young adult – Page 2 – Linda Nelson

Today marks the official release day of Road Salt and once again I am giving away the free eBook edition of Road Salt on Smashwords. I’m not doing this just in hopes of attracting reviews for the book. What I really want is to help create awareness of this dangerous substance that is still being sold on our streets, not just in the United States but all around the world. It was the main reason why I wrote this book to begin with.

Over the past year I have met many people that have never heard of the substance let alone know how dangerous it is, this goes for service workers as well. When I first set out to write this story I had to scour the internet in search of facts about the substance. I was hard pressed to find anything worthwhile. That was over a year ago. Then I got thinking and had an a-ha moment, which led to my next lead on the topic.

When I was in high school I did basic research but nothing to this degree. This time there was no information to be found in encyclopedias or libraries. Instead I had to find a new type of source.

Who would I know that might have some idea what this substance was like?

At first I figured my informant would be a drug rehab counselor. I was wrong. They knew even less about the substance than I did. All they knew was that it existed and it was very bad stuff.

I thought well maybe I should ask a doctor, but then I said no. They are too busy to be bothered with such a thing.

Finally after searching and searching my brain went ding. I once worked with this guy who was an EMT. He is one of my friends on Facebook and still is an EMT. He even teaches the EMT course. So I said, what the heck, why not ask.

He was so excited to hear I was looking to write such a book that he gave me exactly what I was looking for. He too wanted to help bring about awareness of the substance since he saw the dangerous effects first hand when he responded to such a call. He has been to many a call involving the use of Bath Salts and he said it is not pretty.

So here it is for all to see and read: Road Salt

Free on Smashwords in many different eBook formats all DRM free… https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/258513

Currently I am taking part in an online YA writing workshop. Tonight’s topic is Master Manipulators

Discussion:

Any good-looking lovers from your past who have used their charismatic ways to pressure you into doing something against your will? Describe the childhood and manipulative behavior of a character who won’t take “No” for an answer.

Truth be told, I have trouble with this character type. I certainly don’t like them and I have trouble casting a character like this but I know that I have, but not in Friends of Choice or Road Salt, or at least not yet.

This would be Darmin in Witch Book. She even goes through the trouble of stealing Monika’s binding cloth by switching it with the one she made knowing full well that the one she made was not properly created.

She will have to be more charismatic in the next book if she wishes to continue to keep up the charade with Lord Ky’debaul. He too is a master Manipulator and it will be a battle of wits between these two in the coming sequel.

(Squeal)

I just love all this character building. This is all bringing to mind ways to build my characters besides looking at the color of their hair and their eyes.

ROW80 Check-In:

No, I have not done much in the way of editing since this past weekend. But as you can see above I am getting much more insight into what kind of characters I have already created and how I can make them develop more in the coming sequels.

Wow…

I kind of wish I had joined all these groups sooner…

If it hadn’t been for my good friend, Linda Kepner, I would never have known about RWA.

Stop by the Linky List to root for other writers taking part in Round of Words in 80 Days, the writing challenge for those writers who have a life.