.#Giveaway Scavenger Hunt Gateway to Reality by @beccajcampbell

Welcome to the Gateway To Reality Scavenger Hunt!!!

 

Gateway to Reality

by Becca J. Campbell

Expected publication: March 26th 2013 by Surreal Media Studios

Talented artists shouldn’t be waiting tables, scraping by, and living mediocre lives. But that’s exactly what art school graduate Wes Teague is doing.

Then he wakes from a bizarre dream, haunted by the sense that his life isn't real. A harrowing truth presents itself--the real world lies in his dreams, not when he's wide awake.

The dream world he enters each night is rich and vibrant. Chicago appears the same on the surface, but chaos runs rampant as gravity, physics, and other laws of nature become fluid, changing unexpectedly. There, Wes's parents, brother, and sister are strangers. His girlfriend Emily doesn’t recognize him. Wes longs to return, to unlearn the truth about his dual reality.

Wes would sacrifice almost anything to get back to blissful ignorance in a false world.

But now he has feelings for the real Emily

My New Adult Urban Fantasy novel Gateway to Reality is finally available. Here’s a little more about the story:

 

 

An Artistic Setting

The novel is set in Chicago, a city well known for many things, one of which is its thriving art. Sculptures tower at intersections, sprawl throughout museums, and are easily accessible to the public in Millennium Park, among other places. The abundance of art is one of the reasons I enjoy the city so much. One of my favorite pieces is the Cloud Gate, a massive, mirrored, curvilinear sculpture standing boldly in Millennium Park against a backdrop of angular skyscrapers. This peculiar work of art is dubbed simply “the Bean” by most tourists because of its shape. I’ve had a fascination with the sculpture since my last visit to the Windy City. When I began forming the idea for Gateway to Reality, this piece quickly became central to the story.

Enamored with Art

The main character, Wes Teague, is an artist and graduate of the Art Institute of Chicago, so the world in his dreams (which is actually the real world) revolves heavily around sculptures and places filled with art. Most are well-known. For example, The Nelson Atkins Museum of Art is located in Kansas City, where I grew up. I took many fieldtrips there exploring the museum’s chambers, and anytime we drove near the grounds, one or more of the giant shuttlecocks were peeking out, trying to summon me back. That place held great mysteries for me as a child and more fully developed my interest in art. Gateway to Reality features other well-known sculptures, which I’ve collected on my Pinterest story board for the novel.

Infatuation

The only sculpture more integral to Gateway to Reality than the Cloud Gate is a piece called Infatuation. Infatuation originates even closer to home because it’s based on a sculpture I created during my first year of art school. Here’s a short excerpt from the book describing it. “A monochromatic form rose high in the distance, the center of it rising tall like a thin, narrow tower. Wes hurried over to it with Andy on his heels. When he got closer he could make out more details. Tendrils curved around the center, some as slender as blades of grass, some as wide as his midsection. They were thin and wispy, curling and uncurling around the central stem. Although the movement of the sculpture was organic, the shapes within it were precise. It was bold and yet delicate. Close up, it had a very geometric feel. Standing beneath it took his breath away.” My real-life version of the piece was only a foot tall, but it’s much more immense and dynamic in Gateway to Reality. I hadn’t originally planned to incorporate it, but when I was searching for pieces of art to include in the story, I had a sudden inspiration to go back to my art school days. Infatuation fit in perfectly with the storyline and made an excellent illustration of the way the Existence works. It takes Wes a while to unfold the full meaning behind it, but when he does, it’s no small realization.

Giveaway

I’m giving away several prizes to celebrate the book’s release. (Want to see the prizes? Go here to have a look!) The Grand Prize is a Chicago-theme prize pack and it will include:

• An autographed paperback of Gateway to Reality
• A journal with an artistic representation of Chicago on the cover
• A Cloud Gate button
• A Gateway to Reality button
• Three postcards: Gateway to Reality, Cloud Gate, and Crown Fountain

The Second Prize is:

• An autographed paperback of Gateway to Reality
• Gateway to Reality postcard

The Third Prize is the full Becca J. Campbell ebook library (your choice of Kindle or ePub version):

• Gateway to Reality ebook
• Foreign Identity ebook
• Not the Norm (Sub-Normal #1) ebook
• Unmasked Alloy (Sub-Normal #2) ebook

The Scavenger Hunt Blog Tour Begins Now!

You can enter the giveaway now, but to really amp up your odds at snatching one of these prize packs, check out each site along the blog tour.

Schedule

April 1^st     Paranormal and Urban Fantasy Reviews
April 2^nd     The Peasants Revolt
April 3^rd     Catharsis of the Bogue
April 4^th     The Pen and Whisk
April 5^th     Write for Life
April 6^th     S.M. Boyce
April 8^th     Paranormal Lounge
April 9^th     Lisa Is a Bookworm
April 10^th     Jade Kerrion
April 11^th     Paper Book Princess
April 12^th     Now is Gone
April 13^th     Worlds Away Book Blog
April 15^th     FU Only Knew
April 17^th     Sarcasm and Lemons
April 18^th     Brandon R. Luffman

 

Your First Clue

Wes visits many worlds in the Existence. Here’s your challenge in this scavenger hunt: Collect the names of the fifteen worlds in Gateway to Reality (one will be revealed each day). Following the schedule above, collect a world name at each stop, and when you have them all, plug that list of 15 worlds into the giveaway below to win a BONUS TEN ENTRIES.


  To start you off, HERE’S YOUR FIRST WORLD:  Inspiration Realm



Continue with your hunt tomorrow at The Peasants Revolt. Good luck! a Rafflecopter giveaway

Where to find Becca

Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads

Author Blog | Pinterest | Amazon

An avid lover of stories that tiptoe the line between fantasy and reality (even when they plunge off one side or the other), Becca J. Campbell looks for new angles on bridging the gap between the two. She holds a special place in her heart for any story that involves superpowers or time travel. Her passion is defying the limits of her own creativity.

Becca's journey into writing began as many of her other creative endeavors do - by daring herself to try something new. The question "what if I wrote a novel?" and some hastily scribbled notes on a church handout were the inspirations that jump-started her first book. Since then, she has written three additional novels and several shorter works.

As the wife of a musician and mother of three young...more An avid lover of stories that tiptoe the line between fantasy and reality (even when they plunge off one side or the other), Becca J. Campbell looks for new angles on bridging the gap between the two. She holds a special place in her heart for any story that involves superpowers or time travel. Her passion is defying the limits of her own creativity.

Becca's journey into writing began as many of her other creative endeavors do - by daring herself to try something new. The question "what if I wrote a novel?" and some hastily scribbled notes on a church handout were the inspirations that jump-started her first book. Since then, she has written three additional novels and several shorter works.

As the wife of a musician and mother of three young boys, Becca's life is never dull. Whether it is writing, painting or knitting, she enjoys making stuff that wasn't there before.