Jason Halstead's Blog, page 18

I’m Not This Creative

I can come up with some pretty far out concepts. One good example is an undiscovered planet that seems to possess a life and intelligence of its own — not to mention a desire to destroy anything remotely human (). Or a way to combine our world with a darker version of Earth in a parallel dimension (Dark Earth, The Lost Girls).

In one book (two now, if I include Sex Sells and Broken Slipper) I’ve got an unlikely couple that found each other and turned a sleazy hobby into an Internet empire. I have aliens all but destroying humanity and leaving a barren and desolate planet behind (Human Nature). Other books feature wooden spaceships using magic to sail the solar waves through space (Voidhawk). Warriors and wizards fighting the forces of evil and waging a war against an insidious cult of dragon worshippers (Blades of Leander, Order of the Dragon). And probably a few other books I haven’t even thought of. Not to mention some great ideas I’ve got for future stories!

How about a man who’s happily married and working hard his entire life. They’ve got a kid and he’s happy and proud, though always busy and working towards keeping his family in a good place. Let’s say nearly two decades passes like this and life is good – until the man’s wife confides in him one day that in spite of all the money he’s given her the house payment has slipped for a few months.

He’s surprised and maybe a little irritated, but this is the mother of his child. The woman he knows better than himself. So he writes her a check with a little to spare. Not quite $20,000, but close enough it’s hard to tell the difference. Then a few months later he gets a call from somebody else telling him his house is entering foreclosure.

He’s sure it’s a mistake – his wife took care of it, right? Things start to happen fast. Email is uncovered and phones get turned off. Bank accounts are drained and closed out and he’s watching the life he carefully constructed spin around him out of control. The icing on the cake is finding out she’s been seeing another man. A man roughly thirty years older than he is.

Unbelievable, right? Who does that sort of thing? It’d make for a lifetime movie, except on that channel they’d probably change it so that woman is the one who’s wronged instead of the man. Nonetheless, this is a true story. It’s the story my family got sucked into by chance. The poor bastard in question is my landlord. The vindictive money hungry thunderc*nt would be his (now) ex-wife.

To be fair, there’s two sides (or more) to every story. Given that she emailed us asking us to change the account we direct deposit rent into without his knowledge and that she gave us her daughter’s cell phone number and encouraged us to call if we had any questions, her side is taking on water fast. She’s disappeared at present and my landlord has no idea where she is. His daughter can’t talk to him for more than a few minutes before her grandfather takes the phone from her and tells him he can’t speak to her (daughter or mother) and hangs up.

So my friends, no matter how bad you think you’ve got it, or how crazy you may think your significant other can be, rest assured that somebody out there drew a shorter straw. It’s amazing, to say the least, and I can’t help but feel bad for the guy. In fact, if I’ve whined or complained about having a deadbeat landlord as we dealt with renting a house going into foreclosure, let me publicly retract and apologize any and all such statements. The person in need of being dumped into a full septic tank and left to marinate for a while is his ex-wife, not him.

I asked myself if I could use any of this experience in a future book and who knows, perhaps I will. Nothing comes to mind right now though because this is an example where real life is stranger — and more cruel — than fiction.

To learn more about Jason Halstead visit his website to read about him, sign up for his newsletter, or check out some free samples of his books at http://www.booksbyjason.com .

The Brakes Don’t Work

I’m nearly 30,000 words into The Sands of Betrayal, the third book in my Order of the Dragon fantasy series. I hope to have it finished by the end of August, which gives me just shy of two weeks to write a lot of words. Yikes. Okay, moving on…

That’s neat in and of itself, but that doesn’t mean that’s the only thing going on. When I’m not writing and I have a chance to do so, I’m thinking about writing. I can’t stop doing it either, it just happens whether I expect it or not. On the ride home last night from Michigan’s Renaissance Festival I dreamed up some really disturbing / upsetting ideas for the book I’m writing right now. Stuff I hadn’t considered before, but it was so powerful I’ve already started writing it in. It’s my way of telling my characters to stop thinking they write the stories.

But there’s other ideas out there too. For example I have one idea I’ve blogged about a little bit before. It involves a young women with a terminal disease that’s lost at sea. A few years later she’s found on the shore of a tropical island by some spring breakers. The bad part: she has no memory of who she is or where she’s been aside from her name, Tam’rah. The good part: she’s completely healed. And as the story unfolds she learns she’s more than just healed, she’s special. Special in a bad-things-are-coming-for-you kind of way. But she’s got some amazing tricks of her own that she’s discovering too. And of course, there will be bumps and twists along the way.

I’ve got a concept for a fifth Lost Girls book, which will pit the semi-retired Captain Katalina Wimple  against a man who’s not only evil, but he’s caught her taste through one of his victims and he won’t stop until he finds her and kills her. And everyone she’s ever cared about.

And now onto another idea that just rolled into my head. I’ve been challenged many times to write young adult or new adult fiction but I just don’t have it in me. My writing is too visceral. Too real. Too grisly. And, occasionally, too naughty. But that doesn’t mean I couldn’t do a hybrid. I’ve got the perfect character and setting for it, in fact: Jessica Baxter, daughter of Eric Baxter, the star of Dark Earth. Jessica is just about college age and even though they’ve moved from Michigan to Dark Earth to try and civilize the cruel people of that world, there’s no reason she shouldn’t be allowed to come back for college. Fortunately Northern Michigan University doesn’t have any rules or stipulations about allowing witches on their roster.

I’ve got other books for my existing series planned too – a fourth book (Dragonlady) to end the Order of the Dragon series, for example. And then there’s my next book which will explore the infection spreading on Earth as well as the effect the Vitalian crystals that were dropped in Europa’s atmosphere have on the basic life and the researchers living on that planet. And there’s more Voidhawk to come down the road too, although I’m not sure what, exactly, will happen there yet.

So many words, so few hours. But I’m trying to crank them out as fast as I can. One of these days I hope to be able to focus on writing full time, instead of just part time. That requires a lot more word of mouth and book sales though, but I’m not the pandering type so I’ll just keep writing and doing my best to give my readers (past, present, and future) the types of books they tell me they want to read.

To learn more about Jason Halstead visit his website to read about him, sign up for his newsletter, or check out some free samples of his books at http://www.booksbyjason.com .

Cinderella Never Looked This Good

I’m running this blog with the same stuff on my other, older blog. So if you saw this over there, it’s the same thing. I don’t want to operate both though, so this one may be going away due to the increased visibility the other one has.

So what better way to reopen the old blog back up than with a notice about a brand new book? This one’s called Broken Slipper and it picks up a year after Forbidden Love ended. If those titles sound a little, uh, unusual, it’s because they are. These books are in my Homeland series, which blends espionage, secret agents, and smut. Yes, they are erotic books and definitely for mature reading audiences. But hey, there’s plenty of romance, suspense, and action tossed in as well to round them out.

Broken Slipper is more than just a simple novel, it’s a mega-freaking-novel. Come to think of it, there’s some mega-freaking in it too, but that’s not what I meant. I meant it’s over 140,000 words long, which puts this puppy in the neighborhood of 600 pages. Even at the page turning pace this book demands it’ll keep you busy for a while! As a special incentive to hook people on this series I’ve also lowered the price of book 1 in the series, Forbidden Love, to only $0.99!

But enough about me trying to suggest you check it out, I’ll let the blurb, cover, and the book itself do that!

Special Agent Sarah Ford hated her desk and she hated her life. She’d been stuck behind it for a year thanks to the dark cloud that followed her every move. She knew it was there and so did her superiors– at least the ones that survived her last case.

When her request to be returned to the field was granted she jumped at the chance at redemption. The catch? She had to rely on her skills earned while putting herself through college as a hair stylist. Immersing herself back into the realm of cosmetology would soon be the least of her concerns.

Sarah, with the new name and wild hair of washed up wannabe actress Misty West, was needed to investigate rumors of a threat to national security in Phoenix, Arizona. Her agency secured a position for her in the most unlikely of places to learn more– working for Digital Treasures, an adult multimedia company that specialized in voyeurism and exhibitionism.

With a new partner fresh in the field from training, Misty finds herself in deeper than ever before. Juggling her duty and her ragged emotions is a full time job, let alone the things she begins to discover that threaten to not only shatter who she is, but the lives of countless others.

Amazon

Amazon UK

Barnes and Noble

iTunes (coming soon)

Kobo

Smashwords

Sony (coming soon)

To learn more about Jason Halstead visit his website to read about him, sign up for his newsletter, or check out some free samples of his books at http://www.booksbyjason.com .

Of Demons, Dragons, and an Ogre Queen

Even I can’t turn that title into a bad joke. Except in this case, the Ogre Queen isn’t exactly a queen. For those who’ve read Isle of the Ape and Chasing the Dragon, the first two books in my Order of the Dragon trilogy, you might remember a certain ogre that was turned into a eunuch by fate, circumstance, and a very large sword. Then Graak, who was driven to incredible rage by his disability, was put in charge of an army. If he knew I called him a queen he’d probably slaughter an entire village by himself.

The dragon? Why it’s none other than Sarya – except Sarya, readers of my first fantasy trilogy, Blades of Leander, will recall was defeated and imprisoned. Well Rosalyn, the self-styled witch-queen of the Great Divide, is doing everything she can to commune with Sarya and learn from her. To hell with the consequences.

Speaking of hell, that brings up the demon. The demon comes in the form of a naked human girl washed up on the beach of a Caribbean island with no knowledge of who she really is, what happened to her, or what she’s doing there. Maybe I should call it The Bourne Antichrist? Okay, sorry, I couldn’t resist.

You might have guessed that these are unrelated topics. Sarya, Rosalyn, and the ogre are characters in my pending book, Dragonlady. Tam’rah, the lost girl who has no idea who or what she is, is the central character in a book I haven’t named yet. Both were running in a strong contention to be the next book I wrote, but I’m going to confess that I sold out.

There’s a hefty dose of medical bills in my family these days and my insurance plan that just kicked in is blatantly useless. That’s one item and not one I’m unprepared to deal with, it’s what we got dropped on us recently that left us reeling. A notice on our door that the house we’re renting is being auctioned off on the 20th of August.

Before I’m accused not paying bills, let me  make it blatantly clear that we rent. I know I just said that, but I’m kind of sensitive about that. It’s one of those situations I’ve heard happening to other people maybe one time in ten thousand . I’d wince and feel bad for them but secretly wonder if they did something to bring it on themselves. Well, now that it’s happening to me I guess I did bring it on myself: I trusted my landlord to be honest and forthcoming with me. Instead he elected to no pay his mortgage starting the very month we first looked at his house.

We’ve got a law on our side that allows us to continue living there until our lease is up in December, but at that point we’re done and headed for greener pastures. The problems is where those pastures may be.  We’re looking for a house to buy but with such short notice, we’re a little short on down payment funds. Or a lot short.

So what can I do to help? I can write more books! And since my best sales these days have been on my fantasy books in the Blades of Leander and Order of the Dragon trilogies, it only makes sense for me to finish off the Order of the Dragon one next.

After I finished Dragonlady I might go back to the demon-girl book, or if things are still rough perhaps I’ll launch into my next Vitalis book. Vitalis saw incredible interest last year but after an epic crash caused by a few people with ulterior motives) last summer and fall it seemed doomed to mediocrity. I never gave up on the futuristic science fiction series. I kept writing and now I’m happy to say it’s gaining momentum slowly as people discover it. I have a lot of Vitalis books left in me too, so I’m excited by the possibilities.

But for now it’s Dragonlady –and I’ll be starting it tonight! Look for Alto to fight hard against the rulers of Shazamir to reclaim his sister and defeat the Order of the Dragon in the south. Meanwhile, in the northern reaches, a misunderstanding between the elves west of The Kingdom and Rosalyn’s eclectic people will spawn and new war that will leave the armies of the The Kingdom and the Kelgryn people confused and uncertain. Elves are a strange and exotic lot, but siding with Rosalyn’s forces means embracing ogres and goblins as allies.

Will Alto return to a ruins in the north? Will Sarya break free from her prison? Will Graak try to seize control and start his own private war? I’ll be  honest with you – I have no idea at this point! That’s the awesome part about writing these stories, I find out what happens only a little bit before my readers do. I have ideas and plans, but those change almost as often as the weather here in Michigan changes!

I’ll be sure to post updates along the way – and I’m always excited to get feedback and suggestions from readers. Don’t be shy, an idea could easily turn into something that ends up in a book and earns a mention!

To learn more about Jason Halstead, visit his website to read about him, sign up for his newsletter, or check out some free samples of his books at http://www.booksbyjason.com .

A 20 Year Grudge

That sounds like a cool premise for a book, but alas, it’s not. It’s a bit of an auto-biography, I’m sad to say. I recently had the opportunity to attend my 20th high school class reunion, and at my wife’s suggestion, I did. I hadn’t gone to the earlier ones because I didn’t feel I’d accomplished anything worth sharing. That and the people I kept in touch with were the people I wanted to keep in touch with. We’ve got Facebook now, what more do we need?

But not this time, we cut our family vacation a day short to come home so we could go to it. As it got closer I felt more and more trepidation about going. After all, these were people I hadn’t seen in twenty years. The people I kept in touch with weren’t going, making it all the more potentially awkward. The people who were going? Those were the ones that (by and large) were the popular kids in school. And yes, in more than a few cases, they were the people I wouldn’t have looked hard for an excuse to introduce their nose to my fist. Shame on me, I know, but I was a fairly stupid and socially awkward kid.

I was pleasantly surprised by the majority of the events of the evening. There was no face fist meetings, first of all. Furthermore, in most cases my classmates had changed and matured. The cliques and BS was gone. Prep, jock, and nerd could stand side by side and without any wet willies, wedgies, or awkward social lapses. I think I was most pleased by everyone’s reaction to me. Either they didn’t have much to do with me at the reunion, in the case of the guys who were once big, strong, and athletic, or they were shocked and happy to ask tons of questions. In the span of 20 years I’ve put on about 50 or 60 pounds of meat (most of it muscle), and held a few important jobs in the automotive industry. Not to mention striving towards my dream of being a full time writer. Wife, kids, career success – yep, I had nothing to plenty to talk about and no lack of people asking questions. My wife even answered one person who asked if I’d changed a lot since high school by saying, “Yes, a lot!”

I should point out that I almost immediately lost my desire to show people up. Yeah, I went there with that in mind for a few specific people. I suspect all of us who weren’t part of the “in” crowd in our formative years have the same chip on their shoulder. It never occurred to me to realize that maybe they’d grown up too. Well, mostly. As with any group of people, there are some that just refuse to change or grow up. I’ve run into a couple of people who hold grudges against me too. I can live with that though, and I respect them their distance and anger. I believe in a drama free life whenever possible and if I haven’t lost any sleep over them thus far, why should tonight be any different?

And to the people who didn’t show up, I’m disappointed. Not in you, but that I didn’t have a chance to catch up with you and see how things are going. And no, I don’t care any more who was the most successful – life’s to short to worry about stupid shit like that. I won’t drop any names but I will say I really enjoyed the company I kept at the reunion and if circumstances permit, I’m likely to come back for the next one.

Oh, and since so many people asked about my books I’m happy to say that I finished it a day late but still managed to finish the rough draft of Broken Slipper (book 2 in my Homeland adult / erotic espionage series) today. Broken Slipper is also an unofficial sequel to Sex Sells, tying in that adult romance to the series in a steamy and fun way. Broken Slipper is 140,000 words long and that’s downright epic in an age when a book is considered a novel at 50,000 words. Or to put it another way, at an average of 250 words a page, that’s 560 pages long. Yowza! As an extra teaser, the cover is already finished so check it out below!

And there will be a book 3, but not yet. I’m turning my sights elsewhere, either to a stand alone novel I teased in a blog post a little while ago or to Dragonlady, the third and final book in my Order of the Dragon fantasy series.

Sneak Preview of the cover for Broken Slipper, book 2 in my Homeland series

To learn more about Jason Halstead, visit his website to read about him, sign up for his newsletter, or check out some free samples of his books at http://www.booksbyjason.com .

Who Wants to Grow Up?

I do. Sure, I’ve got kids and I see all the stuff they get away with. I read all the memes and jokes about how kids don’t realize how good they’ve got it until they don’t have it anymore. But you know what, I don’t buy it for one second.

When I was a kid I hated being a kid. I wanted to be old enough to do what I wanted. To be responsible for myself, for better or worse. Sure, I had no idea what that meant but I wanted to find out. I hated being told what to do simply because I wasn’t old enough. It was crap.

These days when my 7 year old tells me she can’t wait until she’s 18 and can drive (or older), I smile and agree with her. Yes, I wish she was that old too. Not because I’m anxious to get her out on her own (well, maybe sometimes…), but because I know how much I couldn’t stand life as a minor.

Even worse is that I’ve agreed to go to my twenty year high school class reunion. It’s in a few days, in fact, and people are ramping up on Facebook with all sorts of pictures and memories. And I grimace every time. Crazy hair and goofy looking kids. I doubt I made any lists of people most likely to do anything useful with their lives but I probably should have. To be fair, I doubt many had goals similar to mine, but I can count on one hand the number of people in my class who have accomplished as much as I have. And for those with different goals the only thing we’ll have in common is a place and time where we were in the same place.

I’m not bragging and I’m not saying I went to school with a bunch of deadbeats. Far from it. I’ve just always had goals that were different from most people. Back then I had no idea how to go about it, but I still had a vision and the faith in myself to figure it out.

My wife and I are actually expecting the reunion to be boring / uncomfortable and unpleasant. Our hope is to be able to skip out shortly after dinner at this point and catch Wolverine since the kids are spending the night with their grandparents. Why? Because my former classmates will see me and remember the skinny-fat kid who had a handful of friends in different cliques but never fit in with anyone. They’ll remember an intense and often brooding outsider.

They won’t see a man who has spent time in the military, set powerlifting records, and published dozens of books. They won’t see the guy who has been in charge of and designed millions of dollars of production equipment and automation systems. Or if they do, precious few will have any idea why. I mean really, why would I push myself so hard? Why would I want to find out what my limits are, physically, mentally, and emotionally? Why, when I could get by with less work and a good enough result?

Why indeed?

To learn more about Jason Halstead, visit his website to read about him, sign up for his newsletter, or check out some free samples of his books at http://www.booksbyjason.com .

Summertime Blues

I figured out the official word on my May book royalties today. That, combined with my estimated royalties for June and projected royalties for July have me disappointed. Not depressed or miserable, just kind of bummed. This continues my disclosure of what it means, financially, to be a writer.

March and April were outstanding months. I don’t know why, but for two years straight I’ve knocked the ball out of the park in the spring. Then May signals a slowdown that threatens my sanity. Again, I don’t know why unless people just buy fewer books in the summer. If somebody has any evidence, suggestions, advice, thoughts, or wiccan rituals they’d like to offer I’m all ears.

March and April were over $8,000 months. Yay! In may I broke $7,000, but not by much. I’m estimating just over $6,000 for June, depending upon exchange rates. they $1000 a month plunge slows in July. I’m hoping I’ll break $5,500. August and September? No idea, but if it’s anything like last year I’ll be sweating until November, when somebody turned a light on in the dark tunnel I’d found myself in. Take out 30% of that for taxes and things have a way of getting ugly fast.

I track my books and each series, and they all show a steady slide into darkness save for my Order of the Dragon series. The reason behind that is obvious – I released the second book in the trilogy (Chasing the Dragon). The third won’t come out until the fall, unfortunately.

So do I find some way to become a celebrity so I can boost my social presence to something that makes people interested in me, or do I just write more books? The solution is obvious: write more books! That I can do. That I am doing. That and having a day job pays the bills. It helps that I genuinely enjoy my day job these days.

The current project that I’m almost finished with is The Broken Slipper. It’s a Cinderella tale of love, sex, confusion, drama, and terrorism. TBS is the second book in my Homeland series, and it really sets the stage for an intense and action packed book three. It’s also worth mentioning that this is a big book. I expect the finished rough draft to come in around 110,000 words. Considering the often erotic nature of it, that makes this an unusually long book. And thick. Long and thick. Yes, I went there — but now you’re curious, aren’t you?

My problem lately, aside from slumping sales, has been all the ideas. I’m anxious to get started on Dragonlady, the fantasy finale for my Order of the Dragon trilogy. I’m excited at the prospect of exploring a fifth Lost Girls book. I’m dying to write my next Vitalis book – I have two great ideas and I don’t know if it’s going to become on book or two. I can feel a seventh Voidhawk novel stirring in the depths of my brain. And I have another concept that’s really tearing through me and making it hard to focus.

As much as I should focus on some existing series, I may have to write this new idea. I’m not sure it has legs enough to be a full novel though, that’s my only problem. I considered a small collection or anthology of three or four related novellas, but I’m not sure I’ve got material enough for that or that I can do it in a timely manner.

So what is the idea? Well, let’s take a young woman in the terminal stages of an incurable cancer. Young enough that she’s not legally an adult yet, but close. Young enough to be eligible for a Make a Wish trip on a cruise in the Caribbean, a place she’s always wanted to go. Her spirit, once bright enough to outshine the sun, is now broken by her sickness. The beauty of the ocean is nothing but a terrible joke. Nature’s way of mocking her by showing her what she can’t enjoy.

In the middle of the night she wakes up and finds she has strength she hasn’t had in months. Her ribs don’t ache and her throat doesn’t burn when she draws each labored breath. Her hands don’t shake and the room doesn’t spin when she sits up. Her parents sleep on, unaware of her turning off the machines that monitor her and administer the drugs that help her failing body cling to life. Disconnected and free, she leaves her cabin behind and makes her way to the patio of their room. She wants to smell the ocean and see the stars through eyes that aren’t blurred with medicine and sickness.

She gets her wish and embraces the warm tropical night air. The stars twinkle overhead and the water swirls as it rushes past. The briny smell of the ocean fills her and tickles her nose. She gasps in delight and forgets for a blessed moment that she is dying. That this moment may be her last. Dolphins leap ahead off the bow of the ship, accompanying it on its journey to a realm from where there is no return.

The dolphins dive, disappearing from the water and seeking to escape the death that approaches. The girl turns and lifts her head to see a great mass of darkness approaching the side of the ship. It towers as tall as she is as it races towards her. Towards them. It is the ocean come alive, come to take them all.

The rogue wave strikes the shape broadside, lifting it and throwing it like a paper toy. The girl clings to her railing as the water pounds at her and strips her from the deck. She opens her mouth to cry for help but there’s no air, only water. A frigid water pulled up from the deepest depths of the ocean that pushes itself into her.

The ship is gone, tumbled and broken by the wave. The young woman’s body is so light and so frail it floats to the once again calm surface. She stares at the twinkling stars and lifts a weary hand towards them. Almost as if the ocean is fearful she might escape she is yanked under the waves and a darkness unlike anything she’d ever imagined closes in on her.

–

And that’s just the beginning! I’ve got so much more I’m aching to write but it’ll have to wait. Must finish The Broken Slipper first and then I’ll dive into this tale of supernatural fun!

To learn more about Jason Halstead, visit his website to read about him, sign up for his newsletter, or check out some free samples of his books at http://www.booksbyjason.com .

Write or Die!

The title brings to mind the late Robert E. Howard, creator of such legends as Conan the Cimmerian and Kull the Conqueror. He even created Red Sonya, which Roy Thomas used as inspiration to create Red Sonja. Mr. Howard wrote these stories in the early 1900s, ages before Tolkien could even dream of Middle Earth. He often wrote through the night and sometimes believed that Conan or Kull was standing behind him with a raised axe ready to cleave his head if his writing faltered.

This post is not about bloodshed, violence, or even the loss of a minor limb. It’s about something I saw Willsin Rowe, talented writer and cover artist, mention using to crank out some impressive word counts recently. It’s a program for computers, iPads, and more that allegedly puts the prod in productivity (their slogan, not mine).

With Write of Die you establish goals (timeline, word count, etc.) and then you start typing. If you slow down or stop before reaching your milestone the program will punish you for your indiscretions. These punishments can range from a message popping up on your device to annoying tones / noises coming from your device to text being deleted on the screen. I don’t believe it comes with the angry axe wielding barbarian mode.

I have not tried this program, I’ve just read about it. If it works for someone, that’s great. I think it would be irritating. When it’s time to write, I write. I can immerse myself in what I’m writing and as long there’s nobody actively seeking my attention (and sometimes even then), I can hammer out the words. Just about the only exceptions to that are when there’s some horrible reality show on the television. It doesn’t matter which one, they’re all horrible. The train wrecks they display on a daily basis can pull me out of my writing cocoon. That makes me angry – angry at being interrupted and even angrier at whatever mind-numbingly stupid antics the attention whores on the TV are doing.

Maybe if I had Write or Die that wouldn’t happen. Or maybe I’d get even angrier if I lost brain cells to Desperate Housewives and word could to a program I intentionally installed to help increase my productivity.

At first glance it seems wrong to punish yourself for falling short. Looking deeper, I can think of many times I’ve put myself in a time out for doing things I didn’t approve of. I’ve gotten angry at myself and had a serious talk (with myself) to keep myself on track when dieting or working towards weight lifting goals. I’ve smacked myself mentally around as a means of breaking bad habits. I even remember one time years ago when I made a mistake while typing but didn’t realize it until I was a sentence or two down the road. I backspaced until I got to the misspelled word and corrected it, then retyped what I’d deleted. A friend who happened to be sitting next to me suggested I used the cursor keys or mouse to just click on the screw up and fix it. I told her that this was my way of punishing myself for screwing up in the first place.

So maybe Write or Die’s not such a bad solution after all. It offers punishment and conditioning but it’s also voluntary. I’m not interested in it myself, but I can see the appeal if it helps. If you’re interested, check it out. I think it’s $9.99 and no, I don’t get any kickback.

If you’d rather have the axe wielding barbarian go with lots sleep deprivation and possibly some hallucinogenic narcotics. Personally I think the $9.99 would be cheaper and less likely to make a mess on your writing desk.

To learn more about Jason Halstead, visit his website to read about him, sign up for his newsletter, or check out some free samples of his books at http://www.booksbyjason.com .

 

 

 

 

What Makes a Plane Fly?

As a father’s day present my wife got me an introductory flight in a single engine plane for half an hour. I’m not sure what type of plane it was, but it was small and very, ahem, cozy. Cozy as in the instructor and I were rubbing shoulders the entire time. On a 90 degree day with no air conditioning, that turns cozy into a few other four letter words. We did all the preflight stuff, chatted a little, and then took off. While climbing the instructor handed the stick to me and said it’s all mine.

I leveled off at 2,000 feet and proceeded to try and figure out where things were on the checkerboard beneath me. We found my parents house after I overflew it and did a few circles around it. It was during one of those circles that I saw a hawk flying near us – and above us. We were 2,000 feet in the air and this hawk was higher still (not much, but still). Ironic that out of everything that day the hawk would stick out as perhaps the most impressive.

I’ve flown before and always wanted to get a pilot’s license. It’s still a box I’d like to check off, I’m just not sure when I’ll have a chance to get around to doing it. Or the money – it’s not cheap. Or as the instructor asked me, “Do you know what makes a plane fly?” It seemed obvious to me, air and a couple of laws of physics working together. He grinned and answered his own question, “Money!”

I’ve owned a few boats in my life and I’ve learned that boats can be a lot of fun. They are also holes in the water that you throw money into. Turns out planes aren’t all that different. So when will I get around to going for a license? Well, I don’t know. Not in the near future, I’m just too busy. Flying recreationally is back on my list of hobbies I’d love to have but don’t have the resources to do. It joins scuba diving and a host of other things that I hope to one day get around to.

In the meantime I’ll keep writing. No doubt most everybody in the writing or reading world has heard of J.K. Rowling’s latest news. She published a book under a pen name and though it received good reviews, it had lackluster performance. Or more accordingly, it did about as well as the average writer’s new books does. Heck, she was even shot down by the first couple of editors from what I heard. Once it was leaked that it was really her writing the book, sales shot up instantly.

The message to writers like me and, well, 99% of the rest of the writing world? Keep trying. That’s what it boils down to. A perfect flux of random circumstances comes together every now and then and propels a book or a writer into the spotlight. That’s when the magic happens. It’s part luck, and just about any writer out there who has achieved great success has admitted as much. Sure, there are common factors such as good writing / storytelling and a driving ambition that keeps them writing more, but there are thousands of us (if not more) that do that, yet only a fraction of us reach the upper levels. All we can do is keep trying and be ready when the stars align so we don’t miss the opportunity.

As it stands, I have almost 4o books out, although five of them are free. It was once anecdotally believed that a writer could support themselves once they reached the 30 published book mark. To me that sounds about right, but it would mean only supporting myself and living very modestly. I’ve got a family of four and a lot of student loans and other bills to pay off – I may not hit the self-supporting level until I’ve published around 120 books! Yikes.

The good news is I’m still going strong and my readers have a lot of future books to look forward to from me. Just the other day I had a new (to me) reader contact me and share that he’d finished off my Blades of Leander trilogy and three other books I’d written and he loved them. He compared me favorably with Raymond Feist and David Eddings. While he’s not the first person who’s said that, it’s incredibly heart warming to hear. Those guys, to me, are legends.

Yet in spite of the steady trickle of fan mail I’m waiting for my magic moment when things happen. I’ve reached the point where I’m convinced that writing more is my best promotional tactic. Oh sure, I still dabble and try to find other things to do to boost awareness of my brand (me!), but writing is first and foremost these days.

Money is nothing more than an economical manifestation of work (for most of us not born with a trust fund, at least). So just like keeping a boat on top of the water or a plane in the air, a writer’s career requires a lot of dedication and perseverance. To my fellow writers I advise that you stay strong and focused on your craft. I know that’s what I’ve been doing and continue to do, in spite of slowing summer sales. Ride the waves or the thermals, or just keep on trucking if wheels are your thing. Whatever the case, write on!

To learn more about Jason Halstead, visit his website to read about him, sign up for his newsletter, or check out some free samples of his books at http://www.booksbyjason.com .

Guest Posting?

Occasionally I’ll post a guest post from another writer. Maybe it’s a friend or a colleague, or maybe just someone I’m swapping posts with. I always check them out and make sure they’re decent. And yes, that can be a valid concern with some of my acquaintances.

But this isn’t a guest post, this is me typing away on my own blog. So am I guest posting on my own blog? Er, no. And don’t follow that line of thought to deep it turns into an Escher drawing that can leave you confused for a few minutes. My reason for posting this is to question the value of a guest post. I’ll admit I would be tickled if I were invited to guest post on another blog about guest posting, but I might still be caught up in an Escher drawing…

I have a few blogs I check out from time to time. One of them is Joe Konrath’s. I’m not trying to make him any more famous or successful than he already is, I’m just sharing the process that brought me to this thought. I go there looking for his latest antics and to grind my teeth in frustration at how he’s having massive amounts of success while my sales are dropping. To be fair, he’s been at it longer than I have and he has more books (50ish vs 38). But some of his books do about as well as mine, which is to say not all that great.

As near as I can tell Mr. Konrath has a couple of things going for him. One is the ability to tell a fun story. That’s kind of important if a writer wants to be successful. Fortunately for me, I can do that too. The other is social presence. He’s got one. Via his dealings with Amazon and his blog he’s managed to carve a niche for himself that allows a lot of visibility. That’s what I’m trying to figure out how to achieve and thus far my attempts have been less than successful.

No, Joe Konrath is not going to guest post on my blog. Nor am I doing a guest post on his. I’m not even dropping his name in hopes of picking up extra search engine hits. I keep singling him out because I noticed something this morning when I looked at his blog. I looked, and then I left without viewing any articles. Why? Because there was nothing but guest posts there for the past several days. I go there for him, not for people I’ve never heard of and don’t care about.

Shame on me! I’m an indie writer champion, how dare I ignore my peers! Well it’s true, I did. I’ve got too many things going on to allow me the luxury of reading about a dozen people trying to sell themselves. I’m busy worrying about how I can do the same thing! And my guess is that I’m not the only person who feels that way. So it made me wonder, is hosting guest blogs helpful or harmful to my “brand?”

I think that, as long as it’s infrequent and closely monitored by me (which has been the status quo for my blog already), it’s an okay thing. I can try to make sure that people coming here to read and be entertained will continue to do so. Launching a campaign where I flood my blog with guest posts, on the other hand, would probably drive people away. Heck, it might drive me away!

And for my fellow writers reading this, my experience with doing blog tours to try and promote a new / old / whatever book has been exceptionally lackluster. I’ve tried a few and generated a lot of nothing but more work for myself. All these thoughts have been circling in my head and I’ve been focusing on writing more and blogging less lately. I used to try to post three times a week but lately it’s been down to once or twice. I make no promises on frequency, only that I’ll try to make it worthwhile when I do post. Everyone’s time is valuable, after all, and the last thing I can expect is for anyone to waste theirs reading my thoughts on Jennifer Aniston’s latest hair cut.

Having said that, I am considering reopening an old topic a bit and posting some occasional workout / fitness topics. But don’t worry, I’ll make it clear early on in the post that I’m putting on my gymrat outfit so you can shy away if the thought of heavy weights and sweat scares you.

Until then, it’s back to work on The Broken Slipper.

To learn more about Jason Halstead, visit his website to read about him, sign up for his newsletter, or check out some free samples of his books at http://www.booksbyjason.com .