Written By: Marquez Slaughter

Cyberbullying is a nation-wide issue that is at the top of the chart when it comes down to suicide and death rates. The award winning novel, “Lure to Death: The Social Media Killer,” focuses on the issue from the victim’s point of view.

Blair London, the author of the novel, bases all of her stories on modern day crimes.

London got the idea of the cyberbullying story from witnessing her classmates, who were referred to as the “nerds” and “geeks,” get bullied throughout high school. She took the opportunity to speak to them at their high school reunion.

In the novel, there is a young man named Sandy Bean who is bullied in high school.

Bean is technology-savvy and starts on an invention in school that would make him millions, but this invention is destroyed by his classmates who bully him.

He tries continuing the invention at home but starts a fire in the house, killing his parents.Bean blames the classmates who bully him for the death of his parents.

Years later at the class reunion, Bean plans a revenge for the bullies by creating a special software to track them down and calls himself “The Social Media Killer.”

Although this issue is a nonfictional topic, London said she chose to make it a fictional story to get people to read it.

“I wanted to make an example, and make the reader feel the emotions and get the point that I am making,” London said.

London wanted to relate her work to the shows C.S.I. and Criminal Minds because these shows use real life situations and twist them up for the audience.

In a Smashwords.com interview on March 30, London said that her most effective book marketing techniques were with Facebook and Twitter, and since those are the most popular social media sites where cyberbullying is present, she said, “I only use them for the books.”

She said she has been getting a lot of positive feedback on the novel from Twitter and Facebook.

The book is available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Smashwords.com.