#SaturdaySpotlight is on Desaree Armand & Sealed in Silence

Good Morning and Welcome to the last edition of Saturday Spotlight for September 2025! 

Today's guest is brand new to our blog. Not sure exactly when I met Desaree, but I'm sure glad I did. She is a gifted author in the Lake Charles area and we see each other regularly at author events around town.

Thanks for visiting with us today, Desaree! Tell us about your latest book.

So happy to be here, Pam! 

The idea for my story came about when I was 19 years old. I had just been dumped by my best guy friend whom, at the time, I had wanted to be with as more than just friends. He had dumped me to make his girlfriend happy, whom he eventually moved to Texas to be with and married. As far as I know, they are actually still married today, 21 years later.

Anyway, I was severely depressed at that time because of what had happened. I was in my second semester in college, living in a dorm with no real friends and feeling completely isolated. I remember one day I was driving through the city. I don’t remember where I was going, I just remember that I was listening to a CD. Evanescence to be exact. It was a popular album at the time, and it expressed how I was feeling in a way that made me feel normalized in my pain.

This song starts playing, My Last Breath, and when she sang these particular lyrics... 

“Look for me in the white forest

Hiding in a hollow tree (come find me)

I know you hear me

I can taste it in your tears”

I was suddenly visualizing being like in a dead place actually hidden in a hollow tree and making the guy who’d hurt me feel sorry and guilty for having broken off our friendship the way he had. I suddenly felt like I needed to write a story that reflected that in some way, but I didn’t want to write the story as if the main character would actually do that because first of all, I knew I wouldn’t, I just felt it, and second of all, I felt that no one else would want to read a story about someone who would actually do something like that. So, I took my visualization and tweaked the details to where it ultimately ended up having a completely different storyline but with the same type of other world idea.

But even then, I spent almost 20 years trying to write the story and never getting far. Over that time, as I grew older and more mentally mature, gaining adult life experiences, the characters went from teenagers to college age and finally to their mid-twenties. I was only able to eventually write the book when I was working at a job that allowed me a lot of downtime with nothing else to do. I was working as a phone operator for a small hospital and only getting about 10 calls an hour to transfer. In between those calls, I started writing the story for real and was finally able to finish it.

Oh my goodness! Isn't it amazing how we get our ideas and how long it sometimes takes for a certain idea to come to fruition? Thanks for sharing this! Share your blurb and exerpt please...

Of course, here is the Blurb...

Emily Bartlett is a young woman who feels that her life is all figured out. From her career to her home, Emily is the master of her universe. She is fiercely independent, but at what cost? Alex Coleman is one of Emily's best friends and they've been close from a young age. All of that changes when Alex reveals a secret to Emily that he's been keeping to himself for more than a decade. One night, after the disastrous results of Alex's revelation, a series of events leads Emily to wind up trapped and alone in an altered state of being. Can Emily, with the help of Alex, her younger sister Allie, and her best girlfriend Samantha, confront the memories and past choices that are keeping her trapped? Can Emily find her way out before time runs out? It's a story of will they or won't they and a race against time with a little science-fiction and magic mixed in.

And an Exerpt...

My head was pounding, and my entire body hurt. I struggled to open my eyes and once I had, everything was a little blurry. As my vision started to clear, I realized that I was staring up at the sky, which was orange as if it were evening, but it was a solid orange. There were no streaks of pink or purple, and no clouds to be seen. I couldn’t see the sun or moon at all either. Where was I?

I pulled myself up slowly and realized that I had been lying on a wooden bench. As I slid my legs to the ground, I realized that I was on the bench in front of the school. The school that I had attended kindergarten through twelfth grade in and had been a teacher at for a few years now. But something was wrong.

There was no street or sidewalk in front of the bench like there should be. In fact, there was nothing in front of the bench. No grass, no trees, no houses, and no people. There wasn’t even any wind. The air was warm and completely still. Stretching out in front of me, all the way to the horizon was nothing but sand. As if I were in the middle of a desert.

I stood up slowly and turned around to take a better look at the school. It was the same school alright. Only now, it looked dark and abandoned. All of the windows looked black and blown out and the building itself was an ashen shade of grey instead of its normal dark red brick. Once again, there was nothing around the building. Only sand. A shudder ran through me at the sight of the tall, dark, imposing building.

I looked away from it. In that instant, I saw movement out of the corner of my eye. I looked back at the building, but it seemed that whatever I thought I’d seen was gone. As I looked around, it hit me that I was completely alone in this strange place. What had happened, and where was I?

There didn’t seem to be anywhere else for me to go except this strange, extremely creepy version of the school. Although, I was afraid, I was even more afraid that wherever I was, I might be stuck unless I found answers. So, I started walking towards the school. I took a deep breath, pulled open the door, and took a step inside.

The inside of the building was no less creepy than the outside. There didn’t seem to be any electricity. The lockers that lined the hallways looked rusted out as if they hadn’t been touched in years. Some of them were missing their doors, creating small dark caverns along the wall. There were random pieces of paper strewn up and down the hall. I picked one up, but there was nothing on it. I picked up a few more, but they were all blank.

As I continued walking, I passed a few classrooms. Every door that I opened sported dark empty rooms filled with old wooden desks, more blank paper strewn all over, and graffiti sprayed all over the walls. What was going on? I came to the staircase that led to the second floor. As I looked up at the landing, once again I saw movement out of the corner of my eye. It had come from further back on the first floor. I looked towards the classroom door where I had seen it, but once again, there was nothing there.

I walked slowly towards that room instead of going up to the second floor and looked in. This one looked the same as all the rest, but with one major difference. Sitting there, behind the teacher’s desk, was a dark hooded figure. It looked over at me as I stood in the doorway. All I saw where a face should be inside the hood, was nothing. Just a dark empty hole. The figure stood up silently and started slowly coming towards me. It seemed to be gliding instead of walking. It was then that I screamed.

Wonderful, Desaree! Where can Sealed in Silence be found?

Glad you enjoyed the excerpt, Pam. Sealed in Silence is available at Amazon for Kindle and in Print and through Ingram Spark. 

If you're in, around or about the SWLA or SETEX area, you can pick up a copy of Sealed in Silence at Krews, Books & Brews, Bux Kajun Korner and eff. Oct. 1st, The Charmed Page bookstore. 

Perfect! Now tell us more about yourself and where we can connect with you.

Sure! 

As you indicated in the introduction, I live in SW Louisiana with my husband Merrick and our Dachshund, Floyd. I work full-time as a counselor by trade. In my free time, I read contemporary fiction and follow other creative and artistic pursuits. I start my mornings with a good cup of coffee and soothing coffee-shop sounds while reading. You can connect with me on Facebook.

OK. Again, THANKS for visiting and sharing your book with us, Desaree. We certainly wish you the best of luck and God's blessings with it.

Friends, if you're a fan of YA Paranormal Romance books, grab a copy of Sealed in Silence today. Also, don't forget to check out our Featured Author and the Featured books in our sidebar. If you love audiobooks, take advantage of Audible's FREE Trial Membership.

Until next time, take care, God Bless and happy Fall, Y'all!

PamT