Yesterday's Gone

Yesterday's Gone

by Kelly Pawlik

 

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GENRE:   young adult horror sci-fi

 

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BLURB:

 

Book one of the Olympic Vista Chronicles  novella series follows Darius and Adelaide as they explore a house rumoured to be haunted. What they find is so much worse.

An eager new kid, a deadpan music-lover, a fast-talking troublemaker, an anxious bookworm and a girl torn between popularity and adventure. Follow this group of friends as they delve into the mysteries of their small town while juggling the trials and tribulations of their home lives.

A tale of friendship, love, and coming of age (with a healthy dose of horror) in the late 1980s.

 

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EXCERPT:

 

Darius glanced over at Adelaide. She looked out toward the playground. “So, I heard this place is weird,” he said. “Because of The Link.”

 

Adelaide’s gaze was still on the playground. Tetsu shrugged. Sophie flicked her hair over her shoulder and smiled.

 

“They do a lot of experiments there, I guess,” Kurt said. “They say it doesn’t affect us and there’s a lot of safety protocols in place. Between you and me, though,” Kurt said, leaning in, “it’s full of commies. They are the real threat.”

 

“Come on, Kurt,” Sophie said as she rolled her eyes.

 

Kurt pursed his lips and looked at the ground. “That’s what my dad says.” 

 

“No one believes that. And the other stuff is just rumours,” Tetsu said. “Got nothin’ to do with commies or Nazis. It’s just some stupid science building and observatory.” 

“What about the haunted house?” Darius had thought about it nonstop since he’d heard about it yesterday. He wanted to ask Dillon or the twin boys more about it, but he hadn’t seen them at the school. “Have you guys ever gone there?”

 

“What haunted house?” Adelaide’s eyes flicked back to him. 

 

“The one on Hyacinth Street. It isn’t far from where I live.” Darius liked her eyes on him. 

 

“That’s a really nice area,” Sophie cooed. 

 

Darius shuffled a step away from Sophie. Unlike with Adelaide, he didn’t like how she looked at him. 

 

“I was going to check it out.” Darius ran his hand through his hair, and looked back at Adelaide. “Tonight.”

 

Adelaide cocked her head and looked at him. “I’m in.”

 

Darius grinned. 

A Word With the Author:

 1.Did you always want to be an author?

Yes, I really did. I thought for a while it wouldn’t be possible, just because growing up people made it seem impossible. I looked at journalism for a while because it was still in the writing wheelhouse, but it wasn’t quite what I wanted to do. 

2.Tell us about the publication of your first book.

My first book is a novella, the first in a series set in a small fictional town with this adventurous group of kids. It takes place in the 80s, so there is a certain freedom with the lack of cell phones and the latch-key kid generation.

I started it as a novel, but I quickly realized there were too many stories to tell in one book, so I decided to go with a series of novellas. Each book is a case these kids discover, and we follow along with them as they figure out what’s going on and what they can do about it. More than just that though, we see their homelives, their friendships, their struggles and triumphs. It’s a coming-of-age tale in an 80s sci-fi world. 

I decided to go with self-publishing the novellas so I could maintain a bit more control over the story and also because novellas just aren’t as commonly published with a traditional publishing house. I found an editor to work with, and through them a proofreader as well. I brought on beta-readers and got feedback from them to help improve the story. It was all quite a process, but so worth it to hold the first book in my hands! 

3.Besides yourself, who is your favorite author in the genre you write in?

I love Neil Gaiman, and some of his work, like Coraline, fits within the YA horror genre I write in. I also really enjoyed The Hunger Gamesby Suzanne Collins. We both have some YA sci-fi aspects to our work. 

 

4.What's the best part of being an author? The worst?

I love that I get to create something the world can read and experience, but it’s also very intimidating to create something the world can read and experience! It can also be difficult to have the discipline to sit down and write as much as I know I should some days. 

5.What are you working on now?

Book four in The Olympic Vista Chronicles is currently underway, as is a collection of connected short stories. They are set in the same world, but they follow different characters and give the reader a bigger picture of Olympic Vista.  

 

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AUTHOR Bio and Links:

 

Kelly Pawlik dabbled with story writing from a young age. She spent her childhood reading, dressing her beloved cat, Midnight, up in doll clothes and hunting garter snakes in the backyard. Her childhood dream was to be a writer and she is proud to have made her fiction debut with the Olympic Vista Chronicles novellas.

Kelly is a tabletop roleplaying game (TTRPG) writer and has released multiple RPG supplements with her husband under their micro-publishing company, Dire Rugrat Publishing. She has also contributed to several best-selling works with Kobold Press.

Kelly lives on Vancouver Island, BC with her husband, their three inquisitive children, and two lazy cats.

Yesterday’s Gone is available on Amazon.com

Songs from the Wood, book two in the Olympic Vista Chronicles series, will be available on Amazon in September 2021. (I CAN SUPPLY THIS LINK ONCE IT IS RELEASED)

You can follow Kelly on:

 

Facebook: kellypawlikauthor

Instagram: kellypawlikauthor

Twitter: @KellyPawlik84
Or visit her website at olympicvistapublishing.com

 

FREE SHORT STORY: Sign up to receive Kelly's newsletter and get access to sneak peeks of upcoming novellas, behind the scenes information and other exclusive content. PLUS, you'll get “Snow Day,” a short story set in the Olympic Vista Chronicles universe, right away!   Sign up now.

 

The book will be on sale for $0.99.

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GIVEAWAY INFORMATION:

 

Kelly Pawlik will be awarding a $25 Amazon or Barnes and Noble GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway