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Fresh air

October 22, 2020 Leave a comment

I’m doing something different with this post. It’s not a new release notice (give me a week or two – I’ve got Dark Metal, my next book, in editing now). I’m obviously not talking about politics (even my masochism has limits). I’m talking about business.

Don’t worry, this isn’t where I try to pull anyone into a multi-level-marketing scheme or try to sell oceanfront property in Indiana… although I did learn recently the London Bridge really is in Arizona. No, this is me changing my business model for my books. Or at least trying something new. I signed up as a creator on Patreon and spent the last several nights uploading my work there.

What is Patreon? It’s a website that allows creators of all sorts a medium to create and share their work. In my case, as a writer, I have you guys. Readers that, I hope, will embrace this new medium and sign up for it. In addition to access to all of my stories (at least all the ones I’m contractually able to share), I’ll be posting future works as I write them chapter by chapter. I’m also going to focus on some Patreon-only exclusive stories. Probably shorter stories, but most of you know I struggle with anything less than a novella! Oh, I almost forgot… my lovely Mrs. Has agreed to let me include her stories on there too.

Okay, now that I’ve got you interested (I hope), go check it out: https://www.patreon.com/booksbyjason

And like I said earlier, Dark Metal will be on the virtual shelves (and in Patreon) soon! Dark Metal is the 9th book in my Dark Universe setting, and it was a real joy to write even thought I kept getting interrupted by long hours and extra-curricular activities (not the, ahem, romantic sort either).

Stay tuned, there’s more to come… or if you like more regular updates, join my Patreon where I will be making frequent posts.

To learn more about Jason Halstead, join his Patreon page, visit his website to read about him, sign up for his newsletter, or check out some free samples of his books at http://www.booksbyjason.com.

All That Glitters Is Not Gold

And by glitters I mean bling. Or, to be more specific, Amelia Foster, aka Bling. This is the announcement of Bling 3.0, book 8 in my Lost Girls series!

As is often the case, I went into Bling 3.0 with a goal in mind. Almost an outline, in fact. Along the way Amy did what the women in this world often do to me – they let me know the story they want me to tell is not the story I thought it was. It got longer and longer and the plot twisted and things happened I wasn’t expecting. By the end it was nearly twice the length I’d planned, but that’s okay, it made for a great story!

But what’s it about? How could Amy go back for more after what happened to her in Bling 2.0? Well, modern medicine (circa 2073) is a miraculous thing. That and the new and improved upgrades that she gets by way of thanks for saving the wife and children of a very wealthy man. With survival and improvements comes a burden though: guilt. Not everyone made it back home and that’s not something she can live with. She has to go back to Dark Earth to find and save her brother.

Bling 3.0

 

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So what’s next after this? Well, I’m working on a new Dark Universe book to pick up where the last one ended. The crews of the Uma and Sentinel are hunting for a new ship and they have to find it before the bounty hunters find them. Then they’ll need to hope they can get the new ship running before the Ampytheans find out about them robbing a graveyard and try to stop them.

In the meantime, check out Dawn Michelle if you like some magic and paranormal urban adventures. Spoiler alert: she’s my wife and I often help her with her stories. Her new one coming out soon will be a lot of fun: It involves demons and call girls and police officers… oh my!

 

To learn more about Jason Halstead visit his website to read about him, sign up for his newsletter, or check out some free samples of his books at http://www.booksbyjason.com.

A Cure for Quarantine Blues

I live in Michigan, and Michigan is presently under quarantine orders. We have been for at least six weeks now. Some people are finally coming around to accepting it (resigned to their fate) while others remain stir-crazy. Then there’s people like me that haven’t really had to make any lifestyle changes. Oh sure, I’ve fantasized about turning my neighborhood into a compound and enlisting my neighbors to help patrol, defend, and set up large gardens and organize hunting parties into the nearby woods and swamps, but that’s just how I entertain myself.

Six weeks of that, with leaving the house once or twice a week to gather groceries. Many of you know what this is like now, and for those who don’t yet, try to imagine it. Better yet, try to imagine being trapped for months at a time without even the reprieve of stepping outside to feel the sun or wind on your face? Of being stuck in a small place with the same people day after day – people that maybe you’re not related to or even care for. And the food? Vacuum sealed bland packs of rations designed to keep you alive, not to provide enjoyment. Or protein powders reconstituted with recycled water.

That’s an example of life in a spaceship. A spaceship like the Uma or the Sentinel, two ships that readers of my Dark Universe books will know very well. Under the Dark is a new release in that series and it brings back the original characters— most of them, at least. The ones that are gone are, well, gone. Although there are some fond memories shared about many of them.

It’s not just a trip down memory space-lane though. Amber, the latest captain of the Uma, has more problems than her predecessors ever did keeping the Uma flying. It’s not just the operating expenses or crew either, it’s the owners of the repurposed space yacht and their contractual demands she’s struggling to meet.

Then there’s Aden and Sierra, human siblings trying to put their troubled past behind them and live their own lives with their spouses on the Sentinel. The past has a way of catching up to them though, and the only way to secure their future could plunge them back into the middle of all the troubles they tried to leave behind.

Under the Dark is part of the ongoing Dark Universe series, but it also sets up a story arc that I’m expecting to span two – three books. Oh, and given the turbulent times we’re living in as far as a lot of workers being furloughed or worse, it’s only priced at $2.99.

 

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You’d think I would have another Dark Universe book on the tail end of Under the Dark… but instead I’m halfway through writing up Bling 3.0. I’ve been inspired by Covid-19 for Bling 3.0 and there’s a highly infectious disease with no cure as a subplot in it. The sickness actually was mentioned in Bling 2.0, but now it’s going mainstream and spreading rapidly. But it’s hardly the main point of the book – just another hurdle Amy has to deal with as she struggles to rescue her brother and sort her life out and figure out what, and who, she really wants in it.

 

To learn more about Jason Halstead visit his website to read about him, sign up for his newsletter, or check out some free samples of his books at http://www.booksbyjason.com.

Dauntless

February 18, 2020 Leave a comment

A couple of years back a fellow writer (John M. Davis) and I had an idea. Out of that idea came a universe that we shared and developed. We were excited by it and pulled out all the stops. I wrote a couple of books in this universe and he wrote a book in it. We had grand plans. Our ambitions had us slated to keep on filling this universe with stories and characters until we couldn’t do it any longer – and hopefully others would follow in our steps. Heck, I even put together a website that encouraged feedback and ideas in the form of new technologies, new characters, new… everything! And the submitter would then get credit and become a part of this universe as well.

Sounds pretty cool, doesn’t it? I still think it does… but if this is the first you’re hearing of it, then it must be obvious that it flopped. The books sales weren’t there. No for me, and not for John. We retreated to our more established series and universes / worlds / characters, knowing that we had an audience there and the ability to continue paying the bills that way.

But this universe never left me. The simple truth is that writing is a labor of love and passion for me. The income is a must-have as well, but I supplement it with a day job. After a couple of years of letting the characters languish, I knew I had to go back to them. I had to know what happened next. I had to share their victories and their pain. Even if that meant a couple of months spent working on something that didn’t sell in a system where I very much needed to make sales, I had to try. I was determined and, while I was sharing the experiences and lives of those characters, I was fearless.

It was only natural that the book be titled the very word that embodied those words : Dauntless. Dauntless is science fiction and adventure, but like any true sci-fi story, it’s about the people within its pages and how they live and think and feel. There are space battles and gunfights, amazing new technology and bitter feuds. Family rivalry, betrayals, and even a solar system-wide civil war. Dauntless was a pretty big undertaking, but it was sheer joy to write and, I have to say, even more fun to read. If you haven’t given the Terminus series a try yet — and I’ve seen the sales numbers so I know most of you haven’t— you really should give it a shot. You won’t be disappointed.

 

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The crew of the Raptor must save an unruly princess from a solar system-wide civil war. A simple escort and run job — what could go wrong?

The Nelanian culture is based on aggression, war, and battling with themselves. Everybody’s got a stake in the war — profits and power to be had. Betrayal and sacrifice are justified under the pretense of the Greater Good. Earning a slightly dishonest paycheck has never been seemed so admirable.

Even the Princess Tor has been contracted to save has her own agenda… an agenda that doesn’t take Tor, his crew, or his ship into consideration. When escape is no longer an option there’s only one way left to get the job done. There’s no right or wrong side to this war, just a winning side. That’s the side Tor intends to be on.

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Will there be more Terminus books – I plan on it! Not quite yet though. First I’m back into my Dark Universe setting, with Aden, Twyf… and so many characters I don’t dare to name them all or this will end up being far too long. The new book is titled Under the Dark and I have to say that I haven’t had this much fun writing a DU book in a long time… since the first trilogy, to be entirely honest. Honestly I’m hoping this book sets up a new three story arc. That’s my current plan, at least.

But that’s a month or more away, so to pass the time don’t forget to pick up Dauntless and get sucked into another amazing setting!

 

To learn more about Jason Halstead visit his website to read about him, sign up for his newsletter, or check out some free samples of his books at http://www.booksbyjason.com.

The Motor City of the Future

November 18, 2019 Leave a comment

TLDR: Just in time for the holidays, Vitalis: Nest is available for purchase!

I haven’t released a Vitalis back since January of 2018. That’s almost two years! Shameful, I know. Especially since back in 2014 I cranked out 3 of them and prior to that there were many more. Fortunately today marks the end of that dry spell with the 12 novel in the series now being available.

Nest takes place at the same time as Reloaded does, but light years apart. In fact, Vitalis: Nest happens here on Earth, in the outskirts of Detroit, Michigan. The story here started ten years ago, after Earth was already infected with Vitalian crystals. Enough had fallen and gathered along the shores of Lake St. Clair to begin creating more of them. Many, many more. Enough to begin to establish another control node, but one that no one knew about.

Ten years later, and with the influence of an unlikely and very unbalanced individual, Detroit’s suddenly under siege. People are being butchered and kidnapped and the local Army base is hard pressed to do anything about it. There’s something about the attackers that’s familiar too. Something that suggests a secret that terrifies the Terran Coalition government all the way to the highest levels. Humanity thought they had ten years left before they were faced with an interstellar war they aren’t prepared for. With the help of the Nest under Detroit, the timetable has been moved up.

Before I give too much away, here’s the cover and links. More random but useful babbling below.

 

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What else could I have to talk about? Lots, but I’ll limit this to Terminus. My next book, in fact, is the 4th in the Terminus series. I don’t have a name for it yet, but I have a whole lot of plans (and I’m almost a quarter of the way through writing the rough draft already). Terminus hasn’t gotten much action or love though, and that upsets me. It deserves it, and I’m not sure why the books don’t have more of a following. I think of the series as a cross between Firefly, Star Wars, and Star Trek. There are bad guys and there are almost-good guys. Yes, almost-good. The intro (Terminus – by me) and first two books (Ghost Planet, by John M. Davis, and Frozen Dreams, also by me) dealt with criminals escaping a prison labor camp on a deadly planet. When your main characters are escaped criminals, how good can they be?

 

To learn more about Jason Halstead visit his website to read about him, sign up for his newsletter, or check out some free samples of his books at http://www.booksbyjason.com.

 

Categories: Writing

Tough Girls Rock

Somebody is bound to take me to task for publicly stating my opinion, but that’s their right to do so, and I’ll defend their right to call me a prick to the death. The opinion in question, as my subject above so clearly states, is that strong female characters are amazing. I’ve written about several and been praised about their portrayals. I plan to keep on writing about them, including two who have just entered publication… but more on that in a moment.

I can’t really explain why I feel the way I do. Maybe it’s genetic or maybe I’m just a fanboy riding the same wave many others are. Whatever the case, I really enjoy exploring characters with almost dual natures. Warm, caring, compassionate at times and tough as nails and downright bitchy at others. It’s realism in fiction, really. I could tell stories I see day to day of those same examples I see in real life, but dealing with impatient drivers or looming business deadlines isn’t nearly as entertaining as fighting for one’s life or trying to rescue a loved one from a life of slavery and servitude.

As twisted as this is, I admit that I am out of touch with the modern man. Having a son growing up in our culture has helped a lot, but I still default to thinking of men as one-dimensional. Yes, that includes me. My role models were Buck Rogers, Steve Austin, Tom Magnum, and Clint Eastwood. I think that’s why I tend to focus more on female characters than males – I instinctively feel I have more range to work with and more growth potential.

With touch chicks as the focus here, I’m lucky one of them hasn’t kicked my butt. Amelia Foster, aka Bling, shared another adventure a couple of months ago and I forgot to post about it! Distractions from a very busy life this year and all that, but it’s still no excuse. My beta readers are crazy about her and can’t wait for the next book in the Lost Girls series to pick up after Bling 2.0 left off. Spoiler alert, the next one is probably going to be called Bling 3.0.

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In Bling 2.0 Amy has become a version of a made woman. She’s gotten in tight with the man who used to be out to kill her. That was just business though, nothing personal. Now that she’s in charge of the security and well being of his family, business and personal are bound to get mixed up. Very, very mixed up. Toss in a summer break spent vacationing on Dark Earth, the world that Amy was born on, and “mixed up” doesn’t do justice to the summer she’s about to have.

I don’t want to give anything away, but there’s romance and hookups— illicit and otherwise— as well as a glimpse into Amy’s past and discovery of a depth and complexity to Dark Earth previously unknown. The Lost Girls series continues to give me gifts as past books tie into current ones, proving that Katalina and her wonderful crew still have enough gas in the tank to come back for more.

And that’s only Bling 2.0! Just this weekend I released a new book that is pure sword and sorcery. It’s called Sacrifice and it takes place in my World of Kroth setting, not too long after The Goblin Queen. Officially I’m not calling it part of my Serpent’s War series, but I expect the characters in it to play a part in future books.

So why should you read that one? Well, it’s about another young girl with dreams of a future so very different from what she seems destined to endure. What she thinks is fate guiding her life turns out to be far from it, but that’s part of the journey she must take. You can take it too, if you read the book. I’ll include the blurb below.

 

Despairing of the hardship and toils of life along the northern tundra three clans of northerners set off for parts unknown to establish a new life. In the northern highlands set apart from the rest of Kroth they found the paradise they seek. Protected by mountains and a little known pass, they flourished and began to forget their ways.

Generations later their history told only in hushed stories around the hearth meant to scare children. They have new traditions now. New rituals, the most garish of which is sacrificing their daughters to the saints to keep their lands blessed and fruitful.

Into this dystopian paradise is born a farmer’s daughter, Tarja. She alone questions the rituals her people endure. She seeks answers to questions that no one dares to ask. She wants a different life for herself. The more she wants, the more she learns how steep the price behind it is. It is a cost she alone cannot bear.

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So what’s next? Well, I’m working with Dawn Michelle again to wrap up something fun she’s writing and tossing a few projects around. I’ve got a great idea for a new sci-fi setting I want to explore, but I’m also dying to get back to the Terminus setting John Davis and I worked on. Vitalis, Dark Universe, Voidhawk, and Kroth are all waiting for new books too… so many ideas and things to write— good thing I plan on writing at least a couple hundred more books (if not more).

 

To learn more about Jason Halstead visit his website to read about him, sign up for his newsletter, or check out some free samples of his books at http://www.booksbyjason.com.

Categories: Writing

Cosmic Spin the Bottle

No, I haven’t kissed any aliens. I don’t know anyone who has either. I was simply looking for a phrase that implied randomness, because this post might seem like I pulled the contents out of a bingo bowl.

First up is Terminus, a series I wrote a couple of stories in back in 2016 with John M. Davis. I wrote a novella to launch the setting and then the second book in the series. He wrote the first one. For those not in the know, Terminus is science fiction taking place in the year 2277. Humans have reached the stars and met our neighbors. Some are nice, some are not so nice, but everyone is civilized… or as civilized as humanity has been throughout history.

There are pirates and bandits, evil governments, vicious mobsters, rebels and outcasts, and even a special caste of people called the Gifted that are feared throughout the universe for their merciless psychic powers. John took a group of people and wrote about their exploits as they sought to establish themselves and buck the system. I did the same, although with different people.

If you’re just hearing about this series, don’t be surprised. We were both very excited about it. I whipped up a website and everything for it – even tried to encourage as much reader interaction as possible with it – but our excitement was one sided. A few people read the books and I got some great feedback from those that did. They loved it and wanted more, but those few people seem to be the only ones that heard about it. Talk about a disappointment! I shelved the project for a rainy day and had to move on to other books that sell more.

The artist and creator in me felt betrayed by my actions. It was like I’d stabbed myself in the back, and that would be a feat since I have to find a convenient wall corner when I need to scratch my back.

Well, I spent a week in Florida on a family vacation and, during downtime, I dusted off Frozen Dreams and read through it again. Oh. My. Stars! I fell in love with it all over again. Great characters and setting. My only problem was the minor errors I found in the book. Less than ten, to be sure, and some of those were some style tweaks I made to improve the flow, but I was still embarrassed. All the same, I’ve just resubmitted the updated story to Amazon and it should be available in a day or so. If you’re one of the few that have already bought and read it, the story is the same and you’re not missing anything. If you haven’t…well… you should. It’s a damn good read, if I do say so myself! Although I do recommend starting with Terminus, the story that began it all.

Am I going to continue the Terminus series now? I’d like to very much. In fact, I’m sure I will, but not just yet. I still have to finish off Bling 2.0 before I can do that. That book is already at the 50,000 word mark and I expect I’ve got a solid 15% – 25% to go (if not more). After that I might return to Terminus, but I’ve got another project that’s coming up fast on my schedule too, so I can’t promise anything.

Remember that randomness I promised? Well, even more random than bringing up a series written back in 2016 is another book I read while on vacation. I’m working on Bling 2.0 right now, as I said, and that is a Lost Girls book that takes place in the western United States. Arizona, mostly, except for this one they are spending a lot of time on Dark Earth instead of the Earth we know and love. Dark Earth is the same as ours, except instead of technology to chase away the monsters they have magic. And sometimes the monsters use magic too.

Anyhow, in Bling 2.0 there’s a lot of time spent with the native people, which happen to be the Dark Earth equivalent to the Diné (Navajo people). They speak the same language as the Navajo and have the same beliefs, lore, and spirits, although they are a part of the Mayan empire there. I’ve done a lot of research on the Navajo people because of my Lost Girls series and I’ve been very fascinated by it all. Imagine my surprise when I found a book by Rebecca Roanhorse called Trail of Lightning that is a science fiction book that fully incorporates Navajo lore into a great story! My one and only regret is that book 2, Storm of Locusts, won’t be released until April 23rd. I can’t recommend Trail of Lightning enough – I thoroughly enjoyed being a part of Maggie’s (the main character) struggle against the monsters of flesh and legend that she had to try and overcome. Spoiler alert: she’s just like the rest of us in that sometimes she makes bad choices and sometimes she doesn’t win.

Okay, that’s enough for one night. I’ve got to get back to Bling 2.0 if I’m going to finish telling her story and then be able to work on the stories of the other characters fighting to be heard!

 

To learn more about Jason Halstead visit his website to read about him, sign up for his newsletter, or check out some free samples of his books at http://www.booksbyjason.com.

Another Girl Lost

February 9, 2019 Leave a comment

I’ve lost track how long it’s been since I last heard from Katalina Wimple. For those who don’t know her, you should. She’s pretty darn amazing. She came to me one day out of nowhere because she had a story that needed to be told. For some reason she decided I was the one to tell her story and she wouldn’t take no for an answer.

 

Imagine, if you will, a petite woman that barely tops 5 feet tall with the training of a police officer giving you that look. The look that makes you suspect it’s a good thing you don’t know what she’s going to do you if you don’t do what she wants. I’m a reasonably big guy and Katalina is not, but there was never any question about what I was going to do.

 

In fact, she made me do something I’d never done before – I wrote back to back books about her without writing something else in between. She was demanding, to say the least, and is to this day my all time favorite character I’ve ever written. Oh sure, I’ve had some great ones, but Katalina was special. So special I started to hate it when she made me write a new story about her. I didn’t want to experience what happened to her, because it always hurt. After the fifth Lost Girls book, Guardian, I believed that we were finally done. She could retire and enjoy some long deserved peace and the embrace of those who loved her.

 

For a few years it worked. In fact, it sort of still is working. But she let me know there’s somebody else I need to write about. It’s not her, but it’s somebody she met through her adopted daughter. Another special girl by the name of Amelia Foster. Or, as her customers call her, Bling.

 

Devoted readers of my stories might remember a character named Bling from a novel I wrote and submitted to the Shadowrun role playing game people. They liked it, but it didn’t mesh enough to be included in their official canon. They encouraged me to publish it as fan fiction though, so I did. A version of Bling was in it, but that wasn’t enough for her. So she told me to put her in something else that would let her keep her unique flair. She was always a Lost Girl, and now she’s found her way home.

 

Bling is my newest release and is the 6th book in the Lost Girl series. Amelia is a child of two worlds with a tendency to make bad choices. Her intentions are golden, but she doesn’t always have the patience or wisdom for the long term. She was orphaned by the government as a child and tossed into the foster system with her younger brother. For people like them the foster system is an ugly place. Dark Earthers are considered second hand citizens, at best, and Amelia’s strangely pointed ears made her more of a target than most. As soon as possible, Amelia took her brother and they ran away. They’ve bounced from homeless shelter to abandoned homes to dark alleys ever since.

 

This book picks up after Amelia and her brother have found a somewhat stable life in downtown Phoenix. He’s in 5th grade and she goes to school when she’s not too tired because she works late nights as an Amateur Entertainment Contractor. Hey, it’s good money and legal work, aside from her having to get fake certifications because of the status of her birth. Most of the customers are pigs, but it’s easy work.

 

Easy until her bad choices team up and decide to teach her a lesson. The odds are against her and she’s got a lot of hard lessons to learn if she’s going to keep her brother safe and keep herself alive.

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Remember when I said Katy made me write back to back books about her? Well, I’m doing it again with Amelia. Bling 2.0 is halfway done, in fact. Yes, 2.0 is a weird name for a sequel, but in it Bling is definitely upgraded and reborn. A new version, if you will. Same girl with the same quirks and shortcomings, but she thinks she’s better outfitted to deal with them. Nothing could prepare her for what she’s going to face though.

 

 

To learn more about Jason Halstead visit his website to read about him, sign up for his newsletter, or check out some free samples of his books at http://www.booksbyjason.com.

 

I’m a Bad Parent

January 25, 2019 Leave a comment

Not literally, but in an artistic license sort of way. My kids are fine, I haven’t let them wander into any abandoned mines or forgotten to pick them up from a creepy corn maze run by a guy in a clown mask. What I have done is let a new release go unannounced for over a week! That’s right, Confliction, Dark Universe book #7, is available everywhere!

Confliction picks up a little over a year after Lucky Star left off and continues the saga of the Dark Universe struggle against the Kesari, a race of alien beings intent on dominating the galaxy. There are new heroes and heroines in this book, although I really was searching for something a little grittier when I wrote this one. I even had one person accuse me of channeling some inner Shakespeare! Whether that’s true or not, the main characters might be better described as anti-heroes. As with all of my books, the story unfolds and the characters grow, evolve, and endure the struggles necessary to become better people. Or they fail and are never heard from again.

I’ll be honest, Lucky Star was a fun book for me, but I felt it missed a certain spark that made it really shine. This time I recaptured it, and I’m certain it had to do with including a lot of scenes with some of the stars from books past. It just didn’t feel like it was a complete story without some appearances and interaction with Aden, Twyf, Seph, Sierra, Niko, Neesha, and more.

So here is Confliction, anxiously awaiting eager eyes to dance across the curves and angles and expose it for the dark beauty that it is!

 

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Into the Dark (book 1) Out of the Dark (book 2) Chasing the Dark (book 3)
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Dark Star (book 4) Shades of Dark (book 5) Lucky Star (book 6)
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  Confliction (book 7)  
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In other news, I’m very close to releasing a new Lost Girls novel: Bling. This character inspired me in a way that I haven’t been inspired since Katalina Wimple willed herself into creation in the back of my head and demanded I share her story with the world. Then she did it again, and writing back-to-back books in the same series was unheard of for me. Bling did that too – I’m working on book 2 about her as I type this, before the cover art for book 1 is even finished!

2019 feels like a better year for writing for me so far. Here’s to hoping I can keep that going all year long!

 

To learn more about Jason Halstead visit his website to read about him, sign up for his newsletter, or check out some free samples of his books at http://www.booksbyjason.com.

Self-Taught

November 16, 2018 Leave a comment

I struggled with a title for this blog. This is more about an old dog still being able to learn new tricks. Except these aren’t new tricks, these are old tricks I already learned and, I guess, let slip. I’m not that old, so there’s no good excuse to give. What the heck am I talking about? Well, read on, it was kind of a neat discovery for me and one I’m still feeling positive about.

I’m working on Confliction, book 7 in the Dark Universe series. I started it with a neat concept and crafted some characters to fit the roles I wanted. Then I threw some twists and turns along the way, as well as relationships and complications. All in all, it’s been a good ride but, I confess, a little rough to write.

I reached a point in the book where I’m tying in some of the earlier characters that made Dark Universe such a great series, but it’s been a while since I’ve written about them so I needed to go back and get a feel for them again. I reread some parts of Chasing the Dark and then Dark Star to get what I needed… and I was glad I was sitting down.

I was shocked by what I read and what I felt. In a good way! I was devouring the words and getting swept up in the characters and what they were going through and, more importantly, feeling. On top of all that I realized that I had written this.

That was kind of a wake up call that made me think. I liked my characters I’d created, but they weren’t the same. I tried to follow the formula to make them real, but that’s the problem, it was a formula. It wasn’t art. So that means I’m going back through the first 2/3 of the book I’ve written and flesh them out more. More experiences, more interaction, more relationships. More dialogue and quirks. More real.

But why did this happen in the first place? There’s no data to point to a specific reason or point in time, but this year has been particularly complex for yours truly. Not bad, just burdensome in some aspects. My writing has suffered a lot because of it. Excessive demand from my day job and ongoing stress caused by that has impacted a lot of things this year. I won’t say it’s improved either, but I’ve adapted and shifted a few things around. Does that mean I’ll be writing more and getting back into the groove again? I suspect it will be a bit of a compromise. I’d sure love to, but we’ll see how things go. All I can do is try… and keep trying until they wheel me away.

So hopefully I’ll have Confliction out yet this year or early next – that’s the goal I’m setting for myself. I’ve got plenty of time off during the holidays to help me make it happen.

 

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