Tour & Giveaway: Traced by Megan Squires

I’m thrilled to kick off the TRACED blog tour! Megan is here today to tell the “Story Behind the Story” for TRACED (Part One of the Outlier Chronicles), check it out the book and her post, then be sure to enter the giveaway for a chance to win a bookmark, an ebook copy of TRACED, and the grand prize, a Kindle!

Traced (Outlier Chronicles #1) by Megan Squires

October 1, 2012 | CreateSpace

Story Behind the Story

by Megan Squires

I never really set out to write a novel. I’m a full-time mom and a part-time photographer, so free time isn’t something that comes around often. But I’ve always loved to write—loved to create something out of nothing—so writing has always been a huge passion of mine.

In February of 2012, after reading several of the current popular young adult series, my best friend commented that she needed another “escape” book. That brief, fleeting statement triggered the next nine months of events. I kept replaying her comment over and over and thought, “Hey, I can do that. Why don’t I do that?” That night I was up until 4:00 a.m. outlining, drafting, and creating what is now Traced. I couldn’t sleep (a little ironic, isn’t it?) and I felt like the story was just trapped inside me. It reminded me of when I was pregnant with each of my children and I knew that until I had them in my arms, I wouldn’t be satisfied. It was that same feeling, and strangely enough the process has been about that long. In a way, Traced feels like my third “baby.”

It’s strange, because the theme for this book isn’t something I spent a great deal of time concocting originally. I’ve always been drawn to stories with a dystopian theme (and I often joke that I should have been born in 1984), but I never had plans to write a novel in the genre.

Similar to my draw toward dystopian novels, I’ve also been intrigued by the idea of an outlier—something that doesn’t fit the mold, something that doesn’t match all other data. Even during my college statistics classes, I loved the idea that even though an outcome should be predictable, there could be something that didn’t correlate in that sampling.

I thought that notion was very fitting for our lives, especially the life of a high school student. For teenagers, oftentimes the goal is to fit in—to go unnoticed. To stand for something and to go against the grain is a huge feat during that time of life. I was always fascinated with the notion of sticking out, but for the right reasons. Separating yourself because you chose not to swim with all the others; you chose to go upstream when everyone else headed down. You chose to stand for something greater than yourself.

The idea for The Outlier Chronicles grew out of that. It’s a story of these three kids who don’t quite assimilate into their society, but represent something beyond anything that could ever be depicted on a graph or set of data. They’re the ones that don’t fit the mold. They’re the Outliers.

GIVEAWAY

Enter for a chance to win a Traced bookmark and an eCopy of Traced. All entries into the daily give away count towards the grand prize give-away of a Kindle Paperwhite skinned in the Traced cover art!

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Follow the tour for more chances to win!

Monday, February 11th – A Book and a Latte
Tuesday, February 12th – Coffee, Books and Me
Wednesday, February 13th – The Cozy Reader
Thursday, February 14th – The Book Whisperer
Friday, February 15th – Ticket to Anywhere

Monday, February 18th – Sara in Bookland
Tuesday, February 19th – Tynga’s Review
Wednesday, February 20th – Imagine a World
Thursday, February 21st – Oops I Read a Book Again
Friday, February 22nd – Jenuine Cupcakes

Monday, February 25th – Ruby Reads
Tuesday, February 26th – My Neurotic Book Affair
Wednesday, February 27th – The Book Faery Reviews
Thursday, February 28th – Rants N Scribbles
Friday, March 1st – The Book Hookup