The reality of becoming a published author just got one step closer for area resident Eric Shonkwiler.
The 2003 graduate of Mechanicsburg High School has been named a quarterfinalist in the Breakthrough Novel Award Contest on Amazon.com for his first novel "Long Way Home."
Shonkwiler began the novel in 2007 when it started off as a project for a creative writing class at Wittenberg University.
He said he began writing and drawing comics when he was young, but didn't seriously approach prose until college.
Shonkwiler graduated from Wittenberg with a double major in English and East Asian Studies, along with a minor in creative writing. He was recently accepted into the master of fine arts program for fiction writing at the University of California-Riverside where he plans to continue his writing education this fall. There might be a change to those plans if the result of the contest is a good one, he said.
"Long Way Home" started as a prequel to Shonkwiler's online comic writing, "but 20 pages into it, I saw it would be bigger," he said.
The story is about two friends who join the Army, but are split up during the war. One is eventually wounded and shipped home. The story continues as the character faces life back home.
Shonkwiler is hopeful about the outcome of the contest, but is also busy editing his next novel, a sequel of sorts to "Long Way Home."
The Breakthrough Novel Award Contest is sponsored by Penguin Group USA, Publishers Weekly and CreateSpace.com. The winner of the grand prize will be awarded a full publishing contract with Penguin to market and distribute the winning manuscript as a published book and will also be awarded $25,000.
Amazon customers will eventually vote on the winning entry, which will be announced in May.
Beth Deere can be reached at bdeere@urbanacitizen.com
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