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Nothing is more ‘Out there’ than Reality!
By reality I don’t mean reality TV. That’s in a dimension all by itself. I’m talking about the wild and crazy world we live in. We’ve all heard a variant on the line, “Truth is stranger than fiction.” Well, I read something yesterday that left me excited, grossed out, and disappointed.
One of my mainstays is science fiction. Reading it, writing it, watching it, and hopefully living it. I’m always thinking and daydreaming about the possibilities the future holds (hopefully with me owning a nice winter home in the Caribbean). One of those daydreams turned into my sci-fi series, Vitalis. It takes place in the future and so far has managed to span multiple solar systems and worlds. I’ve explored new possibilities, new creatures, new ecosystems, and what happens when those are mixed together. And the age old maxim that in primitive cultures and the animal kingdom, violence really does solve things.
Let’s take an example of an alien creature I created that sort of resembles a massively overgrown cockroach. It can spit out a neurotoxin that leaves its victim in a paralyzed state. In some cases (e.g. low doses) the victim is still somewhat aware of what’s going on, although delusion and hallucinogenic. The creature then takes the victim back to the hive where the queen injects multiple eggs into the victims belly, turning them in a host. As the initial neurotoxin wears off the victims find themselves returned to wherever they were before. The eggs release their own similar neurotoxin, but the host quickly acclimates and builds up a tolerance. Instead of being paralyzed and wiped out it just makes them unaware of what’s going on inside them and kind of loopy.
The hatchlings then begin to feed, and they do so voraciously. The innards of a person are devoured and the chemicals these little buggers release keep the host alive as long as possible, although in a messed up state. Then they eat their way out, usually about the time the host finally dies.
Creepy stuff, right? Only possible in fiction? Well this is where I mention something I read yesterday about a bug here on earth. The cockroach family, ironically enough, has some particularly vicious members.
There’s this little emerald green wasp cockroach that is around the size of a carpenter ant. Big, but not massive. These wasps prey on their bigger cousins, the regular cockroach. The size difference is truly David and Goliath, but the wasps roaches have a secret weapon. A neurotoxin that they deliver to the belly of the bigger roaches. That paralyzes the roach’s legs and lets them plant their eggs on the big roach’s legs. The wasp roach then delivers a second poisonous blow to the brain of the big roach. This doesn’t kill the roach, but it turns it into a zombie by making it not care about much of anything.
Wasp roach then grabs the zombie roach’s antenna and leads it back to its nest. Time passes, the eggs hatch, and the big roach just chills while the babies eat it from the inside out. Creepy stuff, and something that happens right under our noses. Or wherever these buggers live.
The point is I was disappointed to learn that my idea for something outlandish, gross, and terrifying is already happening. And it happens here, on Earth, in present time. The only thing left is for me to figure out something even more bizarre and horrifying… and I love a challenge!
But hey, if you’d like to read more on Vitalis and the various futuristic terrors that humanity encounters, be my guest to check out:
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 Next Pandemic
With movies like Outbreak, World War Z, Resident Evil, and shows like Walking Dead it’s easy to imagine a worldwide epidemic. Granted, most of those movies involve zombies and far-fetched possibilities, but Outbreak glamorized a real world example of just how dangerous these things can be. And how self-limiting. Infecting and killing a host within a matter of hours limits the ability to spread.
Now imagine that when you get infected you feel better. Your body gets stronger, your hair grows thicker and longer, your nails strengthen, maybe you even grow a little and put on some healthy weight while shedding fat. You feel younger, like you’re in your early twenties and the world is yours to take. That means you’re not dying in a few hours, instead you’re staying healthy and spreading the infection.
Sounds awesome, right? Infect me, please! Okay, now what if that meant you were trapped. You can live young and healthy and be at the top of your game, but you have to be confined to an island with only other infected people. Is it still worth it?
This is where I shift things to my new release, Vitalis: Invasion. It is the 5th novel in my Vitalis series and it’s all about spreading infection. In Vitalis: Provenance a ship carrying samples and people from Vitalis crash landed on Earth. A very dystopian Earth of the future. The privileged fraction of human society that still live there risk exposure and infection, and they’ve got to figure out what’s going on and how to get away from it if they want to remain members of the human society. The alternative? Quarantine. Being an outcast on the homeworld of humanity. Or, depending upon just what survived the crash, perhaps much, much worse.
Was it just bacteria that made it or was there something else? What if something was in hiding? Something with its own simple agenda. Something that lives only to feed and reproduce, in a place where the only living things remaining on ninety percent of the planet are humans.
That, my friends, is a hint of what Vitalis: Invasion is all about. For the sake of sating your curiosity I’ll post the blurb and cover. It’s available now, and hot on its heels will be the next Vitalis book, which I’m roughly 2/3 of the way through. Book 6 takes us back to the world of Vitalis and explores not only the troubles of a very sick young girls struggling to survive but also exposes more of the inner workings of what’s behind Vitalis. Why is this planet there and just how, and why, do these amazing things happen to people who live there?
Leona Montessori left a life of violence for one promising happiness, stability, and a family. A life to be envied, working security for the executives of a major corporation with headquarters in the Pacific Northwest still on the surface of Earth.
All that changed when the unknown ship crashed and the Army garrison was activated. Using her forgotten training she teams up with an unlikely partner in Astra Redmond, an inter-stellar superstar. Astra’s got her own hidden agenda though, a reunion with her lost twin-sister that was a passenger on the spaceship.
Meanwhile Klous, the human leader of the Vitalians that escaped the wreckage and butchered the Army platoon, gets ready to wage a war for the fate of Earth.
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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.
Weak, Boring, Spineless Women
I watched a movie recently called Prisoners. Hugh Jackman and Jake Gyllenhaal star in it, as well as a handful of other people who are largely forgettable. In spite of that, it was a really good movie and I thought Jackman did a great job in it. I was hoping a few times that he’d pop the Wolverine claws and tear some people up… but such was not to be.
The problem with the movie was Jackman’s wife. Mrs. Dover (I don’t remember the actress or the character’s name). She was forgettable because she was a nobody. A pretty lump of flesh that existed solely for the sake of the story and to round out Mr. Dover (Jackman).
The premise of the movie is that his kid gets kidnapped. He goes crazy and does some things to try and get her back that seem extreme to our refined sensibilities – but at the same time they strike me as the kind of thing any man would, or should, do in the same situation. What does the mother do during all this? She pops a lot of pills and remains largely catatonic. In one of her only memorable scenes she pushes everybody away and says, “I just want to sleep.”
Really? You’re kid has been kidnapped and you have no idea if she’s being molested, tortured, or already lying dead somewhere while the wild animals tear at her lifeless body. So all you want to do is sleep? If there are any people out there like that, man or woman, I don’t want to know them.
I’m a fighter and so are the people I like to surround myself with. Those are the interesting people. The people that make things happen. And those are the people I write about. I think Prisoners was a good movie, but I attributed a lot of weak characters and loose ends to an adaptation from a book that they just didn’t have time for (it was already over 2:30 hours!). I was wrong, it was just a movie with no book.
What would I change? I’d get Mrs. Dover out of bed! I’d get her doing something with herself. Drive around. Hell, even the cowardly neighbors (husband and wife) that lose their kid contribute to a certain degree. But the woman that should be up in arms and walking through the streets and forests – she’s sleeping it off.
Watch the movie, I highly recommend it. And when you’re done and your aching for some women with a spine and the ability to think and feel, go check out one of my books. You’re guaranteed to find some feisty ladies in any of them, but the latest books climbing up the hcarts at Amazon are my Vitalis series! Or if you’re more about listening I’ve got a brand new audiobook out that knocked my socks off when I heard it. The narrator is well and truly outstanding with all the voices he does and how well he reads it. Child of Fate, a fantasy novel where the men are manly, the women are strong, and the monsters sound and act like real monsters.
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.
Who Wants a Cookie?
Up until now I’ve been happy to say that there are only two types of cookie I like: warm or cold. With the holiday season upon us that kind of puts me in my element. Unfortunately, it means extra time in the gym because those cookies come at a price!
As of today my answer to that question got a little more complicated. Today it turns out I really like blond Cookies. What? Yes, blond, smiling, fit, trim, and all those things that make people hate women who can pull off the bimbo look. Her parents named her Cookie, after all, what did they really expect?
Why we hate bimbos is subject for another therapy session involving a couch and expensive hourly rate. In this case my job was to present Cookie and make her more than that. She’s smart, if naive, and she’s open, caring, and honest. She’s not mean and she’s not out to steal anybody’s man. She just wants to find somebody who cares about her. Someone who cares as much as she does for the people in her life.
Take her sister, for example. Her sister, Devin, loves her and admires her, but she’s jealous as hell too. Why did Cookie get all the luck and the good looks in the family? And why does Cookie keep calling and checking up on her and always getting in her business wanting to know what’s going on? Then, when she can’t be bothered by Cookie anymore, when her choices and rebellious ways have landed her in serious trouble, why isn’t Cookie there to help her?
Cookie’s more than a lifeline for a troubled young lady. She’s gone out of her way to try and help her sister but no one will help her. No one wants anything to do with the kind of trouble she’s landed in. No one except someone so down on himself that he figures he’s got nothing to lose. Besides that, spending time around Cookie would be reason enough for Mark Cohen as long as he can make sure his ex-wife finds out.
Since Cookie’s willing to do anything she can to help her sister out the unlikely alliance of an uptown girl with a PI that gets most of his cases from the gutters just might work out. If they can figure out how to get Devin away from the dark side of Detroit’s underworld.
And who knows, maybe Cookie can help Mark learn a few things to make his life worth living again too.
That’s a mile high view of When the Cookie Crumbles, my newest book. It’s pure detective / mystery fiction. No fantasy, no sci-fi. Just modern everyday drama and intrigue. I’ve been told there’s just the right mix of mystery, sexy, and action to make it a really fun read. I know I had an absolute blast writing it (I did the rough draft in 10 days if that tells you anything). I had so much fun, in fact, that I’m planning a series based on what happens in book 1. The name of the series? Cookie Cutters.
Yes, I know, that’s cheesy, but it’s fun too. Try it out, you won’t be disappointed!
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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.
Winning Doesn’t Matter
My old contract at my day job ended on November 13th. Amidst a crazy amount of interviews, squeezing in time to set in the woods and shoot at deer, and attend some family activities I also managed to start, write, and finish a new book. Yesterday I even set a personal record by writing 12,500 words. All told the new book took me about 10 days to write. Not my best but still impressive (I wrote Bound in 8 days earlier this year). The new book, by the way, is called When the Cookie Crumbles and it’s a modern detective / mystery bit of fiction. Depending on whether it’s received as well as I hope it is, it may be the first book in a series entitled Cookie Cutters. No, the book doesn’t go on at length about baking but it does possess a very unique and fun character as a co-star named Cookie.
I consider When the Cookie Crumbles a win for many reasons – it kept me busy in the week and a half before my new day job starts. It helped me get another book out. It allowed me expand into pure modern detective / mystery fiction. I got to dive into some new and very cool characters with some quirks unlike any I’ve every explored or written about before. Oh, and it allowed me unofficially give NaNoWriMo the finger.
For those of you wondering what NaNoWriMo is, it’s not just a word created to challenge conventional rules of capitalization. It stands for National Novel Writing Month, or something like that. It’s a contest created a few years back by somebody who felt they needed to motivate themselves to dedicate a month that’s already chocked full of stuff with writing a complete book, start to finish. The book has to be 50,000 words or more to satisfy the challenge requirements.
Whoever this writer was, it spread like wildfire through the writing community and now tons of writers are doing it. I remember thinking a few years ago, “Holy crap, write a book in a month?! No way!” At that time I’d written Dark Earth in 8 – 10 weeks and that seemed like a Herculean effort on my part.
But then sometime around the end of 2011 or beginning of 2012 I realized I could stop holding myself back. I started writing faster and faster. Not the kind of writing that gets cut and tossed on the editing room floor. Real words that stuck with the story. I refined and improved and began cranking out a book a month and I stuck with it. I’m still sticking with it – or in the case of this last week, I’m doing it a lot faster.
So, to all the people who are stressing about writing a 50,000 word novel in a month let me say this: I just wrote a 60,000 word novel in 10 days and before that I wrote Dragonlady, a 67,000 word book that required about 90% of the content being written in November. Oh yeah! I also worked with my co-writer on another novel called Devil’s Island to finish that up this month. We churned out at least 25,000 words this month too between the two of us. That’s two and a half books and well over 100,000 words in the first three weeks of November. It can be done and you can do it. Now stop making excuses and write your ass off.
What’s next? Well I start the new day job on Monday but that doesn’t mean I’m taking a break from writing. Even if I think I’ve pretty well won the NaNoWriMo challenge (even though I didn’t officially sign up to participate), I plan to get started on my next Vitalis book right away. Maybe even later today. There are characters with stories to tell and nightmares to fight – how dare I consider not pushing ahead to help them (or put them out of their misery) 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.
Sometimes Things Go Right
Regular blog readers will know that my day job ended last Wednesday. It’s was an amiable ending – my contract was up and in spite of it being a contract to hire position, the corporate budget shifted and they decided to turn away all their existing contractors instead of hiring / renewing / extending them. Bummer, it was a great place to be.
So I spent that last three or four weeks job hunting and wow was it crazy. There were days where I had to work in up to four interviews a day, especially last week. I’d narrowed it down to a couple of places that really had me interested and I’d also turned down a couple of offers from places that didn’t appeal to me. Finally on Friday one of my top 3 came to the table with an offer that I took.
Not only is it a cool place to work, the products they make are industry leading and I get to play a part in that as a senior developer / agile team leader. What’s more, this job finally helps me attain a goal I’ve had salary-wise for as long as I can remember. As is often the case with hitting goals, it seems a lot less exciting to be here than it was on the other side. Doesn’t mean I’m unappreciative of it though!
On top of that I released Dragonlady, book four in my Order of the Dragon fantasy series on Friday. That capped the series and tied up most of the loose ends. Most… there are still so many adventures and development left in those characters I’m sure I’ll write another series about them down the road a bit.
So that was Friday, two job offers (one I took, the other I turned down and then turned down again when they tried again). Saturday I went to my brother’s to go deer hunting. Turns out that was a pretty good day too – I got two deer that morning. The day job paychecks will keep coming and there’s venison bound for the table (trying out some venison brats too, plus you can’t go wrong with venison summer sausage). Now the only problem is the new job doesn’t start until the 25th of November… what’s a writer with all that free time to do?
This is where I thumb my nose at NaNoWriMo. I vowed I wouldn’t take part in it because writing a book in a month is status quo for me. There’s no challenge there. Well, I decided to up the ante now that I’ve got a week without a day job to keep me preoccupied. I already wrote the majority of a book this month and released it (Dragonlady), so now I’m going to try and finish the new detective / mystery novel I started this week. I’m about 10k into it and the NaNo folks are calling for 50k words in a month. Puh-lease.
This blog post was intended to get me warmed up and my fingers are tingling (might be carpal tunnel / lack of circulation though). Time for PI Mark Cohen dive into the seedy underworld of Detroit and figure out what happened to Cookie’s sister after her boyfriend turned up in a dumpster just off 8 Mile with a bullet in his head.
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.
When The Hero’s Away, The Dragon Will Play
It was about this time in 2012 when I decided to take a chance and write a traditional fantasy book called Child of Fate. I assembled a cast of characters that were part imagination and part remnants of time spent playing Dungeons and Dragons as a kid. The real D&D, with paper, pencils, and dice. It also required lots and lots of soda and pizza so our character sheets could end up spotted with grease stains.
Child of Fate climbed slowly but steadily up the charts until in early 2013 it exploded and was selling like crazy. I was quick to use this as a springboard and wrote the sequel, Victim of Fate, early in 2013. Silver Dragon followed and the trilogy continued to perform very well. Unfortunately, a trilogy ends at three books but I still had more stories to tell.
That meant I had to start a new series about those characters. The new series was longer and dealt with established characters coming to terms with their rise to fame and power, as well as the repercussions of what happened to them in the Blades of Leander trilogy already. The new series was called Order of the Dragon, and it began with Isle of the Ape and then continued with Chasing the Dragon and Sands of Betrayal. And now, as of today, I’m excited to announce that it’s completed with the release of Dragonlady.
But does that mean that this foray into medieval fun and games is over? Well, read the book and find out! Order of the Dragon is completed, but there’s always opportunities for more adventures to spring up at any time.
With the Order of the Dragon in retreat Alto’s thoughts turn to home and his future with his betrothed, Lady Patrina of Kelgryn. But the future, once a shining light guiding him through a dark tunnel, has grown cloudy with indecision and confusion.
One last torch in the darkness remains, directing him to revisit some of his darkest times and put to rest the ghosts of his past. The ghosts he finds are more than memories, they’ve been given flesh and blood and are reaching out from beyond for him.
Defeated but not destroyed, the silver dragon has been watching and waiting. Her plans, years in the making, are coming to fruition. Only one man dares to defeat her, but Alto is the man she waits for so that she may spring her trap and rule from her mountain throne forever.
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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 Was Worried
I started a new story the other day and it’s a bit out of the ordinary for me. It’s fiction and it’s a detective style novel. I’ve dabbled in both I guess, but this time there’s no science fiction, no fantasy, and no paranormal. No anything out of the ordinary. Its…mainstream!
I know, weird. But that’s the funny part, I’m two solid chapters into it so far and I’m really liking the characters and where / how it’s going. Regular readers of this blog might remember me mentioning a character concept I had for a woman named Cookie. Well, Cookie’s one of the two main characters in this book. And so far she’s proving to be a lot of fun! Yes, she’s coming across a bimbo, but the other main character, Mark Cohen, is learning there is a lot more to her than meets the eye.
So what’s the story? Well, Detective Cohen (private investigator style), is dealing with the mistakes of his past, including an ex wife and a daughter that wants nothing to do with him when Cookie walks in and needs help. Her sister is in trouble, she says. Trouble that came about from spending too much time with her boyfriend who got into trouble with drugs and who knows what else. Now Devin, Cookie’s sister, is missing too. Mark’s got to figure out what happened to her and if he can help her out – and if he can, if he’s willing to risk what it’s going to take to do him.
Still working on a title for the book and the series. I was considering “Cookie Cutter” for one or the other… cheesy in the extreme but then again, so am I!
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 Want a Cookie
Before I dig too deep a hole here let me make sure I establish something first: I only like two kinds of cookie, hot and cold. With the exception of no-bake cookies, I just can’t stand those things.
Unfortunately, I’m not talking about that kind of cookie. The other day I ran across the pet name “Cookie” online (no, not on one of those sites) and it bounced around in the back of my head. A day or two later it resurfaced with the thought, “What if that wasn’t a pet name?” It was all over at that point – any other productivity was shot until I dug into the concept.
Johnny Cash once sang about a boy named Sue. I know this because my parents ritually tortured me with country music my entire childhood. I still have nightmares and probably should seek therapy for it. But all that aside, the moral of the story is that the man named Sue was tougher because of his name. So what would a woman named Cookie grow up to become?
I’ve got ideas, but I haven’t picked anything specific yet. I’m such a supporter of strong female characters that I’m leaning towards having her be mighty tough herself. Not Barb Wire tough (even without the horrible acting of Pamela Anderson and, uh, various other faults). Maybe more of a Keira Knightley / Domino kind of tough. Sexy, but intelligent and able to handle herself.
The next problem is what do I do with her? What’s her job? Where’s she at? What kind of story does she fit into? Is she a good guy or a bad guy? I’ve had characters do this to me before. They come out of nowhere and demand that I write about them. The biggest impact any of them ever had with me was Katalina Wimple, of The Lost Girls. She showed up and wouldn’t leave me alone until I ended up slipping her into my Dark Earth setting and writing a series around her. I’ve had one or two others over the years that popped up too. At least one ended up in my Voidhawk series, another joined the cast of the Wanted series, and a third appeared in a limited role alongside Katalina in a Lost Girls book. I’m wondering if Cookie is going to be another force of nature like Katalina and demand her own book(s).
So I’ll keep letting her rattle around and try to convince me where she fits in. All I’m sure of at this point is that I have to have a cookie and it’s going to taste great.
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.
NaNoWriMo for Wussies
If you don’t know what NaNoWriMo is, don’t feel bad. I had to look it up a couple of years ago when I first heard about it. In fact, I’m still not sure what it stands for. What I do know is that it’s a pain in the butt to write a made up word with varying capitalization throughout it. But that’s just me being crotchety.
My next complaint about NanowhateverMo is how excited people get about it. And by people I mean writers (Yes, we’re people too. Strange people, but still people). I see Facebook posts and tweets and even emails talking it up and getting themselves psyched for the month of November and what that entails. I see it and I wince. I cringe. I shake my head. Then I move on.
So what is NeenerNeernerMo? It’s a challenge that was thought up and issues at some point in the past for writers to write a novel within the month of November. Just the rough draft, not a finished product. But still, an entire novel in a month?! That’s crazy!
Or is it? I’ve never consciously taken part in NaMoWamoDingDong and I’ve been writing a book a month for close to two years now. Honestly, I don’t see what all the fuss is about. If you want to write a book that quick, then do it. Don’t waste time that could be spent writing by drumming up a bunch of pomp and ceremony to announce it. Just do it.
On the other hand I do understand that some people like a challenge. Some people want to feel inspired and provoked. For them this helps them focus and put words to paper. Writing is a learning experience that never ends. Historically novels are supposed months and years to write. Technology and the upheavals in the publishing industry have changed all that. If NannerWhammer is what helps a writer evolve with it, then more power to them.
Me, I don’t bother with the distraction or the hype. I just keep plugging away and producing quality books that more and more people are discovering and loving. Case in point, I’m waiting anxiously to release last month’s project, Vitalis: Genesis. The cover art, by Willsin Rowe, is outstanding. In fact, it’s almost as good as what’s behind the cover! Genesis is the 4th novel in my Vitalis science fiction series. This one is more than just pure futuristic sci-fi though, it’s got some horror worked in as well.
And since you were probably wondering, this month’s project is Dragonlady, the 4th and final book in my Order of the Dragon fantasy series. Next month…well, I’m not sure. I’ve got some great ideas though, but there’s a lot of days between now and then so I don’t want to lock myself into something yet. That also means my reader have a very real chance to influence what comes next. Hint, hint.
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.
Books by Jason 