All of my stories have a romance in them. SEA was a love-at-first-sight (or, at
the very least, crush at first sight) when Sienna met orphan Deni in Indonesia. It
was the immediate, palm-sweating, butterflies I Want To Be With This Person No
Matter What situation. The one we all want, or at least can relate to wanting.
My
Spellspinners romances (
WITCH'S BREW, The
THE GLEANING,
DEVIL's
FROST, and
BEAUTIFUL MONSTER) has that same immediate connection. Soul
mates.
PAINT MY BODY RED is a
little different. First we have the inappropriate feelings between Paige and her
stepbrother Ty in the โThenโ chapters of the novel. In ordinary circumstances,
Paige wouldnโt even look at Ty. Heโs brooding, dark, sarcastic. He doesnโt care
about school or peopleโs feelings. Heโs everything she dislikesโฆat the beginning
of the novel anyway. But when teens start stepping in front of the commuter train,
and he seems to be the only one who โgetsโ how she feels, this new darkness. This
foreign numbness in her life draws her to him. โAn itch she wants to scratchโ is
how she describes it.
In Wyoming, Paige meets Jake (or re-meets Jake, she knew him as a child but has
forgotten him) a bit like Sienna with Deni in SEA, she has an instant feeling of
connection with him. She blames it on his relation to โhomeโ to her fatherโs
ranch. But itโs deeper than that. He seems to know her. And he seems to want to
know her more. Paige fights her feelings for Jake as long as she can---sheโs still
reeling from the damage with Ty back in California---but before long they wear
each other down---they just canโt fight it anymore. When Paige stops feeling
guilty about Ty sheโs able to open herself up to Jake. Trust, once itโs broken, is
hard to find again---and Jakeโs patience ultimately pays off. Jake tells Paige
that โyou have to do stuff that scares you, thatโs how you know youโre alive.โ
Sheโs scared. And she has every reason to be scared after what happened to her,
but for Paige, Jake is worth the risk.
Heidi R. Kling earned her MFA in Writing for Children from the New School
and her BA in Creative Writing from UC Santa Cruz. A former playwright and
director, the native Californian lives with her husband and children, right over
the coastal mountains from the sea. SEA, coming June 10, 2010, is her first novel.
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The world isn't just black or white. Sometimes it's red...
They think I'm next. That I'll be the seventh kid to step in front of a train and
end my life. With the rash of suicides at my school, Mom's shipped me off to my
dad's Wyoming ranch for โmy own safety.โ They think Iโm just another depressed
teenager whose blood will end up on the tracks. They don't know my secrets...or
what Iโve done.
I wasn't expecting Dad to be so sick, for the ranch I loved to be falling to bits,
or for Jakeโthe cute boy I knew years agoโto have grown into a full-fledged, hot-
as-hell cowboy. Suddenly, I don't want to run anymore, but the secrets from home
have found me...even here. And this time, it's up to me to face themโand myselfโif
I want to live...
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