Loyola Sophomore Wes Peters is definitely a familiar face around campus. He seems to do it all. Currently, Wes is an Evergreen, a member of the Student Government Association, he writes for Warnings Literary Magazine and also has participated in various theater productions on campus. On top of all that, Wes still has time to pursue writing, a passion of his. The English major, hailing from New Jersey, makes sure to take time to really pursue this interest .

Wes first  discovered this passion when he was young. He wrote his first novel when he was in the eighth grade; however, he soon lost this passion. He “fell in love” with writing again after his senior year of high school. Wes described his passion as a love for the novel, especially ones that grab the reader and make the story exciting. Citing Stephen King as an inspiration, Wes aspires to create novels that are fun and engaging as  a potential profession.

Wes puts much of his life experiences into his novels; however, he tries to not plan them out too much. Instead, he allows the stories and characters to develop themselves. Throughout his writing process, he recognizes that he may have an ending in mind; however, it does not have to be concrete in that if he sees the story heading into another direction, he allows that to happen.

“Between the Doors,” Wes’ current novel trails a young boy through his journey to another world. The protagonist finds a revolver, loaded with six bullets, on the floor of the forest while on a walk. Soon after, he discovers a door that takes him to a world without guns. The boy is revered because they have been trying to invent something like guns themselves. This new world, however, is not as great as one would imagine and the protagonist tries to return home. Much of the plot follows his journey to return home and his use of the vital six bullets.

In discussing the creative process, Wes mentioned that it was rather arduous. The process can be rather long and demanding. In this novel alone, Wes had to sacrifice a lot of his personal time to write and edit the novel. Typically, Wes tries to take about an hour from each day to work on his novels, striving for about 2000 words each day. Something interesting to note, however, is that Loyola has a long-standing connection with Apprentice House, a publishing company. This connection made the publishing process significantly easier.

While most people have to go through agents, who then send out novels to be reviewed, Wes was able to submit his work directly to Apprentice House through a class offered at Loyola by Professor Kevin Atticks. Here, the students had the opportunity to review and vote on which novel would be published. Wes described this process as “…a nice union of professionals and students. [Apprentice House] is the only professionally run publishing company in the United States that incorporates students in this manner.” Furthermore, in continuing with the collaboration, students in a Book Design class had the opportunity to contribute to this project. Loyola Senior, Kate Marshall, designed the cover. Wes described the process as interesting and fun, as they literally dragged a door into the forest near Knott Hall.

Currently, the e-book version of “Between the Doors” is available for purchase on Amazon. Wes also anticipates hard copies to be ready to order within the next two weeks from Amazon, Barnes and Noble and Apprentice House’s official website. The official campus launch date is April 22, and there will be an event in the Sellinger VIP Room at 7:30 p.m. where you can purchase copies of the book and have them signed by Wes.