There’s none so blind as they that won’t see.
Seventeen-year-old Tricia Farni’s body floated to the surface of Alaska’s Birch River six months after the night she disappeared. The night Roz Hart had a fight with her. The night Roz can’t remember. Roz, who struggles with macular degeneration, is used to assembling fragments to make sense of the world around her. But this time it’s her memory that needs piecing together—to clear her name . . . to find a murderer.
This unflinchingly emotional novel is written in the powerful first-person voice of a legally blind teen who just wants to be like everyone else.
Available now at these fine retailers in eBook and Hardcover, and in paperback on June 10th 2014
Why I Love the First Line of my book
by Laura Ellen
Winter stopped hiding Tricia Farni on Good Friday.
I fell in love with that line the moment I wrote it. Prior to that, my manuscript had sported bazillion first lines – and I do mean a bazillion! But none of those first lines expressed so perfectly the layers of my plot like this one did.
Blind Spot walks a very fine line between a page-turning thriller and an issue-oriented drama and I had been searching for a first line that would introduce both. This sentence sets the tone for the book and hooks the reader. It also promises the reader what is to come. The way Blind Spot is set-up the story starts with the finding of Tricia’s body and then goes back in time to the very beginning so that Roz can figure out what she missed. Starting here throws the reader into the drama that kept Roz from ‘seeing’ – but that first line tells the reader to keep his or her eyes open. It keeps the reader on the edge of his or her seat, watching for those all-important clues that Roz missed the first time.
At the very core, Blind Spot is a story about assumptions -- what people assume based on what they see, what they hear, what they are told, rather than what they know. That first line also insinuates this. People have assumed this girl disappeared of her own volition, and now as the snow and ice melt her body is revealed. It is the moment people are forced to open their eyes and see the truth – the moment my main character must open her eyes and find the truth.
It is hard to write a line that does so much for a story. That is why I love that line so much
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Bio: Laura Ellen writes YA contemporary mysteries and thrillers from her home in Arizona, while also freelancing as a manuscript consultant for aspiring authors. She has a MA in Children’s Literature and began her career as a teacher in both Language Arts and special education. Diagnosed with juvenile macular degeneration as a teen, she drew upon her own experiences with vision loss to write her debut YA thriller Blind Spot, an emotional and suspenseful page-turner. Laura is represented by Jill Corcoran at Jill Corcoran Literary Agency and is part of the Sleuths, Spies, and Alibis blog crew. Want to know more about Laura Ellen? Go to www.lauraellenbooks.com or catch her on twitter @lauraellenbooks or facebook
GIVEAWAY
One Winner will get signed copies of BLIND SPOT and DEAR TEEN ME as well as a BLIND SPOT swag pack that includes, gum, magnet and magnifying glass bookmark.
Open to US Only | Must Be 13 + to enter.
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