Ark Ship Colony is now available on Kindle, Kindle Unlimited, and in Paperback. Coming to Audible Late July!
Coming to Audible!
Category: science fiction
Available on Amazon! Kindle, Kindle unlimited, and Paperback!
Ark Ship Found is well received!
Read an Ebook week
Happy Read an Ebook Week! To help you find a book to celebrate, you can find my entire collection at a promotional price at @Smashwords from March 3 – March 9. Find my books and many more at https://www.smashwords.com/ebookweek #ebookweek24 #Smashwords
The road to hell is paved with good intentions.
I have always liked that saying. I don’t know why. Maybe I enjoy duality. As I poke my head out of the cave of 2023 into the dawning of 2024 I am looking ahead for a great writing year. I have some great intentions, both long-term and short-term.
I will pause here and do my obligatory reflections of 2023. I’ll start with the fun stuff, I published another novel “Emergence Ascended.” I Wrote a novel for NaNoWriMo, which was a bucket list item. (Now I feel like I can legitimately say I am a Novelist.) I Did an interview on Youtube to promote my new novel (It didn’t help, but it was a fun experience). If you follow my social media accounts you may notice that I do not do the random selfie post as I prefer to stay in the background (Introvert stuff) but in the spirit of self-promotion I powered through.
There is probably more highlights of fun things in 2023 but sometimes I want to keep things for me. That being said there was some interesting things in 2023, just to keep it spicy. The big one is a series of events starting with a road rage incident, our vehicle got a nice bullet hole. Sent it to the bodyshop for repair, of which there was a break in and OUR vehicle was stolen to commit a crime. It was recovered a month later with a group of homeless occupying it in an alleyway. Toxicology report deemed it hazardous and it had to be ‘totaled’ by the insurance (we didn’t want to drive a Meth car anyway.) Replaced the vehicle with a new one from the insurance money. Whew. But that is not all. A month later a windstorm took out a tree, causing it to fall onto our home, and, Guess what?… The new Van. Yup. Lucky it was a glancing blow and our Insurance (again) fixed the repairs for that (No we did not take it to the same bodyshop) But wait there is more. Our upstairs bathtub cracked and flooded the garage. SO now we have a shiny new bath room remodel (that we are still paying for at the cost of 400$ a month)All in all, though it was a financially and mentally stressful year, we survived, and I still think the good outweighed the bad as far as 2023 goes.
Whats next? I have some very good intentions for the year coming up. First on my agenda is to finish “Yellow Man.” the novel I wrote for NaNoWriMo. There are some good bones in the story, and I am working on fleshing out some details and adding things I missed or neglected in the first rough draft. Who knows how long this process is going to take me, but I am optimistic I can get it finished soonish.
I have several more stories I want to get down. Most are just thumbnail thoughts, and don’t have names yet. The “Bigfoot” story is next after Yellow Man. I love Cryptids and am excited to get that one rolling. I have two possible endings rolling around, I guess I will decide when I get there. Another one is the Will-o-the-wisp story. I want to get that one done before the BIG project. The Big Project is a storyline that will turn into a series (more than likely) with some vignettes here and there. There is a great setting that I thing I can create a small little world around with different adventures to play with. But this one I am going to give a lot of thought while I finish the other three stories. I want to get those out of the way because I predict that the big project will consume a few years (at the least, unless I get bored or distracted, which is probable)
Of course I will keep on keeping on with the blog. I will jot down some more short stories for your enjoyment. I am still compiling short stories for my book “30-minute Shivers.” A collection of short horror stories.
The Audible project, I intend to start recording (for realz this time) on Sunday mornings. I can enjoy my new “recording studio” and give you my least cringy narration to Emergence Collective on Spotify.
Thank you for spending your time visiting my blog; I sincerely appreciate it. I love interacting and building friendships, so feel free to comment and like. You can follow my socials and other projects by clicking the linktree. https://linktr.ee/jshallett
I got interviewed!
HERE IS THE LINK to the interview by a local video blogger.
Do things that make you uncomfortable in your life complacency and comfort do not help you grow. So I am taking a heaping spoonful of my own medicine. I have always firmly believed that to grow, you need something to push against, even if that thing is your stage fright. I hope you enjoy it! for me, let the cringe begin.
It’s been a long time coming!
“Emergence Ascended” is now finished! I think I found an Illustrator for the book cover. (Of course, you will be the first to see it when it is completed.) I have no idea when it will be released on Amazon (Kindle and paperback), but my hopes are it will be released sometime in mid-November!
I have a few more projects lined up; next is my ghost story. I am very excited about this. As a discovery writer, or “seat of the pants” writer, as some call it, I feel pretty comfortable. I do hit a few snags here and there and sometimes have to write my way out of corners I put myself in, but I manage to muddle through. However, the ghost story is pretty complex, and there are a lot of components that need to mesh just right. So, I am going to make myself uncomfortable and try to do an “outline.” I know it’s strange saying those words, but I’m going to give it a go.
I already have a plan; I want to start by gathering up all my characters and writing bio’s on them. Establish relationships and behind-the-scenes details that may or may not make it in the book. I am excited about this process since I am usually getting to know the characters as I write them.
Also, since there are some complex mechanics, I am flirting with the idea of writing most or part, at least from the end. And work my way backward. I am not sure if that will stick; I will have to play around and see.
Thank you for checking out my blog! If you like it, leave a ‘like’ or a comment! I love responding to comments and I do my best to respond to all of them. (If you commented in the past and I missed it, I apologize. Thanks again!
Sacrifices must be made…
It’s October. The veil between worlds is thin, and the old gods demand tribute. Blood will flow! Muahahahahahaa! Maybe I should have waited to post this until tomorrow, Friday the 13th (or lucky you to the Australian readers), To post my sacrifice piece. Okay, not a blood sacrifice, but I donated part of my soul to the cause.
It doesn’t happen a lot, and maybe it should more often. I don’t know. I had spent a fair amount of time writing chapter 42. One of the last chapters in “Emergence Ascended.” I am wrapping up the main conflict and setting up for the satisfying conclusion that will make or break my book. Nothing is worse than getting invested in a story only to have it fall flat in the end. (my new fear). I recently watched a movie that did just that, though I can’t remember the name because I try to forget disappointment.
The chapter flowed well and had all the elements I was hoping for. The tone was right, and I think it invoked the emotion I was trying to instill. Then, I deleted it. I even set up for it a couple times in earlier chapters (I had to go back and change those breadcrumbs, too)
It was painful. I do not get much time to write (this book could have been completed a year ago, to be honest), so the writing I do accomplish is precious. I deleted it because, even though I knew where I was going, it didn’t read like I wanted when I got there. My inner critic told me things like, “It’s pretentious, expository, and leaned too heavily on outside references.” DELETE.
Sometimes, sacrifices are needed, and some are even worth it. So, I have mixed feelings, but the strongest is eagerness. Excitement to take another approach. I am so close to the end, its worth my effort to make sure the reader gets the best out of me.
Thank you for taking the time to check out my post!
Garden Pavilion at the temple
It’s easy to imagine Mark and Trina walking the gardens or chill’n in that pavilion. “Emergence Collective”
Karma, attachments, and attraction
I have mentioned in previous posts that when I am writing (or drawing), I create rule sets to maintain continuity in the world I am building (or the picture I am drawing, a style is a rule set for me). In Emergence collective and its sequel Emergence Ascended, there are rules to the world that may not be spelled out in the story. It’s mostly for me to keep the story’s vibe the same throughout. I tend to be scattered, and ADD doesn’t help, so the rules are a coping mechanism to keep things straight in my scrambled egg brain.
In the Emergence world, I have several seemingly unrelated philosophies that guide the story. Remember that I am not a shaman, Guru, or theoretical physicist, so the crap I come up with may or may not coincide with actual science, religious or spiritual facts, beliefs, or practices. It’s pure fiction. The framework for these stories is based on String theory and my imaginary connection to spiritualism, where vibrational energies are the heart of reality. In string theory, everything that exists comes from infinitesimal vibrating strings. When the strings vibrate at different wavelengths or frequencies, that defines the particular matter or energy and makes things like quarks, protons, atoms, molecules, etc. In some spiritual philosophies, the world(or reality) is also vibrational energy that governs things like love (positive vibrational energy) or hate (negative vibrational energy), whether you are healing or decaying in your spiritual self. Consciously or intentionally, maintaining a positive vibrational frequency (spiritually) will shine out and radiate love, light, and positivity that others will be attracted to. Conversely, suppose you are radiating a negative vibrational frequency. In that case, you will attract negative entities that thrive on those frequencies and encourage negativity in your life to reinforce the negative energy they are consuming.
Karma (in my world, though I don’t point it out expressly) is that convergence of positive and negative energy. To me, Karma isn’t a spiritual point system where if you do something good, you get points that you can cash in, in life or the afterlife. Or if you do something terrible, you will lose points, and maybe something bad will happen to you. In my rule set for my story, Karma is the balance of positive or negative vibrational frequencies. Like attracts like. If I keep vibrating in lower frequencies, those things that also reside there are attracted to me and vice versa. Doing “Bad things” (although a cultural distinction can be made for what is considered good or bad ) is merely a matter of vibrational patterns. Altruism is regarded as one of the higher frequencies, but your choice in how altruism is displayed can be a negative frequency, depending on your intention. If you help an old lady cross the road, for example, that is a good thing. But if you did it to be noticed doing it, so that whoever saw you doing the “Nice thing” will see you as a good or nice person; that act of altruism is corrupted by your selfish, negative need to be seen as being nice (Bad karma dude). It’s a slippery slope, and the balance of your spiritual frequencies is constantly wavering back and forth.
Ok I think I am rambling and none of this probably doesn’t make sense, but when I am writing the Emergence series, this stuff all plays its part in the back of my mind.
Thanks for reading! Leave me a comment or ask a question, there is extra Karma if you give me this a “Like”
Hand-prints of Darkness 