Stories : A4A Member Is A Published Novelist
Chris Burrow aka Gerpsy on Adam4Adam is a 23 years old published novelist. He sent me an email a while ago and I decided to show you guys what he does. He is extremely talented!!! Growing up, Chris loved comic books. He was completely enamored with the tales of the Fantastic four, Avengers, Spiderman, etc. He knew he was gay and that he had to keep it a secret from his incredibly conservative family, so he felt completely alienated and alone growing up. He clung to his comic books because they gave him an escape. As he grew older and became more perceptive, he realized there weren’t any heroes like him out there in the comics; no one who was attracted to the same sex was saving the day. Recently more characters in comics have “come out,” and it’s wonderful. There still aren’t any pivotal characters- like Captain America, Spider Man, Wolverine- who are openly gay. So he decided to create his own hero, who happens to be gay, in the form of the novel. He hope readers will take from reading that the narrative is not about a gay hero, rather it is about a person who tries to do the right thing who happens to be gay. Here is the synopsis to his book:
“Jaxton’s family has kept their secret for generations. Now the entire world is going to find out.
Jaxton and his sister, Ella, consider their lives in danger when they are thrust into an effort to confront a deadly terrorist force. They only have one thing in their favor– their super powers.
Unfortunately, the terrorists have powers of their own, and they are lethal. The world is struck with fear in the wake of chaos, and a secret organization known as the Sanctum wants to assemble a special team to combat the terrorists. As they adjust to the world discovering the fact that people have superpowers, Jaxton and Ella find themselves competing against each other and other powered people for a spot on the response team. So much pressure is put on making the team; they are warned they won’t be safe if they don’t. Jaxton’s loyalties, morals, and personal limits are called into question as he begins to prepare for battle. He begins to wonder if he and his sister can be the heroes the world needs.
As Jaxton and Ella struggle to keep their identities concealed from the public, make the team, and stay alive, they find themselves in the middle of a deadly plot bigger than the draft, the response team, the terrorism, and the Sanctum combined.”
The book is written for adults and people who enjoy reading adult fiction/adventure. Check it out and I’m sure some of you will like it. Chris put a lot of time, tears and effort into his first baby. His book is for sale exclusively on Amazon.com right now. It is available in book or print. Click here to check it out!
Dave
Great ratings also.
Will definitely check this book out!
If you enjoy books of this genre, also check out ‘HERO’ by Perry Moore
I clicked on the link to amazon, and saw that book was self published. Meaning that it wasn’t published by a major publishing house. I look for that because I purchased a self published book once, and the errors were glaring.
With that said there’s a number of reviews, all 4 or 5 stars. I read them, and I got a strange suspicion that these were reviews written by request of the author. For example a four star review featured praise of the book, but was composed by a friend of the author, even calling him “a fine young man.” There’s even a review that the author wrote, praising his own book.
Frank, reviews are great… If you would publish a book, do you think your mom and dad would write a comment? There you go…probably the same for this amazing young dude. Try to be nice and kind instead of trying to find the bad…
Kudos to him for being published. I look forward to reading it.
Frank, I totally agree with you.
Good for you, Chris! Talented and handsome.
And to Frank, you need Jesus in your life.
Frank, you’re kind of a douche, aren’t you?
I find myself agreeing with Frank. I find it difficult to become immersed in a story if I keep getting yanked back by grammatical, spelling, and formatting errors.
A4A has a number of published novelists. One that I can recommend is Trebor Healey who has quite a few books of fiction and poetry published by major houses. And he’s damn good, too. Of course you can find his books on Amazon. He’s on A4A but you’ll have to find out his screename yourself.
@Blog – no Frank is right – If I’m spending my money on a book, for pleasure, for my relaxation, then it being self-published shows that many agents and publishing houses aren’t going to waste their resources on such a story. It also means there wasn’t an editor who found mistakes, offered suggestions, and guided the process along. For the reviews to be written by a family member is unprofessional, and makes the author and the book look amateur-ish.
@Blog – Have to agree with Frank. Can’t agree his post was not nice, however. It was labeled as “not nice” … why? It was “not nice” because it wasn’t glowing? Something is amiss there.
Of course the first reviews will always be glowing and from ardent admirers. Nothing wrong with that. It’s what anyone (even an aspiring singer (ahem) would (and SHOULD) do). Until there are a substantial number of reviews, you cannot gauge reality.
Hey guys, it’s Chris, the guy whose book you’re insulting on this thread. Y’all are kind of hurtful. You might find a few errors, that’s plausible. I did have several people go through and edit the manuscript for me before I published it though. I really put in a lot of effort into this book and I am very proud of it, and I am eternally grateful to Dave for the publicity and to all the members on the website for the overwhelming amount of encouragement and kind words. To Frank and all of you other guys out there who aren’t being very kind- I would just like to let you know that I poured a lot of myself into this book. My family is probably going to disown me for writing a book featuring a gay protagonist, and I spent well over a year trying to get the story right (I went through many drafts). Before you assume that my book is riddled with errors or that no one wanted to invest in my book, please read it before you trash it. I couldn’t imagine why people would even feel comfortable saying negative things about an individual they don’t know or a book they haven’t read, but I am keeping you guys in my thoughts. I do respect people who can critically engage my work after reading it and taking my words into consideration, but I don’t value the opinions of anonymous haters. I don’t take it to heart- there are people saying ugly things about the most gorgeous and talented people on this blog, so I knew what I was getting into. Dave, once gain I thank you from the bottom of my heart 🙂 The coverage has been wonderful for sales and the kind people who have taken the time to read it have only told me nice things! Howdy to you all from Texas 🙂
Chris : thanks man and don’t worry about these guys saying bad things. Some gays like to say bad things over and over in here….they read this blog to post bad comments, so it’s all good. I learned how not to listen to them 🙂
Actually, as a writer or any kind of artist (writing is considered an art form), you must be able to take critiques whether they are good or bad in nature. If you can’t, you should be doing it. I am an artist and I take it as a way to make my artwork better. I don’t take what is said to heart and neither should you. Just because they don’t like your work, doesn’t mean they are a hater and calling people names doesn’t help either.
Chris,
Carry On bud! You’ve got balls, guts, & great talent. I look forward to reading more from you.
Chris this is one amazing book that shows your passion and depth as a writer. I read the entire book from Dave’s post and couldn’t put it down. I read this book in less than a day. This young man has talent and deserves tons of credit for putting it out there and trying. If you don’t want to read it because it wasn’t published by a major house then your loss. I can’t wait until he prints another in the series. Guess some people still judge a book by its cover and that is pretty sad. Givem’ Hell Chris…..you are a superhero!
Frank: Take a look at the following list of names and try to find what they ALL have in common!
Margaret Atwood, L. Frank Baum, William Blake, Ken Blanchard, Robert Bly, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Lord Byron, Willa Cather, Pat Conroy, Stephen Crane, e.e. cummings, W.E.B. DuBois, Alexander Dumas, T.S. Eliot, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Benjamin Franklin, Zane Grey, Thomas Hardy, E. Lynn Harris, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Ernest Hemingway, Robinson Jeffers, Spencer Johnson, Stephen King, Rudyard Kipling, Louis L’Amour, D.H. Lawrence, Rod McKuen, Marlo Morgan, John Muir, Anais Nin, Thomas Paine, Tom Peters, Edgar Allen Poe, Alexander Pope, Beatrix Potter, Ezra Pound, Marcel Proust, Irma Rombauer, Carl Sandburg, Robert Service, George Bernard Shaw, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Upton Sinclair, Gertrude Stein, William Strunk, Alfred Lord Tennyson, Henry David Thoreau, Leo Tolstoi, Mark Twain, Walt Whitman, and Virginia Woolf.
In case you were wondering what they all have in common, it’s because their early works were “self-published.” There always has to be a first time!
Buy the kid’s book! When he becomes famous you;ll have a very valuable “First Edition!” The worst you’ll be out is the few bucks it cost to buy it. Someday it could be worth thousands! Who’ll be laughing then?
Self publishing is a first step and a brave step. It is a great learning experience for a beginning writer. It does not matter what others think of your effort, you will see your weaknesses and improve from this adventure.
Chris I applaud you being published so early in life, I for one find it very creative and imaginative.I can’t wait to read this and ignore all the critics and just enjoy the first baby you put out.
Congratulations, Chris! I’ve been writing for a while now and I still haven’t tackled a novel, so I’m very impressed that you have. And Gifted is even going to be a series!
As for the Grey Clouds above, criticism is easy, but offering to help and/or mentor you is something else. If people say cutting things but don’t follow up with “Let me go over your next draft with you”, they’re just being jerks. My general philosophy is “It may not be perfect, but it’s done.” Keep practicing and writing, and you will get to “perfect *and* done”.
Sean
holy shit.
seriously, whining because someone explained why they wouldnt be interested in your book?
how about this?
there are plenty of gay superheroes.
theres also a team thats basically all gat or bi (except kate, and shes not THAT straight) called the young avengers.
but thats not what makes me not interested in your book.
if youre writing a gay book, then fine. im not into fiction where the focus is on the subjects sexuality.
id be really interested in reading a book about a superhero, but not if thats secondary to the subject being a GAY superhero.
but seriously, if youre going to put out a work and ask people to look at it, then put your big girl pants on and accept that not everyone will be interested, and of those that are, not all will like it.
Damn auto correct.
Again, someone making a comment without even reading the book. Nice that everyone has opinions, even better when they make no sense because you have not read the book. The book does not focus on the superhero being gay. The book is this guy’s dream of writing and publishing. Before talking about putting his big girl pants on, how about pulling your head out of your ass and at least know what you are talking about before commenting on the guy’s book and being totally off the mark. Hang tough Chris.