Thank you for hosting me today at Sunny Room Studio. It’s wonderful to have a chance to talk about my new book, Not Guilty. I love the theme of justice, or as in this story, injustice. It’s a long-time interest of mine. While I set out to focus only on this theme, another one crept up and became equally—and in the end—more important. Friendship and all that it means is really the heart of this story.
Not Guilty by C. Lee McKenzie
You’ll find a particularly appealing dog character named Buddy that is a people-loving retriever-mix who hates water–and even hates wet sand under his paws. “He was a failed retriever, but he wasn’t a failed friend.”
I met Buddy online, and his human partner brought him to life in a weekly blog called The Canine Couch Potato. I became friends with them both, and including Buddy in my book was a small memorial to a retriever who captured my heart. There are other characters of the two-legged variety that play an important friendship role in the book, too. A kid named Ice, struggles with a tragic past, and while he can’t talk about it, he releases a lot of his feeling through his art.
He plays a big part in motivating the main character, Devon Carlyle, to continue his effort to prove himself not guilty. Then there’s Tats who is never politically correct, so what he says can hurt, but in the end, he speaks the truth, and, fortunately, Devon listens.
Chewy has a big heart but a misguided idea of how to help others, especially his grandmother. One thing Devon learns is that he can go to Chewy for help and Chewy will be there.
This is my fifth contemporary/realistic young adult book, and as I write this post I have a hard time believing it. I set out to write one book and then take a vacation. That was in 2009. I now have two more stories almost ready to leave the barn, and I’m at 50K on a third. I think I’m officially addicted to writing books, and as one friend pointed out, I could have a much worse addiction.
Not Guilty by C. Lee McKenzie
Pre-Order: SMASHWORDS . KOBO . B&N
Publishes October 25
About Not Guilty:
A blood-smeared knife. One young man’s word against another. A lifetime dream crushed. The evidence points to Devon Carlyle. He was there when it happened. Everyone knows he had it in for Renzo Costa. And Costa says Devon was the one.
In the judge’s rap of a gavel Devon’s found guilty of assault. The star of the Oceanside High’s basketball team loses his shot at the one thing he’s worked so hard for—the championship game where college scouts could see how good he is. Now he makes his great shots in Juvenile Hall with kids far different from those that have always been in his life. Angry? Hell, yes. He’s bent on finding who did the crime. He’s bent on making them pay because he’s Not Guilty. But can he prove it?
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: C. Lee McKenzie writes young adult and middle grade novels. Her favorite stories are about kids who are, at their core, honest and brave, but who have to find that out. She loves the idea of poetic justice and likes to make that happen in her stories whenever possible. Her motto is: “If it’s not making you feel good, stop doing it.”
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