I am thrilled to be hosting a spot on the DEJA VIEW by Michael
Thomas Perone Blog Tour hosted by Rockstar Book Tours. Check out my post and make sure to enter the giveaway!
About The Book:
Author: Michael
Thomas Perone
Pub. Date: October
6, 2023
Publisher: Wheatmark
Formats: Paperback,
eBook
Pages: 275
Find it: Goodreads, https://books2read.com/DEJA-VIEW
Twelve-year-old Bobby Dalton doesn't
want to grow up. All his life, he has relied on the imaginary games of
childhood with his best friends Joe and Max to get him through the tough times.
But this all changes when his Seventh-Grade class buries a time capsule to
commemorate the end of the 1980s. Now Bobby is being haunted by visions:
ghostly doppelgangers of himself, his friends, and others. He calls them
"déjà view." Are these visions real, or has his imagination finally
gotten away from him? And if they're real, what do they want? Bobby needs to
figure this all out to survive his childhood…and his life.
From the author of the
award-winning Danger Peak, Déjà View is a darkly
funny coming-of-age dramedy with a sci-fi twist, cranked up to eleven. But even
more, it's at once a pulse-pounding thrill ride and a haunting portrait of
paranoia, mental illness, and the unbearable sadness of growing up.
INSERT YOUR POST OR REVIEW HERE!
About Michael Thomas Perone:
Michael
Thomas Perone is an award-winning author who has written for The Baltimore Sun,
Baltimore City Paper, Long Island Voice (a spinoff of The Village Voice), and
The Island Ear (now titled Long Island Press), among others. Online, he has
written for Fatherly, Yahoo!, WhatCulture!, and other websites that don’t end
with an exclamation mark. His articles for WhatCulture! covering the world of
entertainment alone have been viewed over 374,000 times, and his expertise on
critical writing in the music industry has been cited on Wikipedia and featured
in national press kits. He currently works as a Senior Editor in Manhattan and
lives on Long Island with his wife and two daughters. For more information,
please visit www.michaelthomasperone.com.
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YABC Q&A for Michael Thomas Perone, Author of Déjà View: A Kid Nightmare
1. What gave you the inspiration to write this book?
Similar to my debut novel, Danger Peak, Déjà View is based on a short story I wrote when I was a kid. The idea came from something my friends and I actually did. We buried a time capsule in my backyard, and then the next day I was on the swings at my best friend’s house around the corner. Our houses shared a fence, so as I was swinging, I looked past the fence to see where we buried the time capsule the night before and thought, “Wouldn’t it be funny if we were still doing that? Sorta stuck in time, burying the capsule over and over again?” That was the genesis of the idea, but in the original short story, it had much more of a horror vibe. It was like a slasher flick, and there was a lot more death. I toned that part down…a lot!
2. Who is your favorite character in the book?
Probably Dr. Pann, Bobby’s therapist. Without giving too much away, the character has a lot of shades to him, and it was fun playing with his different sides.
3. Which came first, the title or the novel?
If by “novel,” you mean the story idea, that came first. The original title was Déjà Vu, but there are only about five-hundred books with that title already, so I went with Déjà View since Bobby is actually seeing these repeated visions of his. There are still a few other books with that title but nowhere near as many as Déjà Vu. I guess that’s why I also added a subtitle to differentiate my book: A Kid Nightmare. Also, my debut novel, Danger Peak, has a subtitle as well (A Kid Adventure), and I wanted to link the two books, though Déjà View isn’t a sequel.
4. What scene in the book are you most proud of, and why?
Probably the Chuck E. Cheese chapter. Not only was it fun to revisit those birthday parties I used to have in the ‘80s, I thought it was a pretty funny scene, and it sets the tone for the novel. It’s a little silly, slightly spooky, and somewhat surreal, and it foreshadows the strangeness to come. It also reinforces the major theme of the book, which is the death of childhood.
5. Thinking way back to the beginning, what’s the most important thing you’ve learned as a writer from then to now?
I learned the importance of outlining. I used to hate writing outlines in school, and when I wrote for fun on my own, I would write off-the-cuff and see where the story took me. There are merits to that too, but I’ve found it much easier if you have a general idea of where you’re going. You don’t have to have every scene plotted out or every line of dialogue memorized obviously, but if you know how to get from point A to point B and then C and so on, the writing flows much easier, at least for me.
6. What do you like most about the cover of the book?
The colors. I came up with the design of the book (three kids burying something mysterious under the light of the full moon), and the artists at my publishing house created it, but I didn’t have any particular colors in mind. I was really pleased though when the cover came back to me. The deep blues and purples of the night sky really set the tone for the spooky story, and it’s also just pretty to look at. I might actually like the cover better than the one for my last novel, Danger Peak, and I really liked that one!
7. What’s up next for you?
After two novels back to back, I’m taking a break from the longform story, so my next book will be a collection of my favorite short stories I’ve written over the years. There’s one I wrote in the mid-‘90s that actually predicted the future. It’s about a small town that becomes obsessed with television to the point of madness, and it features telecommuting and remote learning via T.V. screen and cars with built-in screens in the front dashboard. I remember thinking it was ridiculous at the time, and now it’s commonplace.
8. What would you say is your superpower?
Probably juggling (the figurative, not literal, kind, as I can’t even juggle two balls). I have a full-time job, two small kids to take care of, a wife to make happy, a dog that requires constant attention, parents around the corner who need help, a house to fix up, and yet somehow, I found time to write two novels in the past two years. I know one day years from now—maybe when I’m retired—I’m going to look back and think, “How did I do it all?” I’m actually thinking of that now!
9. Is there an organization or cause that is close to your heart?
I like the Make-A-Wish Foundation. When I was a kid, one of my good friends had a bad liver and needed to move to Florida because supposedly, they had a better hospital for him down there for that sort of thing. He was granted a wish from this organization, and he asked for a roundtrip plane ticket to come home to visit the family he left behind and his old friends, including me. That was the last time I saw him, as a few months later, his liver gave out, and he died. If it wasn’t for Make-A-Wish, I wouldn’t have had that final day with him, so you know they’re actually doing the job they claim to do. I ended up naming Chris, one of the characters in my debut novel, Danger Peak, after him.
Giveaway Details:
1 winner
will receive a finished copy of DEJA VIEW, US Only.
Ends December 12th, midnight EST.
a Rafflecopter giveawayTour Schedule:
Week One:
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11/27/2023 |
Blog Spotlight |
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11/27/2023 |
Excerpt |
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11/28/2023 |
Interview/IG Post |
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11/28/2023 |
IG Post |
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11/29/2023 |
Excerpt/IG Post |
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11/29/2023 |
Excerpt |
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11/30/2023 |
Review/IG Post |
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11/30/2023 |
IG Post |
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12/1/2023 |
IG Review/LFL Drop Pic/TikTok Post |
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12/1/2023 |
IG Review |
Week Two:
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12/4/2023 |
Review/IG Post |
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12/4/2023 |
Review/IG Post |
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12/5/2023 |
Guest Post |
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12/5/2023 |
IG Review |
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12/6/2023 |
Review |
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12/6/2023 |
IG Review |
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12/7/2023 |
Review/IG Post |
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12/7/2023 |
IG Review |
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12/8/2023 |
IG Review/TikTok Post |
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12/8/2023 |
IG Review |
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