Echoes of Blue by Keri D. James
Surviving. That’s all 17-year old Kendra Lachen knows how to do. After the death of her father, Kendra is in denial and avoiding her situation at home. As a new school year begins, she imagines it will be more of the same—assisting her brother with his photography business, stepping in for her emotionally checked out mother, and occasionally performing cardiovascular activity with her boyfriend (what some would call sex). Everything in her life is a method and means to run away from the thing
THE DEBUT NOVEL BY KERI D. JAMES
Echoes of Blue
that matters most—processing the loss of her father.
That is, until she runs into newcomer Bree Crystal the first day of her senior year of high school. As they grow closer, Kendra is forced to deal with her sexuality as well as her buried grief. Bree becomes a catalyst in Kendra’s journey—freeing her from survival mode and guiding her towards healing.
Loss can change one’s story in just a single moment—and so can love. Echoes of Blue embraces Kendra’s newfound love along with her heart-wrenching journey of grief and acceptance. It is a Young Adult LGBT novel tackling the effects of loss like Nina LaCour’s We Are Okay with a touch of wit and sarcasm like Becky Albertalli’s Leah on the Offbeat.
Echoes of Blue is complete and looking for an agent/publisher home.
Reviews
Echoes of Blue is a beautiful and poignant coming of age story. Keri weaves a bold story of heartache, love and the intricate ties that bind us to one another. Invoking both tears and laughter, Keri takes us on this multi-layered journey into the heart of a girl as she tries to find healing from her loss, and in the process finds herself as well. Touching, lyrical and well crafted, this story dives deep, pulling you into Keri's world of redemption and self-discovery that leaves you wanting more after the pages have stopped turning.
Echoes of Blue was paced perfectly, had brilliant description and a very readable, consistent tone. Not to mention that it left me feeling like it was really worth reading, like the story was really going somewhere and what I had just read was close to perfect. You ended it leaving me wanting to read more but giving me just enough to satisfy me until the next chapter. I thank you for that.
I really liked this story! It's sweet and romantic, sure, but it has that extra something that makes it special. I really appreciate it when a story tries to interject a little bit of meaning here and there in small doses, even if it does run the risk of coming across as cliched to a jaded audience.
JENNI PEZZANO,
Author of Embrace and Light Amongst the Shadows
LYNN, reader from Fictionpress
EGOSERENADE, reader from Fictionpress
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BIO
I've been writing since the wee age of 8. I still have leather-bound short stories I wrote as a child (about my dogs, Scooter and Rocky--truly a work of art) as well as the YA thrillers I wrote when I was 12. I was ambitious even at that age and sent them off to publishers. It's hard to understand why they sent me rejection letters. (Sarcasm.)
Nonetheless, the writing bug got me early in life and it stuck around. The majority of my writing came in the form of poetry. I honed my craft throughout high school and college. I became PoetryGrl and my novels became a distant thought. I blame this on my attention span. It's so much easier to spend thirty minutes on a poem than years on a novel. Maybe I should rename myself to Instant Gratification Grl.
As I started my own coming out story years ago, I found comfort in YA novels from Julie Ann Peters (Keeping You a Secret), Sara Ryan (Empress of the World), and Paula Boock (Dare, Truth or Promise). Once I became more comfortable in my own skin, I wanted to offer the same comfort to readers that those authors gave me. That's when I started writing Echoes of Blue, my debut Young Adult LGBT novel, and building a community of readers on Fictionpress.
I wish I could say writing the novel came quickly, but that would be a lie. It was developed through the course of a couple (long) relationships, and the loss of my father and mother. Echoes of Blue is more than just a story--it's an extension of my thoughts and feelings. As Ernest Hemingway said, "There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed." And I've found myself bleeding on the page. As I wandered through Kendra's journey, I found healing in my own grief, and I hope that you, the reader, find the same.
I would also encourage you to join my mailing list below in order to get the latest updates, including exclusive content such as additional chapters, and a preview of my upcoming novel, Blurred Lines. No spamming involved--we're talking an update once every couple of months or so. I would love to keep you informed on what I'm up to. Just for joining, I'll send you a free chapter of Echoes of Blue from Bree's perspective!
Agents
If you are an agent, publisher or from the press, this is the spot for you. Thank you for visiting my website and having an interest in my novel. In order to make things easier, I have assembled a PDF to download that will provide you with the following information:
Author Bio
Contact Information
Brief description of my Young Adult LGBT novel Echoes of Blue
Sample chapters from Echoes of Blue
Testimonials from my readers
If you have any questions, please feel free to reach me at the email address listed in the PDF. I would love to hear from you.
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