has no future with him, she cannot take her mind off of bad boy Finny Boone.