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C. Lee McKenzie

Young Adult and Middle Grade Author

Good News and Hat’s Off Corner With Kai Strand

By 52 Comments

Good News

Reunited
Benji Baker is one lucky guy. He was in Australia, about to reunite with a father he hadn’t seen in years. Before the reunion, Benji went ocean kayaking where he suffered an epileptic seizure. Proof that fact is stranger than fiction, he was rescued by his father. Neither of the them knew who the other was until later.
Alligators Overhead gets a new look!

The Hat’s Off Corner Welcomes Kai Strand!

Being good isn’t so bad – oh, but it’s so good to be
bad.

Excerpt from Super Bad:
Source stepped in front of her,
balancing on the edge of the curb. He grasped her shoulders and stared her
straight in the eye. “Everything, everyone, will be all right. You have to
believe that, Sandra.”
Tears flooded her eyes again.
She hated that she didn’t believe him. “I’m scared, Source. I’m afraid Whisper
will never wake up. Or that I’ll never walk right again. I’m worried about
Mom’s state of mind. I’m scared the world will never right itself, and all this
violence will become the new normal.”
Source drew a ragged breath and
lightly dragged his thumb across her tear-stained cheek.
Closing her eyes, as though
afraid to see the full truth, she whispered her biggest fear. “I’m scared we’ll
never find Jeff.”
SUPER BAD The unexpected conclusion to the
Super Villain Academy series.
The world is in chaos. Violence and thievery reign. And with
the supers still balanced, it’s only getting worse. Without good versus evil,
the supers care less and less. In order to restore purpose, the world needs its
super heroes and its super villains, but the one who balanced them in the first
place is missing.
Sandra’s concern over finding her brother, Jeff, isn’t her
only problem. Her pathetic excuse for super powers has left her needing a new
ankle. And though she’s still very much committed to her boyfriend, Source,
she’s growing unreasonably attracted to Set, the boy who double crossed Jeff by
stealing his girlfriend.
When Sandra is taken and held as bait by kids who want to
unbalance the super world, it becomes the inciting event that changes things
for supers everywhere and forces them to answer the question, “Hero or
villain?”
***
Super Bad is scheduled for release in June, but there have been whispers
of it releasing sooner. Don’t miss out. Subscribe to Kai’s mailing list and be
among the first to know.
***
King of Bad – Jeff Mean would rather set fires than follow rules. He wears his bad
boy image like a favorite old hoodie; until he learns he has superpowers and is
recruited by Super Villain Academy – where you learn to be good at being bad.
Is Jeff bad enough for SVA?
Polar Opposites – Heroes and villains are balanced.
After Oceanus is kidnapped, Jeff learns the supers are so balanced, they no
longer care to get involved. Ironically Jeff’s superpowers are spiraling out of
control. Will they find Oci before he looses it completely, and will they find
her alive?
***

Win a $10 Amazon gift card or an ecopy of either King
of Bad or Polar Opposites. Plenty of chances to win. Open internationally. Enter
here:
a Rafflecopter giveaway

About the author:

When
her children were young and the electricity winked out, Kai Strand gathered her
family around the fireplace and they told stories, one sentence at a time. Her
boys were rather fond of the ending, “And then everybody died. The end.” Now an
award winning children’s author, Kai crafts fiction for kids and teens to
provide an escape hatch from their reality. With a selection of novels for
young adult and middle grade readers and short stories for the younger ones,
Kai entertains children of all ages, and their adults. Learn more about Kai and
her books on her website, www.kaistrand.com.


My Quote for the Day: “Far too many people are looking for the right person, instead of trying to be the right person.” Gloria Steinem

Do you think you could ever write a story like the Good News one of today and not be accused of using coincidence? What do you think of Kai’s latest book? Great cover, right? And what do you think of Alligators Overhead’s new cover? 

Comments

  2. Thank you for sharing Benji's story with us. What an amazing story! I still can't stop shaking my head in wonder that the father he had never met saved his life. When coincidences like that happen in real life it is such a turn of events that people can't stop talking about it. In fiction, it is harder to get away with coincidences like that, though they obviously happen.

    I LOVE the new cover! It is so gorgeous looking and appealing. The style and colors are just very well done. The two books look awesome together! YEAH! 🙂
    ~Jess

    Reply

  6. Amazing news story – I think in fiction it would be hard to pull off without a huge amount of backstory/set-up.
    The new cover is seriously swEEt (imagine a high-pitched teen call-out on the "E")!
    And, congrats to Kai – those books look fun to read!

    Reply

  10. What an amazing true story. No, I don't think I could get away with a coincidence like that in my stories.

    I like the new Alligators Overhead cover. Very cool!

    Congrats to Kai. I love how she got started with her storytelling, entertaining her own boys when the electricity was out. That's a neat beginning, especially with her boys as a test group, giving her their feedback!

    Reply

  20. That is truly amazing about father rescuing son. LOVE the new cover for Alligators Overhead, nice and sinister. Congratulations to Kai, her books sound interesting, indeed.

    Reply

  31. I don't even want to think of what it would take to calculate the odds that of all the people to rescue that young man would be the father he was about to meet. Such things as this are a wonderful reminder that there are just some things that we don't understand… and that's okay.

    I LOVE the old cover but seeing the two covers together make me want to e-hug them both. Very cool.

    And three cheers to Kai for SUPER BAD. I think the cover is awesome!

    Reply

  35. Crazy story of coincidence! I love Alligators new look. The series is well covered. Thanks for sharing Super Bad and the giveaway today. Cyber High Five! Good luck to everyone who enters.

    Reply

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