Sunday, January 5, 2020

Bottle Toss by Howard Odentz Genre: YA Horror, Thriller, Suspense

Why do I write?
Writing is part of me. It’s in my blood. I’ve been writing ever since I could hold a crayon. Sometimes I write to sort out my emotions. Other times I write because I can’t find anything good on TV.

I knew from an early age that I wanted to write for a living. I took a long, windy road to get there, but I ended up as a director of communications in a large company where I was afforded the opportunity to stretch my creative skills while honing my craft.

Now, I’m deep into writing psychological and supernatural thrillers for older teens and adults.

Where do my ideas come from?
My ideas come from everyday life.  I have a slightly wry sense of humor, so I sometimes find inappropriate things amusing. I’m definitely not one who will laugh at a funeral, but you can bet I’ll be writing about the person who does.

In addition, I’m a total wuss—which means I’m basically scared of everything.
I’m scared of the woods. I’m scared of the ocean. Basements freak me out and barns are the absolute creepiest thing I can imagine, especially when they have sharp tools hanging from the rafters.

I find scary ideas everywhere. Oranges are just fruit until you peel back the skin and see something staring back at you. Pencils are just writing implements until one of your characters murders another with one.

AND don’t get me started on kids. Sometimes the younger set can be so cringe-worthy, I even wrote a book about them. Check out ‘Little Killers A to Z’ when you get a chance. It’s filled with twenty-six short stories about kids who kill.

Yeah – nothing scary about them at all.

What motivates me when the going gets tough?

Coffee.

Chocolate.

Sometimes Chinese food, but lately, Kung Pow chicken makes me blow up like the blueberry girl in the Willy Wonka stories, but with sodium instead of blueberry juice.

In the end, almost anything can motivate me to write even when I don’t want to put words down on the page. However, when the going gets really rough, self-imposed deadlines do the job.
I often give myself a minimum word count of 1000 words a day then mentally berate myself if I don’t get them written.

There’s something sort of creepy about a voice inside your head that won’t let you rest until you paint a page with words.

What's the most discouraging part of writing? How do I overcome it?
You don’t need me to tell you that the writing industry has changed. When I was a kid growing up in a suburb of Springfield, Massachusetts, one of my neighbors was a rather well known author. 

I remember him telling my dad what his advance was for his first book. The number hovered around figures that I couldn’t even comprehend.

Now, many decades later, with the advent of self-publishing, on-line publishing, the disappearance of brick and mortar book stores, and our brains being pulled in a million different directions because of technology, it seems like authors no longer see sustainable incomes from their writing.

That makes me sad. It also makes me more motivated than ever to succeed.


I write for the passion of writing and the positive reviews from people I don’t know who encourage me to keep producing more. I write for the possibility that I can make a difference to someone out there because of my writing.



Publisher: Bell Bridge Books 
Publication Date: October 29, 2019


A beer bottle thrown carelessly at the windshield of a passing car sends the vehicle careening off the road, and the lives of high school seniors Denny Ford, his foster sister Jen McKnatt, and her sometimes boyfriend Brody Erwin, spinning out of control. 

Over the next several days as the three experience increasingly bizarre, frightening, and seemingly unrelated events, they are forced to examine the ramifications of their actions and how their lives have been irrevocably altered. 

What they've done can never be undone. 

After all, it only takes one bottle toss to turn their world cockeyed forever. 

Praise for Howard Odentz 

“A simmering psychological thriller bolstered by a dynamic narrative voice and a few unexpected twists.” —Kirkus Reviews on What We Kill 

“This author has a real knack for the weird and the wonderful.” —TheMostSublime.com 





Author and playwright Howard Odentz is a lifelong resident of the gray area between Western Massachusetts and North Central Connecticut. His love of the region is evident in his writing as he often incorporates the foothills of the Berkshires and the small towns of the Bay and Nutmeg states into his work. 

In addition to The Dead (A Lot) Series, he has written the horror novel Bloody Bloody Apple, the short story collection Little Killers A to Z, and a couple of horror-themed, musical comedies produced for the stage. 





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