Desert Star features River Dalworth,
who makes his debut in Mystical High
as Jessie’s younger brother. River is brilliant, funny, and a talented artist. Confession:
he was my very favorite character to write. River is now a senior at Mystekal
High. As the book opens, he steps in to defend a new student, Larsen Davis, who
is being bullied by two other seniors for being gay. Larsen is grateful to
River and confides in him that the biggest bully is the one at home—his mother.
Eventually, Larsen goes to work for River’s
mother, Arielle, who is in charge of renovating The Desert Theater. I don’t
want to give too much away, but I’ll just tell you that a lot begins to happen
as Larsen finds his way in the theater that has been abandoned for 40 years. Opening
night at the Desert Theater sets the stage for a crime, never-imagined
reunions, long-awaited explanations, and otherworldly miracles.
In the final book, Drawn
Apart, there is a very different tone. One of the main characters is Avalon
Martelli, a student from Jersey City, NJ who was introduced in Desert Star. Avalon’s entire family now
lives in Mystekal. A senior, Avalon is only weeks away from graduation when her
best friend, Stephanie Lambert, is rendered unconscious and unresponsive after
a car accident. Stephanie, a self-proclaimed “hopeless romantic” and “poetry
geek” is forever talking about finding her soul mate. As she lies comatose in
the hospital, Stephanie’s mom and friends pray for a miracle. Avalon knows her
best friend would never die without meeting her soul mate.
Q: I love the title for book #3 – DRAWN
APART. It’s unique and stirs curiosity. Would you tell us about the motivation
for this book?
A: Thank you, Jan.
For the third book in the series, I wanted
to do something very different. I wanted to introduce parallel elements that
are not present in the two previous books. I also wanted the last book to be
centered on romance. The title, Drawn
Apart, actually has two meanings. I’d love to say more but … just can’t
give too much away!
Q: We want the readers to feel what’s
happening in our stories, but when we’re writing them, they stir lots of
emotions in us as our characters develop and the plot thickens. When you were
writing DRAWN APART, what kind of emotions did you go through?
A: Oh my goodness, Jan. What a tough
question! This book was very emotional to write. The series became more
heartfelt and personal to me as it progressed. While I can’t get into detail
about it all, throughout the writing of the entire series, so many bizarre
events in my own life mirrored the ones I was writing about. Just so many
strange things happened.
For one, while I was writing Desert Star, a friend and I drove from
Los Angeles (where I live) to the desert area around Palm Springs. Though it
seemed like looking for a needle in a haystack, we were hoping to find an old
desert town with an abandoned theater. I wanted to get a photo of one to use on
the back of my book.
Well, imagine our surprise when the first
thing we saw in the first old town we visited was an abandoned theater, looking
exactly like the one I was writing about. Not only was the theater abandoned,
but the entire block was, too. Looking at the photo, one might think I found it
and wrote a story around it. But no, it was the other way around: I was writing
the story and found the theater. But maybe I should say that the theater found
me.
Anyway, that’s one of many things that
happened. It’s been quite an emotional time.
Q: I’m in awe of authors who write in
multiple genres. You’re one of those authors. Could you share a little bit
about why you choose to write in more than one genre?
A: For the most part, I never chose to
write in different genres per se. I only chose to write stories that happened
to fall into different genres. The first novel I wrote was Squalor, New Mexico, a 1970s coming-of-age story shrouded in family
secrets. (This novel, by the way, takes place in East Coast suburbia, not New
Mexico.) The odd title is explained on page one.
After writing Squalor, New Mexico, I was stunned to learn that I had written a
novel that was classified as YA. Technically, I suppose it is, as the main
characters are teens, but that never entered my mind when I wrote it. For the
purpose of promotion, I classify it as Coming-of-Age/Literary Fiction. Also,
while many young readers have enjoyed it, I believe the book’s biggest fans are
ones who grew up in the pre-technology age.
Crooked Moon, an emotional story about
two childhood friends reuniting, again, was simple a story I wanted to tell.
Friendship is a theme that is very important to me, and an integral part of
every novel I have ever written. This novel has been classified as literary
fiction/women’s fiction. Again, the genre labels bother me because in no way is
this a book for women only.
Molly Hacker Is Too Picky! is the
only book that I wrote specifically for a particular genre. Every time I’d walk
into a bookstore (remember those?), the preponderant number of titles on the
New Releases table was always chick lit/women’s fiction. And so, I chose to
write a romantic comedy. It was great fun and I love Molly and her friends.
However, despite it being a well-received book, it’s doubtful that I’ll write
in this genre again.
Additionally, I did something for this book
I haven’t done for any others. I blogged as Molly for eight months and, because
the character is a newspaper reporter, I interviewed all types of creative
people as Molly, too. Readers can get to know Molly via her blogs at: http://mollyhacker.com/.
Q: You’ve given us a bit about all three
books in the Desert series. Tell us specifically about DRAWN APART? What would
you like us to take away from the story? Can you tell us about the ease or
difficulty in wrapping up the series?
A: I think the most profound message in
DRAWN APART is that much in life is not always as we perceive it to be. It is
like a multi-faceted gemstone, and we don’t always see all sides of it at one
glance.
I felt a great deal of sadness wrapping up
the series. I’ll really miss the characters, but they’ll live on in my mind
where I will create futures for them. But another part of me is excited to go
back to the literary fiction genre and move on.
Q: Would you whet our appetite for DRAWN
APART with the blurb and an excerpt from the story?
A: Sure, Jan. Thank you.
HERE’S THE SYNOPSIS:
When
Avalon Martelli and Stephanie Lambert meet at the start of their junior year at
Mystekal High, they form an instant connection. Stephanie is from South Jersey
and Avalon from North Jersey, and they both feel out of place in the Southern
California desert.
Aside from having a home state in common, they each possess a talent for art
and the heartbreak of a broken family. Avalon has the gift of sight, where the
future is sometimes revealed in her paintings, while Stephanie’s drawings are
all about forever love. As Stephanie, a self-described poetry geek and hopeless
romantic, talks about past lives and eternal happiness, Avalon denies she’s in love
with her best guy friend, River Dalworth, who is attending art school in Los
Angeles.
Only weeks before graduation, Stephanie is in a car accident and falls into a
coma. Devastated, Avalon believes it is all her fault. The night before, she
had painted Stephanie with her head against the steering wheel—and hadn’t told
her. She confides this to River, who has come home to be with her, but he can’t
convince her she’s not to blame. Avalon loudly proclaims to the universe that
she no longer wants her gift, but River warns her she may receive another one
in its place.
Avalon and her family, along with Stephanie’s mother, pray for a miracle. River
tries to console her, but she finds his presence difficult, knowing he has
someone else who “just might be the one.” Trying to push her own pain and
disappointment aside, Avalon keeps vigil for her best friend, hoping that
Stephanie will wake up and have her greatest wish fulfilled— the meeting of her
soul mate.
AND HERE’S AN EXCERPT:
“Freakin’ A!”
Avalon winced as she tugged on a strand of her long green-and-blue hair stuck
inside the door of her locker.
“Hey, are you
okay?” Seeing Avalon’s awkward position, the stranger standing beside her
realized what had happened and put her backpack on the floor. “Oh, no; you
closed your locker on your hair!”
With her head
cocked awkwardly to the left, Avalon looked at the girl she had never seen
before. “Am I a dummy or what? Yeah, this is what I get for having long hair
and not paying attention. Not exactly the coolest thing to do. I just don’t
want anyone to see me like this. It doesn’t take much to give some people a
reason to mess with you, you know?”
The girl smiled
and moved closer, holding the ends of her own long hair in her hands. “See this
hair? I’d be lying if I said it hasn’t been traumatized a few times. One time,
about three years ago, it got stuck in the car door, and I didn’t realize it
until we were at an intersection, and some guy started honking and pointing to
my hair while he and his friends were cracking up. That was fun—not. My mom was
driving and even she was in stitches. Nice, huh?”
Avalon laughed.
“That’s a funny story. At least you could drive away and never see them again,
right? These kids will just stay put and torture you.”
The girl
glanced down the hall at the other students. “No worries. I’m going to stand
right here and block their view. Just open the locker and pull your hair out. I
promise, it’ll be our secret forever.”
Avalon quickly
turned her combination lock, successfully getting her hair released from the
locker’s grip. “You’re okay. Thanks. Are you new here? Are you a junior, too?”
“Yes and yes.
I’m Stephanie Lambert, and you are so not from California with that accent.”
“Nope. I’m
Avalon Martelli, and you’re so right. And you’re not from California, either.”
Stephanie
giggled and scratched her head with a smile. “Hmm. I’m guessing New York.”
“Pretty much
so. Jersey City. Right across the Hudson. And you?”
“South Jersey.
Cherry Hill.”
Avalon leaned
against her locker. “Nice to meet you, South. So, what brings you to Mystekal?
This is a weird place to move to. You’ve got to have a story, right?”
“Sure do,
North. Wish it were a nicer one.”
“Oh, sorry. I
didn’t mean to pry.”
“You’re not. I
don’t mind telling you. Maybe it’s because I feel like I know you. Anyway, the
short and not-so-sweet story goes like this: my dad went to Paris on a business
trip and never came home. Met some young French chick who loved on his
… well, you get my drift, turned into a prick, and with one big kick … left
my mom and me at the curb. Then he put up a sign, ‘Do not disturb.’”
“That sucks,
but you’re funny. Do you always talk so poetically?”
“Only when I
feel comfortable with the person I’m talking to. I really love poetry, but I
don’t tell many people that. And just for the record, I don’t consider what I
just spit out to be poetry; it was plain old rhyming. I have better taste than
that and way more respect for poets.” She paused and looked curiously at
Avalon. “I gotta tell you, it’s just weird, but I really do feel like I know you.”
Q: Now that you’ve completed the series,
where will your muse take you next?
A: My next novel will be a story that is
very dear to my heart. It began as an unfinished short story that I starting
writing at age 17. Over the years, it became a one-act play and then a two-act
play. I know the characters very well and it’s about time that they find their
way into a novel. It’s a very character-driven story and is in the literary
fiction genre. I’m 27K words into the book and can’t wait to get back to it.
Also, I’m slowly working on a book of short
stories which all take place in the same location.
If you’d like to follow Lisette and her
writing career, you can find her here:
Blog: Lisette's Writer's Chateau - lisettebrodey.com/category/blog
*Hit the ‘follow’ button on her Amazon page
while you’re there*
You can also hit the ‘follow’ button on
Lisette’s website, too.
