Hi, my name is Kristy Feltenberger Gillespie. I live in Warrenton, VA, work as a full time middle school counselor, and am pursing my School Library Media Degree. I love reading, writing, blogging, and traveling. I enjoy promoting authors, so if you’d like to be a Guest Author on my blog, Keep Calm and Write On, check out the link at the end of this post. I recently published my YA thriller, JADED. The E-book is currently available via Amazon and a print version will be added soon. The idea of JADED (Which I describe as a”Teen love story meets murder mystery within an eye color obsessed, “idyllic” commune”) stemmed from a six week writing class I took a few years ago. Our assignment was to write a six word memoir and I came up with Blue Father, Yellow Mother, Green Daughter. I decided to self-publish for a few reasons. For one, I have a Type A personality and self-publishing fits with that personality. For another, I was tired of waiting to hear back from literary agents and even more tired of receiving rejection letters. (I sent out approximately 24 query letters for JADED). Also, I felt the time was right to publish. I’m currently working on BLINDED, which is the prequel to JADED and HUNTED, which is the sequel to JADED. I’ve also written a short story collection, EVEN IN DEATH, which will be published in the near future.

About JADED (Nirvana Series 1)

Published:  February 17th, 2014

Editor: Linda Bradshaw

Illustrator: Beth Breen

Word Count: Approximately 70,000 Words

Genre:  YA Thriller

Blurb: Teen love story meets murder mystery within an eye color obsessed, “idyllic” commune.

Synopsis: After sixteen-year-old Jade discovers her late grandmother was poisoned, she’s devastated yet determined to find the killer commune member and their motive. With help from her mysterious friend Tyrian, and Peaches, the commune leader’s sweet daughter; Jade unearths dark secrets that involve her mother’s affair, her maternal grandparent’s abandonment, and a plethora of murders. To make matters worse, someone is hell bent on ending Jade’s mission for the truth. Jade can’t continue conforming to an evil society and yet she fears the Outside is just as corrupt. If she resolves to flee and is caught, the punishment is banishment to the slave cabins… and blinding.

Excerpt: 

I’ve often wondered why eye color matters so much in our commune. Like most babies born in Nirvana, my natural eye color is brown. Not hot chocolate brown or buttered biscuit brown, but brown like the Crayola crayon stuck in the original crayon box.

Fortunately in Nirvana, Virginia, artificial trumps natural eye color because artificial eye color determines who you marry and your lifelong occupation. It even determines where you’re buried, but I try not to think about that. In our commune, children have green, orange or purple eyes and adults have red, blue or yellow eyes. Only Outsiders, people who live in Nirvana but travel back and forth from the Outside, retain their natural eye color. However, there’s an exception to these rules; commune members and/or Outsiders who commit significant crimes are blinded.

Even though my current name and eye color is Jade, both will change in six months, when I turn seventeen years old. I’ll choose my blue-eyed father’s life path of winemaking, or my yellow-eyed mother’s life path of teaching. There’s a third option, but only the crazy, desperate people consider it.

Amazon.co.uk

Amazon.com

Contact Me on:

Keep Calm and Write On

Click this link if you’d Like to Be a Guest Author on Keep Calm and Write On

Facebook

Twitter

Amazon.co.uk Author Page

Amazon.com Author Page