Blog Tour, Guest Post & Giveaway: Black Bird of the Gallows by Meg Kassel

Black Bird of the Gallows by Meg Kassel was released last week and I am thrilled to be a part of the blog tour! When I read the synopsis I was immediately drawn to the harbinger of death mention so I asked Meg Kassel about it and you can read what she has to say below! Be sure to check out all the book information, excerpt, and a tour-wide giveaway!

 

Black Bird of the Gallows by Meg Kassel

Category: Young Adult, Paranormal
Publication: September 5th, 2017; Entangled Teen
Purchase: Amazon, B&N, iBooks, Kobo

A simple but forgotten truth: Where harbingers of death appear, the morgues will soon be full.

Angie Dovage can tell there’s more to Reece Fernandez than just the tall, brooding athlete who has her classmates swooning, but she can’t imagine his presence signals a tragedy that will devastate her small town. When something supernatural tries to attack her, Angie is thrown into a battle between good and evil she never saw coming. Right in the center of it is Reece—and he’s not human.

What’s more, she knows something most don’t. That the secrets her town holds could kill them all. But that’s only half as dangerous as falling in love with a harbinger of death.

 

Excerpt:

His soft voice clashes with the intensity of his gaze. “You’re adorable when you’re trying to be mad at me. You needn’t work so hard at it, though. We aren’t meant to be adversaries.”

“I, um…” My thoughts disband, leaving nothing for communication purposes. I’m adorable? Adorable has many definitions. I think my dog is adorable, for example. “That…wasn’t what I was going to ask you.”

He inclines his head. “Okay, then. Ask.”

But that “adorable” echoes through me, clinking around like a penny down a well. “What are we meant to be, then?”

His lips curls up at the corners. “That wasn’t your question, either.”

 

Guest Post:

As a huge Battlestar Gallatica Fan, I can’t think of anything but Kara Thrace when someone says Harbinger of Death…Were you a fan, did that show’s mystery inspire you?

I WAS a Battlestar Gallactica fan! Starbuck (aka Kara Thrace, played by the amazing, badass Katie Sackoff) was my favorite character—I mean, wasn’t she everyone’s? Any writers scratching their heads about this series should go watch it because if you want to write multi-layered, powerful, female characters, Starbuck is your go-to for the how-to. She’s damaged and strong and vulnerable and, frankly, the linchpin of the series. Anyhow, I binged watched Battlestar over one winter and learned so much about building characters and the complex relationships between them. Starbuck’s harbinger of death reputation didn’t directly inspire this book, but her dynamic character arch did work its way into several characters in Black Bird of the Gallows.

I can’t put my finger on any one thing being the seed of this book, but it was inspired in part by the mothman legends. I like to read about weird, unexplained phenomenon. It relaxes me. There is an internet rabbit hole you can go down regarding the mothmen, which, according to some stories, show up ahead of catastrophic events. Reading about these creatures, which vary in appearance from ordinary mean, to winged beasts, made my brain fiddle around with “what if” a guy was forced into the role of following around disasters? What if he was as likely to die as anyone else, but kept being reborn? And what if, at a location soon to be visited by tragedy, he fell in love and didn’t want to leave? The Beekeepers, one of whom is a villain in this book, were inspired by my dismay in the aftermath of superstorm Sandy, where people reportedly took boats up and down the Jersey shore, looting and destroying flooded homes. I wound up developing their entire backstory and origin, although it didn’t make it into this book. What fictional means could cause someone do that? The Beekeepers are profoundly tragic guys and more about them will be revealed in book two, next fall.

When coming up with stories, it’s all these little bits of stuff, which collect on a shelf somewhere in my brain. They eventually start fitting together and details get sewn in here and there, and then the plot starts to grow from the concept and characters. Most of my story development takes place when I’m doing something other than writing, like shuttling my daughter to preschool, or waiting on line at the food store. It’s shocking how disengaged I am from my surroundings when I’m in story building mode—ha! So a little bit of Battlestar Gallactica definitely made it into this book, along with so many other stories and characters and concepts that I’ve absorbed and woven into my writer self.

 

Author Bio: Meg Kassel

Meg Kassel is an author of paranormal and speculative books for young adults. A New Jersey native, Meg graduated from Parson’s School of Design and worked as a graphic designer before becoming a writer. She now lives in Maine with her husband and daughter and is busy at work on her next novel. She is the 2016 RWA Golden Heart© winner in YA.

Links:

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads

 

Giveaway:

Three (3) winners will receive A Black Bird of the Gallows canvas tote bag (11“x14”) which includes a custom made crow pendant and ball chain, bookmark and stickers, $10 Amazon Gift Card (INT)

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Entangled Teen is also giving away t-shirts to the first 100 people who leave a review of Black Bird of the Gallows on Amazon, just fill out this form with your review permalink!

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