BY MINDI SCOTT

Today, we have another author here with a new out book to tell you about. Gretchen McNeil’s horror novel, Ten, is a getting some great attention:

“TEN is a real page turner! Gretchen McNeil knows how to plot a thriller:
Her setup is flawless and the suspense kept me on the edge of my seat.” –
Christopher Pike, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the THIRST
series and REMEMBER ME

“In the esteemed tradition of teen horror fiction, Ten hits all the high notes: a
stormy night, illicit liaisons, cut phone lines, suspicious disappearances, double-crosses, secret histories, and plenty of twists.” – Booklist

I have to say, even as someone who is a big baby over anything in the horror genre, I’m intrigued! (But am I brave enough to read it???)

Here are the questions that Gretchen answered for me (thank you, Gretchen!):

At age eight, what did you want to be when you grew up? And at age eighteen? And while you’re at it, what about at age twenty-eight?  
Gretchen McNeil: At 8, I wanted to be Ann Miller (the dancer.)  At 18, I wanted to be Beverly Sills (the opera singer.)  At 28, I just wanted to be ME.  🙂

 Which Breakfast-Club-style label would have best fit your teenage self?
GM: Sadly, I was most of them all rolled into one.  I was a punk/mod who got straight A’s and made the Varsity Girls’ soccer team freshman year, played for 2 years before I torn my knee apart and had to have it reconstructed.  The only thing I wasn’t was a princess.

Without giving away too much from your newest book, which character or scene from it are you the most pleased to have created, and why? 
GM: Gunner, aka “the Gun Show”, is my favorite character.  I managed to impart a sort of straight shooter who’s not particularly bright without ever telling the reader that he’s not particularly bright.  Also, his insights are the clearest.

Which are your favorite movies to watch again and again? 
GM: Clue, Ghostbusters, A Room With a View and The Hunt For Red October.  How’s that for an eclectic mix?

 And, now, the most important question of all: Beatles or Elvis? Please support your answer. 😉
GM: Elvis.  A little less conversation, a little more action.

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About the book:

It was supposed to be the weekend of their lives – three days on Henry Island at an
exclusive house party. Best friends Meg and Minnie each have their own reasons for
wanting to be there, both of which involve Kamiak High’s most eligible bachelor, T.J.
Fletcher. But what starts out as a fun-filled weekend turns dark and twisted after the
discovery of a DVD with a sinister message: Vengeance is mine.

Suddenly, people are dying and the teens are cut off from the outside world. No
electricity, no phones, no internet, and a ferry that isn’t scheduled to return for two days. As the deaths become more violent and the teens turn on each other, can Meg find the killer before more people die? Or is the killer closer to her than she could ever imagine?

About the author: 

Gretchen McNeil is an opera singer, writer and clown. Her YA horror POSSESS
debuted with Balzer + Bray for HarperCollins in 2011. Her follow up TEN – YA horror/suspense about ten teens trapped on a remote island with a serial killer – will be released September 18, 2012, and her third novel 3:59, sci fi doppelganger horror is scheduled for Fall 2013. Gretchen’s new YA contemporary series Don’t Get Mad (Revenge meets The Breakfast Club) begins Fall 2014 with GET EVEN, followed by the sequel GET DIRTY in 2015, also with Bazler + Bray.

Gretchen is a former coloratura soprano, the voice of Mary on G4’s Code Monkeys and she sings with the LA-based circus troupe Cirque Berzerk. Gretchen blogs with The Enchanted Inkpot and is a founding member of the vlog group the YARebels where she can be seen as “Monday.”