Blo Tour: Remembering Kaylee Cooper by Chris Francis

Remembering Kaylee Cooper by Chris Francis
Remembering Kaylee Cooper is a middle-grade paranormal novel focusing on the life of an eleven year-old boy who becomes intrigued by the oddities of a first grade girl named Kaylee Cooper.
Constructing the setting for Remembering Kaylee Cooper
I had a recurring dream when I was ten, where a dark ghostly figure watched me while I played hide and seek with my neighbors around the old barn at the end our street. For the longest time it didn't speak, and never bothered me. It crept through the tall milk weeds along the cow pasture and observed us from afar. Despite it’s ominous presence, I thought nothing of my unusual visions - that is until one night, when I awoke in a cold sweat with a stinging handprint on my chest.
For years, before my neighbors grew up and became too cool for childish games, we spent endless hours running in and around that decrepit barn. The barn became the backdrop for many of our weekend and summer activities.
However, following that unforgettable nightmare, I saw the old barn a little differently. Riding past the dilapidated wooden building each day on my way to the bus stop, I couldn’t help remember my dream where an oddly shaped figure, leaned over me while I hid inside an old storage room.  A plastic doll covered in dust and cobwebs sat in the corner on top of an empty oiling can. Scattered along the wooden floorboards were marbles, blending in with the chipped concrete and rubble. A constant drip echoed softly off the walls and ceiling. To this day, I can still see the figure’s shadowy arm rise up over it’s head as it walked into the room. Long, boney fingers spread out around it’s hand. Scanning it’s surroundings for a moment, I remember the creature then turning to me, slapping my chest with one powerful thrust.
I’m not sure what was more vivid, the old barn, the faceless being that stalked me in my dreams, or the handprint I felt the next morning.
Whatever the case, these feelings - these chilling, dark feelings needed to come out in my story. When the protagonist, Alex Thomas, learns about a deadly house fire that took the lives of a family along Screaming Ridge Road, he is pressured to visit the abandoned home.
In my head, I saw that abandoned house like the barn from my childhood. Creating Screaming Ridge in my writing, I was able to draw from these curious memories. Alex Thomas is me. His experiences are my own. Kaylee Cooper is the woven personalities of children who I have taught over the years. The House on Screaming Ridge Road is the barn, and that figure - that gnarled, incongruous figure is the subject of the nightmare I had when I was ten years-old.
I never questioned whether the barn was haunted, at least not aloud. But growing up around the farmlands of Campbellville, Ontario, I often wondered if lost spirits from years past ever drifted aimlessly through the cow fields or took refuge in the empty rooms of that old barn.
If you were to ask me today if I believe in ghosts, or if there is something ‘out there’,  my eyes would likely glaze over for a moment, thinking back to my childhood. My answer is... Yes.

Remembering Kaylee Cooper, by Christopher FrancisDate of Release­­:September 30, 2014Cover Artist: Christopher Francis: Website
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Description:
Kaylee Cooper is certain that Alex will become friends with a ghost this year. Alex thinks that he is far too old to be listening to a first grader and encourages Kaylee to stop jeopardizing his important sixth grade social life. Kaylee doesn’t listen and finds awkward ways to spend as much time with Alex as possible, even if it means following him into the boy’s washroom.
Fed up, Alex develops a strategic plan to ultimately help him get rid of Kaylee Cooper for good.
However, he soon learns about the mysterious legend of Screaming Ridge that pulls and unlikely group of friends together, including the girl of his dreams, and the school’s meanest bully. When they discover that the legend is real, and that Kaylee Cooper is at the core of the mystery, Alex stares death in the face and helps save her from an eternal life of misery and confusion.

About The Author: CHRISTOPHER FRANCIS Born in Brisbane, Australia, Christopher was accepted at age 19 into Sheridan College’s Animation program before earning a degree in Sociology from McMaster University.He then enjoyed a two-year adventure overseas working with children, before completing his Bachelor of Education degree at York University. He is now teaching junior and intermediate level students in Burlington, Ontario.Through Christopher’s experience working with children, he found writing and illustrating to be one of his passions. Currently working on a middle grade series, he recently completed and illustrated the first three books. He has also created seven other children’s picture books and illustrated children’s novels for independent authors Find Christopher Francis Online:Website| Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads