Hello and Welcome!

In late 2012 I was more than a little lost when it came to deciding what to write next. I had officially signed the option on my screenplay Green Fees which was awesome but had also shelved the epic fantasy novel I spent most of the last year writing. I knew/know that I have a lot of interest in writing fantasy and science fiction genre television like the stuff I grew up on. I knew that what I should be doing was working on an original pilot and show bible. I also knew that even if my wildest dreams were realized and I wrote something that managed to get me a job the chances that the pilot would ever see the screen were slim at best. I had a couple ideas I liked but spending the next year of my life working on something that no one would ever see sounded like a crock of shit to me.

Around that same time I had discovered The Self-Publishing Podcast and on it writers Sean Platt and David Wright. These two crazy bastards were self-releasing a serialized book every week on kindle. They were treating their various titles like TV shows and not only did it seem like they were having a lot of fun they were also making a living doing it at the same time.

Now I should back up for a second here and tell you something about myself. To say that I am a fan of all forms of serialized fiction would be a gross understatement. If I were to name off my top twenty books of all time I can almost promise you that the only stand-alone books would be a couple random biographies. The rest would include books from The Destroyer Series, The Dresden Files Series, Star Wars Expanded Universe Series, Dragonlance Series and various Star Trek Series novels. I’m sure you are seeing a pattern here but just in case you don’t let me also throw in that my obsession with series also extends to TV and movies and a lifelong love of Old Time Radio detective shows. Hell, even the epic fantasy book I have shelved for now is intended to be part of an ongoing series.

Suddenly here were these guys writing TV shows and releasing them weekly as books and it was like the clouds of uncertainty cleared and I could see what I needed to do. I needed to start writing some god damned serialized fiction! So on October 30th 2012 Jake Swift was born. I started with a simple concept, what if the stories about brave knights fighting dastardly dragons were not only real but was still happening today. Inspired by old time radio shows like Box 13 and Yours Truly Johnny Dollar as well the books in The Dresden Files and The Destroyer I set out to create a character who was in short a bit of a bad ass. He would be as flawed and sarcastic as he was tough and heroic. He would be knee deep in the world of the super natural but still very much human. I also knew I wanted my guy to be based in Los Angeles; if it was good enough for Philip Marlowe it was good enough for me!

Now almost a full year and 110,000 + words later I am cautiously optimistic that I have done what I set out to do. I am nearing the end of principal writing on the final case in the season as well as the editing of the first three cases. As I start this page I do so hoping to not only to promote the eventual release of the series (and have no doubt about it there will be a whole lot of that once I have set the release date) but also to share my experiences along the way.

I hope you join me and Jake for the ride!