Title: Catch Me When I Fall
Author: Vicki Leigh
Genre: young-adult, urban-fantasy,
paranormal-romance
Publish Date: October 23, 2014
About Catch Me When I Fall:
Recruited at his death to
be a Protector of the Night, seventeen-year-old Daniel Graham has spent
two-hundred years fighting Nightmares and guarding humans from the clawed,
red-eyed creatures that feed off people’s fears. Each night, he risks his
eternal life, having given up his chance at an afterlife when he chose to
become a Protector. That doesn’t stop a burnt-out Daniel from risking daring
maneuvers during each battle. He’s become one of the best, but he wants nothing
more than to stop.
Then he’s given an
assignment to watch over sixteen-year-old Kayla Bartlett, a clinically
depressed patient in a psychiatric ward. Nightmares love a human with a
tortured past. Yet, when they take a deep interest in her, appearing in
unprecedented numbers, the job becomes more dangerous than any Daniel’s ever
experienced. He fights ruthlessly to keep the Nightmares from overwhelming his
team and Kayla. Soon, Daniel finds himself watching over Kayla during the day,
drawn to why she’s different, and what it is about her that attracts the
Nightmares. And him.
A vicious attack on Kayla
forces Daniel to break the first Law and reveal his identity. Driven by his
growing feelings for her, he whisks her away to Rome where others like him can
keep her safe. Under their roof, the Protectors discover what Kayla is and why
someone who can manipulate Nightmares has her in his sights. But before they
can make a move, the Protectors are betrayed and Kayla is kidnapped. Daniel
will stop at nothing to save her. Even if it means giving up his immortality.
Guest Post
All About Kayla Bartlett
Creating deep, realistic love interests is just as important
as creating main characters you can’t help but root for. Readers need to love
the main character’s significant other just as much, or the author runs the
risk of people not caring what happens to the relationship. So, when I created
Kayla, I knew she had to be as important to me as Daniel.
Like when I created Daniel, Kayla was developed using a
casting sheet, brief bio, and character survey. I already knew that she was
going to be his charge, in a psychiatric ward, and our paranormal in the story.
From there, I delved deeper, discovering who she was at her core and why Daniel
would come to love her.
So, without further ado, here’s everything you need to know
about Daniel’s love interest, Kayla Bartlett:
The Casting Sheet
Kayla’s Brief Biography
The Character Survey
Age: 16
Hair: Dark brown
Eyes: Hazel
Height: 5’4”
Build: Curvy
Ethnicity: American
Traits: Affectionate,
Bold, Creative, Empathetic, Kind, Passionate, Determined, Imaginative
Flaws: Compulsive,
Impulsive, Insecure, Nervous
Played by: Lyndsy
Fonseca
When I write my character’s biographies, they really are
brief—just enough so that I know the character’s backstory. And I do this for
all of my major characters, not just my main one. It helps me learn where they
came from and what their motivations will be to create a character arc.
The plan for my Dreamcatcherseries
is to watch Kayla grow more than any other character. That said, because
Kayla’s backstory consists of what will become spoilers, I, instead, want to
share the passage from Catch Me When I
Fall that helps to explain why we first find Kayla in a psychiatric ward.
Note: This is very
sensitive material that could be hard to read for some of you. (Catch Me When I Fall is geared toward
teens ages 15+.)
Still want to read it? Okay, here we go:
Since I was Tabbi’s partner in protecting
Kayla, I could see what she saw in Kayla’s mind once I linked hands with her.
The connection was part of the supernatural bond we’d created with Kayla when
we performed our ritual the first day we were assigned to her. I grabbed
Tabbi’s hand and closed my eyes. Within seconds, I was in Kayla’s head, seeing
through her eyes and feeling her emotions. I had become Kayla.
Kayla hummed as she chopped vegetables
for her salad on the island in her kitchen. Someone knocked on the front door,
and she glanced at the clock on her microwave. I thought I told Renee not to come until seven. Kayla set the knife
down and walked through the immense house to the foyer then opened the door.
Matt, her mother’s boyfriend, stood on the other side with a bouquet of flowers
in his hands.
“Hi, Kayla. Is your mom home?”
Aww,
Mom’s going to love this. Kayla
shook her head with a soft smile. “She’s at work until four, but I’ll let her
know you stopped by. Want me to put the flowers in a vase?”
“Okay. Well, can I at least come in and
leave a note to go with it?”
Kayla nodded. “Sure.”
Matt smiled and stepped inside the door.
Kayla led him through the house to the kitchen and took a vase out of a
cupboard. “So, what’s up with the flowers?”
“Oh, you know. Just thought your mom
would like them.”
Kayla giggled. “You know her well.” She
turned around to hand the vase to him and stopped. The flowers were on the
counter, and Matt stood just inches from her. A slow smile rose on his face.
Kayla’s heart raced. “Um, if you’ll just let me get to the flowers, I can, you
know.”
Matt grabbed her wrist as she tried to
push past him. “The flowers can wait. They’re not the real reason I’m here. You
are.”
“Let me go.” Kayla stared right into his
eyes though the hairs on her arms rose and her palms sweated.
But he didn’t. Instead, he slammed her
against the kitchen counter and tried to plant his lips on hers. The vase fell
to the floor and shattered.
“No!” she shouted and turned her face.
Kayla shoved Matt’s face away from hers.
He growled in annoyance. “Don’t fight
me, Kayla. I don’t want to hurt you.”
Matt leaned in to kiss her again, but
Kayla slapped him.
“Behave!” He hit her back, punching her
in the eye.
Kayla squealed and tried to struggle out
of Matt’s hold, but he pushed her harder until the edge of the counter dug into
her back to the point of pain.
“Let me go! Help!” she screamed.
“Shut up!” He hit her again.
She didn’t quiet. Instead her screams
turned into cries. She squirmed, slapped him and kicked his shins, but all she
seemed to do was fuel his desire. His lips found her neck as he held her wrists
against the cold marble of the countertops, and he kissed up her chin to her
lips.
Then he slid his tongue into her mouth.
Kayla bit down, and Matt jumped back with a curse. “You little bitch!” He took one
hand off of her to slap her.
She reacted quickly and brought her knee
up, hitting him between the legs as hard as she could. His moment of shock was
all she needed. Kayla squirmed out of his grasp and ran through her house and
up the stairs, knowing her mother’s gun was in the desk drawer in her room.
After being home alone all the time, she’d stolen it from her mom’s safe and
tucked it away in her bedroom as a safety precaution.
Her paranoia was about to pay off.
With shaky hands, Kayla grabbed the
revolver out of her desk. She turned around, her finger on the trigger. Matt
entered the room, his face red and his teeth bared. The knife Kayla had been
using to cut her vegetables was in his right hand.
Kayla pulled the trigger, her heart
racing in her chest. Matt jumped as the bullet flew past his head. Kayla
whimpered and pulled the trigger again. The bullet missed.
Four more times she shot at him, and
Matt shrunk away each time. But Kayla’s hands were too shaky. The gun had a
wicked kick, and she never once hit her target. Her chin trembled as Matt
stalked toward her, a fiendish smirk on his face. She grabbed a metal trophy
off her desk and held the award like a baseball player at the plate, ready to
strike when he neared her. Her palms were clammy and her legs weak. When he was
close enough, she swung.
And missed.
Matt’s dagger entered her left side.
Kayla dropped the trophy with a scream as blood poured from her body. He
grabbed her arms and flung her onto the floor. Kayla sobbed, both at the burning
pain in her stomach and the fear coursing through her veins. She held her hands
out in front of her, praying she would die before her mother’s boyfriend raped
her.
Warm, awkward tingles ran from the tips
of her toes into her palms, like her body had been asleep but was now waking
up. Matt stood near her feet, unbuckling his belt. Kayla sobbed, begging God
for help. Then, without warning, Matt went up in flames.
I ripped my hand out of Tabbi’s and
jumped from my chair like I’d sat on something sharp. My shaking hands raked
through my hair, and I paced around the room, my heart pounding in my ears. The
room blurred. I wanted to drag Matt out of Hell and kill him again. At least
he’d gotten what he deserved.
After I knew Kayla’s backstory and how she got to be in the
mental hospital, I then completed a character survey to help me get to know her. For the sake of length, I’m not
going to share it with you today, but you can find the survey I used here.
Obviously, I take a lot of time in the planning process to
really get to know my characters, but it’s because I’m a plot-driven writer. I
always know the story before I begin, but I never know my characters. If you’re
like me, my suggestion would be to do something similar, because readers won’t
care about your awesome plot if they can’t connect with your characters.
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