The Dead Tree by Lori L. Clark

I’m trying something a little different today, something I’ve never done on this blog before. I’m hosting a stop on fellow author, Lori L. Clark’s blog tour for her new book The Dead Tree, and I’m really excited about it! So without further ado, here is the pertinent info on The Dead Tree by Lori L. Clark. Love the cover, by the way!

 

Blurb: The town of Steele Grove, Missouri sits high along the bluffs of the Mississippi River. Legends run rampant around town about crazy Blythe Fountain, who discovered her beau hanging from the oak tree in the family’s front yard. A short time later, two of her friends mysteriously disappeared, never to be seen, or heard from again.

Eighty years later, Ariel Fountain has inherited the property, and after catching her boyfriend cheating on her, decides she needs a change of scenery and runs headlong to a place shrouded in superstition and family mysteries which may be better off left unsolved.

Ariel sets out with the help of a local man, Grady, to uncover the truth behind the hanging and the girls’ disappearances. What Ariel discovers is a secret so horrific she wishes she would have left it buried.”

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Lori was kind enough to answer a few questions for me about The Dead Tree. Here’s that short interview:

Thank you Lori, for taking the time to answer a few questions about your new release, The Dead Tree, which I thoroughly enjoyed!

Thank you so much! It’s a little bit different from what I’ve written in the past. I hoped that I made the right decision in venturing down a road less traveled. 

I’m always curious to hear about other authors’ writing process, so my first question is, are you a plotter or a pantser?

Both, really. I have a general idea who my characters are and what their story is. But often when I sit down to write, the book takes on a life of its own. I do very rough outlines, chapter by chapter. And by rough, I mean like a paragraph or two of what happens next. If the characters are cooperative, it all works out. If not, well… 

What is it that draws you to writing YA/NA?

They say to write what you enjoy reading. I have loved YA/NA for a long time. Lately, my characters have grown up, and I’m moving more into category fiction. I just need to find my category. Ha! 

There was so much about The Dead Tree that I loved – including the friendship/attraction between Ariel and Grady, and I enjoyed Great Aunt Blythe’s recollections from her memoirs. What is your favorite part of The Dead Tree?

Honestly, I started the book with the main character being Ariel, but as I got more into it, I actually enjoyed writing from Blythe’s POV the best. Her character was the most fun to write for me. So, I would say the chapters from her POV are my favorite. The twist and turns at the end of the book were a little planned and a little surprise — even for me. 

I love the mystery element of The Dead Tree, so I’m curious to know, where did the idea for the story come from?  

I thought about the memorials that people put on the side of the road when they have had a loved one pass in an automobile accident. You know, the crosses, the flowers, the stuffed animals along the highways. I wondered what it would be like to be a woman in love with a man who was killed — she makes the trek every week to leave something new at the site of his accident. Soon, she starts to discover other people are leaving things, as well. It made me wonder what would you do if you were in this woman’s shoes? Would you try to find out who was leaving the other gifts? Would you confront the other individual? What if it were more than one other person? What if the man you thought you were in love with — the man whose heart beat only for you — wasn’t the person you thought he was? What if he was seeing someone else at the same time and you thought he was being true to you? 

That was the original idea. Bits and pieces of that original idea crept into the final copy of the book. But it took other twists and turns along the way.

What’s next for you in terms of writing projects? What are you working on now?

The next book is about a young woman trying to come to terms with her sister’s murder. She meets a man, he helps her cope with her sister’s death. She falls in love with him, only to learn something completely unforgivable about him.

It’s a little bit along the lines of how well do you really know the person sleeping beside you? And what would you do if you found out they aren’t who you thought they were?

A lot of family dynamics.

So here’s My Two Cents

I don’t often read a lot of Young Adult/New Adult Romance, but something about this one just jumped out and grabbed my attention. Let me back up a little … in the interest of full disclosure, I want to tell you that Lori L. Clark and I both work with Stephanie Biedlingmaier of Promotions by Stephanie. So I had been seeing these really gripping teasers that Stephanie would post to her Facebook page for a book called The Dead Tree, and I was so intrigued – to the point where I wanted to ask if I could read it, but I didn’t want to seem like a total dork. I mean, I didn’t know this author, and she didn’t know me, and I didn’t want to seem presumptuous, yada, yada, yada. And then Stephanie asked if I’d like to host a stop on Lori’s blitz tour for the book, so I jumped at the chance, offering to review the book! (Little did they know how much I really wanted to read it anyway!).

The Dead Tree is the tale of a confident young woman named Ariel who gets sucker punched in the gut by love, and then learns she’s inherited a fortune from her Great Aunt Blythe. Well, since love dissed her (in a major way) she really has nothing tying her to California anymore, so she hops on a plane and heads for Missouri to meet with her Great Aunt’s lawyers to find out what’s what. Once there, she learns that not only did her Great Aunt leave her the money and the mansion, but she also left behind a totally engrossing mystery to be solved. Standing on the property in front of the mansion is a large dead tree, one that all the townspeople have a plethora of legends and superstitions about – What’s the real story behind the young man who was found hanging from that very tree? And what about the two girls who went missing just days after and were never heard from again? And most shockingly … did Ariel’s Great Aunt Blythe really murder all three of them?

I would LOVE to fill you in on the details, but I’m a firm believer in spoiler-free reviews, so I can’t. But suffice it to say that I was thoroughly entertained by The Dead Tree. I love the friendship that develops between Ariel and Grady, the sexy landscaper she hires to help her get rid of the dead tree, and the romance that starts to simmer for them. I love the fact that Ariel is not a damsel in distress. When love knocks her down she doesn’t lay there and take it, she gets up and takes charge. I also love that Grady feels like a real twenty five year old young man who’s trying to build a career for himself while navigating the always tricky waters of dating and finding that special person to share your life with.

The Dead Tree is an engaging read, once I started it I didn’t want to put it down until Ariel found all the answers she was seeking about the mystery and legend of the tree and it’s connection to her Great Aunt. My jaw dropped on the second page and it was full steam ahead from then on! This is the first book I’ve ever read by Lori L. Clark, but I can promise you it won’t be the last. If you like your romance served with a side of mystery and a pinch of suspense – whether you read YA/NA or not – you will enjoy The Dead Tree.

Meet Lori

 Lori L. Clark was born in Iowa, where she spent the first forty-six years of her life. In 2007, she loaded up a moving van and relocated to Missouri, where she currently resides. Lori’s only child is a very spoiled Min Pin named Barkley. When not writing, she reads and runs. She completed her first half marathon at the age of fifty. In 2009, after participating in NANOWRIMO, she began to take seriously the voices in her head. Two New Adult contemporary romance novels, Different Roads, and I Breathe You, were published in 2013, and showed early success. The Heart Knows What the Heart Wants is set to release in March 2014, and has her venturing into the realms of Romantic Suspense. Lori is a member of Savvy Authors, the St. Louis Writers Guild, and Romance Writers of America.

Here are Lori’s links: Facebook  Twitter  Personal Blog  Book Review Blog  Goodreads  Pinterest  Amazon Author Page