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Saturday, April 9, 2011

First Seven Chapters of 13th Summer

The first seven chapters of 13th Summer are available here: 13th Summer on Authonomy.com

You may need to create an account to view the book, but this is fairly simple. If you read it, please provide critical feedback.

If you are an agent or publisher who wishes to see the full manuscript, please contact me at nwollenberg (at) cox (dot) net.

Saturday, April 2, 2011

13th Summer

Bing Stanley's 13th summer should be phenomenal. He'll be thirteen, spend time on his grandparents' farm, get his first kiss and spend countless hours with his best friend Lonnie. Summer life will be... normal.

Unfortunately, summer smirks at Bing from nine calendar pages away, and normal means beans for supper every night and last year's high-water jeans. Normal is a middle school train wreck that involves a Halloween prank, a stolen truck and the high school football hero who holds onto a grudge like a pit bull grips the neck of its quarry.

Now, not only is he "the poor kid", but he also has to survive being the dead-kid-walking until summer. If he makes it until summer, "normal" life will be miles away and Lonnie can wake him from the nightmare of a Halloween gone wrong.

However, when a girl and a bad case of stupid fracture their friendship, the relationships that Bing treasures the most disintegrate and his hope for survival back home crumbles. In the end, a friend's final words help Bing discover that facing fear, and accepting help are simply flip sides of the same coin.


13th Summer, a novel by Neal Wollenberg, slams readers into the front car of the roller coaster that disguises itself as the life of a teenager and scrutinizes what it means to be a poverty-stricken nobody growing up in a small town where everyone knows more than your name. It peers at the heart of bullying, anger, friendship, death and love with eyes wide open.

If you are an agent wishing to represent this novel or a publisher wishing to see this novel please contact Mr. Wollenberg via e-mail at nwollenberg (at) cox (dot) net.