Author Interview: YA / Coming of Age Author B.A. Bellec

Author of Someone’s Story and co-collaborator on the music it inspired, B.A. was born in Richmond, BC and raised in Langley, BC, before settling in Winnipeg, MB. His first adventure was a career in Finance, where he spent 15 years developing his business skills. His highest achievement was the Certified Payroll Manager designation. He currently still consults with businesses on their systems and processes. Over that period of time, he also attended film school where he started to nurture his early creative abilities.
A self-starter always interested in research, he taught himself many of the aspects of storytelling through reading books, screenplays and material online. Whenever he found an inspirational piece of art, he quickly went to the source to find the story behind the artist who created the work. It took many years after attending film school for him to finally combine his creative skills with his life experience and tell that story he had been holding back. Some of his favorite creative people: Lukas Rossi, Justin Furstenfeld, Peter Jackson, Stephen Chbosky, John Green, J.K. Rowling.
Currently he is pounding away on the keyboard writing his second novel, Pulse. This project is a change of pace and more details will come in a few months!
B.A. is also an avid jogger and walker, frequently using them as a way to work on those tough spots in life and his manuscripts. If you found it this far into his material, reach out to him on Twitter and make sure to like and subscribe to get updates on all his future endeavors.

WEBSITE & SOCIAL LINKS:

Website: http://www.babellec.com
Blog: https://babellec.com/b-a-bellecs-blog/
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/b_bellec
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/babellec/

 

Q: What’s inside the mind of a YA fiction author?

I just want to give back. This book is for all the friends I saw struggling. I had my battles but ultimately the main character here is a combination of a few people. Telling their stories gives young readers a chance to learn from the mistakes and struggles I saw or went through. Gives them some advice and perspective.

Because the book is so new, not many people are aware it exists. My goal is to just get this book in front of as many readers as I can. The hard work pays off when a reader reaches out to me over social media to tell me how much the book connected with them. That means the world to me.

The other thing on my mind of late is my second project. It isn’t Young Adult. I am working on a Sci-Fi horror called Pulse. It is a total change of pace. It will be marketed to a different audience for sure. I am struggling with how to give back to my fans of Someone’s Story in Pulse. I’m always evolving but I don’t want to change my style so much that I lose my fans. There are some young characters in Pulse and I am trying to think up a few ways to reward a reader who picks up both books. A few subtle crossovers maybe and some stylistic choices.

Q: Tell us why readers should buy Someone's Story.

Someone’s Story is unique. The main character is never named. They simply go by “Someone” and it kind of reads almost like the character is streaming their thoughts unfiltered. A few people have described the book as very raw. The formatting is a hybrid between screenplay and novel. I attended film school for a little while. That is where I started writing so some of those techniques found their way into the book. I also wrote original songs and then had a musician partner with me to record them. Some of the song lyrics are in the book. It is a neat little aspect to the project that I have never seen. When you combine the music, the screenplay style and the unnamed main character, this is a unique and unforgettable experience.

It’s not a long book either. I packed a lot of stuff into something you can finish in a night. Ultimately the book is about mental health and doing grandiose things. This book is for people that struggle. This book is for people who wonder. This book is for anyone who wants to believe in themself but doesn’t know how.

Q: What makes a good YA / coming of age fiction story?

Character. My first draft had lots of me in it. The problem is I am boring. My life is boring. Not much drama happens to me. This book got so much better when I started to make it a work of fiction. I basically took my journal, cut it in half, and then re-wrote the main character from the perspective of a few people that lived a harder life than me. The book is good because I jammed three people into one character. There are layers to unpack. Lots of depth. Events and information have to give the reader an emotional response. 

Q: What is the best thing about being an author?

It is very emotionally satisfying work. Writing gives me a way to deal with all of life's stresses. I create characters and events that take the things happening around me and crank the dial up to 11. This gives me perspective. Going back to my first answer, when a reader reaches out to me to tell me they had an emotional reaction to my writing, that is why I do this. To give them that moment.

I also love a big project. Being self-published means I have many hats. I designed the cover myself, I did the Amazon Kindle formatting in Kindle Create. I designed my own website. I run my own social media. All the while I am outlining my future writing projects and trying to add about 1,000 words to my Pulse manuscript every day.

Being an author gives me a chance to draw on so many of the skills I already had from my years of working, while also developing all these new skills. I think the area I have been learning the most about of late is marketing. I don’t have any background in marketing and it took me a few months to start to understand how to pitch myself and put myself out there. If you publish something and do no marketing, no one will find it. I like the challenge of trying to get exposure for my work.

Q: Where can readers find out more about you and your work?

I have a website. I update the blog once per week with a creative journal. Besides that, I am on most of the major social media sites.  I try to respond to comments on Instagram and Twitter. I usually try and set aside an hour to two per day online, there are busy weeks though. Links are at the top of my webpage.

https://babellec.com/

Two young men grow up in the south, become great friends and love the same woman. One moves north as the civil war nears and becomes Administrative Asst to Abraham Lincoln The one who remained in the south vacates his office of US Senator to become the south’s chief spy. Both men are pitted against each other during the war. As the war ends, they try to renew their friendship but will the presence of the one they both love be an impediment. 

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