Guest Post by Sean Beaudoin; Author of You Killed Wesley Payne + Giveaway

He's come to do a job.

A job that involves a body.

A body wrapped in duct tape found hanging from the goal posts at the end of the football field.

You Killed Wesley Payne is a truly original and darkly hilarious update of classic pulp-noir, in which hard-boiled seventeen year-old Dalton Rev transfers to the mean hallways of Salt River High to take on the toughest case of his life. The question isn't whether Dalton's going to get paid. He always gets paid. Or whether he's gonna get the girl. He always (sometimes) gets the girl. The real question is whether Dalton Rev can outwit crooked cops and killer cliques in time to solve the mystery of "The Body" before it solves him.

Sean Beaudoin (Going Nowhere Faster, Fade to Blue) evokes the distinctive voices of legendary crime/noir authors Dashiell Hammett and Jim Thompson with a little bit of Mean Girls and Heathers throwin in for good measure. This smart, slick, and alluring detective novel that will tease you, thrill you, and suck you in.

I asked Sean Beaudoin, author of You Killed Wesley Payne about his thoughts on writing for a YA audience. Please welcome Sean to The Eclectic Reader and check out his viewpoint. PS. Sean I love your 'grandfather's' quote :)

I noticed this morning a quote attributed to Martin Amis from the BBC program, Faulks on Fiction: "People ask me if I ever thought of writing a children's book. I say, 'If I had a serious brain injury I might well write a children's book,' but otherwise the idea of being conscious of who you're directing the story to is anathema to me, because, in my view, fiction is freedom and any restraints on that are intolerable.... I would never write about someone that forced me to write at a lower register than what I can write."

As you might imagine, there has already been a considerable backlash to this sentiment. It’s nothing new for Mr. Amis, master of a very English brand of sardonic aside. Not to mention the deflection of editorial outrage (gleefully ginned-up controversy) sniffing the tail of his many opinions, regardless of their merit. And although his condescension is bracing, I enjoy that sort of forthrightness. “Better to be blunt than be dull,” my grandfather always said. Well, that’s not true. I made that up. But he should have said it. And, to some degree, I agree with Amis. At least as it concerns intentionally “writing at a lower register.” It’s a valid point to consider, and probably all too often the cause of flabby writing on any shelf. But I suspect Amis hasn’t immersed himself in the genre enough to know that writing a YA novel does not inherently require a diminishment in style or expectation.

In my particular experience, the positive reception that both Fade to Blue and You Killed Wesley Payne received was leavened with plenty of “I don’t get it” responses. Which was both understandable and expected. I don’t try to write books that everyone will get, and I don’t dumb down my characters, situations, or vocabulary. I am hardly alone in the YA world in this respect. Martin Amis has written a number of novels I thoroughly enjoyed and admired. He has also, exercising the ‘freedom of fiction” he cites, released others that stuck me as creatively constipated and in need of a thorough editing. Even so, I had no problem following and/or understanding them. I don’t think he was writing to a cognitively addled or more deliberately commercial crowd, rather, like every author, he went through periods where he just wasn’t at the top of his game. At any rate, there are way too many YA titles released each season for anyone to keep track of, let alone read, so I think most of us can take solace that Martin Amis will not be joining the legion of “literary” novelists who are adding to the pile. I fully support his not cashing in on this trend. Not only because that leaves more elbow room for me, but because I really enjoyed his most recent novel, The Pregnant Widow, and as his illustrious attorney would advise him to continue working in his natural register.

 If you could be dropped into any book as a character who would you be and why?

I would be dropped into Martin Amis’ book Money, and take on the role of John Self, because he was a hilarious lout, unrepentant hedonist, and would likely be a highly entertaining guide to the Amis Super-ego.

I was also having a snoop around Sean's website and blog and couldn't resist giving readers some useless interesting tidbits about the author :)

About the author:

8% of the letters in Sean Beaudoin’s name are vowels.

In ASCII binary code, his name is 01010011 01100101 01100001 01101110 00100000 01000010 01100101 01100001 01110101 01100100 01101111 01101001 01101110

Backwards, it’s Naes Nioduaeb. In Pig Latin, it’s Eansay Eaudoinbay. Which is helpful, since no one can pronounce it with the legal spelling, either.

Sean Beaudoin has used his B.A. in film/photography as a springboard into the following jobs: construction laborer, circus roustabout, busboy, used book buyer, hotel desk clerk, outdoor education counselor, statue repairman (really), seller of jazz vinyl, and a nine-day stint as The World’s Worst Telemarketer.

He loves blueberries, garlic, hot sauce, bagels, almonds, and Turkish coffee ... He’s not particularly crazy about police procedurals, ketchup, rap-metal, Shia "The Bouf" LaBeouf, cell phones, or Escalades.

Unless Cadillac wants to sign him to a highly lucrative endorsement deal, in which case he loves Escalades. (obviously a guy with a sense of humour)


Visit Sean Beaudoin's website to find out more.
Follow Sean Beaudoin on twitter - click here.
To purchase You Killed Wesley Payne on amazon - click here.

GIVEAWAY DETAILS:

Going Nowhere Faster by Sean Beaudoin

Stan Smith has the world's dullest name, and the world's dullest life to go with it. At 17, the former junior chess champion turned "Town's Laziest Register Monkey at the Town's Only Video Store" has no car, no college, and, of course, no girl. If that weren't pathetic enough, he's got an organic-food-freak vegan mother, an eccentric inventor father, a dead-end job, a dog with a flatulence problem, and a former classmate threatening to kill him. With a 165 IQ, Stan was expected to Be Something and Go Somewhere. But when all he has is a beat-up old bike that keeps getting vandalized, he's going nowhere, faster.

HOW TO ENTER:

To win an autographed copy of Sean's first novel Going Nowhere Faster leave a comment regarding Sean's guest post and your email address or ensure you are contactable in the event you are the winner. US ONLY

EXTRA ENTRIES:

+2 if you're a follower and let me know

+2 post the comp on Twitter or your blog & leave a link

Competition is open to US only.  Ends Feb 28th and the winner will be announced on this blog. Good luck everyone!