Although Alicia White has lived in Lutz and Land O’ Lakes for 20 years, she says the first time she heard a roaring sound she describes as “ominous” was when she moved to Wesley Chapel a year ago.
White, who is a fifth grade teacher at Turner/Bartels K-8 School in nearby New Tampa, said the noise shook the windows and she felt it in the ground.
“I happened to be online and noticed people posting about it on the Wesley Chapel Community Facebook page,” she says, and it piqued her curiosity. “It’s the kind of thing that makes you look at someone in the room and say, ‘You heard that, too, right?’”
Alicia says that sparked an idea and led her to write a book. “The story is entirely fictional, but the idea came to me from hearing this roaring noise here in Wesley Chapel.”
Alicia’s self-published book is called The Roar and is available in hard copy and e-book form on Amazon.com. Alicia’s pen name is A. M. White.
The Roar is classified as “young adult dystopian fiction,” Alicia says, and is planned to be the first in a series. The book’s back cover explains it this way: “The world as we know it disappeared with the roars. Alex was enslaved by those controlling them. Little does she know that some have survived the roars and live outside the compounds, and someone out there is very interested in finding her. Alex’s world is about to expand beyond her imagination.”
Alicia is currently writing the second book in the series. Although she doesn’t use the book in her classroom (“That would be a little too much shameless self-promotion,” she laughs.), she does use her story to inspire her fifth graders. “It’s not just my dream to be a published author,” she tells her students. “It’s something that can be realized.”
Alicia says she intentionally wrote the book so that it would be appropriate for her students who might come across it. “Nowadays, it’s harder to find things that aren’t risqué,” Alicia says. “There is some violence in the book, because it’s a dystopian novel and has people trying to survive. But, I kept out profanity and sexual content.”
Alicia has been encouraged by reviews and the response to The Roar so far. She says book bloggers from around the world – from Denmark, India, South Africa, and the Philippines – have contacted her, wanting to read and review her novel.
“That’s been really neat,” she says. “It makes the world a bit smaller.”
The reviews on Amazon.com include this one by Maddy, who says:
“The Roar was a novel that sucked me in before I even started with a unique and captivating concept, took me through twists and turns and then left me wanting more. The characters were interesting and relatable, the story held my attention as I held my breath, cried, and laughed throughout, and the post apocalyptic world painted was one like no other. This book will please fans of post apocalyptic novels with slight nods to The Hunger Games and Divergent. You won’t be disappointed.”
As for those noises in Wesley Chapel? Alicia still hears them from time to time. While the most popular explanation seems to be they are from military exercises from MacDill Air Force Base, Alicia insists that just doesn’t make sense.
“It doesn’t seem like there’s a good explanation,” she says.
You can read more reviews or get your own copy of the book by searching “The Roar by A.M. White” at Amazon.com.
Pasco Sheriff’s deputies arrested Shannon Kirkley, a New Jersey fugitive, after he was caught stealing thousands of dollars worth of Star Wars LEGO items from the Toys ‘R’ Us located at The Grove at Wesley Chapel.
A Wesley Chapel homeowner was shot Monday while disrupting an attempted car burglary, according to the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office.
I’m always proud to be a member of the Rotary Club of Wesley Chapel, which meets Wednesdays at noon at Quail Hollow Country Club, but never more so than I was on May 21, when the club hosted its first-ever Duck Derby, held at Lake Padgett behind Hungry Harry’s BBQ off U.S. 41 in Land O’Lakes.
The first duck to finish the “race” was purchased by club members Brian and Isabelle Dunleavy, who won a $2,500 cash prize, a portion of which they announced they would donate to The Joshua House, a local “safe haven for children in need.”