#brainwalker

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Title: Brainwalker | Author: Robyn Mundell / Stephan Lacast | Publisher: Dualmind Publishing (2016)

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Brainwalker (2016) Review

A #review of Braiwalker by @brainwalkerfans #iamreading

Brainwalker by Robyn Mundell My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The first thing that jumped out to me about Brainwalker was the cover. I actually went back to it a few times in my twitter feed before I decided to try it. I can say that Iwas pretty surprised about the content.

One of the hardest things about writing a story that is meant to teach or show something is avoiding the dreaded “preachy” feeling.…

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Review of Brainwalker

Review of Brainwalker @brainwalkerfans

Brainwalker

One teen’s incredible journey may just blow his father’s mind…

Fourteen-year-old Bernard thinks outside the box. The only problem is that neither his school nor his ultra-rational physicist father appreciate his unique ideas. When he reacts to a stressful situation at school by mooning the class, his suspension sends him straight to his father’s workplace. After his frustrated father…

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Groundbreaking Gay YA Novel 'Brainwalker' Receives Special Edition Treatment In Low-Priced Holiday Rerelease

'Brainwalker: Holiday Edition' Makes For The Perfect Stocking Stuffer This Winter Season RED BANK, NJ -- July 7, 2016 - Bramhouse Publishing is proud to announce the December release of Brainwalker: Holiday Edition, a limited-run, specialty-themed digital edition of youth lit author Pete Schaus' critically-acclaimed debut novel, which currently holds a five-star customer review average on Amazon.com.

From now until the end of December, YA readers and their loved ones can purchase a copy of this groundbreaking book (which features one of the first openly LGBT-identified teen superheroes in youth lit) for the affordable, stocking stuffer price of $3.99. Brainwalker: Holiday Edition comes with a collectible variant cover, and is available exclusively through Amazon Kindle and the Kindle app.

This December, spread the gift of Brainwalker: Holiday Edition and discover for yourself the thrilling paranormal adventure that has captivated readers all over the globe. "It is difficult not to enjoy this novel." writes GoodReads.com critic Geoffrey Edelstein in his five-star review of the book. "Besides genre-busting moments, [Brainwalker] is rife with acerbic wit and enough wise-ass dialogue to make the reader want to lovingly slap the main character."

"I've never seen a gay character written in such a fresh, new way," according to Kindle reviewer 'Jackie,' who goes on to describe Brainwalker as "a great book from a fresh, new talent."

"A great read," agrees 'Kristian' of amazon.com. "Highly recommended to any fan of YA fiction."

Brainwalker tells the story of Danny Strickland, a gay suburban New Jersey teen with the ability to read minds and talk to the dead, who discovers he’s been prophesied to play a crucial role in the coming apocalypse.

Brainwalker: Holiday Edition will conclude its limited run on December 31, 2016. After that, the novel will remain available for purchase in its original, full-price digital edition, as well as accessible for free by Kindle Unlimited subscribers.

A paperback version of Brainwalker will also be released later this winter.

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YA Paranormal Fantasy Series To Feature Gay Teen Protagonist

‘Brainwalker’ Serves As One Of The First Youth Horror Novels To Include An LGBT Main Character

RED BANK, NJ – July 7, 2016 - Although the young adult fiction market generates an estimated $83 million annually and remains a cornerstone of the publishing industry, a recent slew of articles in Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, LA Times, Buzzfeed, and Salon have decried a lack of diversity in terms of characterization in literature aimed towards teenagers.

This disparity in representation is especially prevalent when to comes to LGBT characters in general, and LGBT protagonists in particular. Although there have been several recent successes in the youth fiction market featuring characters who identify with alternative sexualities, their presence can be most frequently found in novels published in the general fiction subgenre.

In the popular YA subgenres of horror and fantasy, there is a noticeable lack of prominent gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender characters. When it comes to LGBT protagonists, this number is even smaller.

However, Bramhouse Publishing is proud to announce the summer release of Brainwalker by Pete Schaus, an exciting new novel from a fresh voice in youth fiction, which happens to feature one of the very first LGBT protagonists in the YA horror/fantasy genre.

“Growing up, I used to love reading books by writers like R.L. Stine and Christopher Pike, which featured strong teen characters dealing with unexplained phenomena,” says Brainwalker author Pete Schaus. “But I always felt a certain distance from them. I always hoped for a story and a main character that I could connect to more, who could represent myself and my experiences on a more fundamental level. I wanted to engage with the literature in the same enriching way that it seemed like those around me could.”

Brainwalker tells the story of Danny Strickland, a gay suburban New Jersey teen with the ability to read minds and talk to the dead, who discovers he’d been prophesied to play a crucial role in the coming apocalypse. Although Danny’s sexuality is instrumental to the plot, Schaus made a conscious decision not to make it the focus of the story.

“I feel like in most LGBT-themed YA, and gay literature in general, it’s the character’s sexual orientation that drives the narrative,” says Schaus. “And in Brainwalker, Danny’s gay identity certainly informs his development and his status as an outsider. But with this book, I was most interested in telling a story with a gay protagonist whose sexuality is presented as just one piece of a much larger whole, in the same way that straight characters are allowed to show more colors that go beyond their romantic entanglements.”

This multilayered depiction of the gay teen experience also extends itself to Brainwalker’s central same-sex relationship. “Danny has his own Edward Cullen, of course,” says Schaus. “There’s definitely romance in the book, and there’s definitely conflict within that romance, but that conflict extends itself beyond just coming out.”

Although it’s that love story which provides the emotional core of Brainwalker, Schaus is quick to point out that the novel itself is a paranormal mystery. “It’s a scary, suspenseful thrill ride with a lot of twists and turns that I don’t think people will see coming,” says Schaus. “I definitely don’t think it’s just for gay readers. There’s enough in the novel that I think will keep teenagers and people of all ages up late at night, much in the same way that books by authors like Stephen King did for me.”

Brainwalker is the first installment in what has been conceived as a limited series of novels. It is currently available for purchase on Kindle and iBooks.

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1.) Siouxsie and the Banshees - Stargazer

2.) The Chain Gang Of 1974 - Make My Body

3.) Jenny Lewis - Just One Of The Guys

4.) Rilo Kiley - A Better Son/Daughter

5.) Blue Oyster Cult - (Don’t Fear) The Reaper

6.) Vera Blue - Hold

7.) Alice Boman - Waiting (PAL Remix)

8.) The Tallest Man On Earth - Shallow Grave

9.) The Tallest Man On Earth - The Wild Hunt

10.) The Rolling Stones - You Can’t Always Get What You Want

11.) Gregory Alan Isakov - Second Chances

12.) Gregory Alan Isakov - Big Black Car

13.) Robyn - Dancing On My Own

14.) Ray Charles - Come Rain Or Come Shine

15.) The Doors - The End

Brainwalker is available for purchase on Kindle and iBooks

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Author Q&A with “Brainwalker” Scribe Pete Schaus

Where did you get the idea for Brainwalker?

Growing up, I used to love reading horror and science fiction novels, and watching television shows like Veronica Mars and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I always admired how they gave extraordinary powers and authority to protagonists unlike any I’d seen before. I used to hope for a gay teen version of Buffy, Veronica, or Spiderman.

There has been significant progress in the years since then. But even in superhero media like Deadpool, where the main character is purportedly pansexual, the focus still remains on their opposite sex leanings, and their alternative sexual identity is used for little purpose other than to generate jokes. I decided that if I wasn’t able to find the stories I sought out, then I should write them myself.

In writing Brainwalker, I also wanted to explore the genre trope of teens receiving extraordinary abilities from a reality-based perspective. Far too often, I feel like superhero origin stories fail to explore just how scary and unsettling it would be to be saddled with such remarkable powers, especially during the angst-ridden period of adolescence where so many teenagers already feel alienated from those around them.

This is particularly true in the case of Danny, the main character in Brainwalker. He’s already an outsider because he’s gay, so the fact that he can read the thoughts of those around him only serves to alienate him further. By having such unfiltered access to people’s most private moments, Danny loses a great deal of his innocence. He deals with his feelings of loneliness, isolation, and depression in the same way that many teenagers deal with their own problems, by ignoring their existence and numbing their effects with drugs and alcohol.

In Brainwalker, it takes Danny a long time to accept his struggles and take active steps towards overcoming them.

How do you get inspired to write?

I get most inspired to write late at night. The dark, the quiet, and the absence of people all contribute to a feeling that I’m alone in the world. That solitude operates as a blank canvas of sorts for me to create a whole new universe that I can populate with people similar to (and different from) those I encounter during waking hours on a daily basis.

I hope to one day become the sort of writer who can generate quality content while typing on a laptop in a crowded, noisy Starbucks.

What are you currently working on?

I’m currently at work on the follow-up to Brainwalker. This installment will address the fallout from the climax of the first book in the series, uncover the history of the villainous threat introduced at the end of Brainwalker, and show Danny utilizing his powers on a grander (and more public) scale.

Unlike Brainwalker, which was episodic in nature, this book will feature a single, sprawling narrative and one central mystery.

We will also meet Danny’s father, which is a plot element I’m really excited about.

What’s your advice for aspiring writers?

Treat writing like it’s your job, not your hobby. There’s a certain romanticism to the idea of being a writer, and a tendency to work only when inspiration strikes you. But if you worked in a warehouse and only went in when you felt like you were in the right mood to, you’d be left with empty pockets.

Writing is grueling work that requires a lot of long hours, so it’s best to set a schedule and stick to it. If you feel like you can’t produce solid content one day, write what you can and know that you can go back and revise what doesn’t work at a later time. You cannot revise what isn’t written.

Look to Stephen King as an example, not George R. R. Martin.

What’s the best thing about being a writer?

The best thing about being a writer is that, regardless of how much you pre-write and outline, the story is its own entity. So the further you get in writing it, the more exciting and unexpected directions it will take you in.

Some of the aspects of Brainwalker that I’m most proud of began as mere kernels in the initial outline, and grew to become larger and more prominent elements of the plot in ways I never could’ve anticipated.

It’s those surprises that make writing such an engaging, fulfilling, and challenging job.

How do you deal with writer’s block?

When I encounter writer’s block, it’s usually because I’m working on a project I’m not passionate about, or one I’m writing for the wrong reasons. Writing in general is hard work, and writing a book is a huge commitment. If you find yourself struggling to generate content, the best advice I can give you is to question your intentions in writing that particular story. If it’s not one that you can provide that level of commitment to, I’d say move onto something else, at least for the time being.

Confidence is also an issue. Worrying too much about the opinions of others can greatly inhibit progress. It always helps to remind yourself that even if you wrote the greatest book of all time, there would still be at least one person who’d have a bone to pick with it.

So the best thing a prospective author can do is to write as if no one is reading. No lit agents, no editors, no prospective buyers. If you write as if it’s only for yourself, and deal with the rest later, chances are you’ll develop an honest, authentic voice that you probably wouldn’t have had you allowed a reader’s perspective to cloud your judgment during the initial process.

And books with an honest, authentic voice are often the most successful.

Brainwalker is currently available for purchase on Kindle and iBooks.