Guest Author: Pam Bachorz

Pam Bachorz, author of Drought, has been kind enough to stop by Reading with Tequila to tell us what she would miss if she lived with The Congregation.

Thanks for the great question!

I am a girl who loves her treats and her gadgets. If you take away those things, I get very grumpy. That is why I can never compete on Survivor, although I’d make for very interesting TV as I unraveled.

So, the first thing I would miss terribly would be CUPCAKES! They are a little bit of happiness in eight bites or less. And on the healthier side, I’d miss the Vitatops I’m addicted to and rely on for the (very frequent) days when I don’t have a cupcake. I’d miss fancy fruit, too. I just tucked a big batch of Florida oranges in my crisper. Not many citrus trees in the woods of upstate NY… and I’m allergic to apples, so I wouldn’t get very far on that Congregation diet staple.

As for gadgets, the thing I’d likely miss the most would be my washer and dryer. Of course there’s TV and Internet, and I’d miss those, but more than that I would miss my little constant companion: my iPhone. No music? No podcasts? No CUT THE ROPE and ANGRY BIRDS games? How am I supposed to get by?

Finally, I’d miss my little flame-thrower/fire starter. Because matches freak me out and I’ve got no skills with a flint.

About the Author

Pam Bachorz grew up in a small town in the Adirondack foothills, where she participated in every possible performance group and assiduously avoided any threat of athletic activity, unless it involved wearing sequined headpieces and treading water. With a little persuasion she will belt out tunes from "The Music Man" and "The Fantasticks", but she knows better than to play cello in public anymore. Pam attended college in Boston and finally decided she was finished after earning four degrees: a BS in Journalism, a BA in Environmental Science, a Masters in Library Science and an MBA. Her mother is not happy that Pam's degrees are stored under her bed.

Pam draws inspiration from the places she knows best: she wrote CANDOR while living in a Florida planned community, and set DROUGHT in the woods where she spent her summers as a child. She currently lives in the Washington, DC area with her husband and their son. When she's not writing, working or parenting, Pam likes to read books not aimed at her age group, go to museums and theater performances, and watch far too much television. She even goes jogging. Reluctantly.

About the Book

Ruby dreams of escaping the Congregation. Escape from slaver Darwin West and his cruel Overseers. Escape from the backbreaking work of gathering Water. Escape from living as if it is still 1812, the year they were all enslaved.

When Ruby meets Ford--an irresistible, kind, forbidden new Overseer--she longs to run away with him to the modern world, where she could live a normal teenage live. Escape with Ford would be so simple.

But if Ruby leaves, her community is condemned to certain death. She, alone, possess the secret ingredient that makes the Water so special--her blood--and it's the one thing that the Congregation cannot live without.

Drought is the haunting story of one community’s thirst for life, and the dangerous struggle of the only girl who can grant it.