Mara's Heart: Frozen in Time

I'm excited to introduce another new feature to my blog today.

At least twice a month, I will be collecting hearts. >:) Character hearts. Each guest poster will be a character from a recent release (or not, depending on my mood) who will post about something that is at the very foundation of their being. Their heart. And, because I love you all, I wanted to share the hearts with you too. O:)

So, warm welcome to Mara--a character from Shana Norris's newest release: Surfacing.

Courtesy of fangol

Frozen in Time

I received my first camera when I was seven years old. Pink and plastic, oversized buttons and a viewfinder that gave a fish-eye effect to everything, it was the love of my life.

I had always loved to take pictures. My mom would always try to take pictures of me and the various things I did—being the only child of a single mother, any and everything I did was deemed worthwhile for posterity—but somehow I’d always end up with the camera and it would be me taking pictures of her and our tiny apartment and the little Chihuahua that lived next door in 2-C.

So, deciding that the only way she’d ever get to take pictures with her camera was to get me my own camera, my mom surprised me with a child-sized pink camera for my seventh birthday. It was nowhere near top-of-the-line, but I loved that thing to death. I captured almost every moment of my life from seven to twelve with that pink camera, which eventually became scratched, battered, and faded to a dull rose color.

For my twelfth birthday, the only thing I wanted, the only thing I hinted for months leading up to it, was a digital SLR camera with a few different lenses. It was asking for a lot, considering money wasn’t something my mom had in excess. To tell you the truth, I never really expected to get it and I gave myself pep talks in the days before my birthday, telling myself that no matter what kind of camera I did or didn’t get, don’t let Mom know I was disappointed. My deadbeat dad had already upset Mom enough to last her a lifetime and I never wanted to add to that.

So I plastered on a smile during my small birthday party when Mom handed me her wrapped gift. I pulled back the paper, willing myself to keep that smile in place as I opened…

My brand new digital SLR camera. Not the newest model, but slightly older. Still, it had all the features I wanted and three interchangeable lenses. It was the greatest gift I ever received from anyone. I may have even cried a little, and I don’t cry easily.

It’s been four years since I received the camera and it’s still a permanent fixture around my neck. I carry it everywhere. After my mom’s diagnosis, I filled up a memory card with pictures of her. As the cancer ate at her body and mind, I took pictures of every day I had left with her.

My camera has always been a way for me to capture time, but after my mom’s death, I realized it was a way for me to capture people too. I can turn on my camera, cycle through the photos on the little screen, and go back to when my mom was healthy and happy. Back to when the only thing I worried about was if a certain boy in school liked me. Back to a girl I used to be once.

-Mara Westray

Mara is the main character of Surfacing by Shana Norris. She can often be seen snapping photos with her camera around the small island of Swans Landing, North Carolina.

Shana is an awesome author who can be found on her website, Facebook, and Twitter. You can learn more about her here.

Sixteen-year-old Mara Westray has just lost her mother, and now, being shipped off to live with the father she doesn’t know is not how she imagined grieving. She’s already counting down the days until she turns eighteen and can leave the tiny island of Swans Landing.

But from the moment she steps off the ferry, nothing is as ordinary as it looks. Whispers of a haunting song on the wind make her see impossible things, and she isn’t sure she can trust her judgment about what is real and what isn’t anymore. Maybe she can’t even trust her judgment about quiet Josh Canavan, whose way of speaking in riddles and half-truths only confuses her more, luring her deeper into the secrets hidden beneath the ocean’s surface.

As she tries to unravel the events that led to her mom fleeing the island sixteen years ago, Mara finds that the biggest secret of all is only the beginning.

SURFACING is an approximately 78,000 word/314 page young adult paranormal romance.