Merit Press to Publish Local Author's Novel featuring Bonnie & Clyde
After ten years of daily writing, five novels, and three agents, Arlington Heights resident Kym Brunner's patience finally paid off. Her debut novel Wanted: Dead or In Love (Merit Press) about two teens inhabited by deadly outlaws Bonnie and Clyde, will be published as an ebook in mid-May, with the hardcover arriving a month later in June, 2014.
There's been a lot of buzz in the writing community over this young adult novel featuring the legendary outlaws, Bonnie & Clyde. The criminal duo recently garnered renewed interest when A&E, History Channel, and Lifetime simultaneously aired a two-night miniseries in December, 2013. The miniseries (starring actor Emile Hirsch as Clyde Barrow, and Holiday Grainger as Bonnie Parker) reached 9.8 million viewers the first night, according to Variety magazine, proving that there's no shortage of consumers wanting another glimpse into the lives of the infamous bank robbers. Kym Brunner doesn't disappoint. She admits to spending a few months learning about Bonnie and Clyde before starting to pen her own version.
In Wanted: Dead or In Love, impulsive high school senior Monroe Baker is on probation for a recent crime, but strives to stay out of trouble by working as a flapper at her father's Roaring 20's dinner show theater. When she cuts herself on one of the spent bullets from her father's gangster memorabilia collection, she unwittingly awakens Bonnie Parker's spirit, who begins speaking to Monroe from inside her head. Later that evening, Monroe shows the slugs to Jack, a boy she meets at a party. He unknowingly becomes infected by Clyde, who soon commits a crime using Jack's body. The teens learn that they have less than twenty-four hours to ditch the criminals or they'll share their bodies with the deadly outlaws indefinitely.
Kym Brunner teaches 7th grade reading and language arts at District #23's MacArthur Middle School in Prospect Heights. She is a member of SCBWI (Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators) and heads two critique groups, one in Schaumburg at the Barnes and Noble, and another online group. Find her on Goodreads, Facebook, and Twitter, as well as on her website, http://www.kymbrunner. com. She looks forward to meeting you in the neighborhood or on the web, and hopes you'll check out WANTED: DEAD OR IN LOVE...if you're brave enough.