Authors Kim Harrison (“Once Dead, Twice Shy”), Kelley Armstrong (“The Awakening”), Aprilynne Pike (“WINGS”) and Claudia Gray, (“Stargazer”) will visit Borders Books and Music, 16549 NE 74th St., Redmond Town Center, at 2 p.m. Saturday, June 6.

In conjunction with HarperTeen’s Supernatural Summer Tour, they’ll answer questions about their young adult books which combine the paranormal with romance and fantasy.

Through telephone chats with Harrison and Armstrong, the Redmond Reporter learned why the authors are eager to meet and mingle with readers.

“I grew up reading young adult novels,” said Harrison. “That’s where I found my love of reading and if I can bring in new audiences and pass on that love of reading, I’ll really have done something.”

Her bestselling “Hollows” series was geared to adults and “Once Dead, Twice Shy” is Harrison’s first novel set in the teen world. But aside from taming some language, she said her writing for teens is intended to be of the same quality and sophistication.

“I want it to be readable for adults, too,” she explained. “I think some adults will pick it up and introduce (their teens) to reading.”

In “Once Dead, Twice Shy,” the heroine Madison Avery’s junior prom “killed her — literally,” said a HarperCollins Publishers press release. “She doesn’t know why a dark reaper came after her, but that didn’t stop her from stealing his amulet, which allows her soul to continue living on in a temporary body … only to discover that she is fated to become one of the most powerful leaders in the realm of the dark and light reapers.”

There have been lots of books and movies about “proms gone wrong” — for instance, “Carrie” and “Prom Night.” We asked Harrison what it is about the idea of the prom that lends itself to scary entertainment.

“Prom is a rite of passage where you take a definite step toward adulthood,” she noted.

As such, teens treat it like a really big deal.

“For a lot of people, it’s a concrete symbol of becoming an adult and that’s a scary thing in itself. To bring the supernatural into it just makes it even scarier.”

While she now can’t imagine doing anything but writing for a living, Harrison paid some dues before she achieved her current success.

A science major in college, she worked as a lab technician for a veterinarian and also worked at a chemical company before she got serious about writing.

“I got bored one afternoon,” she stated. “And that was exactly what happened. I got bored and started writing a story that had been in my head since high school. I got good feedback … and starting treating it like a part-time job, writing about four hours a day.”

It was almost eight years before her first book was published. But it was worth the effort, she said.

Her advice to aspiring novelists is to “read voraciously, read what you like and absorb it. Writing is one of the things that you have to do over and over to do it well. … Write every day, even 10 minutes, share your writing, get feedback. Get a thick skin, ask for ways to make it better.”

Armstrong agreed that in the competitive world of publishing, practice makes perfect.

A former computer programmer, she said she grew up hooked on writing but her family would say, “That’s great, but how are you going to make a living?”

“I’ve always been fascinated by the paranormal, always wrote with ghost elements,” she continued. “I don’t know why. My family wasn’t into it, we didn’t watch horror movies.”

Her book “The Awakening” is about a mental health counseling facility where the young residents turn out to be genetically altered supernaturals “and their supposed protectors were part of an organization that wants to control their powers,” a press release explained.

The book’s heroine, Chloe Saunders “vows to bring the organization to its knees.”

Armstrong said she loves the idea of strong female leads and has been waiting for a chance to bring her stories to the big screen. A movie version of one of her books about werewolves was at one time in development with Angelina Jolie as the possible star.

For now, “starting to tour in the U.S. will be an entirely new experience,” said Armstong, who lives in rural Ontario, Canada with her husband and three kids — and is happily making a living as a full-time author.