About this item
What begins as just a normal Tuesday becomes a day that will shatter sixteen-year-old Kai's life forever. All it takes is a letter, tucked into a pile of their family's mail. It's from Kai's older sister, Jen, who lives nearby. And it begins, ?If you are reading this, I am already gone.? Jen has committed suicide.Dazed, Kai helps to plan Jen's funeral and tries to cope with their devastated parents, all the while searching for answers. How could Jen do this, and why? Kai is heartbroken and furious, and soon she's caught in a vicious downward spiral, self-medicating and lashing out at the people she loves. That's when her parents shock her: they're sending her to the Tree House, a summer camp for grieving teens.Kai is not a happy camper at first. But when she meets other kids who are grappling with loss, she begins to share her feelings, find a way forward, even laugh ... and fall in love.Just a Normal Tuesday offers a roadmap for anyone who has been touched by loss and anyone who is looking for hope in a broken world.Author Kim Turrisi won a Daytime Emmy for her work as co-creator, executive producer and writer of Venice: The Series. Kim also wrote for ABC Family's webisode series Pretty Dirty Secrets, an online companion to Pretty Little Liars. This is her first novel.
About the Author
A graduate of Florida State University, Kim Turrisi began her career in film and television. After a year of on-set production (getting coffee, wrangling actors and taking lunch orders) Kim segued to the development side of the business. First working as a development executive at Columbia-Tri-Star and eventually shepherding many projects in family entertainment for Disney, Viacom and Hallmark.
Kim created and wrote an online web series for which she won a Daytime Emmy. She wrote for ABC Family's webisode series, PRETTY DIRTY SECRETS, an internet companion piece to smash hit PRETTY LITTLE LIARS.
While she's always been a voracious reader and writer, she never thought about writing for teens until she immersed herself in the children's publishing world as the Director of Special Projects for the Society of Book writers and Illustrators. There, reading children's literature is a big part of her job.
Her debut Young Adult novel JUST A NORMAL TUESDAY is loosely based on the author's own experience, the debut YA novel follows 16-year-old Kai as she struggles through the emotional aftermath of her sister's suicide. Kai spends a month at grief camp, discovering a roadmap to piecing her broken heart back together.
One of Kim's favorite parts of the writing process is to create playlists for her characters that she listens to when she writes. When she revises her manuscripts, she's generally in mismatched plaid and her desk is riddled with junk food. She collects Chuck Taylor's, Van's, and has a killer sock collection.
Born in Hawaii, she credits her love of travel to her life as an Air Force brat moving every two years. When she isn't writing or reading, she can be found obsessing over her dogs, Riley and Rocco. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram @kimmyt22
