Laura Bickle on Fear of the Unseen/Halloween Giveaways

Today, I'm thrilled to have fellow Ohioan, Laura Bickle, back at Immortyl Revolution.  I met Laura a few years back at a convention, and she is not only a great writer, but a lovely person.  Laura has been on before to talk about her books, Embers and Sparks.  Today, she'll be talking about fear of things we cannot see and telling us a little about her new book, The Hallowed Ones.

Giveaways!
At the end of the post, don't forget to leave a comment or question for Laura to be entered to win a paperback copy of The Hallowed Ones!  Then click on the links for the other giveaways.  Right now, there are eight different prizes you can win, paperback books, ebooks and even a Halloween Gift Basket!  All drawings are active until 10/31/12 11p.m. EST.

Fear of the Unseen

By Laura Bickle

We often fear what we cannot see.

Fear of contamination is one such fear.  In the times of the plagues, when disease swept invisibly over water and through villages and cities, people were afraid of the invisible. It’s a timeless fear, wondering what lies in darkness, unstoppable, and waiting to harm us. The world of THE HALLOWED ONES is a world steeped in fear of the unknown.

Katie is an Amish girl living in a Plain community. There are no lights in houses, no cars with sweeping headlights. No electricity. Her night, in the rural countryside, is soft and total. She can see the stars and the broad river of the Milky Way above her.

Katie has never feared the darkness. She and the night are old friends. In winter, she completes her farm chores long after the sun has set. She has never feared anything the shadows hold – not the deer, the bats, nor the rabbits. Not even coyotes.  She knows everyone in her community by name, and has nothing to fear from any of them.

She has never feared the unseen – not until now.

Katie’s safe world starts to crumble with a fiery helicopter crash in the cornfields near her house, followed by rumors of violence and the disappearance of large numbers of people in the world outside her community. Something is out there, something that kills under the cover of night. Unsure why they haven’t been attacked, the Amish Elders make a rule: No one goes outside their gates, and no one is allowed in.

They fear contamination, the violence. Rightly so. It’s an amplification of an ancient fear, that what is outside will forever alter their way of life.

When Katie finds a gravely injured young man lying just outside the boundary of their land, she can’t leave him to die. She refuses to submit to the Elders’ decree, secretly bringing the stranger in to her community. But what else is she bringing in with him?

Katie will come to understand the threat of darkness, both from within her community and Outside. All things can become touched by darkness, even the familiar, and be forever changed.

THE HALLOWED ONES

By Laura Bickle

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Graphia

Release Date: September 25, 2012

ISBN-13: 978-0547859262

If your home was the last safe place on earth, would you let a stranger in?

Katie is on the verge of her Rumspringa, the time in Amish life when teenagers can get a taste of the real world. But the real world comes to her in this dystopian tale with a philosophical bent. Rumors of massive unrest on the “Outside” abound. Something murderous is out there. Amish elders make a rule: No one goes outside, and no outsiders come in. But when Katie finds a gravely injured young man, she can’t leave him to die. She smuggles him into her family’s barn—at what cost to her community? The suspense of this vividly told, truly horrific thriller will keep the pages turning.

"This is a book to make you fear the shadows--a horrifying and gruesome tale of faith, and things that blink red eyes in the night. I began reading in the daylight, and read on into the late hours, leaning close, biting my lip. I could not look away; I was obsessed. Katie is an unbreakable soul."
--Lauren DeStefano, New York Times and USA Today Bestselling author of the Chemical Garden Trilogy

“What an eerily believable, unique story! I can’t stop thinking about it—or shivering.”
—Melissa Marr, New York Times best-selling author of the Wicked Lovely series

“Readers will find it hard to put down this suspenseful, scary, compulsively readable adventure…”
-Kirkus Reviews

- THE HALLOWED ONES is available from Barnes and Noble, Amazon, Powell’s, and Books A Million.

- A free excerpt of THE HALLOWED ONES is available here: http://laurabickle.com/the-hallowed-ones/?action=excerpt

- For more info about Laura and her books, please visit her website at www.laurabickle.comhttp://laurabickle.com/. She’s also on Facebook and Twitter, usually exclaiming over cute cat pictures and nerdy things.

Halloween Giveaways

Must enter by 10/31/12 11 p.m. EST

Paperback book from Katrina Michaels and ebook of Annals of the Immortyls: http://www.immortylrevolution.blogspot.com/2012/10/spotlight-on-tainted-blood-by-katrina.html

Paperback book from Lee Taylor: http://www.immortylrevolution.blogspot.com/2012/10/lee-taylor-on-halloweenpaperback.html

Ebooks by Vanessa Morgan: 

http://www.immortylrevolution.blogspot.com/2012/10/vanessa-morgan-talks-about-scary.html

Ebook from Katie Salidas:

http://www.immortylrevolution.blogspot.com/2012/10/sexy-cedric-interviews-fallon-from.html

Ebook from Roy Hudson:

http://www.immortylrevolution.blogspot.com/2012/10/roy-hudson.html

Two Paperbacks from A. J. Scudiere:

http://www.immortylrevolution.blogspot.com/2012/10/author-j-scudiere-on-darkside.html

B. K. Walker Halloween Gift Basket:

http://www.immortylrevolution.blogspot.com/2012/10/b-k-walker-halloween-gift-basket.html