Because of A Book with Bonnie Hearn Hill

It's been a while since I've posted a Because of A Book, but it's because I haven't had participants.  So, if you are a blogger, author, illustrator, publicist, librarian, bookish person, please contact me so that I can feature you here, on a Tuesday.

Today, I am pleased to bring you a WOW author, Bonnie Hearn Hill, who has written Aries Rising.  You can thank Coca-Cola for Bonnie Hearn Hill’s long lived writing career. They were the ones who sponsored the writing contest she won in the fourth grade that gave her writing fever. She’s been writing ever since.

Bonnie spent 22 years as a newspaper editor and wrote six thrillers, as well as several non-fiction books. An interest in astrology and a friendship with Cosmo Magazine Astrologer Hazel Dixon-Cooper led to the development of her new Star Crossed Series for the YA market.

And in case you’re wondering…Bonnie is a double Gemini, saved by an Aquarius Moon. Air and Fire with very little Earth.

Bonnie has two more books in the Star Crossed Series coming out later this year: Taurus Eyes and Gemini Nights.

You can find Bonnie at her website.

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BECAUSE OF A BOOK

I've heard that writers begin as lonely children. Our love of reading leads us to a love of words and ultimately to creating our own stories.

When I was very young, my mother told me that when I learned to read, she would give me her set of old fairytale books. These were the unsanitized tales of the yellow dwarf and the witch cooking kids in the oven. Although I had some wild nightmares, I learned to read in no time.

I went through Edgar Allen Poe faster than you can brick a dead body into a wall. I loved Poe's voice and the sound of his language. "The Telltale Heart." "The Black Cat." Chills to this day.

Then came Saki (H.H. Munro). I can still feel the terror of, "Wolves," the single word that ends his short story, "The Interlopers."

"Sredni Vashtar" told of a sickly little boy and his evil guardian who unsuccessfully tries to stop the boy from worshipping the great ferret for whom the tale is named.

Back then, my cousin frequently spent weekends with us. We would tell each other these and other stories as we lay in pitch blackness in my twin bed.

Late one night she said, "Just roll over and give me a normal look so I can get some sleep."

I made a snarling werewolf face, rolled over, and realized she had done the same. When we saw each other, we both screamed.

Later, I found that what frightened me most wasn't supernatural monsters but the evil that lurks closer to home. "Silence of the Lambs" terrified me because I could imagine people such as these actually existing. I read the scary parts of that book the way I cover my eyes in a horror film, with my finger hiding the rest of a sentence as I read just one word and then the next.

There are times with my own writing that I wish I could do the same thing. Only I can't of course. If I don't write the next word, the next sentence, it won't exist. So that's what I do, sitting here at my desk, often late at night. I carve out stories from the images in my head and shape dialogue from the voices I hear. From the time I read that first fairytale, some part of me knew I would do this one day. It is what I love, and it began because of a book. A lot of books.

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About The Telltale Heart - Suspense, fear and the supernatural provide the center for these tales by the master prose writer.

Buy it at Amazon

Buy it at IndieBound

About Aries Rising - When Logan McRae discovers a magical book called Fearless Astrology, all she wants is to change her sucky life. In order to get into the summer writing camp of her dreams, she needs the recommendation of her stubborn and irritable English teacher Mr. Franklin. Logan also has her eye on Nathan, the hottest guy in class. Unfortunately, so does popular, beyond-gorgeous Geneva, editor of the high school paper.

Logan's two best friends, Chili and Paige, are always there to give her the advice she needs. But now that she has Fearless Astrology, Logan discovers a whole new way to overcome her dilemmas-while helping the three of them land the guys they're crushing on.

When the Gears, a group of boys, starts causing trouble in school and out, she decides to identify them using astrology. Her goal: to impress Mr. Franklin, Nathan, and the kids who believe she is faking her newfound

knowledge. The answers are in the stars, all right, but can Logan decipher them before it is too late?

Buy it at Amazon

Buy it at Powells

Buy it at IndieBound

Bonnie has graciously offered a copy of Aries Rising to one of my readers.  So, for a chance to win, comment about Bonnie's post or ask her a question.  Be sure to leave your email address so that I can contact you should you win.  You have until midnight, Thursday, April 1 to enter.  The winner will be chosen at random and posted here on the blog on Friday, April 2.