Mom With A Kindle: GUEST POST + Giveaway: On the Move (On the Move #1) by K.V. Flynn

This is my stop during the blog tour for On by K.V. Flynn. This blog tour is organized by Lola's Blog Tours. The blog tour runs from 1 till 14 October, you can view the complete tour schedule here.

On the Move (On the Move #1)
by K.V. Flynn
Genre: Boys' action-adventure/ dystopia
Age category: Older Middle Grade/ young Young Adult
Release Date: September 2, 2014

Blurb:
Callum Vicente and his four best middle school buddies live in a Southern California beach town, and narrowly miss being grounded for life after they sneak out of town on the bus for a great skateboard day just before promotion from 8th grade. Their pal Justice ends up with a wicked broken leg, but their parents soon forget about it because weird, tense things are happening in the news. So Callum, Levi and his bff Apollo are soon deep into their best summer ever at PEAK skateboard camp where they learn tricks from the pros, grind on endless street courses, and careen off one awesome ramp straight into the lake. It is mad fun until the War breaks out: the teens watch major cities blown up on TV, have no idea what’s happened to their parents, and then lose virtually all communication with the outside world.

Stranded, the boarder buddies strike out on their own to find their families, travelling north through all of California and Oregon, following a network of underground message boards and savvy riders who they find holed up in skate parks along the way. They pick up their school buddy Mateo Beltran and hitch a ride with their Native friend Obbie, on his way to safety on his dad’s reservation in Washington state, and even get some surprising help as they try to figure out a world gone crazy while they are On the Move.

You can find On the Move on Goodreads

Note about the book from the author:
This is older MG/young YA, targeted at 10-15-year-olds. It’s action adventure with boys as the main story focus—I think that there are never enough books for and about boys in this reading level. ON THE MOVE really lives inside the world of skateboarding and boys’ friendships. Also, this is about a totally multi-cultural group of buddies: Obbie is Native American, Mateo’s Mexican, their camp friend Martin is African-American, and narrator Callum is half Spanish. And, because these guys experience a huge War, they also pick up on a cool underground network of retro tech, green living, secret clues, and skater support like no other you’ve read about before.
Like all the great teen adventures—think Maximum Ride, Pendragon, Ender’s Game, Demonata and Cirque du Freak—the boys in this book are strong, smart, funny, resourceful, and tight. Also, unlike many YA books, the boys experience a very real, world-changing event that challenges what they know and where they’ll go. But their skills, their brains, and their love of skateboarding guide them through the chaos and complications—plus, most of the time, they have a blast doing it!

Callum Vicente, narrator of On the Move, is accustomed to speaking for himself. So, Mom with a Kindle, let me turn your question about “A Day in the Life of My Character” over to him. That cool with you?

So Callum… How’s it roll, your average eighth-grade day at Surfside High?...

Ummm, does that mean I have to start when I wake up? Because that is not my best moment. Not a morning person. Never was. My mom comes in, turns on the light at the last possible moment on school days. Luckily we only live about five minutes from school… or I would be late every day, not just some days. (No, realistically, I do make it on time, but can usually hear the middle school bell ringing as I hit the stairs at drop-off.)

I’m not a breakfast person, either. Mom’ll always make me toast, or sometimes a toaster blueberry waffle, and I’ll take that in the car with a napkin. Sometimes even out of the car. But she tends to find at least half of it at the bottom of my backpack at the end of the week. I know, yech. But it’s just toast.

So, my school has two periods then nutrition break. Our classrooms are small—half are in a low building from the 1960s, the rest like the language and science labs are in a slightly newer two-story brick block. What’s cool is they all look out on the middle school quad, which is grass with shark fins swimming through it and a big painting of our shark mascot on the tallest wall. We are just up the block from the beach, so what’d you expect?

Sometimes we snack on the lawn during nutrition. Usually though we wait a couple more periods to eat at lunch and then peel open our bags around one of the outdoor picnic tables. There’s no actual indoor cafeteria at Surfside High—sweet, huh? It doesn’t rain much around here, or get very cold. So we just have a partially covered patio where you can order hot food or buy mostly boring things from a few vending machines.

I have Spanish in the morning with two of my pals, then English. After nutrition is geometry with the jumpy math girls Jasmine, Julia and Alma Rose, then American history right before lunch. My last two classes are earth science and music. I play the trumpet with the high school band already, which is cool but I have to skip PE. My mom keeps track of my Pony baseball practice and martial arts training to be sure I get exercise, and mails the hours in to school every month.

But, of course, I’d just rather be skating. Not a lot of time to hang with the skater brothers during the week, except for maybe over at Mateo’s where we have band practice. We’ll sneak in some rolls after we finish our homework, or if we’re doing some school project together. I have my own rail down in the meadow by my house. It used to be stables for local horses way back maybe fifty years ago, so the concrete’s still there and I’ll practice some tricks before dinner if there’s light.

Right after school, before team practices and stuff, I have a big snack like soup and salad or a panini and lemonade, watching part of a movie. That’s my chill time. Then, after sports and homework we all eat dinner together, but not too early. We’re kind of European-style, my dad says. Mom makes something awesome and Dad holds my hand and my brother Layne’s as we sit around the table and all say one thing we’re grateful for before diving in to the veggie lasagna or cheesy rice or whatever’s on the menu. I usually have reading or math problems to do afterwards, then take a bath and chill with a bowl of ice cream before lights out. And yes, my Mom does read to me a few chapters of some great book before I go to sleep. Hunger Games or Huck Finn or Summerland—I’m also a baseball fan, so I’ve gotten her to read that last one a couple of times, at least. My favorite part of the day!

~~~~~~~~~~~

Thanks, Cal! I hope Kindle Mom and her readers will check out the rest of your exciting story in On the Move! I appreciate the chance to visit!

Here’s where you can find the book:

- Amazon Kobo iTunes Smashwords Amazon UK Amazon Australia Amazon Germany:

Overdrive—coming soon

About the Author:
K.V. Flynn is a writer who lives in Southern California, kind of near Manhattan-Huntington-Malibu Beach. His action-adventure book ON THE MOVE about 14-year-old skater friends who are stranded at skate camp when a War breaks out, comes out on Sept.2. Follow the news about it at www.OnTheMoveBooks.com. His favorite ride is an 8.25" Krooked deck, Independent trucks, and 53 mm Spitfire wheels. He is half Spanish and half Irish. K.V. has a dog, and has been watching "Pretty Sweet" by Chocolate Skateboards, "Stay Gold" by Emerica, and "The Deathwish Video" by Deathwish Skateboards. What about you!? He and his bros regularly cruise Venice, Stoner, Skatelab, and Van’s. Talk back: KVFlynnOntheMove@gmail.com.

You can find and contact K.V. Flynn here:

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