Welcome to my stop for the blog tour organized by Tomorrow Comes Media for Tommy B Smith‘s book Anybody Want to Play WAR? I don’t often read suspense though it is a popular genre that many readers enjoy. That is why I thought it would be a good idea to hear from the author of a suspense novel about the elements that are necessary for suspense. Since this is also a coming of age story, Tommy also enlightens us about the aspects that make such a story.
Let’s learn a little more about Tommy before we dive into his guest post about elements of suspense, and then after, I’ll share the book cover and synopsis with you.
About the author
Tommy B. Smith is a writer of dark fiction, author of The Mourner’s Cradle, Poisonous, and the short story collection Pieces of Chaos, as well as works appearing in numerous magazines and anthologies throughout the years. His presence currently infests Fort Smith, Arkansas, where he resides with his wife and cats.
Elements necessary for suspense and coming of age stories
In a tale of character development, it’s natural that the character should come first. My latest novel is titled with a question: Anybody Want to Play WAR? It’s a tale of characters, choices, and consequences, and lands under the umbrella of suspense and, more specifically, a coming of age story.
The story’s primary character is Bryce Gallo, a teenage boy who falls into the devastating path of a murderous dog’s onslaught. He manages to survive, but not without suffering injury. The experience leaves him with a prominent scar across his features.
Besides being rattled by his near-death experience with the enraged dog, he has become incredibly self-conscious and fears to show his face at school. His mother and stepfather have other plans for him, as he is scheduled to return to classes shortly after his discharge from the hospital. This fosters tension between Bryce and his family.
The growing tension in Bryce’s household, and in his situation as it unfolds, are prime aspects to nudge our tale in the direction of suspense. Another is that Bryce cannot fathom tomorrow or what it will bring. As a teenage boy approaching adulthood, he can’t imagine facing the future after all that’s transpired, yet the dreaded future will come whether he likes it or not.
The uncertainty, tension, and approach of that impending moment when Bryce must step into school again present elements to establish the story’s territory of suspense. Bryce’s desperate urges to escape into the unknown, where anything might happen, complicate matters and entrench him all the further.
It seems to Bryce that he has nowhere to turn. In his desperation, he seizes the reins of his future and steers for the unknown, where he feels his best chances lie.
Clearly, the book is also a coming of age tale, Bryce’s unsteady course through the formative teenage years. In classic literature, such a story would fall into the category of a Bildungsroman, a tale of youth’s clash with maturity and, in many cases, the individual versus society. A rocky course, to be sure.
Authors have addressed the theme from a variety of angles over decades, centuries, though it’s a sort of tale I don’t see as often lately. Young adult fiction has become popular in recent years, but that is another story. Bryce hardly knows what it is to be an adult yet, another obstacle crucial to his struggle and a defining characteristic of a coming of age story.
Or as I’ve called this one, a coming of rage story.
Did you learn something new about writing suspense and coming of age stories? Here is more about Tommy’s novel:
Brutal injuries can leave scars.a
As the teenaged survivor of a savage dog’s rampage, it’s a lesson Bryce Gallo will never forget.
Struggling to cope with his damaged appearance, along with a newfound fear of dogs and mounting anxieties at home and school, he flees his suburban home into the moonlit streets of St. Charles.
Along the roads of suburbia and through the shadowed heart of the city, he encounters Wheels, a maintenance worker for a series of apartment buildings; Paloma, known to some by the moniker of Lady Luck; and a woman in a dark house who is, as far as Bryce can fathom, like no one else he has met before.
His new life is not without obstacles or enemies, he learns. The future is a battlefield. Fire and smoke loom on the horizon, and his dangerous course may see the lives of his family and friends forever changed.
Want to read Anybody Want to Play WAR? Find it on Amazon (Print, Kindle) and Barnes & Noble.
Be sure to visit other stops on the tour! Check out where they were on Tomorrow Comes Media..
Cover image: Writing desk Photo by Clark Young on Unsplash
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