Bad Apple Tour

Today we're taking a look at Bad Apple by Barbara Morgenroth, book one of her mature YA series.

Bad Apple 
Barbara Morgenroth

Book Description:
“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:

Chapter 1 

I could smell the blood before I saw him.   

Two steps down the short hallway and I was in the kitchen with him.  There was blood up the refrigerator, red handprints where he tried to hoist himself to his feet.  Splatters and streaks pointing the way to the person now almost unrecognizable but for the clothes I had often seen him wear. 

I thought nothing as I turned and went for the phone.  It wasn’t there.  Just like Paul.  He wasn’t there anymore. 

I am a girl of constant sorrow,  

I've seen trouble all my days. 

Stepping out of the house into the fading light of day, the air was fresh and clean but the smell hung on me like a dirty blanket thrown over my shoulders.   

A car pulled into the driveway and Aunt Maude hurried up to me as best she could. 

“Too late,” I said. 

She started to push past me. 

“Don’t go in.”  Two nights ago we had shared a meal with him here, when he was alive and whole.  “Remember him from dinner.” 

“Can you tell what happened?” 

“Yeah.  Someone was really, really pissed off at him.” 

Maude couldn’t help herself.  She had to go inside and see for herself.  I wondered if, at her age, she could have seen worse.  Living on a farm, bad things happen all the time.  This was a special kind of bad that surpassed accidents. 

About the Author:

Barbara was born in New York City and but now lives somewhere else. By now, she thinks of herself as a country girl and knows more about gardening and animals than how to ride the subway.

Starting her career by writing tweens and YA books, (and did the cover photography for her first two books published by Atheneum so continuing to do the covers to her ebooks is predictable), she was actually aiming at the small screen. Television seemed like the perfect place for her even if she had no clue how to get there. Life is funny and often presents opportunities. Advice--Grab Them! Through a neighbor, Barbara wound up getting an introduction to a lower honcho at ABC and an audition to write for them. Her hopes were more than dashed, they were disintegrated, evaporated, demolished when ABC couldn't find a place for Barbara on General Hospital. (No Luke and Laura in her future!) To ease the crushing disappointment, Barbara 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 Barbara became the last headwriter for NBC's daytime serial, The Doctors, where she 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 Barbara’s television career as the Kindle YA ebook, “Just Kate”, now with a substantial tweak because living life made her smarter.

You can also read about some could-be-hers-could-be-rumors experiences gleaned during Barbara’s stint in daytime television in the Kindle romantic comedy, In Under My Head.  Barbara is a recipient of a Writers Guild of America Best Writing Award for her work on One Life To Live.

Whether you're looking for a Mature YA or a romantic comedy, Barbara has a book for you!

Check out Barbara's website