Jason Halstead's Blog, page 22

Oops – I did it Again

With the title of that song bringing back memories of bad music and lost innocence, imagine me wearing a skin tight dress and prancing around on a stage ala Britney Spears. I hope the damage I just caused isn’t permanent. And don’t worry, performing as an entertainer in Vegas is not in my list of possible future career choices.

The title of this post refers to book reviews. Specifically reviews on my books. As a writer I’m not supposed to read my reviews, let alone talk about them. Yet here I am, doing it again. You’d think I’d learn!

2013 has been a good year thus far (knock on wood) as far as sales and reviews are concerned. Indeed, I’ve been rocking some very impressive reviews over the past month or two, including one I received very recently on my Blades of Leander books, although I don’t remember if it was Child of Fate, Victim of Fate, or Silver Dragon that hosted this particular review.

In it the reviewer talked about how they enjoyed the book and then drew parallels to Game of Thrones. I was shocked by this, but I think it’s a good thing. I can say I “think” because I know practically nothing about Game of Thrones.

It’s true! I’ve never read the books although thanks to advertising I can tell you that George R.R. Martin is the author. I have never seen even a clip from the television show, nor do I know what channel it’s on (something tells me it’s an HBO series?). What I know about Game of Thrones comes from the posts I see  on Facebook, and I skim over them quickly.

So, naturally, you want to know what the hell is wrong with me. How can I not know about something as awesome as Game of Thrones? Er, well, I’m not much of a TV guy. My wife and I will occasionally slip in a late night showing of NCIS off of the DVR, but that’s it for me. Plus I don’t have HBO (if GoT is on HBO, if it’s not never mind). I did manage to sneak in watching the new version of the movie, Red Dawn, on Sunday afternoon though (quick review: entertaining, but it requires a LOT of suspension of disbelief).

So why don’t I rush out and learn all I can about GoT? Simple – I don’t want to be influenced. I respect the work and success of my fellow writers (most of them, at least). I don’t want my books to be subconsciously influenced by what they’re written, nor do I want to pull away any attention from their work.

There are a couple of other very successful fantasy authors out there that I swap dialogue with from time to time. I have a lot of respect for these guys (Michael R. Hicks and M.R. Mathias) and because of that I try very hard to steer clear of their stuff too. It’s difficult sometimes – I want to see if I can pick up the secrets of their success but I don’t want to copy them. I would love to collaborate with one of both of them someday, but now I’m getting ahead of myself!

So back to the point of this post – I’m honored and impressed to hear that I’ve got something that reminded someone of the extremely successful Game of Thrones series, but it was pure accidental and coincidental on my part. I hope, however, that this might lead to a coincidental and accidental boost in sales though.

 

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 .

Why do I Write?

I had a reader ask me a question yesterday. He’d read some blog posts and all of my books, but he wanted more. So he asked me, “Why do I write?” I thought that was an excellent question – good enough even to turn into a blog post.

Several years ago when I hit my head and got the crazy notion that I could turn the crap I wrote into something people might want to read I started off with a short essay I wrote on that exact subject. I referenced this document before I responded to the reader and, believe it or not, everything I wrote still rang true.

“I have a few reasons that I want to write. The first is because I want to have hope in humanity. I want to write about characters that evolve and develop into people that prove they can change and become better. By having others read about characters I have written, I hope they in turn find it in themselves to realize they can also improve their lives

Another reason is because I enjoy writing so much. I like to share my ideas with the hope that others will be entertained by them and similarly captivated. I would like very much for writing to be my primary career, to allow me to explore more of my ideas and thus connect with that many more people who have similar interests.”

In the four years I’ve been doing this professionally I can say that my goals and motivations have not changed. Sure, every fledgling writer dreams of being the next James Patterson or Stephen King, but only the exceptionally rare, talented, or damn lucky writer will strike it rich. The rest of us toil endlessly. Even with my breakneck pack of a a novel a month I’m still fighting to hit the point where writing pays the bills.

The ironic part is that if I were to dedicate this much time and effort to just about anything else I can think of, I’d be on top of the world. The problem is I wouldn’t be happy. Writing is doing what I love and that makes it worth the blood and sweat.

I’ve read some posts on various social media venues recently talking about writers who write for more or for the market. My friends, this is the wrong business to be in if you’re looking for money and financial security. I know two months in advance what my paycheck is going to be, and sometimes that’s a terrible thing because I know it means I’m that much further away from being able to do what I want to do.

Another popular meme is to encourage writing for the soul rather than the market. That annoys me. A writer has to eat and pay bills. Why does it have to be one or the other? Why can’t a writer do both at the same time? To me no matter what I write I am writing for and from my soul. I’m even digging deep to provide content for my current project, a modern fiction / romance / smut series that I hope turns into a thriller / crime / murder mystery / government agent series. I’m about halfway through book 2 at the moment and I’m having a lot of fun with it, even though I haven’t come up with a good name for any of the books or the series yet.

I’m also itching to get back to fantasy, specifically the characters from my Blades of Leander series. It’s true that Blades of Leander is my most successful series presently, but that’s not why I want to get back to them. I’ve had feedback from readers asking for more. I’ve had feedback from myself asking for more too! It’s a damn shame I can only write one book at a time, even if I do burn them out crazy fast.

Ultimately what you write isn’t important. Why you write isn’t either. What matters is that you find what you need in the process of writing. I’ve heard it said that writers write to discover themselves. I won’t deny there’s a therapeutic effect to writing. Where else can you put the face of a d-bag of a boss on a villain and have him run over by a herd of llamas without getting in trouble? Incidentally, I’m happy with my current bosses, so please treat that as an example and not a hidden message.

Now if I can make a few bucks while I’m doing it and keep people entertained, it’s a win for everybody!

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 .

Independence

I am a member of a website called the Independent Author Network (aka IAN, or #IAN1 on Twitter). The website, run by William Potter, is a great collection of writers that have published their own books. Some of us were traditionally published, some us still are with some of our books, and some of us do it all ourselves. The only real guidelines, I think, is that getting a book listed on the Independent Author Network requires it be self-published. And, get this, Mr. Potter’s website truly is independent – Amazon hasn’t bought him out (yet)!

Mr. Potter charges a minimal set up fee, depending on how many books you wish to feature, and that’s it – you’re set for life. I’ve got my page maxed out with 20 of my books, just to let you know, and while I forget what it cost me I was able to easily afford it back before my books showed any sign of being profitable.

Has the Independent Author Network helped my books become visible and successful? I’ll be honest and admit that I don’t know. I regularly receive anywhere from 600 to 2000 hits a month to my author page on IAN, and I really don’t do much in the way of advertising it. A few tweets a month and that’s about it, to be honest.

So why talk about it now? Well with that much traffic hitting it I have to believe that some of it is going to translate into sales. And that makes this potentially one of the things helping my books be successful. Last spring and summer Mr. Potter set up a new special advertising $.99 ebooks and I loaded my Vitalis episodes into that program. I had an enormously successful March, April, May, and June thanks to those Vitalis episodes (before they were maliciously attacked in the reviews, but that’s been the subject of a few other posts). Did IAN help me achieve that success? I wish I knew. I’d be a fool to think there wasn’t at least some level of a nudge achieved from it though.

And that brings me around to telling my readers and fellow writers about this website and service. In my experiences there’s damn near nothing out there you can spend your money on that will boost your sales that you can’t do for free. The Independent Author Network might very well be an exception to that rule. Sadly, I can’t confirm or deny that. I receive a report letting me know every month how many visits I had, but I have nothing that indicates whether that visit translated into a click or, better yet, a sale.

I’m not complaining though, like I said, it was reasonably cheap and if nothing else it’s another web presence and another link to get my name and the name of my books out there. If you’re a writer you’re in this for the long haul, so every little bit helps. I encourage checking it out. Heck, stop by my page and see if it looks like something you’d like. Go ahead, click it, you know you want to…

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 .

Angry Laughter

The other day I was browsing through my titles on Amazon curious about their review status (how many, average rating, etc.). By and large I’m hitting 4 – 5 star average ratings on my books, which makes me very happy. But there’s one series that is much lower and I have to admit, it makes me laugh, but it’s an angry laugh.

The series is Vitalis. My first 7 episodes, available at $.99 each, have been blasted in the reviews. With only one exception (episode 6, Evolution) the reviews range between 2.0 and 3.1. Evolution nets a 4.2. Yet the combined total number of those stories I have sold almost reaches 17,000 copies. And most of the bad reviews hit between the 15,000 and 17,000 mark. Interesting? Hold that thought.

My Vitalis Omnibus contains all 7 episodes for a reasonable price (slightly less or the same as the 7 $.99 episodes) yet it has a rating of 3.9 after 14 reviews (the 7 individual episodes total 75 reviews averaging a 2.9 rating). The second full length book in the series, Vitalis: Resurrection, has a 4.0 rating after 9 reviews. The third book, Vitalis: Provenance, will be released late April or early May.

Okay, so after I sold a ton of books and had some good reviews my $.99 books dropped in rating rapidly. I release the omnibus thinking people are pissed by the shorter lengths and fail to sell anywhere near the same quantity (732 in 2012, around a 100 since then) yet it earned a higher rating. There are some obvious lessons to be learned here.

1) Cheap and free books get slammed. In 2012 when I had the short books available they were always cheap, but at times they were free as well (KDP Select or other promos). The cheaper the book the lower the rating it seems. Why is that? Well, I’m not really sure other than if it doesn’t cost anything than anybody can grab it and try it, even people that have no interest in it to begin with.

2) Successful books get slammed. This is confusing until you consider the rampant bogus review issues Amazon had last year. Once my books started to become popular and began to top the charts they started getting slammed. Lower ratings removes them from Amazon’s algorithms and helps people decide they don’t want to try them after all. If they’re cheap, then it’s even easier for a competing writer to sabotage a book with a bad review since it doesn’t cost them much (or anything, if they pick them during a promo).

I want to keep my books affordable, so raising my prices isn’t really an option. I’d also look the pricks of the world to mind their own business and stop undermining my efforts to make a living. I honestly don’t know if my Vitalis series was crashed because of disgruntled people with a chip on their shoulder or if it was arranged by one or more writers that felt challenged because my books were rising to the top of the lists and threatening theirs. I suspect the latter is the case, which is downright upsetting.

How does a little guy in the business stand a chance if the people above him want to keep him down? What about camaraderie and helping each other out? What about honor and ethics? What about professionalism? I, for one, am happy to see that Amazon is going after bogus reviews and eliminating them – I just wish they could be a little more effective at it.

The lesson to my fellow writers – write a damn good book and make it hard for people to find things that are wrong with it. I confess my earlier books were not edited to the standard that my newer releases are. I try to go back and correct them but things slip. Another lesson for my peers is this: Don’t be a dick. Treat your fellow writers with respect and you’ll get it in return.

For my readers, this is an example of the power you have. Sure, I write the books but you’re reaction to them controls whether I succeed or not. Write a review for the books you read and let the author and others know what you thought of them. Be honest, but be helpful. Critique, don’t criticize. If you didn’t like how Hansel and Gretl hit the witch over the head with a gingerbread cudgel and tossed her in the over write about it, but unless it was poorly written don’t slam it with a lousy rating too, be moderate and fair and indicate your likes and dislikes.

I’m a writer so Amazon doesn’t like it when I leave reviews – they assume I’m up to no good. It’s annoying but if it helps stop bogus reviews than I accept it as a necessary evil. When I did write reviews or when I do them on the side (blogging and whatnot), I figure if I could make it through a book It’s earned an average mark even if I didn’t care for it. It’s very rare that I’ll leave a poor review unless the book stinks on many levels (editing / grammar, story flow, etc.). Just because I don’t care for sparkly vampires and werewolves doing the tango under a full moon doesn’t mean it deserves a 2 star review unless the writing is crap and it’s filled with typographical errors. A book doesn’t earn a 1 star review unless the author has offended me by writing a lousy story and consciously neglecting to attempt to make it readable (e.g. no proofreading or editing).

That’s my take and experiences with the reviewing system, whether it’s at Amazon, Smashwords, Goodreads, or somebody’s blog. Reviews can work as long as they’re not abused. And if they are then I end up with the angry laughter that is the only thing keeping me from breaking down or going crazy.

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 .

It’s My Party

Today’s my birthday. Yay. Can you feel my excitement and enthusiasm? Okay, to be fair, I’m like most other people that are creeping closer and closer to being old enough to drink legally – or something like that. Today does mark some exciting things for me though…

I just realized my ear feels better! I came down with a freakish ear infection a week ago and had to go see a doctor to get some meds. Today I noticed it’s all better. Off to a good start.

To open the month I sold 148 books yesterday. It’s not my highest month opener ever, but it is in 2013. The only downside to this is that almost every month starts off with a high number and the rest of the month sees decreased sales. I’d love to break that trend though, so anybody wanting to wish me a happy birthday could go and buy one of my books instead. That way we both get a present!

I’m in the process of selling my Harley too. It’s just a matter of getting the paperwork around  at this point. It’s a good bike and I love motorcycles, but I had my fill last summer of being stuck in traffic while sitting on an air-cooled bike. HOT! Since moving up here I take I-696 to work every day for about 40 miles. It’s 4 – 5 lanes of bumper to bumper traffic that moves anywhere from 5 mph to 85 mph and can go from one extreme to the other in 3 seconds. Not the best place to ride a motorcycle, in my opinion. Maybe when my kids get old enough and big enough to ride I’ll get another one, but for now I’m happy to sell it and see someone else who can enjoy it have a great time.

Hmm, what other celebratory events are taking place. I squatted 405lbs last night for my final set while working out. Down from my glory days but still somewhat respectable. Had a great pre-birthday dinner at the Bonefish Grill in Novi last night (some imperial stuffed tilapia dish – maximum yumminess). Looking forward to birthday cake tonight (pineapple upside down cake for a change of pace).

Oh yeah, I’m also working on my next couple of books too. Yes, next couple. I hope to turn it into a trilogy but so far I’m only at two. It’s a serious change of pace from what I usually write too, but I’ll save that for another post. I will say that I’m on chapter 2 of book 2 already.

So I’m officially one year closer to catching up on all the sleep I’ve missed out on. I’ve learned my body isn’t as forgiving of my stubborn physical activities and I don’t recover as fast from workouts, injuries, or nights spent celebrating. But slowing down doesn’t mean stopping! I’d still love to bench 405 pounds again one day even with my injury. I have every intention of reaching the 40 published books mark by the end of 2013and maybe even knock past it to 43 or 44. I’m at 34 right now thanks to yesterday’s release of Voidhawk – The Edge of Forever, with #35 (Vitalis: Provenance) at the editor, #36 (untitled) finished in rough draft form, and #37 (also untitled) minimized on my screen.

And beyond this year? Well there’s the winter home in Daytona Beach to consider. I guess I’ll wait a little bit on that one what with the silly banks insisting I can afford something before I purchase it. Could be a long wait…

 

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 .

 

 

Waiting Forever

According to Heinz, good things come to those who wait. Well if there’s no other option I suppose that’s fine, but for those of us who are impatient they find other ways to do things. Take the occasional dedicated fan of mine that would contact me and ask when the next Voidhawk book was going to be written and released. It was because of those people that I’m happy to say I have done exactly that. Voidhawk – The Edge of Forever, has been released!

But what is it? It’s fantasy in space, my friends, and that’s all I can say. Check your understanding of physics at the front cover. The Voidhawk universe is not like ours, but it’s not so dissimilar either. It’s filled with tales of heroism and tyranny. It’s got wooden ships sailing from one world to another. It’s got pirates and and swashbucklers. And at it’s heart is the the crew of the Voidhawk, a steadfast if unlikely group of people that have made themselves friends and family. Think of Lost in Space with swords and sorcery. Imagine Joss Whedon with a wand. Think of Star Wars without the bad acting. It’s all of that and so much more, and it’s now available for your escapist pleasure. Even better, Voidhawk – The Edge of Forever, is the 6th book in the series. You can get lost in the unbelievable fantasy fun for days!

Here’s the blurb, cover art, and what links I have (updated as they come in):

A mysterious encounter in the void has left the crew of the Voidhawk separated and enslaved. With only a handful of friends remaining, Jenna must take control of the Voidhawk and race against time to rescue her husband and stop a new danger from being unleashed on the void.

 Jenna’s quest to find her missing husband and friends takes her beyond the edge of the void into a place where time has no meaning. She must solve the riddle of light and battle madness itself before can choose which members of her family will live, and which will die.

Amazon

Amazon UK

Barnes and Noble

iTunes

Kobo

Smashwords

Sony

Print

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 Am I Writing For?

I had a question posed to me the other day that has plagued me for a couple of years now. What is my target audience. In other words, who am I writing for?

Take the somewhat infamous John Locke, he swears by finding a target market and writing for them. That’s an approach geared towards being a writing machine and not one with heart and soul. Still, he’s had some success with it so maybe there’s something to it.

Me, I’ll admit that right now I have a hard time branching out very much. I have some moderately successful books so I tend to try and stay in the same series. If I know I can write a book that stands a good chance of generating $500 – $1000 a month it’s hard for me to take a chance on trying something new that only brings in $20 – $50 a month. And yes,  I have books in both categories. Take Sex Sells and Human Nature, both great stories that people really enjoy, but the number of people enjoying them is very limited. Compare that to my Blades of Leander or Wanted Trilogy and it’s like pitting the Detroit Redwings against my friends and I when we were young enough to play roller hockey ever Saturday in a church parking lot.

Human Nature, sci-fi / romance by Jason Halstead

Sex Sells, a romantica novel by Jason Halstead

My wife wants me to write murder mystery and is offering me bonus points if I can add in an artful blend of smut. I’ll be honest, I’d love to figure out how I can pull it off – there’s a huge audience out there for it. I have to find a story and characters that talk to me first. Unfortunately I can’t just walk around in a nearby Pier 1 store until something starts singing to me to find it. That and, until my writing career is my day job, I tend to stick with the books that I know will give me a return that gets me closer to realizing my goals. When I get to that point I’ll be happy to do some experimenting now and then, but I plan to keep up with the existing material as well. I don’t just write it because people want me to, I write it because it’s what I like too.

Currently I focus on science fiction and fantasy genres, with some carry over into urban fantasy. I tend to mesh them all together from time to time, but my most successful books are definitely pure science fiction and pure fantasy. But am I targeting an audience or a genre? No, I’m not. I’m just telling stories about people and I put them in a setting that allowed me tell it.

Speaking of characters, I’ve had character concepts that I knew I had to do something with but I didn’t know what, how, or when to do them. Katalina Wimple, star character of The Lost Girls series, is one such person. I had no idea what to do with her when she smacked me in the back of the head one day and demanded I tell people about her. I theorized putting her in something unique or trying to work her into an existing series (I had done this with a few characters and story ideas in my Voidhawk series already). With Kat she almost became my first attempt at a murder / mystery / detective genre – but I realized she was too self-destructive and couldn’t survive without some help. Thus it became a natural fit for her to be in my Dark Earth setting.

Having said all of that, I also set out at one point with the intent to write a pure genre specific story because the genre seemed to have a lot of opportunity. Thus begat my Child of Fate book and later Victim of Fate and Silver Dragon (the Blades of Leander trilogy). And yes, it’s done very well for itself since it came out only a few months ago. I intend to continue the stories further, but have yet to begin doing so.

In other books I’ve stuck with science fiction as a genre. My Vitalis series was crazy successful last spring and summer. I even had one fan tell me how she had never had any interest in science fiction but she took a risk on Vitalis. It was the perfect gateway drug into scifi because I focused on the characters and on telling a story, not on the scifi aspect. She has become a loyal and dedicated fan and regularly interacts with me. To follow up on that I’m finishing my third Vitalis novel (Vitalis: Provenance) this week or next and planning to release it in early May). I wasn’t writing those books with a desire to go after a market though, I was writing about characters that had to be in that setting in order for me to share what I wanted share about them.

So what’s the answer to the question I keep dodging? I think I’m writing for everyone mature enough to handle what I’m writing. There is language in a lot of my stories that is not fitting for young adult or children’s books. There are adult themes unfitting for young adult or earlier. And in many there’s action and violence. I’d say I write for anyone 18 and above – I don’t discriminate. J

I do like to provide characters with quirks. People that are challenging and even difficult. People with traits or beliefs that make them unpopular or controversial. I have lesbians in some of my books, one of them a man hating destructive lesbian in fact. I have a gay couple in one of my books as well – the interesting thing about that is that I’ve received nothing but kudos from women for portraying female characters (especially the lesbian) as realistic and touching. On the other hand I received a review or two that was scathing for daring to write about gay men with any level of detail. The review was written by a man who found it disagreeable and refused to read it because of that, then he left a bad review to follow up on it.

I’m a live and let live kind of guy, just don’t push anything on me. If he felt I was pushing homosexuality on him I sincerely apologize. There was nothing overt or excessive in the book that couldn’t be seen on prime time TV (well as far as that couple was concerned, there was a lot of bloodshed and violence later in the book but those were aliens – fair game).

If I’m guilty of anything it’s trying to put out a message of tolerance and open mindedness in my books. That and that if my characters can survive the crap I throw at them and make themselves better because of it, then maybe the average person reading the book is just as capable. In spite of our inability to elect governors that can get along and govern properly I’m a firm believer that the human race consists of billions of remarkable people that can do anything and everything, especially if we can put aside our biases and beliefs that make us prejudiced. To lead by example I’m even willing to go so far as to give Colorado Avalanche fans a fair chance.

 

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 .

 

Dirty Words

I read a review on one of my books the other day where the reviewer critiqued the use of harsh language in the book. He compared it to some works by classic authors that kept their dialogue clean and wondered at the necessity of expletives. It was a great question for me to ponder and it brought up a lot of mental discussion between the voices in my head.

People swear. People in intense situations swear more. The phrase, “swearing like a sailor” or truck driver exist because of stereotypes that developed courtesy of many people in those roles perpetuating them. I spent nearly twenty years in the auto industry and there was a lot of harsh language tossed around casually there. I spent time in and around the military and there’s a great deal of zealous use of colorful language there as well. I’ve worked in other industries and I’ve been around people my entire life – yep, just about everybody drops a choice word or two from time to time.

As a society we’ve definitely relaxed our standards on profanity. Aural or visual, we let more things slide. I cringe when I hear language in front of children that I don’t think they should be exposed to, but I know I’ve slipped up and tossed out a verbal potpourri of profanity on occasion myself when the situation warranted it (e.g. smashing my thumb between couch and wall and losing half the nail in the process).

But what about books? Do we need profanity in books? If we’re struggling to maintain believable realism and our characters are portrayed properly, then yes, we probably do. Sure, you’ll run across the occasional Marine Special Operator or CIA field agent that keeps his or her language clean but the odds of finding more than a handful in any one location are slim to none.

It’s going to depend on the characters too. There are exceptions in every demographic but as a writer I can say that I can portray a mood or a feel for a scene / situation better by using appropriate language to describe it. And sometimes that means slapping the reader upside the face with an F bomb to get their attention.

Wanted, the book the reader reviewed, starts off with just such an epithet. There’s a lot of abusive language in it because some of the characters talk and think that way. That’s how they were raised or how the experiences in their lives led them to behave. Heck, there are characters strung out on drugs and alcohol – I doubt they’re going to keep it clean. For that matter Wanted has some adult situations in it as well – the book has an R rating because of language, sexuality, and general bad-assery. The two follow up books in the Wanted trilogy (or the Wanted Trilogy boxed set) are very similar. It’s a fun and entertaining story that’s easy to become immersed in. My mother even loves the Wanted series in spite of the many times I’ve heard her say that she has to focus on not remembering that her son wrote the books!

Back to the original question: do we need harsh language in our books? It depends on the book. I say if we want our readers to be able to connect with the characters then they need to feel like the character is real. Realism, fortunately or not, requires both the shiny side as well as the dirty side of the coin.

Ultimately I engaged this one particular reader and got him to talk about it. That is a success to me. The book touched him enough to make him speak about it, and he said he liked the book and looked forward to the next one in spite of the harsh language. I’ll consider that a win any day.

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 .

 

Experience and Treachery

I’ve been planning a LAN party for a few months now with some old friends. LAN as in Local Area Network and old as in friends I’ve known for many years. I don’t consider them old because that would mean I’m old and I’m not ready to go there for another forty years or so.

Clarifications aside, the LAN party happened last weekend. It was a good time even though only five of them could make it due to work problems (for a total of six people). The game of choice was Battlefield 2: Bad Company and it was a lot of fun for everyone – mostly because none of us were any good at it. We’d hoped for something more recent to play but it seems like any new games that come out that are multiplayer focus on Internet play and that’s it. Or LAN play is limited to 4 people. The days of local network gaming seem to be over and that’s a sad thing.

Perhaps I’m nostalgic or sentimental, but it seems like we’re sending everything to the cloud these days. Data, applications, work, and now even our friends. Oh sure, I’m all about changing and adapting to what makes sense, or at least what the world expects and demands. But I also wonder if we’re missing out on anything along the way. Experts stressed about the social implications of the Internet for years but now it seems they’re shutting up about it. People are still able to interact and while Internet porn-fueled masturbation is probably higher than ever, people are still getting married and having babies.

And speaking of porn and the LAN party I think we broke a tradition we’ve held for nearly two decades. Nobody went home with their desktop wallpaper changed into something pornographic and very disturbing when their back was turned. I know it’s not because we’re growing up and becoming more mature – we’re guys! It must have been because by 5 am we were all exhausted and ready to crash.

I learned something else while I hosted and interacted with my friends – I’m not the same level of geek that I used to be. A few of the guys were going on about the multiple TV tuners in their media center systems and the Synology drives with nearly 20 terabytes of storage and I felt like I was watching an Olympic ping pong match. It was fast and furious and confusing and, ultimately, I didn’t understand the point of it. The cable / satellite companies make these handy devices called DVRs that allow you to record shows and they work pretty good. Not to mention the complication and hassle of setting up / maintaining all that stuff. I had to look up Synology just this morning, two days later, to connect the dots and figure out what the heck they were talking about!

Don’t think I’m without blame or that I lost my nerd card. I did a count this weekend and between my system, my data and print server, a spare PC I put together for a friend to use out of extra parts I had laying, my kids computers, my wife’s computer, and the tablets laying around the house we’ve got 11 computing devices. That doesn’t include the ereaders. Heck, my main system has a 40″ 1080p television as the primary monitor, although I picked up a new 27″ Asus monitor that supports a resolution up to 2560 x 1440 on it as an early birthday present yesterday so I could go with dual monitors. Because, you know, 40″ just isn’t enough screen space.

There was also some discussion on SSD versus HDD. For the layman that’s Solid State Drive versus Hard Disk Drive. Solid state is like the USB thumb drives, only much larger and faster. I had some experience supporting drives like those years ago at a company and I wasn’t happy with their performance. To be fair, they’d only recently come out at the time that I swore them off. These days they’re still more expensive and can store less data than their traditional counter parts (HDD, with spinning platters and moving parts), but they’ve come a long ways. A few friends swore up and down by the SSD drive and said I had to try them out even if I didn’t need it. I guess I reached a point where I’m happy with what I’ve got. It works and handles what I need. And more importantly I was the high scorer in our LAN party every single game. So nyah! Young whippersnappers and their fancy new toys. Youth and talent is great, but never underestimate the value of experience and treachery.

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 .

Every Man’s Dream – Another Threesome!

That’s assuming the men in question are into rocking epic fantasy books. This time I’ve put my latest fantasy trilogy into a more convenient and cheaper virtual boxed set.  It’s a combination of the three books in my Blades of Leander trilogy and it’s called…wait for it…Blades of Leander!

There’s nothing new in it not found in the other books (aside from a retyped Afterword by the Author), so if you already have Child of Fate, Victim of Fate, and Silver Dragon don’t bother buying this. If you’re missing two or more of those books, on the other hand, pick it up – it’s a great deal!

Here’s the blurb, which is nothing more than a combination of the three individual book blurbs, and the new title put together by that pixel wizard, Willsin Rowe.

 

All three books in the Blades of Leander trilogy wrapped up in a single virtual boxed set!

Child of Fate

Early winters and distant cities make the northern reaches fit only for adventurous homesteaders. Alto is on the verge of becoming such a man when his father is ambushed by monstrous raiders from the mountains.

Determined to find help for his father Alto leaves his home behind and sets out with a group of adventurers tasked with learning the true nature of the raids. Help for his family grows more and more distant as the boy is swept up into a budding war with a neighboring nation and the threats of evil forces from the mountains.

A fiery-tempered princess from the eastern kingdom falls into Alto’s hands by twist of fate.  The fate of two nations rests in their hands, provided they can keep them off of each other’s throats.

 

Victim of Fate

Life has gotten boring for the heroes of Highpeak. The monsters in the mountains have disappeared and even the bandits harassing caravans are looking to easier pickings. Relegated to finding work rescuing lost maidens from enchanted forests, Alto becomes separated from his friends and is soon lost in a darkness of sorcery and corruption.

The young warrior’s old foes return and this time they’ve come looking for him. For every action, good or bad, there is a consequence. Alto will discover the cost of his actions and then he must find a way to pay for them.

 

Silver Dragon

Alto’s hands are stained with the blood of the fallen. The only justice he can find must be had by the blade, but the path of vengeance shows him that he is but a pawn in a far more dangerous game. Sarya’s plans reach far beyond anything the young warrior could imagine and require a sacrifice from him greater than he can give.

Alto must make fear his ally if he is to lead his companions into the dragon’s lair with any hope of saving the woman he loves and the two nations he calls home.

 

 

Amazon

Amazon UK

 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.