Book Lovers Life: On the Move by K.V. Flynn Blog Tour and Giveaway!

Welcome to my stop during the blog tour for On by K.V. Flynn. This blog tour is organized by Lola's Blog Tours. The blog tour runs from 1 till 14 October, you can view the complete tour schedule here.

On the Move (On the Move #1)
by K.V. Flynn
Genre: Boys' action-adventure/ dystopia
Age category: Older Middle Grade/ young Young Adult
Release Date: September 2, 2014

Blurb:

Callum Vicente and his four best middle school buddies live in a Southern California beach town, and narrowly miss being grounded for life after they sneak out of town on the bus for a great skateboard day just before promotion from 8th grade. Their pal Justice ends up with a wicked broken leg, but their parents soon forget about it because weird, tense things are happening in the news. So Callum, Levi and his bff Apollo are soon deep into their best summer ever at PEAK skateboard camp where they learn tricks from the pros, grind on endless street courses, and careen off one awesome ramp straight into the lake. It is mad fun until the War breaks out: the teens watch major cities blown up on TV, have no idea what’s happened to their parents, and then lose virtually all communication with the outside world.

Stranded, the boarder buddies strike out on their own to find their families, travelling north through all of California and Oregon, following a network of underground message boards and savvy riders who they find holed up in skate parks along the way. They pick up their school buddy Mateo Beltran and hitch a ride with their Native friend Obbie, on his way to safety on his dad’s reservation in Washington state, and even get some surprising help as they try to figure out a world gone crazy while they are On the Move.

You can find On the Move on Goodreads

Note about the book from the author:

This is older MG/young YA, targeted at 10-15-year-olds. It’s action adventure with boys as the main story focus—I think that there are never enough books for and about boys in this reading level. ON THE MOVE really lives inside the world of skateboarding and boys’ friendships. Also, this is about a totally multi-cultural group of buddies: Obbie is Native American, Mateo’s Mexican, their camp friend Martin is African-American, and narrator Callum is half Spanish. And, because these guys experience a huge War, they also pick up on a cool underground network of retro tech, green living, secret clues, and skater support like no other you’ve read about before.
Like all the great teen adventures—think Maximum Ride, Pendragon, Ender’s Game, Demonata and Cirque du Freak—the boys in this book are strong, smart, funny, resourceful, and tight. Also, unlike many YA books, the boys experience a very real, world-changing event that challenges what they know and where they’ll go. But their skills, their brains, and their love of skateboarding guide them through the chaos and complications—plus, most of the time, they have a blast doing it!

Excerpt :

It was a week-and-a-half into our program at PEAK camp. Silent Sal, the snack shack guy, stayed with us while we watched what seemed to be our entire country suddenly on fire. The counselors beat our buddy PJ to the telephones and reached Fresno for a few minutes before the lines went dead. No Sacramento. No Los Angeles. No luck.

Levi and I were just about to hustle little Kaspar out of there. After seeing the playground at Guasti Park crash and burn right across the street from his house, the kid had to be on overload. All at once Sal groaned big time.

“A MiG shot down over LAX!” NNN showed planes coming in over the Pacific Ocean.

Apollo pointed at video of Air Force jets scrambling out of Point Mugu. “Hey, isn’t that by Surfside?”

“Like, twenty miles up the coast from us,” I confirmed.

The announcer, Jon, started talking about Southern California, which was suddenly all lit up on his big U.S. map. San Diego. San Francisco. Santa Monica.

Then the power blew out, and everything fell silent.

Pretty crazy. That was all I could say about what happened next. The counselors were just kids, themselves. College students or local guys who loved to hike and skate. XR was the boss of the place. When he came out of his office, he was pale and shaky.

“OK, people,” XR called out then stopped. He obviously hadn’t figured out the next part yet. He looked around at his staff like our counselor, Phil, who was there alongside PJ’s counselor, Ricky. These guys cared about us. They were responsible for us, as well. But they wanted down off that mountain, fast, and back home to Bakersfield or Visalia in the worst way.

Fresno was the city closest to camp. At that point, we didn’t even know if it was even still there. NNN showed that lots of big towns were targets, but how big was big? Capitals were bombed, definitely. We’d sure seen that happen. Airports, like across from Apollo’s house, were under attack, too. But what about the cities nearby? Between us and home were a bunch of oil refineries, for example. Big farm centers. Towns with some kind of importance, I guess. At the moment, no one around us knew where these attacks had stopped. What about the beach city of Huntington? Or Eureka, up by Oregon? Surfside?

“OK. Everybody, pack up your bags,” XR finally ordered. “Then, back to the Commons in twenty.” He was in charge, after all.

But what was going to happen once we grabbed our stuff? No information was given, either by XR or the counselors. It wasn’t a fire drill that was for sure. We couldn’t just use the earthquake preparedness rules. So no plan existed for what came next. Just then, a line of dusty buses pulled in from the camp access road.

PJ and Kaspar huddled into our bunkhouse alongside me, Levi, and Apollo. They were the most nervous, partly because they were the youngest. The bombing of the Loomars’ neighborhood was seared into all of our minds, though. Like me, I think we were all wondering, could maybe their dad not have gone home, as expected, after dropping us at camp? It was a long shot, we knew, but kept running over and over in our brains.

“We need to figure out what to do, guys,” Levi announced as we slid our duffels out from beneath our bunks. “There is no point in going down to a dead city with these guys.”

“They don’t even know us,” I added. “And we don’t know them.”

“My dad is coming for me.” PJ was balled up next to one of the dressers, his knees tucked into his chin. “I’m staying here.”

“Nah, man,” Apollo coached. “He’d want you to be safe, warm, fed. You can’t stay here alone.”

“We can, for a little while,” Martin suggested. Martin was our new friend, and sort of a local. He lived only an hour away from PEAK and had helped us deal with the rougher Visalia riders all week long. “They’ll all be gone soon. Then we can figure out where you want to go.”

I liked how that guy thought. Together, we came up with a plan.

Guest Post

Hey there, Book Lover’s Life. K. V. Flynn here to talk about five groovy things I found out while researching my new book, On The Move. And then, five top skating moves from my characters and their pros. Okay? Excellent. Let’s do it.

1. PEAK Skate Camp is based on a real place up in the San Bernardino Mountains. So, in addition to reading online about it and its awesome sister camps around California and Oregon, I also drove a bunch of kids up there one summer to check it out for myself. It’s a loooong drive from where I live in Southern California but once you hit the base of that mountain and start climbing up towards the tall trees, the lake, and the ring of campsites that ring the water, you are super excited to get there. For a teen skater, the place is heaven: the fantastic courses, the excellent pros, the fresh air, and, like in the book, that unbeatable ramp where you can shoot right out of camp and into the water.

2. Green technology, like the characters in On the Move find at Grass Lake Skatepark, was great to research. First, I discovered all those neat advances in solar charging applications, but then also things like the sidewinder and the soccer ball power source for lights and the jump ropes that can recharge your phone…very cool. Next I learned all about the glowbugs and the Global High Frequency Network that’s been set up for emergency management and disaster relief—it was totally new territory for me, so fascinating for On the Move and its characters.

3. It was harsh to imagine something as horrible as the War in my book. But I needed to do the research on what would happen and how this kind of disaster might rain down. Where the airports and other targets would be, what would happen to the air, how people could be evacuated to safety. Part of the research was rad, though, because I did go to the Rose Planetarium in New York City and see that movie Levi describes, Cosmic Collisions, about what caused the extinction of the dinosaurs. I learned a lot about fire and smoke and how we can bring on an Ice Age to our planet in a hurry…

4. Speaking of evacuation, I did a lot of research on the geography and local highlights in order to write how On the Move’s characters get from summer skate camp all the way up through to Washington state on their own. What were the roads? The mountains? The towns along the way?

5. And, most important of all…where are the coolest skateparks to visit?! This is a skate safari, after all! A teen skater’s dream. Sure, it’s the scary variety since my kids are alone and things are so uncertain. But since I, as the writer, could send my skaters anywhere, I did tons of research to be sure they hit the most rockin’ spots they could! Livin’ the life! JHF… Just Have Fun!

Okay, new fiver list for your readers. This is about skate tricks. I love seeing these in pictures, so I’m going to slip some in. Book Lover’s Life can decide if they stay, okay?

1. BONELESS

Josh Harmony’s Boneless, when he was on Toy Machine team

As readers of On the Move will learn, a Boneless is an old school trick, and Callum learns to do one at PEAK summer skate camp. You can start slow when you’re learning, but pretty soon you’re gonna need some speed for this trick.

Like in the picture, you grab right behind the front wheels of your board, then take your front foot off the board and plant it fast on the ground. Use that leg to jump!

Then, while you’re in the air, you put that front foot back on the board so you can land with your knees bent and your feet above the truck bolts.

2. FRONT KROOK

Edgar Barrera, Frontside Crook

So here I want to show you an example of the Front Crook trick in a team picture taken up at Element Skate Camp this past summer. Isn’t Edgar Barrera awesome?

You do it by rolling up the rail you plan on crooked grinding. You’re gonna do it with your front foot behind the front bolts unless it’s a high ledge that you have to ollie high to land on. Ollie like you’re doing a backside 50-50, but put your weight forward, so you smack your nose down on the edge. If the ledge or rail is waxed, and if you’re really leaning forward, you’re going to grind farther. But don’t look down at your board! Just keep your eyes forward. Do a tiny nollie at the end or pop off mid-ledge with a big one!

3. FRONTSIDE HALF CAB BOARDSLIDE FAKIE

Dakota Servold does his Frontside Half Cab Boardslide Fakie. Unh, huh.

I like how Dakota describes learning this trick. First he was doing front board fakies. Then he worked his frontside half gaps. This trick combines the two.

What he says is, “You gotta know where you’re popping first and make sure you don’t miss your popper, or sh*t’s gonna go real bad. Make sure you don’t flip, because that will not be tight. Just make sure you pop first and then turn, and make sure you’re looking at the spot you have to pop first for sure, because if you miss your pop on this trick, it’s not fun at all. So learn those, you little bros, then take it to the rails and the curbs and then handrails, then into the wild.” You heard it from the man…

4. BACKSIDE SMITH

Dominick Walker, Back Smith, Element 2014

In this trick you are grinding your back truck on a rail or an edge while the front one hangs so the edge of your board rubs down the lip. Boarder Mike Smith invented it and it’s a way tough grind. I heard the back Smith was the brainy idea of deaf super shredder Monty Nolder down in Tampa, Florida.

5. BACKSIDE FLIP

Nyjah Huston, Backside Flip

Isn’t the Element camp dope? Look at those trees! Last summer, Nyjah Huston was caught there doing this Backside Kickflip like the pros do at PEAK camp in On the Move. This trick is another combo, of course: a kickflip combined with a 180-degree ollie. With practice it becomes one of every street skater’s go-to moves! Using your toe you do an ollie, you turn your hips as you rotate 180. Your shoulders turn first, then your board will rotate behind it. Yeah, you’re turning toward your blind side right in the middle of the trick so it takes lots of practice to feel it for real. But then you’ll be flipping with the best!

Before I go, and thank Book Lover’s Life and readers, I do want to tell you where you can find On The Move!

Barnes & Noble: http://goo.gl/Yme3aE
- Amazon: http://goo.gl/W0A2Zg

- Kobo: http://goo.gl/xtE0MN
- iTunes: http://goo.gl/nt6U03
- Smashwords: http://goo.gl/1JEFYx
- Amazon UK: http://goo.gl/qq98TV
- Amazon Australia: http://goo.gl/fmwcdP
- Amazon Germany: http://goo.gl/MRybDI

Overdrive—coming soon

Keep Rollin’!

About the Author:

K.V. Flynn is a writer who lives in Southern California, kind of near Manhattan-Huntington-Malibu Beach. His action-adventure book ON THE MOVE about 14-year-old skater friends who are stranded at skate camp when a War breaks out, comes out on Sept.2. Follow the news about it at www.OnTheMoveBooks.com. His favorite ride is an 8.25" Krooked deck, Independent trucks, and 53 mm Spitfire wheels. He is half Spanish and half Irish. K.V. has a dog, and has been watching "Pretty Sweet" by Chocolate Skateboards, "Stay Gold" by Emerica, and "The Deathwish Video" by Deathwish Skateboards. What about you!? He and his bros regularly cruise Venice, Stoner, Skatelab, and Van’s. Talk back: KVFlynnOntheMove@gmail.com.

You can find and contact K.V. Flynn here:
- Website
- Facebook
- Twitter
- Goodreads
- Tumblr
- Google +

There is a tour wide giveaway for the blog tour of On the Move. These are the prizes you can win:
- A set of Orangatang Cages—key clue in the book—and a skateboard sticker
- Skateistan t-shirt and a One the Move skateboard sticker
- On the Move Skateboard sticker!

Set of Orangatang Cages: