B.A. Bellec
YA / Coming of Age
In his debut endearing coming-of-age book, B.A. Bellec writes about a group of weirdos that find and save each other from the dark depths of their minds. Someone’s Story is literally Someone’s story, as in a first-person narrative of a teenager that calls himself Someone. As he struggles to find a new footing in a new space, we encounter the many ups and downs of modern teenage life, the difficulties that adjusting to adult feelings bring, and a few tear-jerking surprises along the way.
Littered with music, mental health, friendship, loss, meditation, advice, pop culture, and even inspiring an EP, there is so much nostalgia, inspiration, and depth here it is hard to absorb it all. Cozy up somewhere warm and enjoy!
“B. A. Bellec has crafted a masterpiece of emotive and well-rounded young adult fiction.”
K.C. Finn – Author
“The variety of personages, situations, and mental illnesses represented allows all readers to relate to this book and take something away from reading! This novel is on our list of all-time favourites!”
International Girls and Books
“Someone’s Story is a beautiful novel, written in great prose, very descriptive, and filled with insights about life. The author does an incredible job with themes of family, friendship, bullying, and personal development. It felt like I was reading a portion of my emotions and myself in Someone’s Story.”
Gobi Jane – Professional Critic @ Readers’ Favourite
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Amazon → https://amzn.to/3dHJU7X
Welcome B.A., can you tell us what your book is about?
Someone’s Story is literally Someone’s story, as in a first-person narrative of a teenager that calls himself Someone. The main theme of the book is mental health. I also deal with lots of tough social issues that have been becoming less taboo in recent years.
Outside that, I littered the book with pop culture and music. The book takes place in late 2010 and early 2011. I did extensive research on some of the most popular things over that year. I also love pop culture so lots of these references came organically and then I grew them with research.
I am writing to a young adult coming-of-age crowd. There are lots of dark, sad moments. I felt I needed the pop culture to keep a young audience engaged and lighten the atmosphere at times.
I also wrote and produced my own music to accompany the book. It’s a pretty neat little tie-in as some of the lyrics are in the pages. One of my characters is an aspiring musician.
The first page is perhaps one of the most important pages in the whole book. It’s what draws the reader into the story. Why did you choose to begin your book this way?
My book has an arc with an ultramarathon runner. I have a few chapters that come together to form this second running story outside the main story. I wanted to start with one of these chapters because it gives you more action. After this, I set the stage and give you some insight into the world our character is in. Dropping the reader into this ultramarathon gives them a nice little tease and without it, the first 5% of the book wouldn’t have enough energy.
I also use lots of metaphors and similes in my writing. You get a few of those right away.
Electric yellow gets mentioned. This comes into play a few times. It’s the school colour. You don’t know that yet but you will in a few chapters. It’s a subtle little part that helps connect everything.
In the course of writing your book, how many times would you say that first page changed and for what reasons?
What I wrote didn’t change much. Maybe a word or two. What I did change though was the formatting. I was going for something different. I like to think this project is uniquely me in that I do a few things that are not traditional:
-
I don’t indent my paragraphs (I write in a hybrid
screenplay style)
o
I actually did have a version where I made indents,
but after looking at it, I changed my mind and went back to my original style
choice.
-
The chapter title spacing.
o
I was torn for a while on what to do. Eventually, I
decided not to number the chapters and to instead name them all uniquely as a
bit of a teaser to what the chapter is about.
o
I also added lots of white space around the titles
so they pop off the page. This is absolutely intentional and part of the reader
experience.
-
My drop cap.
o
This was a late edition. The last 48 hours before I
sent the manuscript. In the end, I decided to start each chapter with the first
letter dropped and then the entire first word in capitals.
-
The last thing is the alignment of the jogger’s
action.
o
One of my beta readers actually suggested this. When
I have a character running, I play around with the alignment to help add to the
energy of running. This formatting decision came into the manuscript about a
month before I published. I really like it and it makes a few appearances in
the book.
Was there ever a time after the book was published that you wished you had changed something on the first page?
Nope. I love my first page.
What advice can you give to aspiring authors to stress how important the first page is?
To be honest, I didn’t think about it much as I made these
individual decisions. They all came together nice to form something unique.
This was my first book. I got a little lucky and trusted my gut on some cool,
creative ideas. Going forward I will always consider formatting much earlier in
my project. Formatting adds a dimension to the reading experience for sure. As
for the content. Action. Action. Action. You have to capture the reader's
attention right away.
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.
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.comBlog: https://babellec.com/b-a-bellecs-blog/
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/b_bellec
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