Reading Adventures of a Book Dragon (Mature): Tour + Guest Post and Giveaway: Post-High School Reality Quest by Meg Ede

Post-High School Reality Quest

by Meg Eden
Publisher: Rare Bird Books
Release Date: June 13, 2017
Genre: Young Adult

Synopsis:

Buffy is playing a game. However, the game is her life, and there are no instructions or cheat codes on how to win.

After graduating high school, a voice called “the text parser” emerges in Buffy’s head, narrating her life as a classic text adventure game. Buffy figures this is just a manifestation of her shy, awkward, nerdy nature—until the voice doesn’t go away, and instead begins to dominate her thoughts, telling her how to life her life. Though Buffy tries to beat the game, crash it, and even restart it, it becomes clear that this game is not something she can simply “shut off” or beat without the text parser’s help.

While the text parser tries to give Buffy advice on how “to win the game,” Buffy decides to pursue her own game-plan: start over, make new friends, and win her long-time crush Tristan’s heart. But even when Buffy gets the guy of her dreams, the game doesn’t stop. In fact, it gets worse than she could’ve ever imagined: her crumbling group of friends fall apart, her roommate turns against her, and Buffy finds herself trying to survive in a game built off her greatest nightmares.

What Made You Want to Write

I grew up in a book home—my mother lived and breathed books. With the advent of shops like Borders, it blew her mind that she could have her own library at home, without late fees. Books were everywhere in the house—I’d find them in drawers, the bedroom closet, and even the pantry. At some point, I couldn’t even find cereal in the kitchen because there were so many books. I’d have to ask her where it was, and she’d say something like: “Behind the Brit Lit.” So I’d have to pull out an omnibus of CS Lewis to find food.

That said, I had no interest in reading books for the longest time. Most of my childhood, I was very serious about art and cartooning. Books weren’t visual enough for me and I had trouble engaging with them. But my mother, desperate to make a book lover out of me, gave me a challenge: if I read her recommended books and gave reports to her on them, I would get paid in accordance with how good the report was. The money definitely motivated me to read, but it was the books and the conversations with my mother that hooked me. I got to the point that I no longer needed the pay—I just needed more books!

I’ve always loved telling stories. I grew up as an only child in a rural area. I had the woods and wildlife, and quickly learned to entertain myself. Much of my entertaining myself was through inventing stories. I loved to draw, so for the most part, I grew up telling stories through pictures. I imagined being a cartoonist, or a famous manga artist someday.

And some of that artist still inhabits me—as a writer, natural objects and characters are what draw me in: what I can see. As a creative writing instructor, one of the things I find myself continually telling my students is to give us concrete, visual objects that express larger truths.

My speech development path was an unusual one—growing up, I worked with speech therapists and didn’t really start speaking until I was almost three years old. I like to think this was because I was too busy observing the world around me. What I do know is: verbal words have never been a natural form of expression for me. As a college student thrown into new and different environments, I found myself over-stimulated and struggling to cope with the changes. I had trouble articulating what I was experiencing, and often went right away to my journal to write down my thoughts and feelings. I had been writing stories for a while: writing stories to escape and explore, but it was then that I realized writing was more than an act of creation for me—it was also a necessity.

More natural than speaking, writing was a way for me to process the world around me as well as myself. Through writing, I was able to learn what triggered my overstimulation breakdowns. I was able to organize my thoughts, and figure out what I should do differently in the future. Writing is so amazing like that: it’s not just a way to communicate an idea (which is impressive enough) but it can also help us think in a new way and come up with solutions for problems. I continue to write for these reasons, and because it’s become a necessary part of my everyday experience.

Meg Eden's work has been published in various magazines, including Rattle, Drunken Boat, Poet Lore, and Gargoyle. She teaches at the University of Maryland. She has four poetry chapbooks, and her novel "Post-High School Reality Quest" is forthcoming from California Coldblood, an imprint of Rare Bird Lit. Check out her work at: www.megedenbooks.com