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*sings* Happy Book Birthday To Me!


Hey, gang! Sorry for the blog silence the last couple of weeks. I've been busy trying to get everything ready for today's release and traveling around the country for various things. But I'm back and definitely ready to party. :)

Today, I'm officially releasing my novel Perfectly Ernest into the world. This was one of those projects that started as an interesting/fun story idea and morphed into something near and dear to my heart.

I never intended for this to be a touching story necessarily, and especially not a "feel good" story. But it somehow became those things via all these fun characters who suffer from one form of mental illness or another learning to rely on each other.

My educational background is in counseling so it's something I've always wanted to explore in my fiction. But alas, this is fiction and my character's journey is over in just a few hundred pages. So many "real" people are shackled in life by anxiety, depression, and more, and it's not something that just goes away.

That's why I wanted to donate 10% of the annual proceeds from this story to the National Alliance on Mental Illness. (www.nami.org). It's a way for me (and readers) to hopefully contribute something meaningful to the cause.

Though there is the common thread of mental illness, this story is equally (if not more so) about friendship and love. There's even some baseball and humor thrown in for good measure! My hope is that I've crafted a story that will appeal to a lot of different kinds of readers.

But enough about my thoughts! Here are the details for the story. As always, I greatly appreciate any shares, and more so all of the encouragement and support you've given me over the years. My fellow writers and this blogging community have kept me afloat through some tough times of doubt and setbacks. I'm forever grateful for that.

~EJ


A gripping story of striking out and winning big.
 
From a distance, Ernie’s life seems perfect—he’s a star college baseball player adored by the student body and coveted by professional teams. Up close, he is a disaster. Since the death of his mother, he’s been trapped by a promise he made and forced to live her dream instead of his own. He reaches his breaking point in the biggest game of his young career and sets off a chain of events that will either define or destroy the rest of his life. 

 Ernie grudgingly joins a quirky campus counseling group that empowers him to heal himself and right his wrongs. By testing old friendships, forging unlikely new ones, and exploring an exciting romance, he begins to unravel the jumbled knot his tangled inner-psyche has become. But old rivals, mental illness, and the risk of a forbidden relationship soon threaten his progress. Will Ernie's new direction and friends be his salvation, or confirmation that he is forever doomed by his imperfections?

Perfectly Ernest is a New Adult contemporary novel with romantic elements by author E.J. Wesley. Ernest offers a smart, funny, sweet, sexy, uplifting, and oftentimes poignant perspective of one person's difficult transition into adulthood. It is a story about overcoming the demons of mental illness and struggling with the profound burden of expectations—both real and imagined. But it’s mostly a tale of friendship, hope, and love. 

**Special Labor Day Release Sale - eBook only .99c for a limited time!**

“EJ Wesley has written a modern day Breakfast Club.”

"E.J. tells a college love story with a real life feel. He has created a flawed and pitiful character who quickly becomes a rallying point for all the other characters of the story. Ernie is the sort of boy I could easily imagine myself being friends with in college and cheered on through life in general, but certainly the story." 

 "EJ's tale of a college baseball star and the demons he fights is powerful and captivating. Once you're involved in Ernest's world, you are invested for the ride. Fans of this genre will say EJ hit it out of the park!" Alex J. Cavanaugh, Amazon bestselling author of the Cassa series 

 "Great cast of characters. Lots of fun humor. Romance. Win! Definitely recommend!" 

 "This is not so much a "coming of age" story, as it is a "coming of self." I loved reading it" 

 "It is an inspirational, heartwarming story in which any reader is likely to get lost."

 "This story made me laugh and cry and it was so great to read something sweet and awesome from a guy."
 
“Perfectly Ernest offers an emotionally genuine tour through depression, friendship, and love.”
 
“It's wonderful when a story's voice is so strong as to drag you into someone's head so it feels natural. I devoured Perfectly Ernest.”
 
“…captured my heart from page one.”


Book Trailer
 
 
**Perfectly Ernest Social Media Shareables**
Twitter

'A gripping story of striking out & winning big.' Perfect Ernest, only .99c #LaborDaySale http://www.amazon.com/Perfectly-Ernest-E-J-Wesley-ebook/dp/B00MQIJZR8 #KindleBooks #newrelease

"A modern day Breakfast Club" http://www.amazon.com/Perfectly-Ernest-E-J-Wesley-ebook/dp/B00MQIJZR8 Perfectly Ernest, a #NewAdult contemporary novel by @EJWesley .99c for a limited time

'heart & soul woven throughout the pages' Perfectly Ernest, a contemporary #novel about life, love, & friendship http://www.amazon.com/Perfectly-Ernest-E-J-Wesley-ebook/dp/B00MQIJZR8

"an emotionally genuine tour through depression, friendship, and love." Perfectly Ernest on sale now .99c #NewRelease http://www.ejwesley.com/perfectly-ernest.html

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"E.J. Wesley has created a modern day Breakfast Club."
 
Perfectly Ernest is a New Adult contemporary novel with romantic elements by author E.J. Wesley. Ernest offers a smart, funny, sweet, sexy, uplifting, and oftentimes poignant perspective of one person's difficult transition into adulthood. It is a story about overcoming the demons of mental illness and struggling with the profound burden of expectations—both real and imagined. But it’s mostly a tale of friendship, hope, and love.
 
 
**Labor Day Release Sale - eBook only.99c for a limited time!**
 
*The author will donate 10% of the annual proceeds of this book to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), a nonprofit organization dedicated to spreading awareness and support for those who suffer from mental illness.
-------------------
"Captured my heart from page one."
 
Perfectly Ernest is a New Adult contemporary novel with romantic elements by author E.J. Wesley. Ernest offers a smart, funny, sweet, sexy, uplifting, and oftentimes poignant perspective of one person's difficult transition into adulthood. It is a story about overcoming the demons of mental illness and struggling with the profound burden of expectations—both real and imagined. But it’s mostly a tale of friendship, hope, and love.
 
 
**Labor Day Release Sale - eBook only.99c for a limited time!**
 
*The author will donate 10% of the annual proceeds of this book to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), a nonprofit organization dedicated to spreading awareness and support for those who suffer from mental illness.


24 comments:

IWSG - Fiction's Dirty Little Secret: Size Matters

Hey, gang! Welcome to your monthly dose of hot mess we affectionately call the Insecure Writer's Support Group around these parts. Not familiar with IWSG? Click the IWSG button below for all the details!

 On the E.J. news front, my New Adult contemporary novel, Perfectly Ernest, is releasing Labor Day weekend. (Less than a month away! *dry heaves from nerves*) 

I'd love to have your help spreading the word! Here's a sign up for a book blast/cover reveal. It is scheduled for the last week of August/first week of September. 

Even if you don't have openings on your blog during that two week period, I'll also send some canned tweets and Facebook messages. Any little thing you can do to help me get the word out is greatly appreciated. 

 Here's what this story is all about:


 From a distance, Ernie’s life seems perfect—he’s a star college baseball player adored by the student body and coveted by professional teams. Up close, he is a disaster. Since the death of his mother, he’s been trapped by a promise he made and forced to live her dream instead of his own. He reaches his breaking point in the biggest game of his young career and sets off a chain of events that will either define or destroy the rest of his life.

Ernie grudgingly joins a quirky campus counseling group that empowers him to heal himself and right his wrongs. By testing old friendships, forging unlikely new ones, and exploring an exciting romance, he begins to unravel the jumbled knot his tangled inner-psyche has become. But old rivals, mental illness, and the risk of a forbidden relationship soon threaten his progress. Will Ernie's new direction and friends be his salvation, or confirmation that he is forever doomed by his imperfections?

Perfectly Ernest is a New Adult contemporary novel with romantic elements by author E.J. Wesley. Ernest offers a smart, funny, sweet, sexy, uplifting, and oftentimes poignant perspective of one person's difficult transition into adulthood. It is a story about overcoming the demons of mental illness and struggling with the profound burden of expectations—both real and imagined. But it’s mostly a tale of friendship, hope, and love.

Add Perfectly Ernest to your TBR!

Fiction's Dirty Little Secret: Size Matters


http://www.insecurewriterssupportgroup.com
Click for more info on IWSG!
I have a confession: I have a little bit of a size inferiority complex. No, I'm not talking about naughty things. (Hey, eyes up here!) Nor am I talking about the fact that I'm only 5'6" tall. (Someone has to stay small enough to sit in the middle on road trips. I proudly wear that badge of shame.) 

 I'm talking about the fiction I write. You see, I have a series of novelettes out. Each individual story ranges from 12-17 thousand words. They're short by design, meant to be enjoyed like your favorite TV shows or a fun-sized candy bar. A couple of delicious bites that simultaneously curb your craving and leave you wanting more.

 I get the occasional complaint that the stories are too short, but those have mostly come from folks who didn't read the product description. (Or don't realize it's an ongoing series for whatever reasons.) By and large, the feedback I've gotten is that they are enjoyable stories by themselves. So no big worries there.

 But then I wrote (and completed) my first novel, Perfectly Ernest. I outlined a story and wrote that story to the best of my ability. While I'd originally planned for it to be around 75k, it ended up being 60. Why? Because that was the story. Anything else I would've added would've been filler or fluff in my mind.

 So what's the big deal, E.J.? Sounds like you're happy with the results. 

 I'm truly thrilled with how the book turned out. It packs the emotional punch I dreamed it would when I first came up with the idea, and also has this weird ability to leave readers feeling warm and fuzzy. (I say weird, because I never planned on this being a feel good story--but I think it somehow is now.) Also, early reviewers are telling me it's a page turner, which is something I always put high on my to-do list.

 The big deal is that some readers balk at anything less than 80k being worthy of the title of novel. I've known about the reader size bias for a while. Because of my experience with the Moonsongs series, I know there are readers who won't touch shorter fiction. It's just their preference.

 But when an author friend did an informal poll on Facebook the other day, I had my eyes opened to a new kind of size bias: The price Vs size bias.

 This friend asked her followers what the single most important factor in making a book purchase was. Many people listed positive reviews, recommendations from friends, and other common factors. But there were many who said they first look at price and word count on the product description.

 Most were reluctant to pay more than .99 cents for anything under 80k--no mater what the reviews said. I guess it took me by surprise, because my first concern as a reader is if I'm going to enjoy the story. I've also loved a number of short stories and I realize size isn't going to necessarily indicative of how much I'm going to enjoy a read.

 Here's a list of the word lengths for several great novels. I find myself wondering just how many great reads these people are missing out on. Is Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five worth less than a buck because it doesn't hit 50k? A chunk of Ray Bradbury's stuff doesn't hit 70k, neither does John Green's A Fault in Our Stars. The Great Gatsby is around 47k. 

 Now, I realize these are certified classics, and that Unknown Indie Author X (ME) is in a different class. But lots of someones have to read these stories before they become classics. Seems like a shame to miss out on something possibly great because of arbitrary things like word count and/or price point. 

 Ultimately, this all leaves me feeling a touch vulnerable when it comes to Perfectly Ernest. How many people are going to walk right by it because it's not going to take them a month to read, or because the author had the nerve to charge $3 for it? 

 If they saw how much time, grief, and money we spend writing these things, it would probably make more sense. I'm thinking about putting that info in the product description from now on. 

 "This book took me 8 months, 3 lost friendships, 17 marital fights, 1 disgruntled dog, 2 neglected children, and $2,500 to produce, advertise, and distribute. Thanks for parting with $2.99 and being entertained for hours. Sorry if my blood, sweat, and tear stains slow you down!" LOL (Actually, not a bad idea...)

 What do you think? Does size matter when you're browsing for new reads? What about price? 

 ~EJW~
52 comments:

Author Interview - M.J. Fifield - Effigy

Hey, gang! Absolutely stoked to be able to bring you a recent sit-down I did with longtime blog friend and debut author, M.J. Fifield. I've known M.J. to be a passionate fan of fantasy fiction, so I can't wait to see how she has carried over that love into her own work.

She has interesting things to say about the female role in fantasy (both as an author and for characters), and her list of influences might surprise you. Let's get to it!


The survival of a once-mighty kingdom rests in the hands of its young queen, Haleine Coileáin, as it slowly succumbs to an ancient evil fueled by her husband’s cruelty.

A sadistic man with a talent for torture and a taste for murder, he is determined to burn the land and all souls within. Haleine is determined to save her kingdom and, after a chance encounter, joins forces with the leader of the people’s rebellion. She gives him her support, soon followed by her heart.

Loving him is inadvertent but becomes as natural and necessary as breathing. She lies and steals on his behalf, doing anything she can to further their cause. She compromises beliefs held all her life, for what life will exist if evil prevails?

Her journey leads to a deceiving world of magic, monsters, and gods she never believed existed outside of myth. The deeper she goes, the more her soul is stripped away, but she continues on, desperate to see her quest complete. If she can bring her husband to ruin and save her people, any sacrifice is worth the price—even if it means her life.

Author Interview, M.J. Fifield

EJ: Effigy sounds like a massively epic fantasy novel (see what I did there?)--full of swords, sorcery, and all the world building trimmings. However, one big thing jumps out at me: Unlike many fantasy series, a strong female protagonist takes the lead here. What/who was your inspiration for Haleine, and how does tackling the genre from a woman's POV alter the 'typical' fantasy experience? (Or does it?)

MJ: Haleine popped into my head one summer and wouldn't get out until I committed to writing her story. I didn't know a lot about her in those early days, but I knew she was queen and that she would work in a sort-of behind-the-scenes capacity to support a rebellion against her husband. She obviously developed more over time. All along, though, I wanted to write a character who was in a position of power, who was expected to be almost an infallible superhuman figurehead, but was very much human—and a flawed one at that. Whether I was at all successful at this remains to be seen, but that's what I set out to do.

And not to be all 'I am woman; hear me roar' or anything, but I like to think that writing a fantasy from a woman's POV doesn't alter the experience at all.

EJ: Part of writing successfully in the fantasy genre (or any genre, really) is being aware of what's been done before. Who are your writing and reading influences? If one of your favorite authors read Effigy, do you think they'd be surprised by anything?

MJ: I read a lot of novels across a lot of genres, and I admire so many authors out there, but I count Ellen Emerson White and Phillipa Gregory as probably my two biggest reading/writing influences.

Ellen Emerson White wrote a YA series about a girl whose mother is elected president that I first came across when I was in middle school. I re-read that series once a year now because it just taught me so much about voice and characters. It was funny and smart, and I've been obsessed with it since I was 12. Fun fact: Ellen Emerson White and I once had a multi-day online conversation about the awesomeness of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Battlestar Galactica. In doing so, I achieved a life goal I didn't know I had.

Phillipa Gregory is a brilliant historical fiction novelist, and every time I pick up one of her books I'm awed by her ability to weave together language in such a intelligent and moving way. Her novel, Wideacre, is an incredibly crazy story in which you spend the entire time wondering how she could possibly end it in a satisfactory manner, but she does so perfectly. Likewise, her novel, The Boleyn Inheritance, is so gorgeously written and put together that it quite literally took my breath away.

If either of them happened to read Effigy, they would probably be most surprised to find that—given the fact they're my influences—Effigy is a fantasy.

EJ: Effigy was a long time in development--which isn't at all unusual for epic fantasy due to the enormous amount of world building involved. What was your greatest challenge during that time, and is there anything you'd tackle differently now that you've survived the experience?

MJ: I think my greatest challenge was probably figuring out what the story was supposed to be, and how I was supposed to tell it. The characters were in my head a long, long time, and it took me a quite few drafts to really work out the right way to tell their tale. Next time, I plan to plan more ahead of time. That doesn't mean the characters will cooperate, because they very seldom do, but I will have tried, at least.

EJ: What about Effigy would translate really well into a film/movie? What wouldn't? Who would you pick to play your main characters?

MJ: Effigy has a lot of human drama—conversations that are meant to be deep and meaningful, a bit of a love story that leads to a couple of sex scenes—that would translate easily onto the screen. There's one character—a tiny, talking pegasus—who would pose more of a challenge. Call the WETA workshop...perhaps it could be an exciting new challenge for Andy Serkis?

As to whom I would cast as my main characters...If I could get the Cate Blanchett who portrayed Elizabeth I in the 1998 film Elizabeth, I would cast her in a heartbeat because she would be so perfect in so many ways. I also adore Rose Leslie (Ygritte in Game of Thrones). Effigy's male lead is a lot harder to cast. I've never really settled on an actor who I think would fit the role. Past considerees, however, have included Joseph Fiennes (1998's Shakespeare in Love and Elizabeth), and Heath Ledger.

EJ: Last and best question: What are your plans for the The Coileáin Chronicles? And how can we get our hands on Effigy and learn more about you?

MJ: If all goes according to plan (ha!), there will be six books in the Coileáin Chronicles. I'm working on the second book,Second Nature, right now. I'm allergic to spoilers and like to avoid them whenever possible, but I will say that the first three novels cover the three Coileáin sisters. The second three will revolve around the next generation of Coileáins. Or is that too much information? If it is, forget I said anything.

There's currently one planned spin-off—if I can figure out how (and when) to write it. I created a character last November whose only name for the longest time was 'Mercenary Guy.' Mercenary Guy (whose real name is now a well-guarded secret) makes his official debut in Second Nature and is now demanding his own spin-off. Since I like him quite a lot, I'm inclined to give in.

Effigy is currently available in paperback and on Kindle at Amazon and Amazon UK. You can also purchase it on CreateSpace. The EPub version should be available soon. I hope.


About M.J.


Armed with a deep and lasting love of chocolate, purple pens, and medieval weaponry, M.J. Fifield is nothing if not a uniquely supplied insomniac. When she isn’t writing, she’s on the hunt for oversized baked goods or shiny new daggers. M.J. lives with a variety of furry creatures—mostly pets—in New Hampshire.

Where to find M.J.

Website: http://www.mjfifield.com/ 
Blog: http://mjfifield.blogspot.com/ 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/MJ-Fifield/283392701681234 
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MJSaysWhat Goodreads: http://goodreads.com/MJFifield

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17 comments: