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Action Pack Podcast S01E12

The Action Pack Podcast Season Finale is FINALLY available! This is a whopping double-sized episode so pop in those earbuds and get ready for a wild ride! WOO WOO!

Action Pack Podcast S01E12.

Announcement: Ministry working on an RPG

EmperorsFist

Unless you were living under a rock last year, you know that I was lucky enough to be chosen to write a story for the Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences. (check out my story here and buy a copy for just 99 cents).

Well, big news! The Ministry is raising money to create a Role Playing Game based on the universe they created! I’m super, crazy excited about this. GO HERE! Go HERE NOW! Help this game become a reality! There’s a long way to go and they’re already 1/4 of the way there. I know they’ll make it, but you can get some great fiction, a great game (designed by Galileo Games who are responsible for Bulldogs) (Side Note, Bulldogs was a game some friends of mine created in high school that the characters from V&A Shipping came from).

As I said, I’m really excited about this. This is HUGE! I hope you’ll take a moment, check it out, and throw a few bucks their way to make this happen. I can guarantee it’ll be a great product.

So excited!

Cover Reveal: Maven by Starla Hucthon

Maven

 

If you’ve followed along at home, you may have noticed that Starla Huchton is responsible for some of my covers (and will be responsible for many covers in the future). That said, I want you to check out her cover for HER OWN BOOK!. Yes, Starla isn’t just a great cover artist, she’s also an author! WOO WOO! The book isn’t ready just yet, but will be available for purchase soon and I’ll be sure to post when you can get your own copy. She’s also done covers for the likes of Paul Cooley and Nobillis Reed. Check out her work at Designed by Starla and her author page at Starla Huchton!

Weekly Update: Still at it.

Life has been crazy busy as of late. I’m sorry for the lack of updates. I plan on doing a little revamping of the site in the coming weeks. I need to make things a little cleaner and easier to navigate. Right now it’s not so easy to find a book. I need to correct that.

Speaking of books, if you listened to the latest Get Published podcast, you’ll have heard the announcement I made. My rather insane announcement that I plan on publishing (myself) 28 books in 24 months. That’s my grand plan. Guess what. I’m currently on target. That’s huge! As of this writing I currently have put out six books. This month may see another, or next month will see Three. It all depends on covers and editing. That will put me at nine for the year. For the rest of the year, here’s what I have scheduled:

My Teacher is a Witch

My Teacher is a Ghost

Asteroid Bunnies: Zanahoria

Billy Barbarian: Sethopolis

V&A Shipping II

Golden West: Season 1

Supernatural Learning: 8th grade (this will collect My Teacher is a Zombie, Werewolf, and Vampire)

Of Gnomes and Dwarves: Book 1: Chance Encounters

Astel: Chosen (re-release)

That’s right. Nine more books. That will put me at 15 on the year. That’s if I don’t decide to drop something else in the mean time. I did pull two books I had scheduled just because I wanted to make sure I committed more time to the projects I’ve already laid out. I don’t want to put too much pressure on myself with all I have currently going on.

Speaking of all that’s going on, life have been busy these past two months. Writing time has been extremely sparse. By that I mean I’ve only written about 20,000 words in the past two months. I’m 45,000 words behind schedule. That means I pulled the giant robot story I was writing. I also pulled To Fall From the Sky. Should I get back on track, I will add these books back into the mix, but for now they’re off the schedule until I can get back to them. I don’t want to rush any of the stories I’m currently working on. Just because I plan on releasing a large number of books doesn’t mean I’m going to skimp or cheat or put out a poor quality product just to get it out the door.

Now, in order to achieve my goal I will be cheating a little. How? Quite simple. I’ve already written nearly all the books that will be put out this year. The ones I haven’t written yet are only 20,000-25,000 words in length (middle grade books). I will be writing those once I finish with Golden West: Season 2 (I’ll talk about Season 1 in a bit). I plan to write the next few books in the Supernatural Learning series in one shot so they’re all ready to go long before their release dates. I hae two for this year and four for next year (completing 9th grade and going into 10th grade). I’ll then work on the first two or three in the Asteroid Bunnies series. That will complete all the shorter works for 2014 that will need to be written. Yes, I’m self publishing and I could just drop them at any given time, but I want to release these on a schedule so the series will have time to grow an audience.

Yes, I realize that I’m dropping a LOT of book out in a short time, but why not just drop everything once it’s completely written? Quite simple, if you were to see my schedule, each book I’m writing is in a series (except for a few stand alone books) and I plan to drop only one in a series in a given year. Honestly. I am working on books that will be released next year and I have a schedule for this year. I want to make sure that the books are ht best I can make them and by doing a majority of the work on my own, I need to make sure I put out the best product I can.

Back to the writing. I said I’ve only written 20,000 words in two months and I’m way behind. Those 20,000 words that I did write were written over a four day span and a two day span. I write very fast. I always have. If I were more consistent with the number of days I spent actually writing, I’d have a lot more accomplished at this point. I’m only shooting for an average of 1000 words per day. Not a lofty goal, but I need to hit that goal in order to have all the books for next year written and ready to release.

Work slowed to the point where it won’t invade on my personal time as much as it has. Yes, last year was a busy year and between writing and blogging I wrote 490,000 words. I didn’t write nearly as much new fiction as I would have liked and that’s what I changed for this year. I’m focusing only on words of new fiction written. Not these blog posts. I know I can beat my 365,000 word goal. I plan to blow it out of the water. I’ll be spending some time doing that today. I’ll write at least 4,000 words today. I’d like to actually finish writing Golden West by the end of next week. I’m currently sitting on 8000 words and I need to get to somewhere between 55,000 and 60,000 words. Yes, I need to write a lot today, tomorrow, and during the week to hit that goal. I think I can do it. This will put me in great shape both with the podcast and with my writing schedule.

Speaking of the podcast. My writing partner just dropped his episode and I’ll be getting that up this weekend. So very VERY sorry for the delay in the final episode. Once we have it complete we’ll be dropping them into podiobooks so people can get their fix that didn’t want to wait a month between episodes. I won’t put it out there until the ebook and print book are available.

There’s a lot more going on behind the scenes, but now you’re up to date on all the writing stuff. I’m glad you’re with me on this journey.

Until Next Time!

WOO WOO!

[Cover Reveal] Paradise Palms

ParadisePalms_2500x1875_300dpi - 50

Very soon I will be releasing a book unlike any other I’ve released in podcast form or in print. My Supernatural Learning series is a Middle-Grade series and is great for the younger set. This book is not.

Paradise Palms: A Murder-Mystery in a Time-Traveling Trailer Park is something for the older crowd. I would tell you more about it, but for now, just enjoy the cover created by Starla Hutchon. She does GREAT covers. Check out some of her other work.

I will hopefully have this book ready to go in the next couple of weeks along with Billy Barbarian. I will be blogging the contents of the book so it you can’t afford a copy, it’ll be here for you to read one chapter every other day or so.

Until Next Time!

WOO WOO!

[Release] My Teacher is a Vampire

I am remiss in announcing that My Teacher is a Vampire is now available for sale! I will update the site later today, but for now, here is all the sales info.

The third in the Supernatural Learning series, this completes the 8th grade collection. The next book will start the characters in 9th grade. There will be 4 books for the 9th grade collection and involve more creatures of the supernatural world.

MyTeacherisaWerewolf

AVAILABLE NOW!

Stanley doesn’t want to be in summer school. Worse, he doesn’t want to deal with another teacher that isn’t that they appear to be. He’d rather be with his friends looking at the moon or playing their game or reading comics.

Instead, Stanley and his friends need to investigate what they caught overnight on their camera and determine if it’s a threat or not. Stanley wonders if just once he could get a normal teacher.


Purchase your copy today

eBook ($1.99)


Print ($4.99)


Signed edition! ($4.99) Get the ebook free!


Last Night’s Dream

Been a while since I posted one of these, so let’s see what was inside Jay’s brain last night.

The dream started out at a party. I’m not sure who the party was for, but people involved weren’t there, that’s all I know. An old friend had a friend at the party and kept trying to give me three things. 1) Viagra. 2) X. 3) two neon green folding chairs. I kept refusing and asking why the friend sent them to me. Apparently they thought I know some high-up person in a company that could help them sell these chairs as a great idea. They kept shoving the drugs in my hand saying they were for me. Later they gave me an obscene amount of both drugs and said to take the chairs and give this high-up person the drugs and the chairs. I was going to ask how to get a hold of them to let them know I accomplished this task, but I was suddenly in the Millican’s bedroom.

The bedroom was completely rearranged and at first I thought they were living in a new house. They weren’t, but things were terribly messy. By messy I mean I was knee-deep in laundry and picking washcloths out of the pile to dust a dresser piled high with ‘stuff’ (necklaces, random jewelery, receipts, rocks, tiny dumbbells). I picked up what I could and started dusting and the Millican said just push it all on the floor. He was sitting on the bed (the sheets in a twist at the end of the bed) which was the only other piece of furniture in the room. As we talked about something the laundry depth continued to move up. His youngest daughter poked her head in to say hello and disappeared. His wife came out of the closet and said hello and disappeared. My wife and favorite daughter appeared on the balcony out of their room and waved. Then I got sucked under the clothes.

Then I woke up wonder what the hell that was all about.

Any ideas?

Until Next Time

WOO WOO!

Weekly Update: Where has Jay been?

Wow! It’s been a while since I’ve been in here. I’ve got so much housework to do. I need to add a new book, get another prepared to go in here (two actually) and I need to give you an update as to what I’ve been doing. I’ve been lax as of late and I apologize for being absent. I’ve got reasons!

First off, I was having fun posting my dreams. I haven’t stopped having them, I just haven’t had the opportunity to sit and write them. For example, last night I was fishing in this wide fishing boat, alone. For some reason I was still tied to the dock. A HUGE fish, bigger than my boat, jumped out of the water and landed on the dock. It rocked my boat something fierce. The fish died as soon as it landed on the dock. I looked at it and had no idea what to do.

Then I woke up. Then I fell back asleep and had another dream that was…odd. I’ll leave it at that.

I will resume posting my dreams when things settle down.

So, My Teacher is a Vampire is live all over where books can be found. I’ll post links and cover art and all that just as soon as I’m able. I love the cover Dan Dan the Art Man did for this one. I’ll be pestering him again soon for My Teacher is a Witch. I hope to release that one come July.

Paradise Palms: A Murder Mystery in a Time-Traveling Trailer Park has been delayed. I’m getting more editing done on that one. I’m a bad, bad writer. Well, maybe not, but that one needed lots of cleaning and it’s being scoured. It may need a little re-writing in spots, but it will be coming this month.

Also this month I hope to drop Billy Barbarian: Sethopolis. This is a fun book and I can’t wait to get it out into the wild. This one was done as a podcast and before you ask, yes, I’m planning a sequel.

Next Month will see Of Gnomes and Dwarves: Chance Encounters. This is the first book I ever wrote and has been completely re-written. I’m super happy with the way this one came out. I added a lot, I took out a lot, I changed things around. Overall I made the book the best I could. I’m anxious to write the sequel for this one.

My giant robot story has stalled on me. I’m going to put it aside. After trashing 25,000 words and starting over I got 10,000 words in and I’m struggling with it at this point. I do plan on finishing it, but I’m not as excited as I was the first time through. I need to work on something else to find my writing mojo once more. I only knocked out 10,000 words last month and I don’t like that. Yes I was crazy busy with editing, work, helping friends with their webpages, and everything else life throws at me, but that’s no excuse for such a poor word count. I need to get back on track and I know just the book to do that for me. :)

Speaking of life throwing things at me, I found myself at Metal Jam over the weekend. This is a charity even for autism and I’d heard about it before, but my brain never made the connection. Turns out it’s founded by my high-school buddy that I haven’t seen in about 20 years. Yes, we’ve talked on the phone many times, but I haven’t been up to see him in a LONG time. He only lives two hours away, so what was my excuse? Life.

So I went up so see him. I had to. He has a son that’s 20 years old and severely autistic. Jeff started this event to raise money to help kids with autism and all the proceeds go to help the fight. The best moment of the day was when Jeff brought his son on stage and played Into the Void by Black Sabbath. For some reason his son really responds to this song. It was hard not to cry as you saw Jake on stage with his dad rocking out. It was a beautiful thing.

I also met Derek Riggs there. Derek is the artist responsible for all the Iron Maiden artwork over the years (well, a vast majority of it). He’s such a great guy and donated his time so sign anything people brought by. He also donated the artwork for the t-shirts (and hoodies and prints). I got much swag. I was astounded by just how much was donated. I mean, holy cow! There was so much that they had a hard time getting rid of it all.

What Metal Jam is, other than a fund raiser, is a place where musicians gather to jam together. Over 100 musicians showed up to play 25 songs. On the site there’s a posted song list and artists can sign up for one or many songs. The talent ranges from pros (The Iron Maidens, Electric Funeral, Dias, Just Like Priest) to people that sit in their room and jam on their guitar and know a few songs. This was a chance for those people to mix, mingle, and have a great time for a great cause. Me? I was just a spectator, but I so wanted to have a base in my hands and jam with them. Who knows, maybe I’ll start playing bass again so I can join in next year for a song or two.

This weekend I’ll be back in Long Beach for a volleyball tournament. Might meet up with Jeff and his girlfriend again for dinner. Then when we get back on Saturday I hope to head out to the Gaslamp Gathering and meet Jay Lake. Unless things change, this will be my only opportunity to meet him. That saddens me and I need to get out there to say ‘hello’.

So things won’t slow down any time soon, but hey, that’s life. I can do all this and write as well.

Speaking of writing, I’d better get doing something.

Until Next Time!

WOO WOO!

Last Night’s Dream

Okay, I lost much of last night’s dream due to waking up multiple times, but here’s what I can recall.

The wife and I were in the woods, way back in the woods far from civilization. We were with a large group of people out to watch an experiment. The giant building we stood by looked like a long-abandoned office building of some sort, but very wide! The entire bottom floor had been gutted, the windows knocked out, and almost nothing inside but debris. Off in the distance someone counted down and the walls of the bottom of the building fell away. Like completely fell away. This left the remainder of the building floating and there was much applause.

We went up a ladder and into the floating building and wound up in an Asian (I’m not sure what kind) restaurant. We sat with a family of Asian folk and for some reason my food was brought out first. It was a heaping plate of noodles and veggies and chicken and it was yellow and delicious and I started eating and tried to get others to join me. They were having none of it.

Instead the rest of the people (the wife included) waited for the next round of food which turned out to be lobster. Giant lobsters. HUGE lobsters. They weren’t cracked and had a green sauce drizzled in a zig-zag pattern and sesame seeds sprinkled on them. They looked tasty and I broke off a claw and started eating the meat and scooping up the noodles with the claw and eating with the the claw.

Then I woke up with a tummy ache.

Make of it what you will. My mind creeps me out some times.

Until Next Time!

WOO WOO!

Last Night’s Dream

I know my dream was longer, at least my brain is telling me it’s longer, but I don’t recall how it started. When my memory of the dream begins, I’m walking with my favorite nephew (They’re all my favorite) and we need to get somewhere in a hurry. We (I? him?) decide to cut through a self-storage lot. We didn’t think it fully through and when we get to the back, we’re stuck on an island and everything is flooded. We try to make our way across the mess of branches and rocks when I find an old, rusty knife.

That’s when a homeless person comes rushing up and starts yelling at us for violating his space. We’re not supposed to be there. No one is supposed to be there. We need to get away from there in a hurry or he’ll hurt us. My nephew had kept going and was now in a precarious position. We got out of there, I gave the man back his knife and we left. Now that it was getting dark, we needed to be even faster in getting where we needed to go. Though we did spend time trying to catch tadpoles in the water. I guess we weren’t in that much of a hurry.

We wound up on a sidewalk walking past a lot of other homeless people. Most of them far dirtier than the street they were on. None of them wanted anything. None of them begged, but they were all in a line waiting for something. Well, all of them save one man that stuck out.

There was something wrong with his legs, that much I knew due to him lying stomach down on a wheeled device. He had his arms removed just below the elbow and in order to move, he had to crunch his stomach and then release much like an inchworm. He yelled at me when I asked if he needed any help. He said something like “Do I look like a cripple?” I was a bit taken aback, but we let him be.

We wanted to find out what the line was for so we went inside the building the homeless people were waiting outside. There was a lot of orange and blue and greens, but I didn’t recognize the company. There was a large woman dressed in dirty rags arguing with a little man in a suit, balding, wearing glasses and looking quite annoying with the large woman shaking her fist at him. The complaint was that the company had used images of these homeless people in an ad campaign that proved to be highly successful and now these people were the ‘face’ of the company. Unfortunately, because they were homeless, they were given a small fee of $5 for their picture and made to sign a release allowing the company to use the images any way they wanted. Now these people wanted to be properly compensated. The arguing got louder, the people flooded the building, and my favorite nephew and I were late.

Then I woke up.

What does it all mean? Where does my brain come up with these things? Where do stories come from? We may never know.

Until Next Time!

WOO WOO!