Haunted (State v. Sefore) (28 page)
Read Haunted (State v. Sefore) Online
Authors: Charity Tinnin
State v. Seforé – Book Two:
HUNTED
Safe underground, Noah heals from his injuries. He finally gains freedom from his demons and a future apart from the Elite. However, Maddison and Daniel don’t know that. All they know is—Noah might be alive, but he hasn’t returned home.
As they search for Noah and his assumed kidnappers, the pair discovers they’re being hunted as well. And after a series of dangerous encounters, Maddison is left wondering if Daniel really is the villain she thought. While Daniel realizes he might not be immune to his feelings after all. But where does that leave him when they find his brother?
Coming Winter 2014
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Acknowledgments
To the Author and Creator, thank you for giving me this small story in the midst of Yours.
Amanda G. Stevens, I don’t even have words. Thank you for loving Noah so much, for editing and proofing several times, for begging me to write
Hunted
, for endless brainstorming, for praying and encouraging and loving not only the story but me. And thank you especially for these last eight weeks—where you’ve fielded at least one phone call, three e-mails, seven to ten text messages, and endless gchats a day. If the copy is clean and my characters deep, it is because of you. I cannot wait until we do this for Marcus and Lee.
Jessica Keller, my YA BFF, I’m beyond grateful to walk the YA indie journey with you. Thank you for having a heart for stories that matter. Thank you for keeping me sane and launching a month before me so all the kinks were worked out. ;) Thank you for sending me pictures of cute guys, offering to make a Team Seforé shirt, and running FictionCrush with me. Thank you also for celebrating and crying with me during the last two years. I’m trusting God for a whole lot more of the former for us both!
Erynn Newman, thank you for challenging me to stop hiding my fiction in a notebook or in a fan fiction forum and DO something with it. I will always be grateful for those first two years and what God taught us both. Thank you for reading a chapter a day during NaNoWriMo to keep me on track. Thank you for being the friend who not only fixes my copy but pulls me out of the crazy, over-analytical plotting place; your humor is always what I need in those moments.
Edie Melson, thank you for befriending me at Blue Ridge. Your encouragement made my first writers’ conference so much easier. I’m excited we get to be critique partners now and can’t wait to get my hands on more of your fiction. Thank you for supporting my move to indie pub.
Speaking of going indie, Susan Kaye Quinn, I don’t know that I would’ve ever considered indie publishing were it not for you. Getting to watch your journey throughout the years has been inspiring. Thank you for being transparent and prolific in talking about indie. Thank you also for championing me through the first NaNo draft in 2010. And for all that microchip info—even if it did put a huge wrench in my plot. Several times. Throughout the series. ;)
Lauren Bielick, if Noah and Maddison seem like they have any medical knowledge, it is a direct result of your advice. (If they don’t, I blame myself.) Thank you for answering my patient care questions, sharing insights about life as a medical professional, giving me nursing textbooks, and looking at an illustration of Noah’s back to assess the burn damage. The
Metro Seven
reference? That’s for you.
To my male beta readers, you guys rock. So hard. Especially you, Seth Gardner. Thank you for giving me detailed thoughts on
Haunted
from a high school guy. If Noah ever gets rid of his Mustang, it’s all yours. Chris Hamblin, thank you for signing off on Noah, Daniel, and Jakob’s dialogue and encouraging me to beef up those fight scenes. Michael Noto, thank you for caring about the name of my fictional country, for the financial support you and Rachel gave me, and for letting Rachel use your facebook to promote me. I don’t take that lightly!
Chloe Ross, you are a discerning YA reader, so thank you for liking my first fifty pages and wanting to read more. I hope you enjoyed it all. Rachel Noto, thank you for challenging me to show Noah and Maddison’s journeys more clearly and for being my cheerleader and self-proclaimed #1 fan. I needed it during the dark days of editing. To everyone else who critiqued
Haunted
: Jen Grady, Halee Matthews, Lisa Carter, Hope Dougherty, Melanie Dickerson, Kristen Heitzmann, and Jessica Kirkland—each one of you added something special to the series, whether it be automated car details or Daniel’s score fixing, and I’m so grateful. Thank you for investing in Noah’s story enough to make it better.
Mary Weber, Kim Vandel, Kristi Chestnutt, Melanie Dickerson (again), Jessica Keller (again), Kiera Cass, and Ally Carter—YA authors rock! I am so glad to know most of you personally and benefit from the awesomeness of all of you. Thank you for caring about the stories you write and interacting with teen girls in such a positive way. Jacque Alberta, thank you for being an advocate for the best YA stories;
Haunted
is a better book because of our fifteen-minute appointments at ACFW.
To Adree Williams, Staci Ball, Miranda Beal, Beth Rakel, and Tonya: you ladies were the first to read my fiction, fan or otherwise, and I continued writing because of your encouragement and enthusiasm. Noah might never have existed were it not for your love of my original muses.
To Stephanie Roberts, my Treasuring Christ Church community group, the staff at Christ Baptist (I’m looking at you, Jane Brown and Andy Duke), and my Missionary Ridge family (especially Janet Lawson, Rachel Holland, Gwendolyn Epley, Travis Hill, and my high school students), thank you for endless prayers, numerous questions about how the writing is going, and promises to buy the book even if you aren’t sure you’ll actually read it.
Mom and Dad, thank you for investing in my spiritual growth and my dreams in so many tangible and intangible ways in the last thirty-two years. This book would NOT exist without you. To Mom, Dad, Faith, West, and Hope for voting on my country name, discussing male/female dynamics, the downfall of the White House as we know it, and whether or not Maddison should be the girl every guy falls for, you have my undying love, but then you had that already. ;) To my Hendrick and Tinnin families, thank you for all of your support and excitement; I am grateful to belong to you.
My readers (squee!): thank you for buying
Haunted,
for reading it, for telling your friends, for sharing on social media, and for reviewing on Amazon/GoodReads [I’m thanking you in advance because it’ll be hard to do afterward ;)]. You guys are the reason I write YA. Your support allows me to continue to do what I love. Seriously. I couldn’t do this without you.
So thank you. All of you. Yes, you reading right now, I’m thanking you!
Charity Tinnin
Charity’s fascination with dystopian lit began in high school with
Brave New World
, and she’s been devouring the genre ever since. Now, she mentors high school students at her church, works as a freelance editor, and lives in the foothills of North Carolina—a terrain very similar to a certain series. When she’s not editing for a client or inventing new ways for Daniel to be delightfully snarky, she spends her time reading YA and discussing the merits of Prince Charming and Captain America online.
Speaking of the interwebs, Charity loves to talk about YA fiction, TV, and the State v. Seforé books. Find her on
T
witter (
@CharityTinnin
),
F
acebook (
www.facebook.com/Charity.Tinnin
), or her website (
www.charitytinnin.com
) to start the conversation.
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