Quills and Frills - 5/17/2014 Ally Malinenko

Ally says:

I wrote a book. Well actually I've wrote a couple and they are all in various stages of existence much like when you were in biology class and were shown cell mitosis.

Pop Quiz: Is this mitosis or meiosis and does anybody care?

You remember that right? Prometaphase, Metaphase, Anaphase. My 10th grade biology teacher is smiling right now. Somewhere.

So the one of these books in particular is coming out via a small press called BookFish Books. It's called This Is Sarah.

Cover design by Anita B. Carroll at Race-Point.com

Here's the blurb on the back cover:

When Colin Leventhal leaned out his bedroom window on the night of May 12th and said goodbye to his girlfriend, he never expected it would be forever. But when Sarah Evans goes missing that night, Colin's world unravels as he is transformed from the boyfriend next door to the main police suspect. Then one year later, at her memorial service, Colin makes a phone call that could change everything. Is it possible that Sarah is still alive? And if so, what is he willing to do to bring her back?
  As Colin struggles with this possibility, across the street, Sarah’s little sister Claire learns how to navigate the strange new landscape that is life without her sister. While her parents fall apart, Claire is determined to keep on going. Even if it kills her.
  THIS IS SARAH is a meditation on loss, love, and what it means to say goodbye.

It is being released in June and to be honest, aside from my usual anxiety (read: crippling self doubt) I am excited to have Colin and Claire's story out in the world. I packed a lot of my left over emotional baggage into a big fat suitcase and handed it to Colin. When he walks off with it, I can only imagine it will be good. After all, writing is often quite a catharsis, right?

That said, I should forewarn it's full of filthy language, drug use and gratuitous sexual references. You know, it's for teenagers.

Here's an excerpt if you're interested. Please consider this an uncorrected galley as we are still in the editing phase so any grammatical mistakes are 100% my fault and not the fault of the staff at BookFish who are,  without a doubt, quite lovely.

The chapters alternate between Claire and Colin. This is from a Colin chapter:

In the first few days after Sarah disappeared, the police treated it like a runaway. And I guess, to someone who didn’t know anything about Sarah, that would make sense. I mean, she did get into her car and drive off that night. It must have seemed totally possible that Sarah just ran away like any other pissed-off, confused teen.

Except she wasn’t.

She was happy. We were happy.

And during those days, those first important weeks of handing out posters and talking to people I started to feel like Sarah needed me to save her.

This felt both foreign and familiar, because she was never the sort of girl that needed saving, and I always kind of wanted her to be. I mean, I love that Sarah was strong and independent and everything, but sometimes I just wanted to be the hero. And now here she was―needing it on such a grand scale―and here I was―ready and able to do the saving.

Ready to knock on the right door, ready to talk to the right person who would say, 'Yeah you know, now that you mention it, I did see her car on Route 7 right past the old farmhouse.' And then we would go there, cop sirens blazing, and we would find a clue, and then another, and the police would kick down the door of the farmhouse, guns drawn, and the monster would be there, and there would be a shootout and screaming. And then I would run to the basement and Sarah would be there―afraid but okay―and I would take her home and love her.

That’s the stupid sort of shit I thought in the beginning.

Pathetic, right?

Instead, nothing happened.

Well, not nothing, exactly; disappointment happened. Pain happened. Crying happened. Anger happened.

Time passed, and my parents worried over me so much that therapy round one happened. Then therapy round two.

Things were found. Dogs were brought in―mangy, ugly things that knew how to nose around in leaves and riverbeds and find horror and fetch it and bring it home and break your heart. But that’s still a month down the road in this story.

What happened right after the search parties, and the first few days that added up to a week, was that the police came for me.

If you made it to the end of this very long post, I just want to thank you for being awesome. I'm at @allymalinenko and allymalinenko.com if you want more info on THIS IS SARAH or you know any other crap I'm cobbling together.