Jason E. Hodges's Blog, page 20

Seven Writers

When I first started writing, there was no internet. There were typewriters, mailing lists when you could afford stamps, and pencils worn down to nubs. My pencil sharpener was a small Buck knife my father gave me on my tenth birthday. I was broke, and college was not an option for me.
The biggest thing I had starting out was the dream of one day being part of something that affected the world around me. My goals back then seemed simple enough-write something that moved people, not only for m...

The Drop Off : A book by Jason E. Hodges

In this adrenalin driven novella, Mayva tries desperately to make her way in the ever changing landscape of adulthood. A hard enough task for many of today’s youth facing challenges like drugs, sexuality, college tuition, grades, self-harm, depression, and leaving home for the first time. But being from the low rent side of town, it becomes an extremely difficult task to undertake. Growing up on the north side of Jacksonville, Mayva learned to survive in a place where homeless sleep on park benches, gangs control city blocks, and cops play cat and mouse through the night with johns, hookers, and drug dealers. Mayva finds comfort in poetry, self discovery in the pages of her diary, courage from skateboarding, and hope in the subculture that became her family when hers fell apart. This family of friends support her unconditionally when the frustrations of living with alcoholic parents and their abuse became too much. Mayva has her sights set on winning the annual summer skate jam and using the prize money to get out of the north side and into college. But when her world starts to spin helplessly out of control, it’s more than she can do just to stay afloat and keep her sanity.


The Drop Off is an immediately engaging, a refreshingly vibrant story of hope and love, with triumph in the face of darkness and hardship. Jason E. Hodges shines a spotlight on the world of skateboarding and subcultures and is thoughtful and compelling in his characterization. The writing is compassionate and insightful, the characters fascinating and entertaining and the storyline original. Lisa de Nikolits author of The Witchdoctor's Bones, The Hungry Mirror, West of Wawa, and A Glittering Chaos

http://www.amazon.com/Drop-Off-Jason-...

The Drop Off : A book by Jason E. Hodges

In this adrenalin driven novella, Mayva tries desperately to make her way in the ever changing landscape of adulthood. A hard enough task for many of today’s youth facing challenges like drugs, sexuality, college tuition, grades, self-harm, depression, and leaving home for the first time. But being from the low rent side of town, it becomes an extremely difficult task to undertake. Growing up on the north side of Jacksonville, Mayva learned to survive in a place where homeless sleep...

What If?

What if heaven
Wasn’t like heaven at all?
No streets of gold
No cotton clouds to lay upon
No endless blue skies at your feet
Yes, what if it
Was like none of this?
What if it was more like
Some old town where spirits wander about
Like the rain swept streets of St. Augustine
Where shadows dance in early nightfall
From the soft sea breeze swaying slip-chain streetlights
Back and forth
Back and forth
And
Instead of tourist looking for ghost
On this spot or that
Ghost look for the best spots to communica...

Liz Worth : PostApoc

I opened my mailbox a few weeks ago and smiled from ear to ear. My friend Liz Worth had mailed me a copy of her new book PostApoc. I was lucky enough to be asked to read the first six chapters or so and give feedback while the book was being put together. So, I had a good idea of how good the book was going to be, but not yet the full grasp of how good it really was.
Book Description
Sole survivor of a suicide pact, Ang has fallen into an underground music scene obsessed with the idea of the en...

Jason E. Hodges Quotes

Writers live within their mind for their flesh and bones are stuck in a far worse place.
Sometimes people just can't take how real the world can be. Even if they're your friend they’ll drop away from you like petals to a dying flower to keep their own sanity. 
A poet writes what they see every day, what they know, what they’ve lived or barely lived through. 
Sometimes the rules of writing get in the way of a good story told.
A shovel is the greatest motivational teacher I know.
Sleepl...

The Mailbox : A book by Jason E. Hodges

The Mailbox is my first eBook on Amazon. It took three years to make it there. Writing is never the hard part, it’s the rewriting over and over along with my crazy life that seemed to slow its journey at times. Click the link below the cover photo and info to take you to Amazon.
Thanks, J



Jacob moved from the edge of nowhere, the Okefenokee Swamp, to the transient sometimes twisted town of Gainesville Florida. He was following his dreams of becoming a writer. Jacob wanted words to flow from...

Skating Subcultures And Memories

Charles Bukowski said, “Beware the average man, the average woman, beware their love, their love is average, seeks average… Not being able to create art they will not understand art…” No truer words could have ever been spoken. I’ve seen this in the art/skateboarding world time and time again, or I should say, the rest of the world’s involvement with us.
Something I’ve noticed about skateboarding, it seems to draw in many creative types. It’s a subculture artist can move about freely in witho...

His Night In London With Anais Nin

“It’s always nice to wake up and see a photo of Anais Nin... It goes well with coffee.” I wrote this to my good friend Ellis Amburn after he posted a photo of her on my timeline in the wee hours of the morning. If you’re a writer you know these hours well…
 
Ironically, I’d just finished reading, Under A Glass Bell by Anais the previous day... I've been reading a lot of Nin’s work lately... So I found it interesting that Ellis sent me a photo of her… 
 
Ellis is a great writer an...

Poem : The Fox

One morning I see two eyes peering my way
Glowing bright from the dull gray cast of my headlights
Illuminating the dark shadows of winter
Much like the glow of two fireflies chasing one another
Through the hot humidity of southern summer nights    
Yes, the eyes of a fox glowed that morning
Pinning me with her gentle gaze she did
As I drew closer
She stood motionless underneath the undergrowth
Of lime green leaves now frosted
From winter’s white wind wiping their surface with...