Fabulous and Brunette: Arlya by Jack Lowe-Carbell - Book Tour - Guest Post - Giveaway

Arlya

by Jack Lowe-Carbell

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GENRE: Thriller

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BOOK BLURB:

Arlya, a small town in Southern Ontario, is rocked by a gruesome crime. Four friends must work together with Detective Dylan Grey to find a pattern, a bike, a clue, and a sister before it is repeated.

James and his three best friends, Owen, Tommy, and Mike, have just finished school for the summer. The plan is the same as every other year: they are going to build the biggest fort yet, deep in the Dhoon Woods. After stumbling across a tiny, seemingly unimportant wooden hut, a series of crimes take place and their plans change.

Arlya falls into itself. Doors are locked, curtains drawn, bikes are put away, strangers invade, and kids are off the street. In the first week of summer vacation, a dark and disturbing family history is uncovered; friends turn on each other; a storm rolls through town; and a monster is hiding just out of sight, smiling its toothy grin and crawling through the corn.

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EXCERPT ONE:

One Friday night last summer, the four of them had left James’s house after his parents had gone to bed. They had biked around in the dark, briefly illuminated by the sparse streetlights looming over the side streets. Fog had drifted across the side roads; houses were barely visible through their covered lawns. Somehow, they wound their way to the bottom of Cemetery Hill.

“My grandpa is in there,” Tommy had said quietly.

They had looked out at the long blackness which rose menacingly above them. The trees at the top of the hill had been reaching toward the starry sky.

James had wanted to bike back. If he had left, the others would have surely followed suit. Mike had glanced at James waiting for his decision.

“My dad was supposed to be buried here,” Owen had said, his voice cracking, devoid of moisture.

The fog had continued to thicken around the four of them standing stagnant in the road, straddling their bikes.

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GUEST POST:

Overcoming Writing Obstacles

Writing this novel was, as I expected it, quite challenging.

There was a constant little sliver of doubt, every morning, every time I sat down to write. A nagging voice in the background saying, what if you can’t finish it, what if it’s not actually as good as you think, what if today you can’t do it. To overcome this I did what I know how to do, I wrote. I put some words down, even if they were garbage, it’s practice. I would go over a scene in my head again, plan a new one, I thought about characters and there motives, and I reminded myself that even if it wasn’t everything I wanted it to be, I am doing it; I am doing something I have always wanted to do, and aren’t I so lucky to do that.

That is not to say over the six months that I wrote this novel there were words put down every single day. I actually took an entire month off. I had a pretty serious health scare arise and it became a little obsolete, this idea I had. I was with my family, friends, I was thinking of the future. This strangely enough helped me when I came back to it. I realized it wasn’t quite as daunting as I thought. It wasn’t as integral to making me who I am as I had previously imagined it to. It was just me, at a desk, with a coffee, and an idea, writing something I had come up with, and I was so grateful to do it.

The steps I took from there were quite straightforward. If on a certain day I wasn’t feeling it, I was dreading sitting at my computer, I didn’t, I walked around, I saw friends, I went to the beach. But every day I checked in with myself. Every day I wanted to write I made sure to make time for it, and push away all distractions. It became a bit of therapy for me, an escape.

Now, dealing with the emotions after finishing the novel is a whole other beast I won’t get into now.

Again, I am no pro, but if I could give any advice, it would be to check in with yourself and ask yourself how you are feeling before trying to pour everything into this thing. This isn’t everything, while it may feel like it at times, it is important to also lift your head from the page and look around. I know I struggled with that immensely but when I learned that it made it a lot easier.

Thank you for reading my rant, I would love to hear what others have gone through and how they dealt with it!

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AUTHOR BIO:

Jack Lowe-Carbell is a 26-year-old writer living in Vancouver, BC. Arlya is his first novel, and it is based in his hometown, Ayr, ON. Thanks to his dad, who read him horror stories when he was far too young, Jack has always loved the genre. His next novel is a tale of horror based in Garibaldi Provincial Park.

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CONNECT WITH JACK:

Website:

https://jacklowecarbell.com

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/arlyanovel

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/jacklowecarbell

TikTok:

https://www.tiktok.com/@jacklowecarbell

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