Welcome Lovely Readers!
Today on the blog we have A.L. Yaeger. She’s treating us to a Character Interview with one Kade Caulder of her upcoming release, Drown the Town, book one in her Drowned Kingdom series.
Interviewer: Thanks for talking with me, Kade. Let’s start simple. How would you describe yourself?
Kade: I guess I’m pretty quiet.
Most people mistake silence for emptiness. It’s not. Sometimes silence just means you’re carrying more than you know how to explain.
Interviewer: You always carry keys with you. Why?
Kade: Keys are possibilities. Architecture. Access. Secrets.
I’ve spent most of my life trying to unlock Lake Lenore.
Or maybe trying to figure out which key belongs to me.
Interviewer: What’s the scariest thing about the lake?
Kade: The way it takes people.
Sometimes it’s sudden. Someone you knew yesterday is gone tomorrow.
But sometimes it’s slower than that. Like water wearing down stone. You look at someone you love, and little by little there’s less of them left behind.
Interviewer: Do you believe the lake is cursed?
Kade: I think places remember things.
I think pain leaves marks behind, even after everyone stops talking about it. And if enough terrible things happen in one place… maybe eventually that place remembers.
Interviewer: You seem protective of Sam.
Kade: She still sees beauty in things. Even here. I don’t want this town to take that away from her the way it takes everything else.
Interviewer: What’s your biggest flaw?
Kade: I try to carry everything alone.
I tell myself it’s because I’m protecting people, but maybe part of me is afraid that if anyone saw everything going on inside my head… they’d leave. So I guess my biggest flaw is protecting everyone from what’s happening underneath the surface.
Interviewer: If you could leave Lake Lenore tomorrow, would you?
Kade: When I was a kid, I wanted to stay here forever. Now that I’m older, I can see the lake for what it is. I used to think leaving a place meant escaping it.
Now I’m not sure it works that way.
Some places follow you.
Interviewer: What do people misunderstand about you?
Kade: They think that because I stay calm, nothing hurts me. But I feel things deeply, and sometimes feeling and showing are completely different skills.
Interviewer: Last question. What should readers know before entering your story?
Kade: Some ghosts drown in water.
Others drown inside people.
Lake Lenore contains both.
Want to know more about Drown the Town?
A cursed lake, inherited sins, and a tightening web of secrets converge as one boy is forced to confront what lies beneath the water—and what the town has tried to forget.
Kade Caulder’s life has always revolved around Lake Lenore, especially since the day his best friend Lexi nearly drowned. Every year, his family returns to their lakeside cottage hoping for a fresh start, but this summer brings more than heat and memories. Kade is being targeted by a classmate who blames his family for a long‑buried tragedy, and disturbing visions of a burning church and a drowned boy begin to seep into his waking life.
When Kade’s girlfriend, Sam, vanishes near the lake, rumors spread fast—and Kade becomes the easiest person to blame. Desperate to find Sam and prove his innocence, he starts digging into the lake’s history and uncovers a disturbing link between his family, the town, and something ancient lurking beneath the water.
His search leads him to a dangerous deal with the family’s lawyer, Lee Wixer: a chance to leave his hometown behind, escape the kidnapping allegations, and start over somewhere new, if Kade agrees to cut ties with his family completely. But escape comes at a cost. As the lake claims another life, Kade discovers that he, Lexi, and Lee are bound to a century‑old curse involving a brother, a sister, and a preacher boy—a cycle of secrets and deaths that refuses to end.
Lexi is hiding a truth that could stop the curse—or keep it alive. And Kade may be the only one who can break the cycle, if he’s willing to face what’s waiting beneath the surface without the town’s secrets drowning him too.
For readers drawn to the slow-building dread and emotional stakes of stories like Stranger Things, Drown the Town delivers an eerie, character-driven descent into a cursed place where the past never stays buried. A.L. Yaeger blends supernatural suspense with the unease of growing up under the weight of secrets, creating a chilling, immersive tale where friendship, guilt, and loyalty collide with something ancient and hungry.
Meet A.L. Yaeger:
A.L. Yaeger is an architect of imaginative, character-driven tales that dance the line between reality and speculation. She works in technology by day, and is found traveling, haunting coffee shops, and tackling questionable home renovation projects by night. A.L. lives in Wisconsin with her family and ever-growing collection of books.
You can find her on Instagram, Facebook, BookBub and her website.
