NBtM Virtual Book Tour and Giveaway: Atticus Everheart, Fifth Grade Tutor and Monster Hunter? by C.L. Colyer

Welcome to my stop on the NBtM virtual book tour for Atticus Everheart, Fifth Grade Tutor and Monster Hunter? by C.L. Colyer. This book tour was organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. On my stop, I have an excerpt from the book as well as a great guest post regarding the inspiration behind the book. There's also the tour wide giveaway for a chance to win a $10 Amazon or Barnes & Noble gift card. Be sure to visit the other stops on the tour for more content. Enjoy!

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Title: Atticus Everheart, Fifth Grade Tutor and Monster Hunter?

Author: C.L. Colyer

Publisher: The Wild Rose Press

Publication Date: October 31st 2022

Print Length: 278 pages

Genre: Middle Grade Fantasy Adventure

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Nothing frightens Atticus Everheart more than monsters, thanks to his older brothers, who often threaten to feed him to the beastly creatures.

Fearing that’s what they will do if he doesn’t replace the book he accidentally ruined, he takes a job tutoring a boy in his neighborhood.

Although nervous about the job, Atticus soon discovers there’s a lot more in store for him than teaching. Never in a trillion years would he have imagined he’d be hiding from monsters, working with ghosts, or searching for werewolves and witches. He’s not brave, and he has no plans to change.

Until he’s forced to.

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EXCERPT:

“What?” called Atticus to his retreating student.

He had to have heard wrong. Drago hadn’t said, “dead.” He’d said, “red.” No, the color didn’t make sense either. “Fred.” That’s what Drago had said; it was probably short for Frederica.

Feeling better, Atticus made a mental note to clean the wax out of his ears when he got home, then jogged up the stairs after Drago.

“Please take the spelling test! We’re supposed to be studying!” Under his breath he added, “You don’t struggle with lessons, do you? You’re easily distracted.”

Drago had a shorter attention span than Evie, and that was saying something. Atticus’s littlest sister bounced from subject to subject faster than his father surfed TV channels.

“Look, take the pretest, and then you can introduce me to your grandmother.”

“I’ll take it after you meet her.”

Atticus tripped over a step, caught his balance, and continued his ascent, keeping one hand on the railing. Would Drago’s mother fire him if she found out that Atticus hadn’t taught Drago a single word? Was it Atticus’s fault? He had tried to choose easy words, but home did have a silent e. There’d been a time when Atticus had forgotten about it too.

“Is home too hard? How about batty?” said Atticus, throwing out the first word that came to mind. Batty described his student. B-a-t-t-y, meaning nuts, wacko, cuckoo.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

C.L. Colyer found her love for writing in first grade when her class was sent to the library and asked to find a book for their first book report. While she doesn’t still have this book report, she’s very proud to say she got an A on it. Her favorite thing about the book was that it had no words. That’s right, not one! That gave her the freedom to interpret the pictures in any way she wanted and write her own story.

This sparked her love for writing essays. It wasn’t until she was an adult that she sat down and penned her first novel. This story has a special place in her heart because it’s the story that helped her discover her passion for writing. She has since written several books, many of which may never see the light of day, but all of which helped her learn to combine her passion for writing with her fascination with all things mythical. You’ll find examples of this in her novels.

She lives in Illinois with her family.

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GUEST POST:

The inspiration behind Atticus Everheart,
Fifth Grade Tutor and Monster Hunter?
by C.L. Colyer

This was the first book I’d written where the idea for the story hadn’t been percolating in my head for some time. I had just finished writing Friends to the End and was in the process of plotting a young adult paranormal romance when I saw that an agent who I admired and had heard speak before was presenting a workshop at the upcoming conference I would be attending that winter. Her class was on revising a middle-grade novel, which meant I had to have at least fifty pages of a new middle-grade novel to bring to the class. A hundred pages would be better. And so monster-fearing Atticus and his half-vampire student were born.

Well, it wasn’t quite that easy. There was a lot of brainstorming, crumpled pieces of paper with discarded ideas, and some groaning, grunting, and shaking of the head. But then I envisioned Atticus, an ordinary ten-year-old boy, a middle child who just wants to read the books tucked inside the locked trunk at the foot of his older brother’s bed. I already knew that Atticus was clever, so the lock wouldn’t be a problem. And okay, the lock was there to keep him from touching his brother’s things, but Atticus planned to return the book to the trunk without his brother discovering he took it. Unfortunately for Atticus, sometimes even the best-laid plan can go horribly wrong and, of course, it had to in the book.

Drago Dracul also popped into my head, although he didn’t have a name yet. Halloween was fast approaching, we were watching movies like Hotel Transylvania, The Little Vampire, and Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, and Drago’s character formed. He was out to solve a mystery. Blending his story with Atticus’s was half the fun of writing the book.

The workshop helped me to fill in some of the details and to smooth out the middle of the book. This book is a fun fantasy adventure geared to make kids smile while they solve the mystery, and there are lots of Easter Eggs in the book that their parents will recognize if they are fans of the classic monsters.

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GIVEAWAY:

C.L. Colyer will be awarding a $10 Amazon or Barnes & Noble gift card to a randomly drawn winner via Rafflecopter. Good luck!

(All the Ups and Downs is not responsible for this giveaway, its entries, or the prize. Goddess Fish Promotions and the author assume all responsibility over this giveaway.)

a Rafflecopter giveaway