Jason Halstead's Blog, page 32
August 18, 2012
The Dark Side of Research
As a writer I have to do a lot of research. I’m all over the place, genre-wise, so that means I have to be open minded and willing to try new things. Most of the time that’s good, but not always. For every good character or concept in a book there should be something that balances it. And what balances good better than evil? That, unfortunately, means digging into some of the darker sides of humanity in some cases. There are things I’ve learned that I can’t honestly say I’m better off for knowing.
I recently finished Black Widow, a book that caps off a series about a woman who was sexually abused as a child. She took that experience and gained strength from it, becoming a champion for other victims. She becomes a detective who focuses on helping out abused women and children, with a special interest in destroying anything resembling human trafficking. And that, my friends, is what this post is about.
The media is too concerned with which politician was born where and whether they filed their taxes right to care about important issues. Human trafficking, most generally with sexual slavery intentions, is very real and it’s very much alive even here in the United States. I’ve read some accounts and seen some footage that is deeply disturbing. Heart-wrenching, even. As a father or two young children the thought of anything like that ever happening to them is enough to justify nearly any punishment for such offenders. Yet unfortunately, so few of them are ever caught. Meanwhile we have high level members of our government and military being slapped in the wrist for being caught with child pornography.
The numbers are overwhelming when it comes to the people affected by abductions and trafficking. Not just the children taken and abused, but their families and friends that will forever be changed by it as well. It’s easy to get caught up in the landslide of numbers and assume there’s no real impact or difference one person can do. And maybe that’s right, maybe turning in the creepy guy at the mall that keeps following the teenage girls in skirts up the escalator time after time won’t make a difference in the overall numbers. But what about the girl he picks to follow out to her car, slip a rag filled with chloroform over her mouth and nose, and then toss into the trunk of his car? Would it make a difference to her if somebody would have said or done something?
I’m by no means a public spokesman for doing the right thing, nor do I have any ties to law enforcement, but you can bet your ass I keep an eye out for things that are just plain wrong. All I’m asking is that everyone else do the same thing.
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.
August 17, 2012
The Lost Girls Meet a Black Widow
Thanks to a timely turn-around by my content editor (Lisa Shalek), I’m happy to say that Black Widow is out a couple of days before I expected. Black Widow being the fourth book in my Lost Girls series. It brings together everything from the first three books as well as a tying up some loose ends presented in Voices and Bound. All in all, it’s got quite a story arc and I’m very pleased with how things turned out. I suggest checking it out if you enjoy strong female leads, a touch of urban fantasy, and crime & mystery thrillers.
For Katalina Wimple the memories of a lifetime of struggle can disappear in a moment of bliss. They can also come crashing back in when she’s confined in a cold, dark tomb at the mercy of the knife of a new kind of killer.
Katy’s new case puts in unfamiliar territory. This time it’s a man who’s been hurt. A man from her past that she once admired. To solve this case Katy has to find peace with her past and find a killer with more reason to hate than even she has.
Black Widow on Barnes and Noble (coming soon)
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.
August 15, 2012
Looking For Feedback on a Fantasy
So there’s this grotto fed by hot springs, a full moon, and a gentle breeze blowing… Wait a minute, it’s not THAT kind of fantasy! What I’m talking about is a new fantasy book (or hopefully a new series). You see, I finished Vitalis – Resurrection and sent it to my editor yesterday. Black Widow should be out very soon, and that means my fingers are idle and in need of something new to write! Sure, I’ve got lots of options, but I want to break away and start up something new. So I’m thinking fantasy, but my idea of fantasy fiction and what others might like may not be on the same page. I’m very much in the conceptual stages right now, but I’d love to get some feedback on what people think they might like to see. For example…
Should there be a single main character or a small group of them? And if it’s just a single main character, should that character be male or female? (I confess I have a real fondness for writing female leads that kick ass – a combination of juvenile fascination and a desire to show how strong I consider the “gentler” gender to be capable of)
High, medium, or low fantasy? (high = loads of magic rivaling technology, all sorts of races and critters / low = historical earth / medium = somewhere between the two)
I’m willing to entertain any other thoughts or suggestions as well. I have plenty of my own ideas rattling around in my head, I’m just trying to make sure others will be similarly fascinated with what comes of it.
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.
August 13, 2012
Doping: The Eighth Deadly Sin
Apparently years and years of practice, working out, training, and administration of methenolone (street name Parabolan) will allow a person to throw a shot put 70.08 feet. That’s a long ways…too long, according to the IOC. They disqualified the Belarus woman who scored that winning distance for failing a drug test twice. The silver – now gold - medalist tossed hers 67.91 feet, just a hair over 2 feet less. That’s a difference of just a hair over 3%! What amazing gains steroid use allows!
If you detected at least a hint of sarcasm in the paragraph then you read it correctly. I’m a weightlifter, even a former competitive powerlifter. Feats of strength are in my blood, but that’s about it. I know people who have more than that in their blood. I’ve seen people bench press over 500 pounds without a bench shirt. I’ve seen people deadlift and squat 800, 900, and 1000 pounds. You don’t do that with just good looks, eating clean, and hard work. On the flip side, years of hard work AND using juice will add a little something special to your bench press, clean and jerk, squat, deadlift, 100 meter sprint, or shot put. How much? Well figure I made it up to a 405lb bench at 229lb of drug-free bodyweight. Those are pretty good genetics for being beastly strong, but in my case that’s all I had going for me was genetics and years of training. There are lifters out there able to bench 600, 700, and even 800 pounds at 220lbs of bodyweight with the help of genetics, training, and good drugs.
So figure a modest difference of 1.5x what a normal person could d0. If we take 50% and add it to the best a “drug free” person could do and you’d be looking at a shot put of 46.72 feet. But the new gold medalist tested clean and still tossed hers 67.91 feet? Could it mean the athletes and coaches know how to beat the tests? GASP!
Let’s dispense with the bullshit. Olympic and professional athletes use whatever they can to be competitive. They have to or else they’re out of a job. Cameron Van Der Burgh (South Africa) admitted to three dolphin kicks off the wall in his 100 meter breast stroke gold medal race. One is allowed. He says he knows he shouldn’t but when everybody else is doing it if he doesn’t then he’s not able to compete with them. That sums it up right there. If one guy is going to “cheat” then everybody has to if they want to remain competitive.
My suggestion is to stop the BS. You can’t expect new world records every four years without the use of assistance. Training techniques might improve but not by much. People aren’t working out harder now than they have in the past (they’ve worked out damn hard at all times). So give people what they want to see, open it up and let people be superhuman without pretending they’re really not. That’s what we want. That’s what we pay to see. This gives it the chance to be carefully regulated and safe. The only scary thing that could happen would be seeing no significant gains over existing records because of it.
And if that doesn’t work then learn a lesson from Eric Idle in the closing ceremonies and always look on the bright side of life. (the best part of the closing ceremonies, hands down)
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.
Doping: The Eigth Deadly Sin
Apparently years and years of practice, working out, training, and administration of methenolone (street name Parabolan) will allow a person to throw a shot put 70.08 feet. That’s a long ways…too long, according to the IOC. They disqualified the Belarus woman who scored that winning distance for failing a drug test twice. The silver – now gold - medalist tossed hers 67.91 feet, just a hair over 2 feet less. That’s a difference of just a hair over 3%! What amazing gains steroid use allows!
If you detected at least a hint of sarcasm in the paragraph then you read it correctly. I’m a weightlifter, even a former competitive powerlifter. Feats of strength are in my blood, but that’s about it. I know people who have more than that in their blood. I’ve seen people bench press over 500 pounds without a bench shirt. I’ve seen people deadlift and squat 800, 900, and 1000 pounds. You don’t do that with just good looks, eating clean, and hard work. On the flip side, years of hard work AND using juice will add a little something special to your bench press, clean and jerk, squat, deadlift, 100 meter sprint, or shot put. How much? Well figure I made it up to a 405lb bench at 229lb of drug-free bodyweight. Those are pretty good genetics for being beastly strong, but in my case that’s all I had going for me was genetics and years of training. There are lifters out there able to bench 600, 700, and even 800 pounds at 220lbs of bodyweight with the help of genetics, training, and good drugs.
So figure a modest difference of 1.5x what a normal person could d0. If we take 50% and add it to the best a “drug free” person could do and you’d be looking at a shot put of 46.72 feet. But the new gold medalist tested clean and still tossed hers 67.91 feet? Could it mean the athletes and coaches know how to beat the tests? GASP!
Let’s dispense with the bullshit. Olympic and professional athletes use whatever they can to be competitive. They have to or else they’re out of a job. Cameron Van Der Burgh (South Africa) admitted to three dolphin kicks off the wall in his 100 meter breast stroke gold medal race. One is allowed. He says he knows he shouldn’t but when everybody else is doing it if he doesn’t then he’s not able to compete with them. That sums it up right there. If one guy is going to “cheat” then everybody has to if they want to remain competitive.
My suggestion is to stop the BS. You can’t expect new world records every four years without the use of assistance. Training techniques might improve but not by much. People aren’t working out harder now than they have in the past (they’ve worked out damn hard at all times). So give people what they want to see, open it up and let people be superhuman without pretending they’re really not. That’s what we want. That’s what we pay to see. This gives it the chance to be carefully regulated and safe. The only scary thing that could happen would be seeing no significant gains over existing records because of it.
And if that doesn’t work then learn a lesson from Eric Idle in the closing ceremonies and always look on the bright side of life. (the best part of the closing ceremonies, hands down)
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.
August 8, 2012
Sometimes the Voices Don’t Agree
Almost every writer out there knows about the “voices.” It’s the characters in our heads that demand we tell their story. The problem I’ve discovered, is that those internal voices have something in common – as twisted and screwed up as the characters may be we understand them. They make sense.
Why is that a problem? Because in the real world people don’t make sense. Their voices are sometimes shouting two things at once and those two things can be contradictory. It shocks me because I like to think that my readers are a cut above the average. Science fiction and fantasy are the realm of dreamers and thinkers, after all! But in spite of that occasionally it still happens that someone slips into the wrong line. I have no other explanation for why someone would rate a book 1 star and say of it, “Save yourself some frustration and don’t get sucked in.” Um, as a reader I want to be sucked in. I want to find myself immersed in a story.
I’m counter-complaining about my Vitalis series, by the way. It seems people are still bitching about paying a devastating $.99 for the novellas. Or, as they label them, the ‘chapters’. This is speculation on my part but perhaps they seem like chapters (even though each book consists of well over a dozen clearly labeled chapters) because they got sucked in and read them quickly. I’ve bitched before that this was my intent upon writing them, but it keeps coming back to haunt me.
So this person bought it, read it, got sucked into it, and then got frustrated because he had to buy the next one (for, GASP, another $.99 – and the first one is free, by the way. Or buy the Vitalis Omnibus to avoid the frustration of switching books). Okay, that defies my logic but I’ll entertain the process and continue. So seven novellas later a reader has spent $5.94 for a total of seven books that add up to over 400 pages of science fiction that sucks a reader in. I don’t have one handy at present, but the last Dean Koontz novel I bought (the third Odd Thomas book, though the title escapes me), was not that long and it cost me well over $10. I’ll be the first one to admit I’m no Dean Koontz but there are thousands of other authors out there with books that offer the same ratio of lesser length yet higher cost. Shame on me for offering a discount to my readers! Clearly I deserve a public flogging by way of review and a kick in the pants via a poor rating.
Reviews like this hurt sales. Hurting sales means it’s harder for me to A) stay positive and keep writing for those that enjoy the books and B) be able to afford to write. It’s impossible for me to stop contrary people like the reviewer in question from slamming me, but for those with at least two more active gray cells I ask of you to think clearly before leaving a review on anybody’s work. Consider whether the review makes sense objectively. Where you frustrated about something? Were there other parts that offset it? Would you be just as happy sending the author some feedback to let them know your thoughts rather than trying to screw with his or her livelihood? I speak for many of my fellow writers when I say that we enjoy receiving feedback, even the less than pleasant kind.
With all of that said, I’m working hard on my eighth Vitalis book (Resurrection). Yes, I said book. It will not be a novella. Just yesterday I reached a point that takes it to being longer than even the first Vitalis book (New Beginnings) and I’m only halfway through it. I have a lot more of Vitalis in me to write too, I just hope I can afford to do so.
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.
August 3, 2012
How To Do It
Almost every day before the day is done I post on Twitter and my Facebook page a brief update of what the day’s writing was like. How many words and any highlights of what I’ve written. Typically the number is in the 2000 – 3000 or more range. I often use the #amwriting hashtag, though others may retweet it with #inspiring or other such tags associated with it. It comes as a shock and a surprise to many that I can crank out that volume regularly. I’ve been pushing myself to maintain a 1 book a month pace for 2012 and by this time it’s become a habit. Who’d a thunk addictions could be good!
I also often get questions asking how I can do it, and by ‘it’ I mean write that much. Do I keep my muse locked up in a cage under my desk? Do I poke said muse with sticks to make her dance and cavort to release the writing pixie dust? Sadly none of that is the case. Every writer is different, and it comes down to a matter of what you train and condition yourself to do.
I used to compete in powerlifting. For those just sitting down powerlifting involves bench pressing, squatting, and deadlifting the heaviest fricken weights you can lift – and sometimes that comes with disastrous consequences. I set a couple records in the federation I lifted in before disaster struck me, and now I don’t compete anymore. I still lift weights and I still lift heavy, but I’ll never be able to lift what I once did. But you’re asking what the hell weight lifting has to do with writing, right?
It’s the tricks I learned along the way. When training for a major event such as a powerlifting meet the trainee has to be very focused and disciplined. Eating the right foods, drinking the right drinks (and enough of them), and hitting the weights with the right control and frequency. It’s not so different from the Olympics really, except I make absolutely NO challenge to the incredible genetics, talents, and skills the Olympic athletes have – I’ve never been anywhere near that level!
So armed with the knowledge of how to make changes to myself, knowing that I need to focus my brain on the story at hand and sitting down to work on it every day wasn’t that much of a leap. My “trick”, if you want to call it such, is to daydream. Controlled daydreaming, really. I think about the story and what’s happened, as well as what’s going to happen next. I’ll often ask myself, “Okay, then what happened?” And the answer gives me a direction to go. What important bits did I forget or need to change or what if ‘x’ happened instead of ‘y’. I also come up with a lot of ideas in areas where my brain is free to roam. Long car rides, for example, are great daydreaming opportunities. That can be frustrating too, in case the laptop’s not available to write them down.
Once I get there I’ve got the fuel I need to crank out the next 500 – 1000 words at least, and from there new things pop into my head that keep the story flowing into the 2000 – 3000 range. I think my record in recent history was a Saturday when I cranked out 8500 words, but I also seem to recall a 10k day, so I might be getting the two confused. It reminds me of production at a manufacturing plant. Quantity is definitely an important aspect – without product (words, in the case of writers), there’s no chance to finish a book and deliver to the customer (readers). But too much quantity without quality isn’t going to do me any good either. The trick is finding the right mix, and then relying on editing to help with the quality.
So that’s my secret. From 550lb deadlifts to 12+ books a year. The only problem is what works for me might not work for anybody else. Just about every writers has their own tricks. Without exception the only way to find out is to keep trying new things and making yourself keep at it though. Now good luck and what are you waiting for, go write something!
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.
July 29, 2012
The Best of the Best
The Olympics started and it’s been a distraction. I think it’s distracting for more people than just me – I’ve noticed a minor slump in sales, especially in the UK where they’re being hosted. It’ll even out over time, I’m sure. I’m not writing this to whine about sales though, I’m pondering the Olympics and what they’ve come to mean (to me, at least).
Just this morning I had to log on to www.nbcolympics.com in order to watch one of my favorite sports: weight lifting. They don’t seem interested in televising it, which I find very disappointing. Instead we get to watch dozens of people ride bicycles around in circles in the rain. No thanks. I’ve never been much for bicycling, sorry to say. Anyhow, the weightlifting from this morning was the B group of women’s snatch and clean and jerk events, in the 53kg weight class (117 pounds). It’s safe to classify these girls as petite or scrawny, depending on their height. In spite of that, there were some damned impressive lifts that took place. My personal favorite, Julia Rohdes from Germany, had an 85kg snatch and a 108kg clean and jerk (193kg total, 4th place overall so far). For my fellow Americans that means she lifted 187lbs and 238 pounds from the ground to above her head. That’s a clean and jerk over twice her body weight! As another point of reference I’ve done a far less skillful clean and jerk of up to 235 pounds once in my life. I don’t train the movement but nonetheless this tiny woman was able to lift more weight than I could AND she only took 4th place. And she’s cute – yet more proof that lifting weights does not make women bulky, fat, ugly, or otherwise scary.
There was another woman from Venezuela with a really long name that irritated me. She made a lot of noise and did a lot of shouting while she psyched herself up to lift. Nothing wrong with that, it just bugged me. In spite of that, when she got under the weight I found myself pulling for her, just like I did every other lifter that was competing. I can’t help it, I’ve competed in far smaller venues (powerlifting, not Olympic lifting) I know how hard it is and I know what it feels like to achieve a hard lift when it really matters.
I’m anxious to watch more of the weightlifting to see what happens. The super heavy weights are able to lift some amazing weights but to be honest most of those guys and gals don’t impress me as much. Oh they still impress me, but I admire the people in the lighter classes below SHW more because they have to balance maintaining their weight while optimizing their strength.
Are there drugs for these people doing practically super-human things? Hell yes there are. Sure, the IOC (International Olympic Committee) tests for drug use but the athletes have ways of getting around that. Also these drugs won’t make the average person able to achieve the same things. It takes a person with the right mix of genetics and dedication to make these feats of strength, skill, strategy, and balance possible. They deserve a lot more than just a footnote in the history of the Olympics, in my opinion.
And what commentary on the Olympics would be complete without discussing Michael Phelps. Personally, I was pleased to see him take 4th place in his first event. I’ll admit, I’ve been suckered by the media into being irritated with his attitude and lack of training discipline. Seeing Lochte take the gold made it that much better for me. That brings into question how I view the Olympics from a patriotic point of view.
Of course I want the USA to win every event, plain and simple. Then when I watch them and see how individuals are performing. In individual events, I tend to favor the competitor who’s got the best attitude and puts the most heart into it. A team event, like volleyball or basketball, I stick more by my country, but for the individual sports I’m much more inclined to rooting for the people that I feel deserve it.
Speaking of volleyball, that first round team USA win in the women’s volleyball was nerve wracking! Korea’s Kim something-something is lethal! Great game though, and how awesome is it that the US has a player named Destiny Hooker? There, I’ve mixed enough immaturity in now, I’m off for some family time and hopefully later on today working on chapter 7 of Vitalis – Resurrection!
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.
July 27, 2012
Is that a Soapbox?
As often as I’ve used and heard the expression regarding standing on a soapbox to rant, I have no idea where it came from or why. It turns out people with an urge to rant wanted to be elevated above their audience, so they grabbed a box to stand on. Allegedly the first of these wooden boxes had the word, “Soap” painted on it. I bet you didn’t expect to be educated while reading this, did you? 
I mention the soapbox because I’ve got a bit of a rant coming on. Don’t worry, I’ll try to keep it light and humorous. A reviewer who’s been helping me catalog my books in Shelfari emailed me today to let me know that another author got pissy with her and complained to the admins. This author claims she screwed up some ISBNs on his or her books when putting them on Shelfari. She’s unaware of the discrepancy and requested details so she could fix it herself, but her status has been removed because of it.
Okay, so let’s put this in another context. Say a doctor accidentally removed a kidney instead of an inflamed appendix, then said appendix went septic and killed somebody. Wow, yeah, that doctor should probably have their license yanked. I mean, that’s the kind of threat we’re talking about here, right?
Or maybe the reviewer in question isn’t getting paid to do this. Maybe she’s just trying to help people out because she likes to help. Maybe she wasn’t drinking heavily while operating on the books in question and she was doing exactly what her records indicated she should be doing. And did I mention no body parts, internal or otherwise, were missing because of this incident?
In an unrelated bit of nonsense, I looked up fellow writer with whom I’ve secretly been competing against for some time now. This author doesn’t know it, and due to the genre differences and extra writing availability on their part I may never catch up, but that’s not going to stop me! Anyhow, I checked out some of this person’s books and found very positive reviews on the erotica stories she’d written AND higher prices. Case in point, multiple books are priced at $2.99 but are only approximately 50 pages long. Now flash back to my Vitalis books, some of which are only 50 pages long and they’re priced at $.99 – yet the reviews state they are great stories but so short they only merited a crappy rating. WTF?! I repeat, WTF?
Between the two incidents I’m reminded of a George Carlin quote, “Think about how stupid the average person is. Now realize that half of the people out there are even dumber!” I firmly believe that all of my readers are in the upper 50%, so I’m catering to a tougher crowd. I’m okay with that too because I love a challenge, it’s inspiring and it drives me to perform better. Case in point, I’m planning on my current Vitalis book to be well beyond that length.
And now the soapbox is empty – who wants it?
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.
July 25, 2012
A Different Kind of Resurrection
The worst part about the title of this blog post is that I’m not going to go into details. Those would be spoilers, you see, and I just can’t have that! I will share that Resurrection is the title of part 8 in my Vitalis series. I will also say that Vitalis – Resurrection is slated at being longer than the previous seven parts. I might even opt to go for a full novel length story, rather than a novella.
Another reason I won’t go into details is because I’m not quite sure how it’s all going to play out. I’m two chapters into it and they’re practically writing themselves, but that doesn’t mean I know what’s going to happen in chapter 3 yet. So far I’ve got a full loaded troop transport hurtling towards Vitalis at speeds greater than anything seen previously in the Terran Coalition of Systems. Unfortunately for the Marines thawing out from their hibernation sleep, there’s a really big rogue asteroid floating in their flight path…
And in chapter two Elsa, the second in command of Treetown, runs across a new kind of hybrid. A hybrid, for those unfamiliar with the Vitalian take on the term, is the result of the queen of a species of Vitalian creatures dubbed spitters that inserts her eggs into the abdomen of a human host. The chemicals released leave the hosts lethargic and extraordinarily stoned while the eggs acquire DNA from the hosts to allow them to fertilize and mature. Then they hatch and begin to eat the hosts from the inside out. It ain’t pretty. And what’s different about the new type of hybrid that they haven’t seen before? Well all of the former hybrids had male hosts, thus the hybrids were male. The new one Elsa encounters just so happens to have breasts – and we’re not talking man-boobs.
So what’s the big deal? As anyone who’s read the series knows, the hybrids are close enough to humans that they’re able to breed with them. If it sounds gross that’s because it is. Scary too. The offspring are more intelligent and in a poorly lit alley very hard to tell from a pure blooded human, whereas the hybrids can only pass as human from a distance. From the perspective of physical menace the hybrids are more dangerous – no one’s sure just how dangerous their offspring are (yet). Now imagine a female hybrid that’s able to mate with her own sub-species. A rapid gestation period and high probability of multiple births makes for a race of dangerous and amoral creatures. Hmm, maybe it’s a good thing there’s a company of Marines about to crash into the planet?
Of course Resurrection can’t be just about that – there are too many characters and too many subplots to wrap it up that neatly! What about the Terran Coalition Systems ships orbiting Vitalis that are building the jump station to allow FTL travel between systems? Or Fiona, the newly crowned Matriarch of a tribe of hybrids that has to find ways to thwart every attempt Klous makes to steal the hybrids allegiance? Tarn, Captain Sharp, Jeremy, and the rest of the residents of Treetown have their own stories and lives to unfold. Not to mention poor Eric. What will he do now that Kira’s been gone for over six months and everyone has written the former huntress off?
In the meantime how about some reviews – I love writing and want to keep doing it but without reviews my books don’t make their way up on the Amazon lists for people to see and buy. For my books Amazon requires 20 words, a title / subject, and a 5 star rating. Okay, 4 star will do too.
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.
