Blog Tour Stop including Author Guest Post & Giveaway - Every Inferno by Johanna Parkhurst ~ BFD Book Blog

Author Name: Johanna Parkhurst

Book Name: Every Inferno

Release Date: July 24, 2014

Blurb(s):

Depressed. Defiant. Possible alcoholic. These are just a few of the terms used to describe fifteen-year-old Jacob Jasper Jones. Lately, though, JJ has a new one to add to the list: detective. He’s been having strange dreams about the fire that killed his parents ten years ago, and he thinks he finally has the clue to catching the arsonist who destroyed his family.

A murder investigation isn’t the only thing the dreams trigger for JJ. They also lead to secret meetings with his estranged sister, an unlikely connection with a doctor who lost his daughter in the fire, and a confusing friendship with McKinley, a classmate of JJ’s who seems determined to help him solve the mystery.

All JJ wants is to shake the problems that have followed him since that fire, and he’s convinced he must catch the arsonist to do it. But as JJ struggles to find the culprit, he sees there’s more than one mystery in his life he needs to solve.

Pages or Words: 180 pages

Categories: Contemporary, Fiction, Gay Fiction, M/M Romance, Mystery, Romance, Young Adult

Excerpt:

A smell that wasn’t there before filled the bathroom.

JJ drew in a deep breath, trying to match the scent to anything that might already exist in his short memory. It was a difficult scent to describe: like pine trees, but not the real ones in his backyard. More like the smell of the stuff his father used to clean the kitchen floor.

He tried to push off the sudden sense of apprehension that filled him; who cared if someone else had also come into the restroom? This was his town, the tiny world he had spent his entire five years in, and there was a good chance he knew whoever else had just joined him.

Even if he didn’t know anyone who went around smelling like pine trees.

JJ took a few breaths and flushed the toilet, eager to get back to the movie and his parents.

As he shoved the door of the stall open, though, the scent grew stronger. The person who had brought the scent in with him—a man—was facing the wall across the room. He was wearing a backpack and hugging his arms to his chest.

“I did it… I did it,” the man whispered. “I finally did it.”

JJ moved to the sinks, more eager than ever to return to the comforting gaze of his mother. But the noise of his sneakers against the tile alerted the man to JJ’s presence, and now the stranger was turning around to face him.

It was the oddest sensation to only be able to see certain details of a person: blue jeans, a red long-sleeve shirt. And then a detail so clear it almost seemed to be the only thing JJ could see: the outline of a long and winding paintbrush, tattooed on the man’s hand, snaking down from just below his thumb to where it disappeared beneath the cuff of his shirt.

But nothing else. No other details were there. The man was faceless. The color of hair was… what was it? It was as if it had never been there.

Then JJ could see nothing, and all he could hear was the man shouting. Something about how JJ shouldn’t be there, and he couldn’t know, and it wasn’t time yet….

The pain began then. Horrible, burning, pain, and JJ knew he was screaming, but he couldn’t hear himself over the roaring in his ears. He needed to find the door, the door, where was the door—

Jacob Jasper Jones woke up sweating, twisted into a trap of sheets and blankets. He frantically cast his eyes around the walls of his bedroom, looking for anything that would remind him he was not in that restroom again. There was the Modest Mouse poster, his bookshelf, the old dresser that had once belonged to his aunt—yes, he was safe.

Safe from what? Or who?

JJ quietly wrestled with the covers, thankful that he wasn’t a screamer and didn’t seem to have woken Aunt Maggie up. If it was up to JJ, Maggie would never know that JJ was having dreams about that day again.

They’d started about a month ago. Before then JJ had never dreamed anything specific about the fire. The nightmares were always vague and mushy, filled with flames and noise and not much else.

Not like this dream. This dream was clear and specific and so real it was as though JJ was reenacting every detail from that day. Right up until the end, when the faceless man turned and everything went black.

It was so vivid that JJ was starting to think it might be more than just a dream. That it might be a memory.

Sales Links:

Harmony Ink Press: http://www.harmonyinkpress.com/books/every-inferno-by-johanna-parkhurst-96-b

Dreamspinner Press: http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=4900

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Every-Inferno-Johanna-Parkhurst-ebook/dp/B00M3CDNB6/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8

Barnes and Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/every-inferno-johanna-parkhurst/1120002906?ean=9781627987981

About the author:

Johanna Parkhurst grew up on a small dairy farm in northern Vermont before relocating to the rocky mountains of Colorado. She spends her days helping teenagers learn to read and write and her evenings writing things she hopes they’ll like to read. She strives to share stories of young adults who are as determined, passionate, and complex as the ones she shares classrooms with.

Johanna holds degrees from Albertus Magnus College and Teachers College, Columbia University. She loves traveling, hiking, skiing, watching football, and spending time with her incredibly supportive husband.

Your job sounds fascinating and scary all at the same time. It sounds like you probably have a plethora of story ideas at the ready. Can you tell us more about your career – how did you get started, what are some of the challenges, what are some of your favorite parts, can you share any awesome success stories, etc.

Someone recently told me that my job sounds both fascinating and scary, and I wasn’t sure right away which job they meant—teacher or writer? Both jobs are intermittently horrifying and exhilarating. Then that got me thinking about how the exact same things that are terrifying/amazing about teaching are also terrifying/amazing about writing.

Huh.

And so, I present to you…THE TOP THREE AMAZING/TERRIFYING THINGS ABOUT TEACHING and THE TOP THREE AMAZING/TERRIFYING THINGS ABOUT WRITING.

Who know that two professions with so little in common could have so much in common.

TOP 3 MOST AMAZING/TERRIFYING THINGS ABOUT TEACHING

Everything you say—and do—matters. Every word you utter or action you take in class is a message to students, and we teachers take that responsibility seriously. We know that small things—how we handle difficult conversations with students, how we plan details of our curriculum, how we talk to other colleagues—all have huge impacts on how our students think and act.
Every day is an adventure. I’ve had office jobs, and I’ve had teaching jobs. I end up getting bored in my office jobs…what’s interesting about life if someone isn’t vomiting all over you? In my teaching life I’ve been spontaneously hugged, threatened, cried on, and engaged in a dance-off. Teaching keeps every day interesting.
Teaching is a craft that’s impossible to perfect. Because no two students are ever exactly the same or learn in exactly the same way, teachers have to constantly change and adjust their craft on the fly. Teaching is a job where you can improve so much in the space of the year…and yet no teacher will ever be able to say that they’ve mastered the art of teaching. Whenever I think I’ve totally mastered this whole teaching thing, a student with new needs or learning styles comes along and snaps me back into reality. One of the things I love most about teaching is that it’s always a challenge, no matter how long you’ve been doing it.

TOP 3 MOST AMAZING/TERRIFYING THINGS ABOUT WRITING

Everything you say—and do—matters. Every time I put something out into the world for publication, everyone who reads it is learning what I value and how I value other people in this world. This can be a terrifying prospect—sometimes too terrifying for my taste. I’ve been known to re-read a Twitter post four times before I hit the button to send it out into the world…and then delete it thirty seconds later. I’ve published two books now, and I haven’t slept through the night before either one came out. It’s an incredible honor to know that others see my thoughts and ideas and take the time to read them, and it’s an honor I take very seriously.

Every day is an adventure. Sure, writing may not afford me the opportunity to be vomited on, but it definitely affords me lots of other spontaneity! Whether it’s a character who’s not cooperating with my storyline or a new writing project someone’s asked me to do, I can never be exactly sure what a day in my writing life will look like. And that keeps writing fun.
Writing is a craft that’s impossible to perfect. Ernest Hemingway famously said that writers are all “apprentices in a craft where no one ever becomes a master.” I can’t imagine a world where that’s not true. I become a better writer with every word I put on paper, so how can I ever declare that I’ve mastered this craft? Sometimes it’s daunting to know that I’m putting things out in the world that aren’t perfect…because I always want everything I do to be perfect. (Don’t we all?) But it’s also gratifying to know that every word I write and every word I put out into the world will somehow make me a stronger author.

I suppose the most terrifying aspects of life are often the most amazing aspects of life. What’s terrifying/amazing about your chosen career?

Where to find the author:

Website: www.johannaparkhurst.com

Twitter: @johannawriteson

Tumblr: http://johannawriteson.tumblr.com/

Goodreads Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22091645-every-inferno

Publisher: Harmony Ink Press

Cover Artist: Reese Dante