I was sitting at a light in the passenger seat of my boyfriend’s Xterra in Chandler, Arizona. We were driving around looking for garage sales, a huge addiction of mine that Dave, my beau, enables with his own lighter interest. He lived in Arizona, I lived in Michigan. We were enjoying just being together as it was year 3 in our 8 year long-distance relationship, when I looked across the street and saw this amateur tag that I couldn’t read. It was as if the tagger had been interrupted and had to run from the cops or something.
My mind instantly started making up a story of the guy who ran. He was young, in a new territory and skittish because he wasn’t sure whose turf he occupied.
That line of thinking brought me to something I’d heard not long ago from that moment. A school merger, of rival schools, that resulted in violence. I was remembering the interviews and the kids who tried to brush off the crazy while in their eyes was fear. How many kids can say they are actually afraid to go to school? Back in my day, that number was a lot less. You didn’t see shootings on the news. Terrorism wasn’t a word people used every day. I feel like the number of teens who fear going to school escalates every year.
I think now, more than ever, teens all over the country and in different social environments can relate to what inner city kids have felt all along. Sometimes, school can be a dangerous place. Students now have to pay close attention to their peers and report on anyone acting all touched.
As I wrote this book, I wanted to bring the environment to life, but without it turning into a downer. I wanted to recognize that young adults have a lot to worry about and I want them to relate. But I didn’t want my readers wallowing in misfortune. I wanted to tell a story that focused more on the day-to-day living in that type of environment. Death could come creeping up on you…and this is how this character handled it. She used her smarts, she used her detective skills. You can too!
I wasn’t sure how to do that at first, and then, with that one little thought about a “writer” (a graffiti artist), I had a theme that I could use to soften the book idea. At first, I named the book Tagged. It fit. But then after a brief conversation with a friend, I added in freerunning/parkour.
The end result became a fast-paced novel, full of action and whodunit, that I hope all my readers will enjoy. And if I’m lucky, my characters will come back to make a series. J Thanks for having me today! I’ve really enjoyed talking in detail about how this book came about!
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Title: ON EDGE
Genre: Mystery/YA Mystery
Author: Gin Price
Website: www.thepoisonedpencil.com
Publisher: Poisoned Pencil
Find out more on Amazon
About the Book:
When a serial-killing graffiti artist starts painting your picture all over town…it puts a girl on edge.
Emanuella “LL” Harvey puts her gymnastic skills to good use as a member of her brother’s Parkour group. Freerunning, jumping, and climbing over their corner of the city like it’s an obstacle course gives them something to take pride in and keeps them out of trouble—sort of. But trouble finds LL when she runs into Haze, a talented graffiti artist whose sister Heather was murdered two years before. Freerunner and Writer promptly fall in love, but they decide to hide their relationship till they’re sure it’s the real thing—and until they can find a way to placate LL’s hotheaded brother, who has it in for Haze and his gang. But when portraits of LL—done in Haze’s distinctive style—start popping up on city walls, all hell breaks loose. LL’s brother threatens a gang war, which LL tries to avert by identifying the Writer who is really responsible for the paintings. But when another teen is murdered, it looks bad for Haze, especially when LL discovers that Heather’s killer and her portrait-painter are one and the same.
About the Author:
Using knowledge learned from her childhood environment, Gin Price’s writing is often steeped in street life, whether good or bad. Hoping to show support for art that is often misunderstood, she published her debut novel, On Edge, focusing on graffiti and parkour, two expressions dear to her heart. Currently, she is a resident in the Metro Detroit area, living with her loving biologist man, David, her two children, Shyla and Hayes, many reptiles and a troublesome cat named Wallace.
Connect with Gin Price on the web:
Website: http://authorginprice.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Gin-Price-229441673810768/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Gin_Price
The Story Behind the Book 