E.J. Wesley, Author: July 2013

Welcome To Camp NA!

Be sure to pack extra clean underwear, a toothbrush, and mosquito repellent, 'cause we're going to a very special summer camp folks! Beginning the first week of August, the inaugural Camp NA opens its cabin doors to anyone interested in learning how to write New Adult literature.

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Are You Camp NA Material?

Interested in writing a New Adult novel? Have a project you'd like to turn into New Adult literature? Started an NA project but have NO-FREAKING-CLUE how to finish it?

You're in--but you'd better bring some chocolate and a headphone splitter to share with your bunkmates, or swirlies and Kool-Aid showers might be in order.

What Is It?

Thursday, August 1st, the folks behind NA Lit Chat are kicking off a 5 week focused event to teach the basics to building a New Adult story. Here's what we'll cover:

Week 1 (8/1) - From Story Nugget To Plot - Creating dramatic tension by planning.

Week 2 (8/8) - Brainstorming - Tools (tumblr, brain mapping) that take ideas to book.

Week 3 (8/15) - Writing Process - Habits, software, & getting the most out of your writing time.

Week 4 (8/22) - Revision Process - Best practices, and how to stay engaged.

Week 5 (8/29) - Finishing - When is the project ready for the next step?

You can see that these are the basic steps in writing pretty much any kind of story, but we'll give it all a very 'New Adult' spin with tips and guidance from NA authors, editors & more! Speaking of guidance...

Meet The Counselors & Camp Directors

We'll kick off each week of camp with a discussion of the given topic on Twitter with #NALitChat (9 PM Eastern every Thursday night). We'll accompany the usual Twitter hashtag conversation with an audio show where we'll have authors, editors and more on to share their tips and insights. (You can--and will want to--participate in both the Twitter conversation & audio broadcast simultaneously.)

THEN, we'll move to the actual camp portion. Every week we'll have a camp counselor & camp director working in a dedicated forum on the New Adult Authors website to help you on a project of your own.

For example, week 1 will have us working on taking that brilliant flash of genius (AKA the story idea) and transforming it into fully formed structure for a novel. By the end of the week, you'll hopefully have the bones of a story to start building on. And, if you get stuck, our counselor & director will be right there to help you out.

We have an excellent group lined up to lend their camping expertise, including authors/editors D.M. Arney and Lichen Craig, Authors Amy Evans, Kat Vancil, E.J. Wesley, ST Bende, Jennifer Martinez, and more.

How Do You Sign Up?

Easy! Just go to the New Adult Authors website forum and create a log-in. (You can use your Twitter, Facebook, Blogger, etc. accounts for easy access.) Once in, check the "Camp NA" thread daily for information and updates. Also, feel free to post questions, etc.

And speaking of free, this totally is!

Then, don't forget to tune in to NA Lit Chat on Thursdays. That's it! Even if you can't make every week, or simply would only like to take part in one of the planned topics, that's fine with us.

Our primary goal with this event is to increase the amount of quality New Adult literature out there by emphasizing strong story mechanics and good writing practices. All skill levels are welcome, and in true summer camp fashion, we'll foster a judgment free, can-do atmosphere.

Hope to see you at camp!

~EJW~

Secret, Secret, I've Got A Secret... & Speculative Fiction Chat

Okay, it's no longer a secret. BUT, you'll totally have to go snooping to get all of the details. :)

But before that, why not listen to this little number from the Secret Sisters (Hunger Games Soundtrack)

Back to the news! My good bloggy-wrting pals, Michael Di Gesu & Siv Ottem, have been collaborating on Siv's upcoming release, Secrets Of The Ash Tree. (The title alone has me intrigued!) Michael has crafted the cover, Siv the story.

We'll get a first look at the cover on Monday, and hopefully Siv will share a little about the book as well. So be sure to head over to their blogs then for the full scoop from these talented folks!

ALSO, if you're a fan of speculative fiction (SciFi, horror, fantasy, etc.) you'll definitely want to check out the transcript from our latest #NALitChat. For the uninitated, we chat about New Adult fiction every Thursday night (9 PM Eastern) over on the Twitters by using the #NALitChat

We now also do a special audio broadcast along with the usual Twitter chat (we take questions and comments from Twitter and present them to our guest authors to answer on air live... you'll hear me, too :), and last night we had two awesome authors (Kat Vancil & Amanda Havard) on to talk about writing spec fiction, Dr. Who and much more.

Here's the link to the transcripts (both the Twitter & audio--check them both at the same time for the full experience)

Have a great weekend my friends!

~EJW~

Sizzling Summer Hotness!

Hey, gang! Just wanted to drop a line and let everyone know about the HUGE-MASSIVE-EPIC giveaway/bloghop I'm a part of.

Going on this week, a whole mess of YA and NA authors and the good folks over at YA Bound are going on a blog tour with tons of guest posts, etc. (Did a fun character interview with Jenny & Marshal, so let me know if you see me out there!) But that's not EVEN the best part.

We are giving away 2 (yes T.W.O.) Kindle Fire HDs--one loaded with New Adult books, one loaded with YA. So you're definitely going to want to go enter this bad boy. Lists of participating authors and bloggers are below, along with links to enter the giveaway.

Good luck if you enter, and tell them E.J. sent you if you stop by any of the blogs hosting the giveaway! :)

~EJW~

YA Bound Book Tours is organizing the Sizzling Summer Giveaway event featuring 50 authors! This giveaway event will take place July 22nd to July 27th. The giveaway is 2 Kindle Fire HD's with e-book prize packs! (shown below)

Blinded By Science... Or Fate?

Hey, gang! As promised, here's the second of this week's book announcements from good friends and awesome authors. :)

Today, we've got an interview with Jeff Beesler, author of Optical Osmosis. This is one fantastic sounding story, and it's cut from some VERY Stephen King-esque concepts--which you know thrills the heck out of me! (And how's this for an epic cover?!)

EJ ~ "When an accident involving sunlight and a telescope alters Greg’s vision, he suddenly finds himself with a strange new ability that drains psychic fragments of a person’s soul from their body, killing his victim in the process."

That's the tagline from Optical Osmosis... Holy FRAK JB, that's some gritty sounding goodness right there! Other than from the bowels of your dark, dark mind ;), where did the concept for this story come from? Is this the darkest material you've created yet?

JB ~ I actually wanted to write it as a superhero story, creating a character with powers that were a hybrid of the X-Men Rogue and Cyclops. What I wound up with was a darker, and infinitely better, story once I toned down the unnecessary superhero tropes that the original plotline called for.

EJ ~ Optical Osmosis is clearly born of some serious sci-fi & horror influences. Tell us about what drew you to writing speculative fiction (one of Jeff's earlier works, Spell of Entrapment, is fantasy). Who were your influences, favorite stories, etc.

JB ~ My strongest influence has to be the Saturday Morning Cartoons of the 1980's. Don't get me wrong. King and Koontz and all the rest of them are there, but nothing is as scary as seeing your cute little blue smurf friends turn into purple, monstrous versions of themselves. The episode of the Smurfs called The Purple Smurfs instilled in me a strange fascination with horror. I didn't realize this at the time of course. I was only a kid who was terrified of losing his Smurf pals to some stupid fly bite.

EJ ~ At the heart of most every good story I've read is a relationship. A side plot to Osmosis is the possibly troubled relationship between Greg (the protagonist) and his sister. What kinds of things were you looking to explore with them in terms of developing Greg's character?

JB ~ I wanted Greg to find a way to help his sister out without feeling like he was enabling her problems by giving her money or letting her harp on him 24/7. I wanted him to see that his sister is far from perfect and that sometimes a call out of the blue might actually be a serious cry for help. Most importantly, I wanted him to learn how to forgive himself and others.

EJ ~ Time for an inside scoop: Is Osmosis a super hero type of story where his "powers" might be able to be used for good, or is this guy just screwed for life? (We need to know... for reasons. :)

JB ~ Oh, he's definitely screwed. The Osmosis thing does some really weird stuff to the souls it drains, where they become much darker and nastier than they ever were in life.
EJ ~ Last questions, but certainly most important: Why should we bump Optical Osmosis to the top of our TBR lists, and where can we get it?

JB ~ The thing about Optical Osmosis is that it's meant to be a literary joyride, where you can throw caution to the wind vicariously through Greg and let someone else worry about the blasted consequences for a short while. This book is totally about the escapism, although you may learn a thing or two about telescopes or psychic imprints along the way.

As for where you might find it, you can go here...

Amazon
B&N
Smashwords

Born in May of 1978, Jeff Beesler has been writing since the 7th grade, although he likes to point out that his elementary teachers in 2nd to 6th grades kept sending him to Young Author’s Conferences throughout his school district. When not writing, he can be found chatting it up on social media, reading books, or playing computer games.

Where to find me:
Blog
Twitter @JeffBeesler
Facebook

I'm Back & Bringing Courage With Me!

Hey, gang! How the heck are y'all? I've missed you (and my computer) more than I can say. :)

I'm finally back to the blog after making the loooonngggg trek from Texas to California. Along the way, I saw desert, mountains, more desert, vineyards and more than a few terrible drivers. -_- (Seriously, who lets these jackwagons operate 2 ton projectiles of death unsupervised???!!!)

But, I'm proud to report we are moved in (sort of) and getting settled in our new town with only the minor moving-related injuries to report. (I swear I've got "box thumb". It's a rare disorder that comes from opening up and breaking down way too many damned boxes.)

To get my feet wet, this week on the blog I'm featuring a couple of my favorite folks, who also happen to be talented authors. :) First up is Ms. Carrie Butler, who'll be bringing us the sequel to her debut novel, Strength (ladies will remember the cover, I'm sure), this October.

Carrie has crafted another beauty of a cover (one I might just remember!), and all of the details on Courage are below... also be sure to give Carrie a hand with her blog tour if you have a spot available. She comes up with the best stuff for her tours. :)

And let me just say one more time that I REALLY missed the heck out of all of y'all!

~EJW~

COURAGE by Carrie Butler

Title: COURAGE
Series: Mark of Nexus - Book 2
Author: Carrie Butler
Category: New Adult (NA)
Genre: Paranormal Romance (PNR)
Release: October 15, 2013
Formats: E-Book & Paperback

Courage (Mark of Nexus #2) features four unique points-of-view. While the novel stands alone, it is best enjoyed after Strength (Mark of Nexus #1).

♥ ♥ ♥

Making a deal with the bad guys wasn’t the highlight of Rena Collins’ semester, but, hey, it saved her boyfriend. Now, in order to appease the human-altering organization known as ERA, she’ll crawl under their microscope while they study the Mark of Nexus and plot their eye-glazed version of the future—until she realizes that’s not all they’re plotting.

Wallace Blake has always known his girlfriend is unlike most girls. But now that information has surfaced regarding the two bloodlines that balance his supernatural race, he finally understands why. Rena belongs to one of them. She’s been augmenting his power, all along...

Enter: Corynn Catley. Brought into the country under the guise of an internship, she’s intended to become ERA’s secret weapon. Kind of. Her abilities cancel out Wallace’s, rendering him powerless, but that’s exactly what he’s always wanted. Too bad it only works when his girlfriend’s not around.

All the while, Rena fails to notice the crush her geeky best friend, Aiden Ross, is nursing. He’d give anything for her to see him in a new light—even reinvent himself through questionable means—but there’s a reason people are told to be careful what they wish for. Finding the courage to tell her could put everyone’s lives in danger.