Joey James Hook's Blog, page 3

New Website and Update

So this is going to be a relatively short update, but I've been playing with my website for the past month or so, and I think it's about finished. If there's anything anyone would like to see on the page, by all means, let me know. It's here:

Joey James Hook

In other news, I've been going slow and steady on this zombie novel I've been working on. It doesn't have a name yet but it has a general concept and some pretty strong characters that I think people will enjoy reading about. They're both funny, especially together. I can't wait until I can hit that point where I can just sink into it and start letting it flow. It's always a bit difficult to start a story but once I get in the groove of things, it comes easily. I just need to hit that stride.

I need to get back into reading. Things have been a bit hectic. I'll pick up one of my books tomorrow, lose myself in a fantasy world or two.

That's it for now. I always find myself blogging at three in the morning. It's when I have to empty my thoughts more than any other time. With that in mind, good night!

What I'm Reading/Writing

Normally I just say whatever comes into my head, but sometimes that gets me into trouble, so if there's anything anyone wants me to talk about, let me know!

My novel One Two Three, Shatter just came out on Saturday, and the presales knocked me out! I'm glad it's gotten a relatively good reception, because it's my baby. Now I'm just waiting for word back on the sequel.

Since this is a writing blog, I suppose I should be talking about the things I've been reading as of late. Mostly I've been brushing up on my old American Sign Language textbooks, trying to get a feel for the language again because I've forgotten quite a bit of it, sadly. It helps that I'm writing a novella featuring a Deaf character, though that poor story is on hiatus right now, since it's trapped on a laptop that won't charge and I don't have the money to fix it. Edits for one of my other novels is stuck on there as well.

Starving artist at its finest!

I've been reading a book called The Burning Girl by Joe Niehart, and it's... interesting, to say the very least. The narrative isn't what I'm used to but it's not bad. I have it in paperback somewhere, and I should probably try and pick it up again. I'm also reading DAZED, by a writer friend of mine, Nikki Palomino. I haven't had much time to settle down and really give it the attention it deserves, but it's intriguing so far. Her writing style is rough, but it fits the character she's writing.

As far as new works goes, I've been tinkering with the idea of writing a zombie novel, because I've been catching up on the show, The Walking Dead. I think it'd be fun and fascinating to write something intense and gripping like that, and I have a few pages down. I just need to sit and devote some time to it.

It's almost two in the morning and I should try and get some rest even though my brain is always working on overtime. So I leave you with this.

'Til next time!

Working on covers

It's when I begin working with a cover artist that I realize that sometimes even with a 158,000 manuscript, it's difficult for me to express my exact vision. It's hard to explain something that's been in my head since 2008. There's so much about this world that I've created that I find difficult to explain, like exact nuances of my characters or exactly what I want the cover of my books to look like.

I find it kind of funny that neither of my books look like romance novels, but then again that was because they aren't exactly romance novels. I prefer writing stories about worlds to stories about a small part of them that's focused on a relationship.

I love the covers I've gotten so far, and I only hope I can continue to express my vision in a way that brings people into my little worlds that I've created. I only wish I had a further reach so I could touch more people.

Things that I love

There's this meme going around where someone asks you about seven things and you're supposed to talk about it. My friend gave me writing, music, my nickname theskeletonboy, nicknames in general, food, laundry and numbers. These are my answers:

-writing
Writing is something that I honestly don't think I could live without. I define myself as a writer so naturally, it's a big part of my life. I've been writing since I was about nine, when one of my teachers said I had a lot of potential. I competed in a speech competition to have my story be the one read at eighth grade graduation. I didn't win, but it didn't stop me from pursuing it as a hobby and hopefully someday as a full-time job. I've written everything from nonfiction to essays to literary fiction, but my niche is in romantic noir. I love reading, and that's what fuels me to be a better writer despite the fact that I'm envious that their writing got them to where they are - published with a big publishing house with a lot of royalties coming from it. I only hope that someday I'll be able to do the same thing, I just gotta keep pushing.

- music
Music is something that means a lot to me. I wouldn't be able to function if I didn't have music playing. My favorite bands are a part of my personality and I'm always expanding my horizons. I like everything from death metal to pop, but my favorite genre is hard rock/heavy metal, whichever you'd like to call it. Some people call it rock, some call it metal, some just call it crap, but I love it. Avenged Sevenfold is and always will be my favorite band, along with Burn Halo, Eighteen Visions (RIP), Track Fighter, New Medicine, and an up and coming band called Dear Silence. Recently I've also gotten into Asking Alexandria and A Skylit Drive, along with a few others which I'd rather keep to myself. In essence, I just love music. Period. I've always wanted to be able to play an instrument, but I don't have the coordination, not to mention whenever I sing, my voice breaks like I'm still a teenage boy so I just satisfy myself by listening and appreciating.

- theskeletonboy
This is a nickname I've been using for about a year. It came from a very old recording done by Andy Biersack. He used to be an inspiration to me, but he's recently fallen out of favor in my book. Anyway, I digress. He was singing a song about a skeleton boy being lonely, I believe - the recording was shoddy and I cold barely hear the lyrics - and I'd been looking for a new handle online, and it just resonated with me. So, that's what I am.

- nicknames
I have a lot of nicknames. As stated above, the skeleton boy, is a nickname I've had for a few solid years .My most used nickname, though, has always been and will always be Joey. My full name is Joseph, but everyone calls me Joey. Some people have called me Grandpa Joe before, or Uncle Joey, or anything of the sort. I've also been called Jade, Syn - because of my love of Synyster Gates - and quite a few others. I suppose over the years I went through a lot of different names to find my niche and what I like to be referred to. It's Joey.

- food
FOOD. Okay, I can go on about this all day, every day. I love food. I could eat all day every day if you let me. Especially when it comes to something fattening and greasy, throw it my way. I could eat burgers every day for the rest of my life and be perfectly content. Aside from that, I do love pizza and I will never say no to eating steak. I also love sweets, like chocolate or sour candy. Also, chips. I am kind of a picky eater, but it's gotten better over the years. I'll eat things now that I never thought I would have, like putting red cayenne pepper into everything I cook. That's all thanks to my partner.

- laundry
Uuuugh, laundry. I love how it smells when it first comes out of the dryer, but the process of actually doing it? It's like pulling teeth.

- numbers!
I have a funny thing with numbers. I like putting them together to create different, bigger numbers. For example, there's this street sign that I almost always passed at least twice a week, and the numbers are 22135. I tend to add them up in my head and try to find patterns, like 10 and 4 and finally 13 because that's the sum of all five separate numbers. I also really like the time 12:34 and 11:11.

Thoughts On Writing With A Big Bonus Quote

"Being a writer is a very peculiar sort of a job: it’s always you versus a blank sheet of paper (or a blank screen) and quite often the blank piece of paper wins. It has no job security of any kind, and depends mostly on whether or not you can, like Scheherazade, tell the stories each night that’ll keep you alive until tomorrow. There are undoubtedly hundreds of easier, less stressful, more straightforward jobs in the world. Personally, I can’t think of anything else I’d rather do, but that’s me.
If you want to be a writer, write. You may have to get a day job to keep body and soul together (I cheated, and got a writing job, or lots of them, to feed me and pay the rent). If you aren’t going to be a writer, then go and be something else. It’s not a god-given calling. There’s nothing holy or magic about it. It’s a craft that mostly involves a lot of work, most of it spent sitting making stuff up and writing it down, and trying to make what you have made up and written down somehow better. …
It does help, to be a writer, to have the sort of crazed ego that doesn’t allow for failure. The best reaction to a rejection slip is a sort of wild-eyed madness, an evil grin, and sitting yourself in front of the keyboard muttering “Okay, you bastards. Try rejecting this!” and then writing something so unbelievably brilliant that all other writers will disembowel themselves with their pens upon reading it, because there’s nothing left to write. Because the rejection slips will arrive. And, if the books are published, then you can pretty much guarantee that bad reviews will be as well. And you’ll need to learn how to shrug and keep going. Or you stop, and get a real job."
— Neil Gaiman: On Writing
I agree with Neil, because there's nothing in the world I'd rather be doing than writing, even though it's not easy to keep going when the rest of your life's got you down. The fact is, though, that writing can take you away from whatever's going on in your real life and put you in another universe for a few minutes, a few hours, or even a few days. It's my chance to build a whole new world.
It's a great attitude, to respond to rejection letters with more determination, and that's what I've done before even though sometimes all I want to do is rip my manuscript to shreds. It's better to channel whatever I'm feeling into something beautiful, something better than what I'm feeling.
I know for a fact that I'm never going to stop even if I do have to hold down a demure job for a while until I can become the next great America bestseller. I hope someday that happens. I am determined to make it as a writer that everyone knows and loves. Right now, I'm just a blip on the radar.

On Pottermore and Inspiration

So I decided today that I was going to start blogging more, and so here I am. Today I joined Pottermore, the newest interactive Harry Potter activity. There's so much more information concealed within the online game, and it made me realize that J. K. Rowling has such an intense imagination and it reminds me of why I became an author in the first place.

Reading things like Harry Potter and Pottermore inspires me to want to make my own world big enough to make everyone fall in love with every little nook and cranny of the world that I created, want to know more about every little character so I can create a backstory for each and every one that I've dreamed up.

Pottermore is a lot of fun, because you can make potions, cast spells, and my two favorite parts: getting a wand and being sorted into a House. The questions it asked were fascinating and it ended up being pretty accurate. I always thought I'd be in Slytherin, but it turns out it sorted me into Ravenclaw and I suppose it makes sense. My wand is a 12 3/4 inch Maple wand with Phoenix Feather core, and it's supple. I kind of suck at duels but I'm all right at potion-making. It tells me a lot about me, and it's amazing that one person was able to dream up something that makes up my entire childhood.

I only hope that someday I can create something that touches even a fraction of the people Harry Potter has touched.

About Publication

You know something funny? As passionate as I've always been about writing, I ever imagined that I actually would get published. I'd hoped for it, of course, but I'd never let my hopes get up that high because it's such a tough market and so many publishers seem to be so selective about the manuscripts they take on. I've always thought my writing was too controversial, too out-there, too genre-bending, because they never just stick to one subject. They push boundaries, they touch on taboo subjects, and they're just generally complex. Too complex most of the time.

Now that two of them are getting published - the two that mean the most to me - it's surreal that they're actually going to be out there, for anyone to read. It's what I've wanted since I was a little guy, but I always thought it was one of those pipe dreams that never came true when it came down to it. Here I am, though, getting published. I've got the cover art done for one manuscript and the core editing done on it too. I can't stop staring at the cover because it's so beautiful and so perfect. It's in the Coming Soon section of the publishing website. It's just... so surreal, thinking that, you know what, I finally did it. I accomplished one of my biggest dreams.

I am a published author.

An interview about writing I did a while back

1. How often do you write and how do you feel about your output?

I pretty much try and write something every day. I have so many ideas running through my head on a daily basis that I think if I didn’t write something at least once every four days or so I would go insane. Sometimes I like it, sometimes I hate it, but generally once I finish something, I’m pretty happy with it. There’s only been one exception lately, but that was mostly because of the pairing and the fact that I was challenged into writing it. I didn’t like it at all, but other people seemed to have a different idea and loved it.

2. Where does your inspiration come from? Where do you get your ideas?

I think the thing that first and foremost inspires me to write is music. Lyrics, specifically. If there's a story behind the lyrics, my mind wants to make something up that fits it. Even if there is no story, my mind will make one up. Also, I can't write without music because the background noise makes my mind focus and sometimes I just hear some little bit of music and it inspires the hell out of me to do something other than what I was going to do in the first place.

Another thing that inspires me is other literature, but not so much as music. If there's a story where I can find something of myself in it, and I can rewrite it or take a bit of inspiration from it, I'll do it. I did it with The Iliad, and many others that I won't list.

Finally, things that happen in ordinary life inspire me sometimes.

As for my ideas? It could come from anywhere. Music, movies, everyday life, a snippet of something one of my teachers said in one of my classes five years ago, a whole culture, a specific subject, a book I read that I wanted to rewrite my own way. Hell, my ideas come from anywhere, and some of them come from nowhere. For example, Impress Me came out of nowhere, it started out as a generic plot line and I made it into my own without any other influence.

3. What are the first things you write? Dialogue? Sex? Something else?

I start at the beginning, no questions asked. The first, opening line of a story means everything. If I can’t start a story with something interesting, I either try again or I scrap it for a later date. That doesn’t happen very often, though, because I can generally get into the groove of the story pretty quickly. I try and write the entire scene or story if it’s a one shot in one sitting because that’s how it normally works best.

As for chaptered/longer works, I generally just start writing it without any ideas for the ending and sometimes that’s why so many of my chaptered works have failed but the more important ones to me have done well enough and I see them through to the end. I never write the sex first, though. Ever.

4. How have you improved this past six months/year?

My writing changes every year. My style evolves with every single thing that happens in my life. I don’t think I’ll ever top One Two Three, Shatter, but I feel like my writing is going in a good direction right now.

5. Why do you write?

Simple. I write because if I didn’t, I would die. I have so many ideas, so many personalities and characters and snippets of dialogue and scenes in my head that if I couldn’t exorcise them by writing them out and getting them out of there, I would surely go completely insane.

6. Do you go through highs and lows? What are the triggers?

Kind of, but it’s not very often. It’s normally deep depression or being sick that stops me from writing, that or being too busy with work, my girlfriend and life; that’s when things really start to suck, when I can’t stop my busy life and empty my brain.

7. Do people know you write?

Yes, when someone asks what I do, I introduce myself as an author.

8. Where do you write?

I normally write on a bed, desk, or wherever I can settle my laptop on my lap and just go at it, either in Microsoft Word or in Googledocs.

9. Does music help or hinder?

Helps. If I don’t have music going in the background, I straight up can not write. It helps me focus and sometimes it even gives me the extra push that I need to get something done or put some kind of twist in the story that wasn’t originally there. Like I said up there, lyrics and music inspire the hell out of me so I tend to have a playlist for every story that I’m writing or if it’s a one-shot, generally I have one or two songs on repeat while I write. It makes things go a lot more smoothly.

10. What are your props?

Music and the people who make it. Pictures. Laptop. Microsoft Word. My hands.

11. How seriously do you take your writing/ the writing process?

I take it incredibly seriously. It’s my passion, my creative lifeblood and it’s also my escape from the insanity of normal, everyday life.

12. What are your strengths?

Narration, natural dialogue and apparently, sex scenes. My narration almost always has a bit of the main character in it, even if I switch the ‘speaker’ of the narration. For example, I didn’t even need to explain much of anything about the main character in one of my novellas, Perfectus Venenum, because he explained himself through the narration and the things he did. Natural dialogue is a strength probably because I watch a lot of movies and listen to people talk all the fucking time, so I know how people speak, and the fact that contractions have taken over the English language. Finally, apparently I’m like, the best at writing sex scenes? I don’t know, with those I kind of just shut off the critiquing part of my brain and let my fingers go on the keyboard, thinking in motions rather than in words and my brain just seems to go smoothly. It’s almost like having sex, but not quite at the same time. It’s hard to explain what happens to my brain when I write erotic scenes. I guess it’s also having the brain of a guy that helps too. And knowing the content on an intimate level.

13. What are your weaknesses?

Distracting myself from the main point with too many subplots, maybe. Forgetting small details in big stories and making myself look like an idiot when someone’s like ‘hey, what happened to this?’ I hate that. It’s because I don’t really write things out when I’m doing it, like outlines and stuff. I tend to forget some of the things, the smaller details, that I wrote in and write something completely contradictory. I need to work on that.

14. If you edit for other people, what do you get out of it?

I don’t edit for other people. I learned my lesson with that and now I just don’t do it.

15. What do you write?

The general theme of all of my stories is romance. I don’t know if that’s because I’m a romantic or if that’s just what people want to read. Or maybe it’s the fact that I’m in a relationship and it’s easy for me to write other people in similar situations but making sure they’re not too similar. I also love writing things with a lot of dark themes and violence to go along with the romance, so none of my stories are those fluffy, over-the-top bullshit stories that I hate so much. I love writing outside my comfort zone so to speak, pushing my own boundaries. I also love writing angst, and I love putting my characters through all sorts of torture. If anyone knows Kaleb, they know what I’m talking about. He’s my baby and I’ve put him through hell and brought him back – his story’s probably the story that’s the least romance-centric.

16. Which story have you written that felt like bungee-jumping – you really had to feel the fear and jump?

One Two Three, Shatter. There was so much content in that story that I didn’t know that much about, and he always had this tangible fear in the back of his head. I’d have to say Phoenix as well, because that was writing something too close to my heart.

17. How do you feel about comments?

I admit, I love comments. They really validate what I do as a writer. They let me know what I’m doing right and what I’m doing wrong, they tell me if I achieved my goal in writing something specific. They tell me what people like and don’t like about my writing. They tell me the kind of people that read one story and not another. They tell me a demographic of sorts. But I don’t need them, necessarily. I write to get the ideas out of my head, and if people get pleasure out of me doing that and they enjoy reading what I write and want to give me some kind of feedback, then that’s wonderful. I will never say no to someone telling me what they thought about my work as long as they’re not straight-up flaming me for it. I haven’t been ‘flamed’ in a long time, but I still remember the last time someone said my stuff sucked. I took it very hard, and I know I’ve improved since then. I love getting comments from people who have followed my work for years, and they’re the ones that tell me how much I’ve improved.

18. Do you give other writers feedback? Why/why not?

I try, but I don’t read as much as I used to. Mostly because I am a very picky reader because I can be very grammatically focused and I tend to not look past those mistakes to see the actual story, but when I find a writer that I love, I tend to review at least some of their stuff. I used to be semi-obsessive about reading some writers’ stuff but I don’t really read much anymore. I try and read at least once a week, though.

19. What is the indicator for you that your story was a success/worked?

Just having it finished and having people enjoy it is enough of a success for me.

20. Do you write in the genre you like reading the most?

Not necessarily, because the genre that I like reading the most are classics and no one can write anything like a classic and write it well. I tried it with one and it didn’t work out very well – I mean, the story kind of did, but then I just lost all inspiration for it after a while. I’m not sure what happened – the two main characters probably drew it out too long and now they can’t bring themselves to be together. It’s kind of annoying. Anyway, no, I don’t.

21. Do you write a straight through draft or is your first attempt bits and pieces?

I write a straight-through draft, but sometimes I do jump ahead and write another scene in the future. Generally, though, I do write it straight through and be done with it.

Summaries of novels

The Xander Chronicles
Beautiful Disaster: (in progress)
Jeremy Xander comes from a broken home - his mother committed suicide when he was young and his father is abusive - and he wants so very badly to come out on top. He'll do anything to prove that he doesn't need his father to make it in the world. He succeeds, but at what price?
Words: To be determined
Market/genre: Contemporary fiction
General warnings for erotica, drug and alcohol abuse, child abuse and illegal acts such as larceny.
One Two Three, Shatter: (completed) – signed to Silver
All it takes is one, two, three. This is the story of one man's battle through abuse, addiction and heartbreak to find a happiness he's never known. It'll take a miracle, and he's banking on someone to be just that for him before he gives it all up.
Words: 159,589
Market/genre: Literary Fiction, Gay Fiction.
General warnings for explicit violence, child abuse, sexual abuse, rape, forced incest, under-aged sex, drug abuse, alcohol abuse, self-injury, heterosexual and homosexual erotica.
Another Memory: (completed)
Kay Doyle was born to Sid and Sam Doyle, but he always considered himself more related to Kaleb, his mother’s best friend. Growing up with Kaleb wasn’t easy, but Kay didn’t like easy. He’d always been up for a challenge, and Kaleb was the perfect person to keep pushing him to be better. How will the years and relationship change between Kay and Kaleb, as well as the rest of the world, when Kay grows up and finds his own path, falling in love way too fast along the way?
Words: To be determined
Market/genre: Gay Fiction.
General warnings for homosexual erotica, alcohol abuse, and mentions of past child abuse.

Kabuki Scarlet: (completed)
Born as James Aldaine, Kabuki Scarlet roams the streets, searching for the ones rife with sin and skillfully destroying them. He is strict, cold, and methodical, showing his face only to the ones about to die. Along the way, he meets Joseph, an anguished ex-cop who has sworn never to love again after losing the woman he loved, but Kabuki is inexplicably drawn to his intelligence. Will Joseph be the one to change this intelligent madman’s ways?
Words: 40,766
Market: Crime, Murder-Mystery, Gay Fiction.
General warnings for explicit violence, gore, murder, skewed belief systems, dogma, sexual situations, and homosexual erotica.

Phoenix: (completed) – signed to eXtasy books
College is a lot more complicated than anyone thought.
For Blake, it’s a test of wills and patience—who will accept him, and who will cast him out? Every connection he makes brings him further and further away from his own ever-growing dark thoughts. Maybe someone can even convince him he’s not just a freak.
Devon’s starting to realize how much it’s a growing up experience. He’s away from his best friend in a whole new world, and he’s got a lot to learn.
Riley, the unlikely friend and frat boy, finds himself pulling away from his typical clique—including Dominic, the bully and star quarterback, and gravitating elsewhere. Work, fascination, friendships—needless to say, they’ll never be the same.
Words: 50,911
Genre: LGBT Fiction, coming-of-age romance
General warnings for transgender issues, bullying, mentions of domestic abuse, violence and erotica.

Kill To Believe: (completed) - out to The Wild Rose Publishing
Nathan Achen’s had a tough life, but he’s made the best of it.
Coming from a rough household and a violent past, he’s come out on top as a star assassin for a mercenary company. Still, he feels like something’s wrong, and after tragedy strikes he ends up giving it up in favor of a regular life. The thing with that, though, is that it still feels like something’s missing. Over the course of the years, he meets many people: friends, foes, targets, father figures, and everything in between. His life truly changes when he meets a bright, intensely optimistic man named Mike Johannson. Mike seems to be everything he's not, his polar opposite, and of course he’s attracted right off the bat. Can they navigate through Nathan’s less than savory past to find that fulfillment that’s been eluding Nathan his entire life?
Words: 59,161
Market: Crime, Thriller, Gay Fiction.
General warnings for explicit violence, murder, sexual situations, and homosexual erotica.

Author Profile

Hello there! My name's Joey James Hook. I'm a twenty-five-year old man who lives in Canoga Park, California. Among my favorite things to do are reading, writing, watching TV, eating ice cream, and listening to loud music. I attended three and a half years of schooling at Western Nevada College.
My passions aside from writing are eating, music - particularly going to shows and rocking out - and going to the beach. My biggest inspirations are the bands Dear Silence, Burn Halo, Eighteen Visions, Atreyu, Bleeding Through, Papa Roach, Asking Alexandria, A Skylit Drive and, more than any other, Avenged Sevenfold. My first novel has dedicated to the loving memory of Jimmy "The Rev" Sullivan (RIP, February 10th, 1981 to December 28, 2009).

I am a freelance writer. I have two novels contracted to ebook publishers, Phoenix to Extasy Books, and One Two Three, Shatter to Silver Publishing. I also do write advertisements for two companies called The Content Authority and Interact Media. They both give their employees a broad subject such as men’s watches with specifications to what they want in the article, and ask the writers employed to write engaging, well-researched 300+ word summaries for the product being sold. I have been writing since I was about nine years old, starting with poetry and moving onto fiction.

To get in contact, drop me an email at joey.jade.fox@gmail.com

Words of praise for Joey James Hook:

"I'll always remember you fondly as one of my favourite writers. I hope you're still writing and more than that, I hope you're published by now because you deserve to be.” - Scarlet Blackwell

“I respect you so much. You really write fantastic, entertaining stories that suck me in and don't let go until the very end of the last chapter.” -a fellow writer