The Truth Beneath the Lies by Amanda Searcy (Interview & #Giveaway)


I'm welcoming this debut author to my blog today for an
interview. Check that, her book, and the giveaway out below...

The Truth Beneath the Lies
YA Suspense, Thriller
Hardcover & ebook, 336 Pages
December 12th 2017 by Delacorte Press

Summary

Fight or Flight.

All Kayla Asher wants to do is run. Run from the government housing complex she calls home. Run from her unstable mother. Run from a desperate job at No Limit Foods. Run to a better, cleaner, safer life. Every day is one day closer to leaving.

All Betsy Hopewell wants to do is survive. Survive the burner phone hidden under her bed. Survive her new rules. Survive a new school with new classmates. Survive being watched. Every minute grants her another moment of life.

But when fate brings Kayla and Betsy together, only one girl will live.

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Interview

Welcome to my blog today, Amanda!

Thank you so much for having me!

What inspired you to write THE TRUTH BENEATH THE LIES?

The Truth Beneath the Lies has its origin in a series of crimes that shook my community many years ago. On a news report, there was a little girl standing in the background clutching the hand of her guardian and looking bewildered. Her mother had been the victim of a man murdering women who struggled with addiction and lived on the streets.

I couldn’t get that little girl and her mother out of my head. What if things had gone slightly differently? What if her mother had survived, gotten help, and gotten custody of her daughter back?

Fast forward to that little girl (Kayla) as a teenager. A strong, hard-working girl fighting to get out of the very dangerous world she and her mother are still living in.

Betsy’s story is more personal to me. The (fictional) town in her story is based on a real place. I was always welcome there, and I knew it would be the perfect place for Betsy as she tries to heal.

Will you tell us a little more about the two main characters, Kayla and Betsy?

Kayla lives with her mother, a recovering heroin addict, in a public housing complex in a very dangerous part of town. Her mother is so afraid of relapsing and losing custody of Kayla again, that she’s become agoraphobic and can’t leave their apartment. Kayla, in addition to doing well in school and being on the dance team, has a job at a grocery store, which is pretty much their sole income.

Kayla’s trapped between two worlds. She loves her mom and is proud of how hard she has worked to get Kayla back, but at the same time Kayla misses the safe, stable life she had with her foster mother.

Betsy has been through a terrible, traumatic experience. She has moved with her mom to the small town of San Justo, TX. Betsy wants to make friends and move on with her life, but she’s not able to. She has a burner phone under her bed and whenever she gets a message on it, she has twenty-four hours to respond or the man on the phone will have her killed.

Betsy too is trapped between worlds. Even though her new home seems safe, she can’t escape her past. When she tries to move forward it’s always there dragging her back.

Do you relate to one of them better than the other or are they based at all on anyone you know?

Both girls are completely fictional (a few of my secondary characters have bits and pieces of people I’ve known in my life). I have a soft spot in my heart for both of them, but I probably relate to Kayla more. I’ve never lived in a world like hers, but I understand her “I-want-to-accomplish-it-on-my-own” attitude about life. I think that she and I have that in common.

What’s your favorite genre to read?

I love everything YA. I probably read sci-fi the most, but also thrillers, contemporary, fantasy, historical…

As this is your debut, what was the publishing process like for you?

It was looooong (which is typical). Something that I don’t think the average reader knows (I didn’t before I started on this journey) is just how many people and how much time it takes to get a book out into the world. The Truth Beneath the Lies will come out almost two years to the day from when it sold. It has been a whole year since I officially finished all of my parts of the manuscript. But throughout that whole time a team of people has been working on all the different parts of the book—everything from proofreading, to design, to promotion, to getting it to the printer and in the warehouse.

What are you working on next?

I have another standalone YA thriller coming out late 2018-ish and so many more ideas. My next thing is to pick one and start writing again!

Sounds exciting! Thanks for stopping by and answering my questions!

About the Author


Amanda Searcy has a BA from New Mexico State University and an MA in human rights from the University of Essex in England. She works in collection development for a public library system and loves chocolate, cats, and curling up with a good book. She lives in New Mexico.

Visit her online at amandasearcybooks.com and follow her on Twitter at @aesearcy.


Tour Schedule

Tour-Wide Giveaway

1 copy of THE TRUTH BENEATH THE LIES by Amanda Searcy (US Only)
Ends December 22nd

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