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Albert Camus

Don't walk behind me; I may not lead. Don't walk in front of me; I may not follow. Just walk beside me and be my friend.

Saturday, April 12, 2014

Guest Post and Giveaway: Larp: The Battle for Verona by Justin Calderone

Description:

Read our review HERE

Sometimes even a geek can become a hero. Dennis and his friends have been LARPing (Live Action Role Playing) since high school. Now, in his 20s, Dennis is seriously considering giving up LARPing for good. He's tired of dealing with his overzealous friend Mark; he's tired of his older brother Brad's constant put-downs; and he's tired of the fact that he doesn't have a girlfriend. Check that. Not a girlfriend, but the girlfriend. Alyssa--the one woman he's been pining over for years. Dennis and his fellow LARPers have never been considered cool, in their small island community of Verona, located off the coast of Washington State. But all of that is about to change . . . While Dennis and his friends are attending a big LARP tournament on the mainland, a rogue terrorist group of Mongolians in medieval garb, led by an American madman, invade Verona and take its citizens hostage--including their families and friends. When the LARPers find out what's happening in their home-town, they do what any dedicated LARPer would do: they put on their armor, strap on their swords, and fight their way home--LARP-style!

New York Times bestselling author Jonathan Maberry calls Calderone’s novel “a witty, action-packed adventure that will leave you breathless.”

Fantascize.com raves about LARP: The Battle for Verona calling it a “Geek Gem…a fair balance of action, adventure, cynicism, and romance. I would recommend this book for adults and teens."

GUEST POST

Artists are “inspired” by other artists, which really just means that they saw something someone else did, and either totally ripped off the idea, or, they took the idea and reworked it in a way that made it their own. Twilight was inspired by Dracula. The Hunger Games was inspired by stories and activities from ancient Rome. 

My novel, LARP: The Battle for Verona, was inspired by Jack Kerouac and Bruce Springsteen. If you don’t know, Kerouac was a prominent post-war writer who hitchhiked across America in the 1940’s, and wrote novels about his adventures. The novels are sort of a mix of fiction and autobiography, and in them, Kerouac mythologized his friends. 

Most everyone reading this knows Bruce Springsteen, the great poet of New Jersey. He is similar to Kerouac in that he mythologized his experiences, and his hometown. Both Kerouac and Springsteen are romantics, in that they romanticize their existence and experiences. 

Is Verona exactly the way I describe it? Nope, probably not. But, it’s how I see it, how I remember it. In my mind, it’s a Rockwellian, Mayberry place that doesn’t exist anymore. It’s a small town where I saw the same people every day, doing the same thing. We grew up together in the grocery store and post office. 

I wanted to capture my hometown of Verona, PA, to preserve it for myself in my later years. I’m only 36, but the last 20 years have gone by so fast, that I don’t want to lose, or forget, any of it when I’m too old to remember. 

And I wanted to share it with you, the reader, in a way that would hopefully make you smile sweetly about your hometown, too. 

About the author:
Justin Calderone started creating books when he was old enough to hold a pencil and crayons. He pursued writing professionally after reading Jack Kerouac's Desolation Angels. His first book, the poetry novel Revolutions, was published in 2004. 

Calderone is a high school English teacher and author of Revolutions, a collection of poems published in 2004. A graduate of La Roche College and Gannon University, Calderone is expected to earn his second master’s degree from Edinboro University in 2014.

You can follow Justin Calderon:


1 comment:

ionutzk said...

Un cover de senzatie...nu mai zic de descriere