Fountain
Dead
by
Theresa Braun
Genre:
YA Horror
Mark
is uprooted from his home and high school in the Twin Cities and
forced to move with his family into a Victorian in Nowhere-ville.
Busy with the relocation and fitting in, Mark’s parents don’t see
what’s unfolding around them—the way rooms and left behind
objects seem alive with a haunted past.
Of
course, Mark keeps his ghostly encounters to himself, all the while
sinking deeper into the house's dark, alluring, and ultimately
terrifying history. As romantic entanglements intensify, the
paranormal activity escalates. Past and present come together.
Everything is connected—from the bricks in the walls to the hearts
beating in their chests, all the secrets of Fountain Dead are finally
unearthed.
Theresa
Braun was born in St. Paul, Minnesota and has carried some of that
hardiness with her to South Florida where she currently resides. An
English teacher and adjunct college professor for over thirteen
years, she continues to share her enthusiasm for literary arts with
her students. She earned a Masters in English literature with a
thesis on Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. In her spare time, she
enjoys delving into her own creative writing, painting, photography
and even ghost hunting. Spending time with her family and traveling
as often possible are two of her passions. In fact, her world
meanderings are often backdrops for her work. Striving to make the
world a better place is something dear to her heart.
GUEST POST
Why write a teenage protagonist?
Looking back at myself as a teenager, I realize what a confusing and
crazy experience it was. Not that being an adult feels easy
whatsoever. I often tell my high school students that grownups don’t
grow up all that much, really. We are all kind of big kids. The
difference is that most of us have a car payment and a mortgage, and
some of us have kids of our own. (Or, pets). Going back to teens, I
feel that it’s such a significant time. You’re finding yourself
and figuring out what you think of the world, striving to somehow get
there on your own terms, despite the fact that you have parents and
other adults telling you what to do.
Throw in some ghosts into the mix, and
that creates the ultimate recipe for teenage overload. Let’s not
forget about the raging hormones. In Fountain Dead, Mark lives
in the 1980s with a conservative mother and a super chill father. His
sister is kind of like him, willing to rebel against social
constraints put upon them by their parents. I wanted to tackle some
modern issues, but still set the story in a time that seemed so
iconoclastic and repressed all at the same time. We had gender fluid
celebrities and musicians, but a culture not ready to fully embrace
them. We had people like Madonna who were willing to shock the world
with suggesting a sexual revolution, but people were terrified of the
AIDS virus.
So I got to thinking, what if my
protagonist was coming to terms with his own sexuality? And, what if
he was bi-sexual, which made for a more confusing scenario. How does
one define sexual orientation in a society that still pushed everyone
to be straight? Furthermore, what if a ghost helped this protagonist
get clarity? Very off-putting indeed.
Another issue
that I spend a lot of time thinking about is social justice. Here we
are thirty years later and we haven’t achieved equality in terms of
religion, gender, or race. Those things haven’t gone away and need
our discussion. Sure, gender comes up in the novel, in addition to
sexuality. However, the characters also face racial issues. Since
Minnesota has a rich Native American history, I wanted to incorporate
that into the story. Whenever we marginalize one group, it definitely
affects society as a whole. I hope Fountain Dead helps foster
a discussion about that—while at the same time entertaining
readers.
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