YA Horror/Thriller Spooktacular Day 19 - What Waits in the Woods + Giveaway

The author I have for today's feature is new to the YA horror/thriller genre.  I think some of her previous books have had a body count (although I'm not positive), but I'm pretty sure this is the first one with a killer stalking people in the woods.  Please give Kieran Scott a big welcome!

     Peace, Love, Teen Fiction:  We have to get the basics out of the way first, would you describe What Waits in the Woods in no more than 10 of your own words?

Kieran Scott:  Four teens enter the woods, three come out alive.

PLTF:  It appears as though all of your previous books are more along the lines of fluffy contemporary fiction, what was it like to write a novel with a body count?

 
KS:  I LOVE to read mysteries and suspense novels, so it was a lot of fun writing one. I liked writing the heightened emotions and the cliffhangers and the gasping shocker lines. I may have to do more of this in the future. There is some romance and friendship drama, too, so it's not a total departure. 

PLTF:  What kind of things do you think would send you turning around and back to the car if you were on a camping trip?

 
KS:  Well, let's see. I've lived through huge spiders, wandering bears, and getting completely lost so . . . a knife-wielding psychopath would be bad. I also don't like camping with people who don't like camping. They tend to complain a lot and ruin my good time. So whiny people=my camping kryptonite. 

PLTF:  It’s obvious that your setting is very important, why did you decide to go with the woods instead or some other places like the desert or an abandon country house?

KS:  I'm very familiar with camping in the woods. My family camped a lot when I was a kid, so I know what it feels and smells like in the woods, and I wanted to bring that authenticity to this book. The woods had to be very real for them to feel threatening in the way I wanted them to.

PLTF:  What’s next?

KS:  I'm working on another suspense novel that has a very romantic, us-against-the-world feel to it. I can't say more than that yet, but I can tell you it's a total thrill ride from beginning to end. A lot of breathless action and a heroine and hero you can fall in love with and cheer for. It's been so much fun to write!

Lightning round
1.    On a scale of 1 to 10 how scary is your book?

7 if you've ever been camping. 10 if you haven't. 

2.    If you were a character in your book would you survive?

Probably not. 

3.    Favorite scary movie?

The Ring. OMG. I just shivered in my chair thinking about it.

4.    Favorite Halloween candy?

Reese's Peanut Butter Cups!

5.    What were you last year for Halloween or what do you plan on being this year?

Last year I was Princess Leia and this year I'm going as Boba Fett. Sense a theme?

This or that
1.    Camping or hiking?

Camping.

2.    Save your friends or save yourself?

Save my friends.

3.    Charismatic stranger or creepy stranger?

Creepy stranger. Actually, I find charismatic people a tad creepy because I feel like they must be hiding something scary behind all that positive energy.

4.    Fluffy contemporary or spooky thriller?

Spooky thriller. Today anyway.

5.    Tricks or treats?

TREATS! (Preferably cupcakes)

It's a beautiful, sunny day. Callie Velasquez holds hands with her boyfriend Jeremy as they follow Callie's new BFFs Penelope and Lissa up the trail. The four friends are embarking on a camping trip -- a trip that immediately goes awry. They lose their way on the trail, and encounter a charismatic stranger with questionable motives. And when Callie stumbles upon a dead body, it becomes clear that the danger that lies in the woods is deadlier than she could have ever imagined. Tensions mount and friendships are tested as these teenagers try to survive the most sinister of circumstances.

OUT MARCH 31, 2015

Find What Waits in the Woods on

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Kieran Scott is a young adult author who was born, bred and still resides in New Jersey along with her husband Matt and her two-year-old son. A graduate of Rutgers University with a double-major in English and Journalism, Kieran worked as a YA editor for several years before striking out on her own as a writer. Her first hardcover novel, Jingle Boy (Delacorte Press), was published in 2002. Her next book, I Was a Non-Blonde Cheerleader (G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 2005) was an ALA Quick Pick, an NYPL Book for the Teen Age, and was featured on the Texas Library Association’s TAYSHAS Reading List for 2006-2007. The book spawned two sequels, Brunettes Strike Back(2006), and A Non-Blonde Cheerleader in Love (2007). Kieran’s fifth hardcover novel, Geek Magnet, was published by Putnam in 2008.  She’s So Dead to Us was released in May 2010 from Simon and Schuster. Her newest trilogy, starting with Only Everything, is out in May 2014 and is about the Greek God Eros (also known as Cupid) having to go down to Earth and pair up people without her powers.

Find Kieran on

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Kieran has offered up an ARC of the book she featured here today, What Waits in the Woods!  You guys, I will also be crazy jealous of whoever ends up winning this book, because it sounds SO COOL!!!  I don't think there's anything I love more than a good teen slasher novel!  This giveaway will be open to US and Canada only and will run for two weeks, all you have to do is enter the rafflecopter below!

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