Ted Saves the World by Bryan Cohen: Blog Tour

Today Bryan Cohen, writer of Ted Saves the World, is here to share with us his reading habits as a teen! IT's very interesting, and at the end there's a giveaway!

My Habits and Halberds
By Bryan Cohen

When an older person mentions an outdated television show or habit, she might say that she's "dating herself." Well, using a similar terminology I suppose I'm about to "nerd myself." As a young fellow, I read whatever books were put in front of me and at the age of four that included the Narnia series, which my mother had read to me as soon as I was out of the womb. Perhaps these tales of witches, talking animals, and quests set me up for my nerdy tween and teenage years.

Before amazing graphical games like Diablo and later Halo came into being, there were well-fleshed out text-based video games and I was hooked to a medieval-themed one called MajorMUD (Multi-user dungeon) that users could play over a bulletin-board server. Every evening, my friends and I would clog up our family phone lines as we quested together to attack demons and druids. Since you could not see the rooms your character walked through (remember: no graphics), each room included a long-paragraph of description. As you went from room to room, these words quickly streamed down the screen and you had to read quickly enough to see the dangers that might await.

This love of knights, wizards and quests led directly to my love of the fantasy series, The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan. The super-powered teenager and his friends fighting against an evil force in a medieval world. I'll admit, I only made it through book 6 or so (they were really long), but the extremely detailed world that Jordan created directly impacted the mythology I created in my first fiction book, Ted Saves the World.

The book is not set in medieval times (nor is it set in the theme restaurant Medieval Times), but it does involve a team of teenagers fighting against an epic evil from another age. My time reading through the descriptions in MajorMUD inspired me to make my book action-packed and entertaining. The books of Robert Jordan taught me that power should not come without consequence. While my tastes were indeed nerdy as an adolescent, I think they helped me to learn a great deal about the fantasy and paranormal genres. I'm am very grateful to now be able to channel those hours of reading and questing into my own books for a new generation of (potentially nerdy) readers.

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Description of Ted Saves the World (Available for just $0.99):
A possessed cheerleader. A cursed gang of criminals. Mysterious telekinetic powers. An angry ex-girlfriend in gym class? One second, sophomore in high school Ted endures his first breakup in his favorite place in town. The next, a mysterious blue light turns him into a worldwide superhero sensation for taking down a posse of grisly murderers. As his views on YouTube increase and his friend Dhiraj tries to capitalize on the marketing potential, his dangers increase as well when a presumed-dead cheerleader begins taking a personal interest. Can Ted survive his first week as a superhero in the public eye? This novella is the first taste in a series of full-length novels about the adventures of Ted Finley and Erica LaPlante. The book is also available on Barnes & Noble and Smashwords for $0.99.

Giveaway:
Bryan Cohen is giving away four $25 Amazon gift cards, one for each week of his month long blog tour. To enter, simply comment with your e-mail address (feel free to substitute @ with (at) or other tricks to stop spammers from getting it). Bryan will draw the four names at the end of the tour, picking one entrant at random from each week’s set of blog posts. Entries will be counted through Monday, August 15th, 2011. Enter on as many sites as you want, follow the tour at Build Creative Writing Ideas. If Ted reaches the Top 100 on Amazon at any point during the tour, a fifth $25 card will be added to the giveaway.

Biography:
Bryan Cohen is a writer, actor and comedian from Dresher, Pennsylvania. He graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2005 with degrees in English and Dramatic Art and a minor in Creative Writing. He has written seven books including 1,000 Creative Writing Prompts: Ideas for Blogs, Scripts, Stories and More. Contact Bryan through his Ted Saves the World blog, his Build Creative Writing Ideas site or Twitter.

Thanks so much for stopping by Bryan! We're so glad to have you!

Chloe