Interview with YA urban fantasy author Belart Wright

Today's special guest is Belart Wright. He's chatting with me about his newest novel, it's a young adult, urban fantasy adventure called Average Joe and the Extraordinaires.

During his virtual book tour, Belart will be awarding a $10 Amazon or Barnes and Noble (winner's choice) gift card to a lucky randomly drawn winner. To be entered for a chance to win, use the form below. To increase your chances of winning, feel free to visit his other tour stops and enter there, too!

Bio:

Belart Wright was born and raised in Detroit Michigan with a short but adventurous stint in St. Ignace during his childhood. Always poor, Belart had to learn to use his imagination to fuel the fun he had. Whether it was drawing cool and dangerous looking heroes to creating fully fledged storylines with his action figures to writing stories about kids similar to himself with fantastic abilities and destinies, Belart was always an expert in delving into other worlds that were not his own.

Always naturally talented at writing, it took the advice of his brother, and a little creative boost from his high school creative writing teacher to get him to realize that writing was something he could do really well and pursue as a career. To this day he revels in building worlds and characters from the ground up such as the worlds of Hell Warriors, Story of K, Cyborgs and Deadmen, and Pannam which are all working titles.

In his spare time Belart tries to update his two blogs whenever he can, but mostly just ends up writing or editing. As a huge gamer he plays a lot of games online and off with his favorites at the time being Borderlands 2 and Dark Souls. He just wishes he had more time to whittle his impossibly long gaming list down which goes all the way back to PS1 and Sega Genesis classics. He and his buddies at FlubberKnuckle Studios are also working on several new game IPs. He is also patiently waiting for the next installment of the superb Legacy of Kain series.

Please tell us about your current release.
There’s a lot to say about Average Joe and the Extraordinaires. My blog page here gives a pretty good idea of what to expect from the book. But, in a nutshell, Average Joe and the Extraordinaires is about an average kid named Joe Black, who’s in an extraordinary and dangerous new situation thanks to a few unexpected events. Joe is joined by a woman with seemingly supernatural powers and an old detective as he tries to get his life back to normal and avoid dangerous forces that have been sent to end his life. Joe tries to juggle his normal life with his new strange one and also find something within himself that is better than average. This book has tons of crazy action, a lot of humor, and quite a few heart-warming moments. No love triangles though. It only has a pretty stable boyfriend/girlfriend romance, but that’s to be expected from such an average guy, right?

What inspired you to write this book?

I asked myself three questions: can an average protagonist be interesting even in a book about extraordinary people? What does average really mean? What makes a person extraordinary?


Excerpt from Average Joe and the Extraordinaires:
She rode off, down the street on her motorbike that was now a sky blue color to match the highlights in her hair, her ponytail, and her full face helmet. As she drove, she thought of her next move. She had a long list of places she wanted to visit, mostly associated with Grabas and the secrets he held beneath the stadium. But now her focus was on getting Joe out of trouble. She needed to figure out who has gunning for him...or better yet, she had to convince the man who hired this assassin to call off his killer. That man was definitely Robert Grabas.

What exciting story are you working on next?
I’m glad you asked this! I’m actually working on several new projects including a sequel to Average Joe and the Extraordinaires, called Average Joe and the Beauty. I plan on releasing that towards the end of 2016 if all goes smoothly. But before that I’m releasing the prequel to Average Joe and the Extraordinaires, called Liandra and the Dream Reader. While working on those, I’m also writing a new LitRPG series that’s based on dark fantasy videogames. This one is set in a virtual reality world and starring an alpha tester named Sam Nagai. It’s called Hell’s Glitch: Escape from Adventure and you can find it on Wattpad (https://www.wattpad.com/story/53230863-hell's-glitch-escape-from-adventure) every week.

When did you first consider yourself a writer?

I first considered myself a writer in 2008 when I wrote my first full length novel, non-stop in a few months. I was obsessed back then and did nothing but work and write. Looking back, I’m quite impressed with my work ethic, passion to the project, and resolve to finish it.

Do you write full-time? If so, what's your work day like? If not, what do you do other than write and how do you find time to write?

Unfortunately, I don’t get the time to write full time. I have two day jobs and a plethora of family and friends who require my time and attention every so often. Then there’s that pesky thing called sleep and those other tiny activities that drain away time. I get around this by writing when I can, such as when I’m travelling on a bus or taking a lunch break at work. If the day hasn’t totally wiped me out then I’ll sit at the table, or couch, or wherever my instincts take me and write as much as I can. My two day jobs include working as a dishwasher at a retirement home and working as a bookseller/cashier at a small college bookstore. Not a very glorious set of jobs, but it keeps the lights on and pays for all the goodies I need for my books.

What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?

If you mean in the story itself, then it’s the way I do dialogue which follows the following template. Belart: “This is kind of weird huh? Like a script, right?” I like it because it clearly denotes who’s speaking without much effort at all.

If you mean my writing habits, then my most quirky habit is the ability to write anywhere, even at parties, and bars. That’s if I can sneak a notebook or laptop in.

As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?

An architect, comic book creator, professional wrestler, Batman, or Piccolo from Dragon Ball Z.

Anything additional you want to share with the readers?

I just want to thank you and your readers for having me today and for taking the time to read my ramblings.

Links:

Website | Amazon US | Nook US | Blog | Twitter | Google+ 

Thank you, Belart!

a Rafflecopter giveaway