Jason Halstead's Blog, page 30

I’ve Got New Numbers to Play With!

Amazon just released a new statistic for writers like me. It’s called the author ranking, which allows us to compare and contrast ourselves against other writers on Amazon. It shows overall ranking and has rankings broken down by genre. Sounds pretty cool and useful, right?

For me the jury’s still deliberating on this one. Is it nice having an idea how I’m doing compared to other writers? Sure. I don’t have to be the best, but I’d like to be good enough. My goal isn’t to be better than any other writer, my goal is to be good enough that writing is the only job I have. Unfortunately I’m a long ways away from being there. Knowing how I rank compared to other writers doesn’t help me get to that goal, it only gives me a point of reference that, ultimately, is useless.

For example, I’m ranked at 2,245 among kindle writers, but for fiction that rank climbs to 1,784. For fantasy the number climbs higher, to 223. But that doesn’t tell me who the man or woman in spot 222 or, more importantly, what the difference between 223 and 222 means in measurable terms (e.g. how many sales / day or how much additional income). I’m fairly certain the high fantasy ranking comes from my existing fantasy series, Voidhawk (the first book is free, check it out!).

Ultimately, it doesn’t provide me with a means of getting to that next ranking either. When there’s a slump or an increase the author ranking number will help give me an idea of whether there’s a slump in overall book sales or if just mine are dropping (or increasing), which is a useful tool. Sales drive the number, but what is #222 doing to get those extra sales over me? If I knew who the person was I could try to check out their methods and emulate them, but that may be pointless to. Why? Because of statistics.

The average writer on Amazon is not making a thousand book sales a month. I have no idea what they are making without digging into Google and trying to weed out the fact from fiction, but I am very confident that the average writer is raking in less than $500 a month from Kindle sales. Maybe even less than $100. That means whatever they are doing isn’t working very well. Maybe they’re doing nothing. Whatever the case, emulating what everyone else is doing is not the answer unless you only want mediocre results.

So why not emulate those more successful? That’s typically a good plan, except eventually everybody will be doing it. At that time the game changes and the numbers realign themselves. The people who are at the top of the game have one thing in common, they are doing something different. They are statistical outliers, the kinds of bumps that are cast aside when trying to perform an analysis of a sample of data.

Conformity is encouraged by our educational institutions and business practices, yet some of those willing to march to their own beat are the ones that end up being successful in ways beyond their imagination. Not all of them, but you’ve got a better chance of success trying something than you do by not trying, even if it’s only 1%.

But even then, in the business of books, what works for one person may not work for someone else. Marketing and selling books is a great example of the chaos theory because there are so many variables involved. The promo campaign might be the same thing used to elevate another writer to NY Times bestseller status, but if my cover isn’t as good or my blurb doesn’t spark as much interest then I falter. Or maybe the word of mouth isn’t generated at the right time. My reviews might not come in quickly enough. Maybe my price point drives people off (not worth the risk or it could be too low for people to take it seriously).

Hitting the top of a list and staying there is an incredible feat. It feels great, I managed it for a couple of months earlier this year with my science fiction series, Vitalis. More often than not achieving that status requires a perfect storm of luck and hard work. Riding that tumultuous wave is even more difficult.

So, for me, the answer is to keep writing and working hard. I don’t need to be better than the other 100,000+ authors on Amazon, I just need to be good enough to reach my goals and provide for myself and my family. I am curious how my rank reacts when my next book comes out, it’s a fantasy novel called Child of Fate and the beginning of a new series. I expect the author rank to climb, both overall and most particularly in the fantasy genre. Whatever the rank is will only be a point of interest to me though, it’s not the number that matters. What matters will be whether people like it or not and how the sales come in. I’m notorious for being guardedly optimistic, but even with that I’m expecting great things from the new series over time.

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

Grabbing Fate by the Balls

I’m a huge proponent of free will. I believe that people have choices in life and they can make whatever they wish with those choices. However, those choices are limited by their environment. Meaning I believe I can do anything I want to do, provided I know what those ‘anythings’ exist. If I’m unaware of a profession or task then I can’t aspire to do it. This one of the cornerstones of the argument for or against free will.

Just as I feel that I choose my own destiny, I believe that my characters in my books are able to do so as well (even if they don’t think that way).

I’m writing about a guy right now who defines free will. Carl Waters, hero of Wanted, Ice Princess, and soon to be Bounty. He’s an aggressive son of gun who insists on living life his way and won’t put up with anyone telling him otherwise. In his cantankerous insistence on his personal liberties he somehow manages to go from being a rebel to an endearing role model.

But I’m not above using fate as a plot device either. Take my upcoming new release, Child of Fate as an example. The title itself implies some sort of prophetic storyline. Since I prefer avoiding such things I barely touch on anything like that, but I like to leave the reader wondering just who is the child of fate in this story?

Child of Fate is a coming of age story in a fantasy setting. You’ve read dozens or hundreds of them already, right? What makes this one different? Well the main character(s) start out reasonably young and while we all know there’s not too much innocence left for 16 and 17 year olds in the industrialized world, the story is told from their perspective. In spite of that, there’s moral dilemmas, death, and a whole lot of traditional sword and sorcery style of excitement. That, to me, is what has been missing from a lot of books lately. We all want to see an underdog triumph against overwhelming odds, but everyone is so focused on spinning some outlandish new paradigm that we’ve lost sight of how much fun an honest-to-goodness melee against a horde of goblins and trolls can be!

Of course there’s more to it than mindless hack and slash. Much more. There’s the intrigue being developed by an powerful evil overlord, there’s the troubling questions posed by young romance, there’s the question of how will the child of fate play a role in the future of the embroiled nations, and what about the influence of powerful magic on people unprepared to deal with using it? Gah, it almost sounds like Harry Potter! Well rest assured, there is no dark lord who must not be named, nor are there any stuff old professors who look like they should reek of moth balls and cigarette smoke. What Child of Fate does have is the beginning of a fantastic new series that will follow the characters as they evolve and mature. They have adventures to undertake and obstacles to overcome, many of them personal as well as plot-based.

Oh, Child of Fate also has a swamp troll that is very near and dear to my heart. I plan on giving him recurring cameo appearances throughout the series that will insure hilarity. In fact, Thork (da troll), may very well generate a spin off collection of short stories at some point. Trust me, you can’t help but love the scary, smelly, and green guy!

Child of Fate should be out in November. Bounty, the end of the Wanted trilogy, should be out in December.

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

Filling the Void

I’ve always been fascinated by science fiction and fantasy. I loved to read and watch stories that took place in those genres, but I had a hard time creating my own. Fantasy wasn’t nearly as difficult once I figured out I needed to discard the limitations imposed by other people and find my own, but that didn’t mean what I wrote was worth reading.

Science fiction, on the other hand, was an animal of a different breed. With science fiction I kept running into the wall of probability. Meaning I would write something but I’d find it too improbable to ever happen. I’d crumple it up and toss it away. I stumbled across hard sci-fi issues such as faster than light travel and space age weaponry. Even high tech and miniaturization didn’t seem like it could solve many of the problems I encountered. For me there was always that element of believability that was missing. Then I found Serenity.

More specifically I stumbled across Firefly one day on television. It happened to be a marathon of the Firefly shows – I stumbled across it after Fox had cancelled the show. I thought it was cheesy and ridiculous at first, but by the second show I realized I was sucked in. As soon as I was able, I bought the boxed set and watched all of the available episodes. After that I picked up Serenity, the movie Joss Whedon made to finalize the prematurely cancelled series.

Somewhere along the way I realized that I’d just found the answers to my problems. I loved science fiction and I loved fantasy. Why not combine the two? Joss Whedon had done something somewhat similar with Firefly and it had become a wild success with rabid fans (including myself). I could handle a few rabid fans, but I had to figure out how to make it happen.

Thus began Voidhawk, the tale of a man who finds a medieval wooden ship that can magically capture the waves of light floating through the void (space) and sail between the stars. One man alone couldn’t do the work, nor would it make for very witty dialogue carrying on conversations with himself. The Voidhawk needed a crew, and acquiring that crew proved to be the first several stories.

Each character comes with their own complications and back story, as well as motives and goals. The characters are rich and full, though it takes some longer than others to fully explore themselves. There’s more than just camaraderie that brings them together, there’s also betrayal and far deeper and more complicated emotions.

I borrowed from Firefly as far as writing each chapter as an episode. The chapters were linked together and sequential, but the larger story arc wasn’t apparent to me yet. I was having too much fun writing novellas that would make for approximately 30 – 60 minute long television episodes (with commercials). By the time I had ten of those episodes finished I officially renamed them chapters and tied them more closely together. A novel-length plot had also arisen from the chapters, making it an official book in more ways than one.

Still, what hopes did I have for amassing a following with such a book? It had to be a niche market, at best. I loved the characters and the premise so much that I submitted it to various publishers and received various rejections. Until one day somebody said they liked it and they saw beyond the horrible writing.

I was introduced to an editor by the name of J.E. Taylor and she was quite brutal with me. I needed it. A few years and a couple of books later Taylor and I remain very good friends. She was instrumental in helping me become a better writer, although being dedicated to improving and having thick skin definitely helped me out!

Voidhawk, in all its niche market glory, met with very limited success. No promotion or marketing was done for it and being a fledgling to the trade I had no idea how to do any of it myself. Instead I focused on writing more. Over the course of the next few years I wrote four more books in the series and, all told, I’ve managed to sell over 8,500 copies of those books and give away 20,000 copies of the original Voidhawk book. Voidhawk remains indefinitely available to download as a free book from Amazon, Kobo, Sony, iTunes, and Smashwords. It’s available on Barnes and Noble as well, but not for free. There’s a print version on Amazon / Createspace, but that’s not free either.

So it turned out that people were drawn in to the Voidhawk series beyond the niche appeal. It blends fantasy with elements of science fiction and has stories with simple messages that anyone can identify with, no matter whether you’re a dirthugging human or an elf determined to rule the void. For that matter I’ve even got a couple of chapters focused on a zombie-apocalypse. How much easier to understand can it get?

To bring the post to a close, Voidhawk showed me how to write. It freed me from convention and allowed me to color outside the lines. Suddenly I could write anything I wanted to. It wasn’t about the hard science or the believability, it was about creating what did make sense to tell the important parts of the story – the characters – and let the supporting material fall in place. Faster than light travel? In a universe such as ours where the future holds infinite possibilities why not? Just because I may not be able to conjure up a mathematical formula that provides a means of reaching superluminal velocities doesn’t mean the characters in my sci-fi books can’t do it either.

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

Fricking Awesome

I’ll admit I’m not usually given to such eloquent words of praise. In this case though I think it’s very applicable. That’s how I feel about what a reader just said in a review on Amazon about my Lost Girls series, in particular the final book, Black Widow. Don’t believe me? Here’s the 5 star review in full:

Fricking Awesome October 2, 2012
I bought the whole series and if the author sees this, let me just say thank you and please write more. Usually I’d be more descriptive but I’m feeling a little sleepy. I definitely recommend reading this book. You will be entertained. I honestly think all of the books would be perfect as a movie if given to the right individual. Love the characters and storylines especially in this particular one.

How could I feel anything but a giant warm fuzzy feeling after reading that? Truth be told, it kind of echoes what I thought of the book as I wrote it, but to be fair the characters in that book touched me in ways different and perhaps deeper than any other characters I’ve ever written about. There was a lot of pain in those characters, some of it I induced, but also a lot of joy. Okay, I suppose I created all of the pain, not just some of it, but with a good character I don’t feel like I created them. It’s more like they just showed up one day and offered to let me write about them. That’s how it was with Katalina Wimple.

Sadly, I don’t have any more planned for Katy. Not only am I afraid of what she might do to me if I tried to run her through a meat grinder again, but her friends and family have become very formidable as well. I don’t want to be the first writer tortured and killed by his own fictional characters!

On the matter of movies – I’d love to have my books turned into movies. I write them with the thought in my head of seeing them on a big (or at least medium) screen. So far nobody has stumbled across them and offered to take me up on the offer, but I remain hopeful!

So instead I write about other people. Take Carl Waters, one of my first characters in the book, Wanted. He and Jessie are back and more fun (and irascible) than ever in Bounty, the third and final book in their trilogy that I’m working on now.  So far I’ve worked in another measly 800 words today on the story. My plan calls for a couple thousand more (at least). It’s a great book so far and I can’t wait to share it with the world. Wanted has a bunch of great reviews too, by the way (and it’s free on Amazon).

Now I’d better get back to writing! There are a lot of people who are anxious for this book to come out. I hope, if you’re reading this, you’re one of them!

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

I Need a 12 Step Program

Not because I drink, gamble, or do drugs. No, I need help recovering from my trip to Vegas! My first night back I got almost 3 hours of sleep. Last night I more than doubled that amount but I think I’m more tired now than I was yesterday. Not sure if that’s due to the time zone difference or if it’s returning to the stresses of home life. I’m not complaining about being stressed out, I’m just pointing out that we all have stressors during our day to day lives that we don’t even think about – worrying about getting enough sleep, a deadline at work, a boss or employee that isn’t performing in a way that makes us happy, flagging book sales, a puppy that won’t stop peeing on the carpet, pending monthly hormonal concerns, financial worries, the list goes on and on. And no, those are random thoughts I brought up, not necessarily anything that applies to me. Especially the hormonal item.

On the flip side there are things that happen at home that make me happy. Spending time with my family is a great example. So is making progress on a project at work or finishing off another chapter on my latest writing project. I wrapped up chapter 7 of Bounty last night and it’s turning into another great book following in the tradition of Wanted and Ice Princess. It feels more like Wanted than Ice Princess, to me, although Carl has definitely changed thanks to Jessie and Allison forcing themselves into his life. Now his problem is that he has to keep them alive long enough to figure out who wants to kill them this time. In typical Carl Waters fashion the question of why he and his family seem to have a price on their heads isn’t nearly as important as who’s behind it. Just like Carl doesn’t care what kind of venom a snake has as long as he can kill the snake before it has a chance to bite him.

I figure I’m 25% – 30% of the way through the book so far. My hope is for an early December release date. I’ll be sure to keep everyone posted!

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

Picking Up The Pieces

Five days and four nights in Las Vegas can be a traumatic experience. Like the infamous film “The Hangover,” I stayed at Caesar’s Palace while I was in Vegas. There was also some alcohol involved and someone in my small group of people had a partial blackout… but the similarities end there.

Instead I had a great time and came back spending less than I expected. I know, that shouldn’t be possible, but my wife hit a nice jackpot on a slot machine our second day in at New York New York and we lived off those winnings the rest of the trip. Along the way we had a great time with friends we haven’t seen in a couple of years and stayed very busy.

I’d hoped to see some of the Mr. Olympia show or expo while we were there – I know I was asked countless times how the show was going and if I was competing (yes, I was really asked that on numerous occasions, as well as an invitation to join an arm wrestling contest and another guy advising me not to get mad and hit anybody). Instead we saw the sights and took in some great food. Mesa Grill and Hiyakumi were the two best dinner experiences, with the sushi and sashimi at Hyakumi taking our top spot. The new Bacchanal Buffet at Caesar’s was impressive too, but overpriced considering there’s no way we could eat the amount of food offered. Especially when the chefs took a look at me at the meat station and said I needed one of everything. Eating all that meat damn near killed me (prime rib, spare ribs, lamb, turkey, chicken, a couple of sausages, brisket, and a few others I can’t remember).

The pools at Caesar’s Palace were great too. Nine pools, including the European Style Venus pool. And by European I mean tops optional. We wanted to check it out and almost went over to it…until we found out there was an additional $20 cover for men to go there. Disappointing, we really wanted to experience everything Caesar’s Palace had to offer but we weren’t going to spend the money for that purely on principle.

Our last night there my wife and I went to see Zumanity, a Cirque Du Soleil show at New York New York. It’s claimed to be a very sensual show that will leave you wanting to tear your significant others clothes off by the time it’s over. It doesn’t do that. I’d also heard that it hits every fetish imaginable in its exploration and exhibition of human sexuality. It doesn’t do that either. Now granted, my experiences as a writer have left me a bit jaded in the realm of human depravity.

What Zumanity does do is entertain. It was a lot of fun and I was very impressed with the different acts and feats of strength, skill, and poise. And yes, there were some rather sensual acts in it, as well as a lot of humor. The only thing that left me wishing I could un-see what I’d seen was one member of the troop who was faintly reminiscent of a raging homosexual version of Prince. This character stayed in the background mostly, other than when he was supposed to sweep across the stage with a Batman like cape that covered everything. Even with that particular character creeping me out I highly recommend the show to anyone who’s not afraid of a little adult humor. Just be warned, if you sit in the front row or two you might find yourself becoming a participant.

But what about the research? I did a lot of that, and I’m very happy with what I saw and experienced. Loads of material for Bounty, and maybe someday I’ll write something else that takes place in or near Vegas. I do wish I’d had the time to see a couple more sights and to corner one waitress at the pool so I could ask her more questions. I don’t know what her name is but she had an awesome tattoo on her side that read, “I’m a Barbie Girl in a Barbie World.” So yes, I instantly took to calling her Barbie. Barbie was a waitress five days a week and then her second job was that of a go-go dancer. I wanted to get the behind the scenes on that second career.

On the off chance anybody reading this has experience at that sort of thing, shoot me an email – I’d love to pick your brain! Until then, I’ll just have to make things up and fill in the blanks with glamorous fun. Bounty won’t stand for anything less than being an over the top sensation!

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

Escaping Las Vegas

My wife and I came to Vegas with every intention of living the “what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas” lifestyle. Our intent was to put some of the sin back in Sin City. And so far, we’ve done a fairly decent job of it – and yes, there are some stories that won’t be told. However, I came here with many goals and I’m happy to say that I’m seeing almost all of them realized.

Vegas was more about having a good time, it’s also going to set the stage for a near future science fiction book I’m writing called Bounty. It’s the third and final book in my Wanted trilogy. Wanted and Ice Princess, incidentally, have probably been my most successful books to date (although my fantasy series, Voidhawk, is serious contender). I’ve been to Vegas before but I was looking for some inspiration on things to put in the book as well as some insight into nightclub life.

I’ve never been much for dancing. Two left feet and being tone deaf are only the beginnings of my problems. Add in the fact that I’m a large mammal and I get irritated quickly by people who do stupid things and you can see it’s not my scene. Or at least I always thought it wasn’t my scene, so I avoided it. Last night my wife and some friends we met in Vegas took me to a club and I got to find out firsthand that I was right.

Call me old or boring, but I don’t want to have to shout into somebody’s ear just so they can hear me. And the music that’s playing was fast and constantly being screwed with, on top of only sixty second snippets of the songs being “blended” together by the DJ. I’m not really giving the music part a thumb’s down, other than the fact that it’s just too damn loud. Even if I was foolish enough to dance the wall to wall people on the dance floor made it impossible without some stranger being way too close and likely to pick my pocket as easily as give me a communicable disease normally only transmittable via sexual contact. Yeah, it was that tight. And worse was some of the people on the floor. We counted (and later confirmed) two extremely nasty looking prostitutes that were trying to drum up some clients and another woman who my wife said looked like two pigs wrestling in a blanket. It was a vision that is burned into my memory and something I fear I just can’t purge out. Perhaps that’s why they recommend drinking heavily when going to such places – not so I can’t remember what I did but so I can’t remember what I saw!

But this was for research, and it was successful. I learned a lot and came up with some great ideas. We also stopped by another smaller club that was tasteful and had some exceptional entertainment going on. I have so many ideas I can’t wait for my characters to get to Vegas so I can have some fun with it! And that includes probably doing considerable damage to the fictional club I’ll be creating. I might also include the pigs-wrestling-in-a-blanket chick for ambiance.

We visited Fremont street last night too. Unbeknownst to us it was some bike weekend down there and the place was almost as packed as the night club would be later on. I came out of there feeling a little dirty, but I enjoyed it very much only because I had the experience and lived to tell the tale. The impression I came away with was that I had just been on the set of either Escape from New York or Escape from L.A. The only thing missing was Snake Pliskin!

So all in all, we’ve been having a great time out here. My wife even beat the odds and hit a decent jackpot on a slot machine yesterday. Believe it or not, she’s actually going to come out ahead on gambling this time around. We’ve also eaten at Bobby Flay’s Mesa Grill and I have to say the food was great. I’m not sure it was good enough to warrant the prices, but for a special occasion it was worth it. I will endorse a side dish they have there that consists of some sort of corn with a sauce. It’s incredible. I’m talking incredible like “I’m-having-a-no-strings-attached-affair-in-Vegas” incredible without the guilt. My wife and I shared a bowl of it, so I guess that makes it almost like a menage-a-troi…with corn. Okay, as weird as that just became trust me on it and give it a chance if you have the opportunity. You won’t regret it.

So between the days spent lounging at the pool, gambling, or just enjoying ourselves I’ve also managed to get some writing down on Bounty. Not a lot, unfortunately, but I’ve made it through one chapter so far and plan to keep on going. I read a book called Crystal Illusions, by J.E. Taylor, while lounging by the pool and would recommend it to anyone who enjoys mystery / crime thrillers with a little twist of the paranormal or supernatural.

All in all, a pretty successful vacation thus far! We’re headed to see a Cirque show tonight (Zumanity) and headed home tomorrow afternoon. I’ll be sure to ramble on about what that’s all about, as well as any more progress or dastardly plans I might have for Bounty! This just goes to prove how dangerous writers are – we’re like a mental pandemic, spreading things far and wide that should probably be confined to the borders of Vegas.

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

The Grass Really Is Greener Over Here

The only problem – most of the grass in Las Vegas is artificial. Today’s the first full day of my vacation here in Vegas and I’m doing a great job of enjoying myself. I have every intention of keeping that up and forgetting all about my day job while I’m here, but the writing sticks with me.

To that point, I’ve got a promo campaign going right now centered around my Vitalis series. It just started on the 22nd of September and it’s ramping up slowly. One cool thing the marketing gurus I’m working with came up with was a very snazzy press release for the book. In the interest of ‘there’s no such thing as too much exposure’, I’m pasting it into this blog to share just how cool it is. And please note that I had several inappropriate jokes about being exposed in Sin City that I removed before finally posting this.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Penny Sansevieri, CEO

penny@amarketingexpert.com

(858) 560-0121

 

     Popular Sci-Fi Series Now Available In One Collection

Christmas has come early for Sci-Fi fans with seven books packaged into a single edition.

 

(WARREN, OH) Due to popular demand, author Jason Halstead has released the Vitalis Omnibus edition to include the first seven Vitalis stories in one edition.

 

In Vitalis Omnibus, Part I of the Vitalis series, Mysterious blackouts left Kira with precious few memories of events in her life, never mind those worth sharing. Somewhere in those blank spots she acquired skills – skills she was hard pressed to explain. But those skills got her a job as the new navigator for the Rented Mule, a transport ship that plied the Rim Systems at the very edge of human civilization.

When their ship is set upon by pirates Kira’s skills allow her and the crew to escape, only to find themselves stranded in deep space with only one chance for survival, an undiscovered planet teeming with life that is light years beyond the borders of the Terran Coalition of Systems.

Forced to crash land, the crew of the Rented Mule learns immediately that the key to surviving on Vitalis is a closely guarded secret. Vitalis has a way of getting inside the mind, body, and soul of a person and once it’s got them, it doesn’t let them go.

 

“This book (series) keeps you riveted from the beginning to the end. What people really appreciate is a hero who takes what is given them and excels in spite of everything. Because of our present sedate society we need heroes today more than ever. This series takes you from your dull every day life and lets you experience something which keeps you blood flowing, at least for a little while. When finished I felt saddened that I needed to wait to experience more. This series takes you into a life that most of us would give anything to live.” – Amazon reviewer

 

And Halstead continues to deliver – when readers are done with Part I they can purchase newly released Part II, Vitalis: Resurrection via Amazon.

 

Learn more at www.booksbyjason.com.

 
Title: Vitalis Omnibus
Author: Jason Halstead

Published: 2012

ASIN: B0089MZ09M

Publisher: Novel Concept Publishing LLC

 

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

You’re Invited!

Between day job and writing things have been hectic lately – and that’s not including quality family time and my other obsessions. Nonetheless, it’s time for a break. I’ve got a great start on the third and final book in my Wanted trilogy, and I hope to squeeze in a little bit more over this weekend. I mention only a little because I’m planning on being otherwise occupied. This time though I’ll be trying hard to do as little as I can. That’s right, it’s time for a vacation. My wife and I are headed to Vegas for a few days.

It was while I was daydreaming about Vegas that I came up with some ideas for this third Wanted book. That, in turn, has me wanting to check out a few specific things while I’m on vacation so I can do some research for the book. Come to think of it, I wonder if I can use some of the research specific costs as write offs?

I finally came up with a working title for the book. I’m over 10,000 words into it, it’s about time! Unless something better pops into my head the third Wanted book shall be called: Bounty. That title ties things together rather nicely and it has a lot of additional deeper hidden meanings associated with it too. I’d considered a few vengeance – themed titles but I didn’t want to give too much of the book away.

Now then as to the invitation. Vegas is a big place with a lot of people. I’ve had occasional fan mail from readers in Las Vegas as well. My invitation is that if anyone should happen to find a needle in a haystack and recognize me, I encourage and invite you to come up and say hi. Hopefully you’ll catch me before I’ve reached the point where I’m drooling on myself and stumbling into the pools at Caesar’s Palace!

In fact, by the time you’ve started reading this I should be on the plane headed west. I try my best to not get excited about things prematurely, but now that it’s all but here I can’t help but admit I’m really looking forward to checking out for a few days and meeting up with some great people (hopefully that includes a few people I’ve never met before!). Keep an eye out for this guy:

 

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

Trapped on a Desert Island With Only Twenty of Us

Up to the point of acquiring a medical condition, I’m a huge proponent of spending time with yourself and by yourself. It may seem anti-social, but there’s so much focus on socialization and communication in the world that spending some “me” time can be a powerful sedative.

As a writer I can improve this “me” time by spending it in a setting of my own choosing. I’d get in trouble for it when I was younger – it was called daydreaming then. But now it’s the fuel source for my next potential bestselling book. And all I have to do is let my mind go and wonder, “What if…”.

The unfortunate part to all of this is that the social skills don’t decay. That’s because of the other people. Yes, spending time with myself involves other people. Not the people in the background wherever I’m at, but the people in the foreground. The characters. Maybe it’s Carl putting somebody in their place for doing stupid or maybe it’s Katy trying to figure out who’s been trying to kidnap a little girl in her neighborhood. It might be Elsa and Tarn fighting off some enormous jungle predators or Dexter wondering how he let his daughter convince him that he should let her learn how to sail the Voidhawk at the tender age of six. Whether it’s those characters or others (Alto, Patrina, Dawn, Robbie, Cassiopeia just to name a few), I’m haunted by voices that demand I tell their story. They live out the scenes almost like I’m watching a movie in my head. Sometimes they pause and re-enact the scene, changing details because something else might work better. That’s proof, to me, that these characters are just like a lot of us real people are – they like to embellish on what happened to make it sound better.

And sometimes that makes me wonder. Are writers really coming up with all the stories we come up with, or are we just mediums capable to conversing with beings in other worlds and dimensions? That crazy lady who claims to be the Long Island Medium – I’ve long considered her and the show a joke, but now I wonder if maybe she and I aren’t so different. Granted, I don’t walk up to alleged strangers who I’ve never met, read, or seen before and act like I have intimate knowledge of them, but I do readily share such knowledge about people that don’t exist. Or at least they don’t exist in our world. Who’s to say they aren’t real in another world? Perhaps every new idea spawns off an entire new universe in which something is possible. Does that mean that our universe might be nothing more than a story told by someone in another reality?

Deep and perplexing thoughts, and most likely random musing caused by too much or not enough caffeine. Whatever the case, it’s a glimpse into the deviant mind of a fantasy and science fiction writer. As much as that may have troubled or scared you, ask yourself how you’d like to live with these sorts of things in your head all the time? Me, I love it, but that’s because the alternative is foaming at the mouth and wearing a straight jacket.

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