Your mother hollers that you’re going to miss the bus. She can see it coming down the street. You don’t stop and hug her and tell her you love her. You don’t thank her for being a good, kind, patient mother. Of course not—you launch yourself down the stairs and make a run for the corner.
Only, if it’s the last time you’ll ever see your mother, you sort of start to wish you’d stopped and did those things. Maybe even missed the bus.
But the bus was barreling down our street, so I ran.
Fourteen kids. One superstore. A million things that go wrong.
In Emmy Laybourne’s action-packed debut novel, six high school kids (some popular, some not), two eighth graders (one a tech genius), and six little kids trapped together in a chain superstore build a refuge for themselves inside. While outside, a series of escalating disasters, beginning with a monster hailstorm and ending with a chemical weapons spill, seems to be tearing the world—as they know it—apart.
Emmy Laybourne is a novelist, teacher and actress. MONUMENT 14 is Emmy's fiction debut. It is a post-apocalyptic Young Adult thriller that follows the story of fourteen kids who get trapped in a superstore while civilization collapses outside the gates.
MONUMENT 14 received a starred review from Publisher's Weekly and was called "Frighteningly real... riveting," by the New York Times Book Review and was an Editor's Choice.
The sequel, Sky On Fire, will be released in June of 2013. The final installment of the trilogy, SAVAGE DRIFT, is expected in 2014.
Now, if you think Emmy sort of looks like Mary Catherine Gallagher's best friend from the movie Superstar, you're right! Emmy played Helen Lewengrub in that fine film, along with many other delightful bit roles. Please visit her website at www.emmylaybourne.com to learn more about Emmy, her work as a comedian and to find links to free short stories and more.
