Night Sky Blog Tour Guest Post!
5:34 AM
After losing Sarah, the friend he’s loved, to some other guy, Jameson meets Sky. Her Native American roots, fluid movements, and need for brutal honesty become addictive fast. This is good. Jameson needs distraction – his dad leaves for another woman, his mom’s walking around like a zombie, and Sarah’s new boyfriend can’t keep his hands off of her.
As he spends time with Sky and learns about her village, her totems, and her friends with drums - she's way more than distraction. Jameson's falling for her fast.
But Sky’s need for honesty somehow doesn’t extend to her life story – and Jameson just may need more than his new girl to keep him distracted from the disaster of his senior year.
About the Author:
Jolene grew up in Wasilla, Alaska. She graduated from Southern Utah University with a degree in political science and French, which she used to teach math to middle schoolers.
After living in Washington, Utah and Las Vegas, she now resides in Alaska with her husband, and two children. Aside from writing, Jolene sews, plays the guitar, sings when forced, and spends as much time outside as possible.
She is also the author of The Next Door Boys and the upcoming Knee Deep.
Now for the Guest Post!
Location was a huge part of Night Sky from the beginning.
My husband and I lived in Las Vegas when our first child was born and he was in law school. We really loved being there. We lived in this tiny apartment behind the Walmart on the corner of Tropicana and Pecos - a couple miles from the strip. A mile from Wayne Newton's ranch, and close to the airport (on the landing pattern, so you can imagine the noise . . .)
We had a lot of friends who worked in the casinos on and off the strip. One couple in particular was the model for Jameson's parents - very cool people who would come to church on Sunday bleary-eyed from their late night.I thought it would be a good setting for a YA, so when Jameson came to me, and he was a swimmer, I thought - Hey! Perfect! I can use Vegas in this one! So when I wrote the first words on Night Sky, I already knew the setting. It's also so much easier to write a place that I've lived. A lot of authors use made-up towns, but I prefer to use real places.
I didn't know where Sky was from until I'd finished with about a third of the book, only knew that I wanted her to be Native American. Making her from Alaska would make Vegas even more foreign for her, so putting together the date for her and Jameson was easy.
Consequently - the big date with Sky and Jameson - the steaks, the dolphins, and the Eiffel Tower, was one that my husband and I did more than once while in Vegas - aside from all the back-door access that Jameson had.
I liked the idea of Sky being displaced in this big city, and Jameson knowing the city so well. Red Rock proved to be the perfect backdrop for Sky and her AIA (American Indian Alliance) friends to get together once in a while, but even there, Jameson was the one who knew the area.
There's also In-N-Out Burger in Vegas, which I desperately miss, and live vicariously through my characters. That burger joint shows up in a LOT of manuscripts, lol. I should probably stop doing that. Or maybe I should KEEP doing it and lobby for one in Alaska . . .
Thanks for letting me take over your blog for a day!!!
Jolene
Night Sky web site:http://www.night-sky-book.com
Night Sky Twitter hashtag:
#NightSky
Night Sky GoodReads page:
http://www.goodreads.com/book/
Jolene Perry's Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/
Jolene Perry's Twitter:
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Jolene Perry's Website:
http://www.jolenebperry.com/
Jolene Perry's Blog:
http://www.jolenesbeenwriting.
Jolene Perry's GoodReads:
http://www.goodreads.com/
Tribute Books website:
http://www.tribute-books.com
Tribute Books Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/
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I'd like to thank Jolene for a wonderful guest post!
2 comments
Anna, thanks for hosting Jolene!
ReplyDeleteGood readd
ReplyDeleteThanks for commenting! I love getting feedback or just say Hi!