YAPC would like to welcome Barbara Morgenroth to the blog! Today she is going to share with us about herself and an excerpt of her Mature YA book Bad Apple. Please note this book is rated NC17 (no children under 17). If this is something you or someone you know would enjoy, please used the links to snag some copies!

YAPC: Try to describe the book in one sentence.

Barbara: Bad Apple–Like a bottle of spilled ink, one act of evil can spread through years and lifetimes, impacting many people as the darkness leaches outward in an ever widening pool but, ultimately, repair is very possible.

YAPC: Did you have support at the beginning and/or during your writing?

Barbara: Not at school!  Neither in high school or college did anyone get what I was doing or trying to do.  In college, my professor compared me to the “best writer” in the creative writing class.  I can still remember his story about a guy taking a shower and pushing spaghetti down the drain with his toes.  I am so waiting for his bestselling novel, and waiting and waiting.

Later on, every once in a while, you get just the boost you need and because, typically, it’s quite a rare occurrence, you’re extremely grateful and humbled.

YAPC: Do you read reviews written about your book?

Barbara: I’ve always tried to avoid them.  Some years back, I received a review on my middle reader novel, Impossible Charlie, now titled Dream Horse, and it was described as “an easily consumed confection.”  That seemed so fluffy then but I’d kill for it now.  On the internet, people can overreact and sometimes it makes me question the nature of the universe and soft soap’s place in it.  Other times, I’ve been brought to tears by lovely, heartfelt reviews, how a book touched someone personally, how it helped them through a difficult time in their life.  Something like that makes it all worthwhile.

YAPC: Did you always have it in mind to be a writer or did it just happen?

Barbara: I always knew serious writing was in my future, once I had all my adventures out of the way.  After being a photography major in college, I had a stable and was teaching horseback riding when the owner decided he wanted to use the property for something else.  Suddenly, my timeline was massively compressed.  What I thought I would do later in life, became what I would do right then.

YAPC: Why did you choose the genre you write in?

Barbara: I’ve written in a number of genres for a number of age-groups, as well as daytime television.  I don’t think there’s another genre besides Young Adult where you can tackle important life issues the way you can in YA.  I receive emails from readers saying how much they appreciate the depth and significance of the stories and characters that they’re not finding elsewhere.  I’m very happy where I am now but that’s not to say I don’t do other genres and age-groups, too.  Indie publishing makes that possible whereas writers were not, and still are not, allowed to do that in tradition publishing.  This is freedom.

YAPC: What inspired you to write, you took any ideas from other books, movies etc?

Barbara: Ideas come from all over but I can’t remember being inspired by a book or movie.

Bad Apple had two sources of inspiration.  One was that I have a neighbor who presses apples into apple cider.

The other was the murder of an acquaintance and I was very involved in the aftermath.  They thought I had to be a part of the crime since I called the police to say something was wrong.  Like on television, I was brought into the police station, Mirandized, and questioned.  At the same time, the murderer had been caught and was being questioned by the police elsewhere.  He could have gotten away with it; it was a close thing.

So the answer is that life inspires me.  In trying to tell the story, I’m trying to say something about the nature of life.

YAPC: What book is currently on your nightstand?

Barbara: Gee, there are so many books on my nightstand sometimes I worry that it’ll break.

I mostly read non-fiction in paper, and fiction on my Kindle or Nook.

Right now, I’m reading a non-fiction book about a portrait photographer inHollywoodduring the Silent Era.  Her name was Ruth Harriet Louise and she had a wonderful eye for light and shadows, drama, beauty.  So much of photography is seeing the right moment to take the shot.  Louise was blessed with that ability.  Her brother was Mark Sandrich, the director who did the incredible Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers movies in the 1930s.

YAPC: How important do you find the communication between you and your readers? Do you reply to their messages or read their reviews?

I adore the readers who go to the trouble to contact me.  They come to my blog, my Facebook page, and are so supportive and so patient while they wait for Bad Apple 4–Parked.  I named a character in Unheard after Angela.  Trust me, the “Mangy” in the book is nothing like the real Angela!  We all had a good laugh about that.

I reply to everyone who writes to me unless they’re abusive—yes, that’s happened.

YAPC: If I give you a time machine, what time period and in what place would you travel to?

Barbara: So easy!  The 1920’s either New York City or Hollywood or both.  I love the Jazz Era and love the Silent Era of film.  Hollywood was never so open to women working in the industry as it was before sound.  I think I would have made a good screenwriter and would have adored hanging around with Anita Loos who wrote so many screenplays as well as the book Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. Los Angeles andCalifornia had to be like paradise in the 1920s.

YAPC: Are you working on anything new and if so when can we expect to see it?

Barbara: I’m currently working on Bittersweet Farm 2—Joyful Spirit.  As soon as that’s completed, as promised, Bad Apple 4-Parked will be written.  Bittersweet 2 will probably be out in January 2013.
I’d like to do a photo essay sometime this winter.  I did two ebooks of those already, one on buttercups and one on apple blossoms.  This next one would be more architectural, perhaps longer.  The other two didn’t have text and the next one probably won’t either.

But I’m free to let the projects take me where they want to go so it’s always an adventure and I never know where I’ll end up.

About the Author: I was born in New York  City and but now live somewhere else. By now, I think of myself as a country girl and know more about gardening and animals than how to ride the subway.

Starting my career by writing books, (and I did the cover photography for my first two published by Atheneum so continuing to do the covers to my new books is predictable), I was actually aiming at the small screen. Television seemed like the perfect place for me even if I had no clue how to get there. Life is funny and often presents opportunities. Advice–Grab Them! Through a neighbor, I wound up getting an introduction to a lower honcho at ABC and an audition to write for them. My hopes were more than dashed, they were crushed, disintegrated, evaporated, demolished when ABC couldn’t find a place for me on General Hospital. (No Luke and Laura in my future!) To ease the crushing disappointment, I wrote In Real Life I’m Just Kate about a 17 year old girl who becomes a star on a soap opera. That became an open sesame moment and shortly thereafter I became the last headwriter for NBC’s daytime serial, The Doctors, where I was ordered by the network to kill Alec Baldwin, shooting him not once but twice. With two different guns. From different directions.

Ah, good times.

You can read the book that started my television career as the YA ebook, Just Kate, now with a substantial tweak because living life made me smarter.

The murder of a friend was the impetuous to write the Bad Apple series.  Many emotions come to the surface with an experience like that.  After the grief, you want to understand why such a terrible thing happened.  The more you dig, the farther back you go until you realize that something that happened before you were born had an impact on your life.  It’s like a chain of dominos, one hitting another, each one falling and effecting the next, on and on until it comes to you in a dead stop.

People can choose if these events will be a negative, or even a positive influence in their lives.  In Bad Apple, Neal Marchal found a way to repair the damage done.

Where to Find Barbara

Blog * Facebook 

Where to Buy

Amazon * Barnes and Noble * Kobo

Bad Apple

“You tell and next time you won’t even be able to crawl away.”

Neal Marchal lived with this threat for the next eight years. When she finds her neighbor murdered, she knows who did it. The why is the secret the family has been keeping forever. The reminder to never reveal the secret is her limp.
She rebuilt her life and now Neal has everything to live for—music, performing and a growing affection for the young man who pulled her to safety.
Then Joe comes home. Neal knows Joe’s going to finish what he started 8 years ago because she told. But this time Neal vows the outcome will be different.

******

Excerpt

I opened the door.  Janie was standing in the kitchen smiling.  I should have known something was really wrong.

“Look who’s home!”

She stepped aside.

It was Joe.

I felt my heart start to pound.

“Isn’t it super?”  Toby asked, draped around her brother.

“Unbelievable!”  I tried to smile.

“Hi, Neal,” he said.  “You’re sure growing up.”  His eyes ran up and down my body just as if it were his hands caressing me.  Joe crossed the room and grabbed me hard, pulling me close and kissed me.  He stunk of beer and ripe body odor.  He needed a shower.  Or a fire hose trained on him.

Joe pushed his bottle of beer at me.  “Have a drink.”

“No thanks, tempting, but I have homework.”

“Yeah, she’s a real bookworm,” Toby mocked.

“No kidding,” Joe said, eyes glued to me.

I nodded.  “It’s good to see you.”

Janie was beaming.  “He’s staying.  We’re going to be a family again.”

“Fantastic,” I replied.  “Everyone’s going to be so happy.”

As I walked to the stairs, they turned back to what they were doing, drinking and eating chips.  I got to my room, closed the door behind me and stood there not having an idea in my head.

Something had to be done before the fear submerged me.

I dug through the clothes in my drawer until I found the cell phone hidden there and pressed the speed dial.

“Neal?”

“He’s back.”

“Who?”

“Joe.”

“Get out.  Now.”

“How?”

“Come up with an excuse to leave.”

“I can’t think.”  I could barely breathe.

“How many bedrooms are there in the house?”

“Yeah.  Shannon and I shared a room when he was here.”

“Be magnanimous.  Say you’re going to stay at Maude’s so he can have his own room.  You don’t want him to be uncomfortable on the couch.”

“Then what?”

“One thing at a time.”

“So I’ll go stay at Maude’s.”

“Like hell, I’m turning around.  I’ll pick you up at Maude’s.”

“Then what?”

“You’ll stay with us until we get it figured out.  Don’t go downstairs until you’re sure you can convince them.”

“Okay.”

“I’ll see you in a couple minutes.”

I sat on the edge of my bed feeling dizzy, feeling cold and wondering what he was doing back.  There was a large duffel bag in the back of my closet.  I packed it carefully with everything I considered important, everything I wanted in case I never went back.  That was a real possibility.  If Joe was going to be here forever, I was never going to live under the same roof with him again.

It didn’t bother me leaving this room and this house.  I had been little more than a boarder here.  When I closed the door to my room, I heard them downstairs.  Toby and Joe were on the way to being drunk but weren’t there yet.  If I waited, Joe was a mean drunk and so was his sister.  Right now, they were celebrating to be together again.

The window of opportunity was very small and this was going to be the performance of my life.  If I could get through this, the Enchanted Garden Canoe Rental gig was going to be a cinch.

They were in the living room with the television blaring and for a moment, I thought about just leaving but didn’t want to risk it.  If they caught me sneaking out, there would be hell to pay.  I left the duffel bag by the door so I could grab it and go and they wouldn’t see how much I was taking with me.

I waited until they were laughing then went into the living room.  “Janie.  I have a good idea.  Maude’s knees are bothering her, you know how much I’ve been down there helping out.”

Janie nodded.  Toby and Joe weren’t paying attention, after all, it was me talking.

“If I stay there, it’ll help her and Joe can have my room.  He shouldn’t sleep on that old sofa.”

He looked up at the mention of his name and tipped the bottle up to his lips.

“Temporary.  We’ll figure it out,” I waved my hand like it was all a nothing little thing.

“Thanks, Neal,” Joe said.

“Just like old times,” Toby added, looking at him adoringly.  “Our rooms next door to each other.”

“Okay.  See ya, then,” I said, turned and made for the door.

*****