Archive
Starting Over
I emerged from my warm house this morning to find a blanket of heavy snow on the ground. I believe I may have said a bad word. Or five. I need new windshield wipers on my car and my windshield washer fluid is low. Oops, another bad word just slipped out. Yes, it’s November and yes, I live in northeastern Ohio. Suck it up, right?
Well not to worry, in spite of the inconvenience of cold hands and slow drivers, I remain positive. Very positive, in fact, because Willsin Rowe and I finished a great new cover for one of my books last night. The book is Dark Earth and it was supposed to be my attempt to enter the YA genre. It turns out I have a hard time telling a story from the perspective of a thirteen year old girl, so instead it launched my first foray into urban fantasy / paranormal.
Dark Earth follows Eric Baxter, a devoted single father who has not had the easiest life. His daughter, it turns out, is very special. So special that people want to kill her. It becomes Eric’s job to protect her, even if that puts the world as we know it in jeopardy. We all know the good of the many is supposed to outweigh the good of the few, but try telling that to a man who’s lost everything except his little girl.
In the process of keeping her safe Eric learns that part of what makes Jessica so special comes from him. He’s got a little something special inside him too, something that comes out when the moon is full.
Dark Earth also establishes my Dark Earth series. Already published in this series are The Lost Girls and Voices, with Traitor pending release in December of 2011 or possibly early in 2012.
Dark Earth, by Jason Halstead
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.
Reader / Writer Appreciation
A couple of peculiar things happened to me recently. In the first I was contacted by someone who told me they bought not one of my books, but four of them! Okay, I’d love to say that’s not out of the ordinary at all, and someday I hope to. Even if that happens it’s not the point of the blog. Not only did this individual tell me that, but they went on to admit putting aside another book they’d written to try mine out (Wanted), and were sucked into it and loving it. Sleep, when it finally came, was considered an enemy to their desire to read.
Peculiar item 2 was when another individual contacted me to say they were halfway through my book and loving it more and more with each page (Wanted, again). I thanked them and shared that the sequel to Wanted will be out soon. They, in turn, were thankful for the head’s up. Thankfulness is a neat thing, but that’s not the moral to the story.
The thing that strikes me as odd is that these readers are contacting and sharing this with me in the first place, then in some instances act surprised when I respond to them. The feedback is great – it’s what keeps me and the other writer’s I know going. It’s reviewing, rating, and sharing with us that we know whether we’re doing a good job or not and also how we can improve. Technically a sale is feedback as well, and it helps put food on the table, but all a sale tells us is that we managed a successful sales pitch, not that the finished product was well done.
I can’t imagine a day, regardless of future success, were I can’t take the time to respond to somebody who goes out of their way to share with me. After all, if a person can work time in their busy schedule to send something to me, why shouldn’t I take the same time to do the same? So too all my readers, past, present, and future – I thank you and appreciate the time you take reading and enjoying my work!
Speaking of future success, I read an article recently where a writer considered himself mid-list and made a living at it. He indicated he had roughly 100 titles available. If that’s what it takes, then that’s what I’ll do. So far I’ve got 9 out with a 10th and 11th pending. Behind them I’ve got releases scheduled up through February of 2012 on a monthly basis. That takes me to 16. A bit shy of a 100 but I’ve got a lot of words left in me, not to mention a roadmap for several more Voidhawk and Dark Earth books!
Oh, and as much as I hate to admit it, I may even jump on the bandwagon and include some occasional vampire related stuff into one of my existing or future universes. They will not be sparkly and emo though, that I promise you!
