Authoring Like a Boss

I just finished The Vault, a book I wrote that takes place in a post-apocalyptic North America (New York, to be precise). I intended it to be a novella but it got away from me and turned into something bigger, longer, and better. It was a book full of lessons for me too, as it detoured away from areas I am more comfortable with (science fiction / fantasy), and yet I could not use a lot of modern conveniences in it (no running water, electricity, etc.).

In fact, The Vault is set a year after a very impressive asteroid falls out of the sky and lands in the Atlantic Ocean, just west of the Bahamas. People around the world are wiped out, either right away or over the next several months as the sun is blotted out by debris, acid rain scours the planet, and the food chain is wiped out. All in all, it’s a pretty grim time, but there are survivors – otherwise how boring would it be to write about a barren rock we used to call home?

But that’s another story that’s already been told. It’s in my editor’s hands and when she’s finished with it, I’ll make it available. A week or two is my guess. I was inspired to write it by the success of my second book I ever released, Wanted. That book (and the series it spawned) has arguably been my most successful book. My hope is that I can recapture some of the magic in Wanted in the post-apocalyptic setting, although this one is very different both in setting and in the amount of people remaining. If it does well, who knows where it might lead later on?

That’s for later, this is now. And now it is time for me to once again take up the glowing crystal spear and knife and revisit the universe of Vitalis. When I last left Vitalis there was a group of bad-asses on Vitalis that were training and developing themselves. They have their orders now, and they are ready to return to Earth. Their mission: become the enemy so they can defeat the enemy. Pity the name “Suicide Squad” has already been taken, it might have made a great title.

At this point, after I finish up Vitalis #9 I’ll finally move back to Voidhawk and finish the rather epic storyline that was unearthed in Fallen Goddess. Not to mention addressing the hole that I left in the hearts of both the Voidhawk’s crew and myself when Jenna was lost. Finishing that story is going to require the third and final book in the Serpent’s War trilogy to be written as well.

Somewhere in there I need another Dark Universe book and another Terminus book. Good thing it’s only May – I have a lot planned for this year still!

As a special note, I’ve been doing a lot of research on character development and interaction recently and I really hope it begins to show in Vitalis and beyond (not that the characters haven’t developed and grown already, it’s just some new things I want to introduce).

 

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.

Writing the Right Fiction

I’m working on a story I’m calling “The Vault.” It’s a post-apocalyptic story exploring what happens to a group of people that are the first to emerge from a government vault designed to help a tiny portion of humanity survive an asteroid striking the earth. Trust me, when big, fast rock hits the earth lots of bad things happen. It’s happened before and it will happen again, but hopefully not for hundreds of thousands of years (or millions).

Researching what would happen for an asteroid strike is some pretty freaky stuff. Impressive, to say the least. Or maybe terrifying, if you’re the type that lets you worry about things you have zero control over (um, sorry, if that’s the case). In my scenario I’ve got a rock roughly 8kilometers (5ish miles) in size, fairly dense, traveling around 30 meters a second striking just off the Bahamas. Secondary problems involve fault lines shifting and causing earthquakes around the world, including an early release of a lot of stored up magma and pressure in the Yellowstone Caldera. It is, for all intents and purposes, an extinction level event.

Yet, people are resilient. Worse (or better) than cockroaches even. Survivors are trying to find a way to bring life back to the planet and rebuild. And that’s the gist of the story without giving anything away. I’ve got a core group of characters I’m focusing on and making them deal with one natural disaster after another. Fun, in its own way, but I’m afraid I went and made a terrible mistake.

I accidentally saw a snippet of a series on Netflix called Orange is the New Black. That tiny snippet was enough to hook me. That lead to the necessity of binge watching the first three seasons whenever I could. And now I’m waiting for the fourth season to come out this summer. Wait – what the heck does that have to do with my writing?

Good question. The characters in Orange is the New Black are outstanding. Even the ones I don’t really care much for have such rich backstories and lives I’m left shocked and impressed. My only complaint is that the series has expanded so much on so many of the other characters that I feel like the original heroines of the story, Piper Chapmin and Alex Vause, aren’t getting as much focus as they should. Their story, after all, is the one that hooked me and made me want to know more. I’m not happy with how the 3^rd season ended, regarding those two, but I have my own hidden theories about what might happen to / for them.

Now then, back to writing. As I said all of these characters are so rich and thought out that it’s really opened up an itch in my to write something new and different. I’m struggling to stay focused on The Vault, and I’m happy that I only planned this story to be a novella instead of a full length novel. I’m halfway done by my guess, and I’m anxious to get it done as soon as I can so I can explore my new ideas.

What does that mean, as far as what comes next? Well, there are many options. I was thinking my next book would be a Vitalis story, and I could see myself trying to incorporate some of these ideas into Vitalis. After all, Vitalis has a history of having many characters with their own backgrounds and stories, so it might be a natural fit. Conversely, I could very easily find a way to slide these new ideas into a new Lost Girls book, although Katalina and Skylar would not be the main characters anymore. Instead it would follow their daughters and their desire to grow up and make their mark on the world.

Or maybe something else completely new? Naw, probably not. I’m probably going to end up focusing on Vitalis, but the appeal of a Lost Girls spin off is growing. I still need to write more Dark Universe, Voidhawk, and The Serpent’s War too (and countless many others). Come to think of it, maybe some of these new ideas could end up working out in an extension of my Wanted series too…

The positive take-away from this is that inspiration can come from anywhere. On the flip side, it can be damn irritating too, because it’s messing with my current focus. That makes me mad though, and anger I can use to drive me forward. Scorched earth be damned, I will have these stories out as soon as I can!

 

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 Dark Star is Born

Voidhawk – Fallen Goddess went to my editor on Friday. That, by itself, is a great thing. What happened in that book is even greater. I won’t go into details, but I will say that I’m still feeling it after taking an entire weekend off from writing and I want to jump straight into the next Voidhawk book because of it. But… I can’t.

In a couple of weeks I have a special project coming up with someone, so I have to plan accordingly. I’ve decided to work on Dark Star in the interim, the next book in the Dark Universe setting. A quick turn-around for that series, I know, but I’ve got a couple of driving factors: 1) Dark Universe is selling great and nothing else is for me – the family’s gotta eat. 2) I’m just as amped up about that series and the characters as I am about Voidhawk, so it’s an easy thing to do and it gives me the space I need to come into the next Voidhawk book objectively.

Two weeks isn’t enough to finish it though, not while I’m doing the day job too. So I finished putting my thoughts together today and now I can start working on the story properly. It’s not an outline, per se, but a general flow of what’s going to happen. The ‘how’ part of it remains to unfold as I write it. I’m expecting another kick ass story in that series though!

As for Voidhawk and the next book, that will come soon. It’s going to tie into my World of Kroth books again (Blades of Leander, Order of the Dragon, The Serpent’s War). In fact, the third book in the Serpent’s War trilogy will have a lot to do with it – but I promise they’ll also be entirely separate from each other. Some crossover, maybe, but you won’t need to read one to read the other. You will, however, get exposure to some kick-ass fantasy that fills in a lot of extra details and backstory for anyone that wants to try them both out.

And the side project? Well, I’ll talk more about that when and if it works out. It’s got a lot of potential, but I don’t want to get ahead of myself in case anything comes up to cause problems.

In the meantime, stay tuned for Voidhawk – Fallen Goddess in the next week or two! And after that another Dark Universe book is on the horizon.

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.

Pounding a Silver Dragon into a Square Hole

I’ve been neglecting blog posts lately because I’ve been burning the candle at both ends on my latest book. I’m anxious to get it done for many reasons, and not the least of those reasons is because this book is just a lot of fun! The characters continue to come alive and surprise me in new ways. New relationships are unfolding and old ones are changing. Events are taking place (or not taking place) and all in all, I’m more impressed than ever with how the book is being written with me providing little more than fingers to type it out with.

Let me give an example. I had a rough outline of sorts put together for how the book would unfold. Then I started writing and things began to go out the window. I’d planned on the story taking place over about a 6 month time span, but now it’s been shortened to about half that. I’d planned on the characters barely touching a city from the first book in the series, but now it turns out that city is becoming pivotal. Good guys became bad and there’s been a lot of dark parts to this story.

And through it all I kept posting highlights and teasers on my Facebook fan page. The problem was, I kept using the wrong name for the book! I was calling it by the name of book 2, not book 3. Well I think I figured out why that is just yesterday. The name kind of bugged me for a while but I wasn’t sure why. I kept trying to find ways to make the story fit the title, rather than making the title fit the story. A smack to the forehead later I realized I needed a better title. That, it turned out, was just as much of a no-brainer.

And so I’m announcing that book 3 in my Blades of Leander fantasy series will be called Silver Dragon. For the record that means the Blades of Leander series (as it stands presently) consists of:

Child of Fate
Victim of Fate
Silver Dragon
Books 4 through…the rest, are still to be determined.

The great news is I’m probably about 4 chapters away from finishing the rough draft. I’d hoped to finish it by the end of January but I doubt that’s going to happen. I’m just too damn busy these days to do more than a chapter a day most days (even though I did manage three last Saturday). It will be finished soon though. I’ve got a large battle to lay out and write as well as the actions of the main characters in tandem with said conflict. And did I mention the troll shaman? He’s back for more horribly articulated fun!

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.

Do You Want To Live Forever?

This post has nothing to do with the words were first immortalized by Valeria (Sandahl Bergman) before she leapt off the Tower of Set and was followed by Conan (Arnold Schwarzenegger) in the original (and far superior) Conan the Barbarian movie.

This post is about me offering readers the opportunity to be immortalized as a character in one of my books! I can’t guarantee the role of said character, but at this point my intention is to make it a supporting character that is as true to the reader as possible. I say immortalized because I imagine my books will outlive any of us – they’re on the Internet after all!

James Patterson did something like this recently, except I believe there was money involved that went to charity. I’m also not sure if Mr. Patterson only used the name of the lucky lady who won or if there was more to it than that. My intent is to far beyond just a name. I want to try and keep it as true to you as possible, or as true to the person you explain yourself to be. That means this will require some work on my part and on yours, but I think it’s the kind of work that everybody yearns to do.

In an increasingly technological world we find ways to exist by being lonely islands floating in a busy ocean. We’re all so focused on living our own lives and achieving the goals we have for ourselves that we’ve lost a lot of human interaction. Even worse, we feel nobody can really understand who we are. This is my nickle and dime approach to fighting back against that separationism.

The opportunity here is something that I think we’d all really like. I’m offering to listen to you while you unload the things about yourself that you feel are misunderstood. Your fears, your concerns, and your triumphs. We all feel like there are things nobody understands about us – I’m one of “we” too. Here’s the chance to share those things with somebody who promises to listen. I can’t fix anybody, but I can let you unload and we’ll both come away better off because of it. And no, I’m not saying this is just for the winner, this is for anybody who wants to take part in this process.

So how do can you get hooked up with this cool opportunity? Easy! Just send me an email at jason@booksbyjason.com. Include in it your name and some details about yourself. You can focus on why I should pick you or you can vent about something that’s bothering you. I won’t attempt to solve your problems, but I will read what you write and respond to you. I’ll also be honored that you chose to share it with me, provided you don’t claim to be a Nigerian Princess that wants to offer me millions of dollars if I just give you my bank account information.

The book I’m working on presently is the sequel to Dark Earth, called Devil’s Icebox. There are plenty of opportunities for supporting characters in it so rest assured if you’re a man, woman, child, or something else altogether I can find a place for you in it!

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.

How to Write a Fantasy / Scifi / Paranormal / Whatever

I had a question on Twitter last night that I had to think about. Somebody asked me if I had any tips for writing a fantasy story. I kept thinking of tips that apply to everything and that was when I realized I’d figured out how to answer the question!

If you want to write a story you’ve perhaps already defeated yourself. If you want to write about some characters, then you’re on the right path! Start with your characters. Make them believable and realistic, and that means flawed. Every person I’ve ever met (starting with myself) has gaping holes that stop them from being perfect. We call them personality quirks and sometimes they can be endearing (like mine). Regardless of how full of it I may be, characters need to have them too or your audience won’t be able to bond with them.

Once the characters have been figured out, start writing about them! If the book is supposed to be fantasy, then put the characters in a fantasy setting. If it’s sci-fi then make the environment sci-fi. If you’ve got to much teenage drama taking place in a graveyard filled with zombies and vampires…well, toss the poor characters in the meat grinder. Then let the characters show the reader how they’re going to survive, learn, act, and evolve throughout the environment you chose.

Genres don’t make for best-selling stories, characters do.

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.

Real Life Character Development

I think just about every one of us, as human beings, has something in common. We love an underdog story. We love to see somebody rise up and overcome adversity. We love to see the Cobra Kai’s and evil empires overthrown. More than that, we like to see people succeed when the odds are stacked against them.

The odds, I believe, are stacked against almost each and every one of us. We come out kicking and screaming into a bright and scary world. It’s cold, we haven’t really eaten anything in nine months, and what’s that smell? From there we’ve only got the good grace of our parents, guardians, or mentors to help us figure out what to do and how to do it.

What defines is isn’t what we achieve, but what we overcome. The more you think about it, the more you realize everybody has a story and everybody has roadblocks they have to get past. Even the rich kids have issues (sometimes more, except they can afford a personal therapist).

The funny thing is, in a sad and ironic way, when somebody does break free with something remarkable, there are always several people who become bitter and denounce them for their success. I think we’ve probably all done it a time or two, I know I have. Perhaps it’s justified but how can we truly know without having been in their position?

That’s another reason why books are remarkable things. We can read about characters who aren’t real, or at least they’re not real in the medical sense. We can see them run through a meat grinder and emerge battered, scarred, and improved. Things get worse for them but they dig deep and find a way to climb out of the hole. And when they do our spirits are lifted with theirs. We share their triumphs just as we shared their pains. We’ve all had times where things seemed bleak and like we had no way to turn, so we can connect with those characters. To see them succeed reminds us that you and I can too, it just takes hard work and the ability to seize an opportunity when it presents itself. Who knew you could learn something about yourself from fiction?

I believe every single word I’ve written, and I’d go on to share some of my own pitfalls and successes, but I don’t want anybody thinking this is about me. Well it is, but not me personally, rather it’s about another example I want to share with as many people as I can. It’s a fictional example, but it’s also about a character that almost every single one of us can identify with.

Her name is Katalina Wimple and she’s a cop with a bad attitude. She’s a good cop, but she’s got a lot of issues and a lot of bitterness in her. She’s been abused and heartbroken and if that wasn’t enough she keeps putting herself in situations that allow the beatings to continue. Her family life is broken and confused and her love-life is reminiscent of a demolition derby. Yet in spite of all of that – or because of it – she wants to help people so badly she doesn’t care what happens to her. If you pointed that out to her she’d probably pull her gun on you though, so don’t try it.

And this character, Katalina Wimple, she’s as real as they get as far as I’m concerned. She’s feisty and someone you just can’t live with even though you end up loving her and rooting for her. Trust me, I know, she’s been smacking me in the back of the head for months now. Case in point, she just wacked me for saying that about her.

She’s featured in my latest book, The Lost Girls, and will also be readily available to be beat up, shot at, and exposed to some truly terrifying events in the near future when I release the next book in that series, Traitor. I will warn you that the genre is confused, mystery / hardboiled detective but I also tossed in a touch of science fiction. Nothing like aliens and robots though, just some near future gadgets and cool tech stuff.

With that in mind I ask you to give this new book of mine a look. It’s different than my prior Voidhawk series by far, and it’s far from the lawless post apocalypse of Wanted and Ice Princess. It’s everyday life for the most part, and I can’t begin to tell you how very thrilling and exciting it is to me.

The Lost Grls, a Dark Earth novel by Jason Haltead

The Lost Girls can be found on Amazon, Barnes and Nobles, Smashwords, and other places where e-books are sold.

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