Tag: blogging

30-minute shivers. · Horror · paranormal · Yellow Man

Available June 1 on Amazon

Joe Hallett4 Comments

It has been a challenging few weeks, but “Yellow Man” is finally ready! Available on June first, 2024. Pre-orders should be available in the next 72 hours!

Aside from Yellow Man getting published “Emergence Ascended” will be available on Audible the first week of June as well! My next project is finishing up “30 Minute Shivers” my collection of short horror stories. And then onto a much bigger project that should keep me busy for the next year or two. Stay tuned as I update more on these projects! Feel free to comment and “like” I love to see that!

Emergence Ascended · Emergence Collective · Horror · Instagram · readers · reading · threads

I am sorry, I am cheating on me

Joe Hallett6 Comments

You may have noticed, but I have been in a blogging slump lately. There are a couple reasons for that. My original intention for this blog was to attract and gain a following so that I can share my books wit the world. No one told me that after you self-publish, YOU have to market and market and market. Social media (not my first love) was the most realistic answer. However, it was suggested that I need an Author landing page where people interested can find my books. So, my blog was born.

I created an Instagram account to market the blog and the books, you know, to create an “online presence.” The sad thing is I have little time enough to write my books, let alone post blogs often enough to maintain a following. And there is Instagram; now I have to maintain that as well. For the last two years I have pushed hard to keep up the pace. I have seen some success. it was not all fruitless. And the bonus has been that I have met some very cool people here, ones that I would consider friends.

Then I discovered “Threads.” When it first came out, I ignored it and blew it off as just another waste of time. One day I gave in and decided to make an Author profile. Just like in real estate, the key to success is location, location, location. In 3 months, I had gained more followers there than ALL of my other socials combined, including the blog (Twitter(Twix?) my personal Instagram, and author profiles). Then I started to sell books. Really, People are actually reading my books and, by all accounts, are liking them! YAY!

So I have been spending all my time on Threads. (Feels like I am cheating on my blog) Threads is a great place that has a lot of super supportive author and artist communities and I get less spam and intrusions into the little world I built there. There are also a lot more engagement and interaction with fellow authors and artists, it just feels right to be there. Please give me a follow there @joseph.hallett.author

I am still going to post here from time to time so don’t go away. I am considering a reformat on the blog to make it more bookcentric, but I will still share stuff about my writing journey and post flash fiction and such.

Emergence Collective · reading

Hey a book Promo!

Joe HallettLeave a comment

Happy Read an Ebook Week! You can find my book, My Emergence Collective, available now at smashwords at a promotional price to help you celebrate. Find my book and many more at smashwords.com/ebook… from March 3 – March 9! ebookweek24 #Smashwords

paranormal · Yellow Man

Yellow Man work in progress

Joe Hallett2 Comments
Here is a snippet of Yellow Man. I enjoyed writing this scene, but I particularly enjoyed this paragraph.

I am taking my sweet time editing Yellow Man. If you remember, I wrote it during NaNoWriMo. As a self-proclaimed “Pantser” (I write by the seat of my pants as opposed to outlining the story), I usually edit and revise as I go before I send it off to the actual paid editor (who knows what they are doing.)  I wrote like a bat out of hell, ignoring typos (sometimes disregarding spelling altogether), punctuation, and grammar.

So now I am editing, and it is a long road of nightmares. I feel that it is too short, and now I am trying to add more content to the story (I am trying not to use the word “Padding,” but that is what it is.

All in all, I am very happy with it, and I am excited to get it published. However, I do not have the money to get it there, so I will use the time to polish it up, making it even better.

Audible · Author · Emergence Ascended · Emergence Collective · Yellow Man

Revisions?

Joe Hallett1 Comment

I had a successful weekend creatively. I am in the midst of editing “Yellow Man” and got a good chunk done, wittling away. My usual style of writing is that I tend to edit as I go, and I tend to write as I go, only having the idea of the story (beginning middle and end.) With “Yellow Man” I wrote an outline, listed my characters and wrote little interviews for thm so I had a good sense of my characters before I even started. It was good timing, since I had just published Emergence Ascended and was ready for a new project when I realized it was NaNoWriMo season and I had accidently prepared for it. I completed NaNoWriMo with it! Since I abandoned my typical writing style by not editing as I go and essentially puking out my story at a breakneck speed, there is a lot of work that needs to be done to get it ready to publish. I made progress on it this weekend so that makes me happy.

I also recorded two more chapters of Emergence Collective for the Audible project.  I am still on the fence (actually starting lean far to the otherside of it) about whether to revise and republish. When I wrote it I did not do some things that I am doing now, and it shows. I have learned a lot since then and I cringe at my writing from then to now. I think I can make the story a little better. However, as I stand now, Chapter four and five are recorded. (But I am now thinking about the revision and then I would need to record the revised version again) Floundering…..

Some Interesting news, I may be doing another interview for a podcast highlighting authors. The Podcast is new and would be debuing in February this year Its called “Once upon a Write.” Wish me luck!

amazon · Audible · Emergence Ascended · Emergence Collective

Audible update: Chapter 2 and 3

Joe HallettLeave a comment

If you are new to my blog you may be wondering what is the Audible updates I keep posting. I get a fair amount of requests to have my books available on Audible. I am poor, my books do not sell enough to pay for a narrator to record them (or even a nice dinner) so as with most things I do, that I need done and lack resources to do, I learn how to do it, and do it myself. While it is not a perfect solution, it has worked out so far.

I started the “Audible project.”  I scrounged enough money to buy a decent microphone. I employed a friend to do the recording (but that did not work out) so I decided to do it myself. I started recording in my dining room, the only space available. That began a crash course in acoustics and learning to use the recording software (I am still learning but figured out enough to pass.) My first episodes were a disaster and I apologize to the brave souls who endured that.  Little by little I improved both the sound quality and my terrible narration. Narrating is a skill that does not get enough credit so give Kudos to your favorite narrators, the unsung heroes. I got used to hearing my own voice and I think my sight reading skills are improving.  

I graduated from the dining room table to a cozy closet space that has drastically improved the overall sound quality, although there is nothing I can do about the murder of crows that live in my neighborhood. I had previously recorded up to chapter 21 of Emergence Collective, but decided to start over with the improvements. I had originally planned on replacing the episodes one at a time to maintain continuity with the story, however I got heavy handed deleting drafts and organizing Anchor for Spotify and accidently deleted some of the recordings (I mentioned this in a previous post.)  That forced the decision to scrap everything and start from scratch.

I do not mourn the loss of those hours recording and editing. That time is served well by giving me practice and a learning experience.  Here I am now, Chapters 2 and 3 published yester and I am back in the saddle so to speak. My intention is to record every Sunday morning. That being said If you are reading this blog, you get to have free access to the Audio version of my books, narrated by me.  So I toss my ego aside and try not to cringe at my voice, I hope you enjoy the story. If you do, The best way to support me is to buy my books (of course) and leave a rating and review on the platform that you purchased it. I am now published world wide on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and others. The reviews are very important (Not just to give me the warm feels) but it helps get me noticed and helps readers find new books to read.

Emergence Collective

Emergence Ascended

Amazon Author page

Spotify

Audible · Emergence Collective · reading

Audible update: 0 success, almost.

Joe HallettLeave a comment

It was a close one. Computers are weird and I think that they have a will of their own sometimes.  It all started with a zoom meeting with my son’s teacher. I started the meeting, but the Zoom did not detect my microphone. For the zoom meeting I just use the microphone on the laptop, so I figured there would not be an issue, but no joy.   We managed to get through it using text, but it was clumsy. Moving forward, after getting the recording studio (my closet) all situated and ready to go, blocking out the time and getting a fresh cup of coffee (not only recommended by writers all over the globe, but a requirement.) I sat in my new comfy chair and opened audacity. Opened my book (yes, I am reading from my personal print copy) and hit the record button. 0 success. That was the error code I saw. Audacity failed to recognize my Yeti microphone. Failed to detect anything.

So, I messed around, frustrated and disappointed. I had put the Audible project on hold for the holidays and finally got around to starting it again only to be thwarted but determined to not let it beat me. I did eventually get the recording done! It is now available on Spotify. 

I hope I don’t sound boring on my intro. I was trying to decide on how I wanted to go about restarting the project now that I am satisfied with the audio quality, which had been a thorn in my side. Do I re-record chapter one or keep everything the way it is and just move forward. But in my ADHD addled mind as I was organizing I decided to clean up the drafts (somehow my blogs migrated to Spotify as drafts) I got trigger-happy and ended up deleting the first episode on accident anyway, making the decision for me.

Thanks for stopping by!

30-minute shivers. · about me · Audible · Author · blogging · Emergence Ascended · Emergence Collective · Horror · Instagram · NaNoWriMo · narrators · readers · reading · science fiction

The road to hell is paved with good intentions.

Joe HallettLeave a comment

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

Audible · blogging · NaNoWriMo

Downtime

Joe Hallett3 Comments

Needing some downtime. NaNoWrimo was a great challenge, but to accomplish it, I put off and set aside a lot of things (I should have been doing). Sacrifices needed to be made. Catching up on those things and mental fatigue is telling me to chill for a bit. It’s the holidays anyway, so I am taking it slow between family gatherings and other festivities.

I feel that I had a productive year with my writing and art. Looking forward to 2024! My current work in progress, “Yellow Man,” will be my focus once I return to it. I finished the novel for NaNoWrimo, but it is not complete. There is a daunting amount of editing, plot holes, and things I want to add and clarify. The story is kind of complicated (because I am a masochist, I suppose), and it will take some finesse to clean it up for publishing.

The same thing goes with the Audible project. I have good intentions to work on it, but now I am busy again, and to do it right, I need the right mindset as well (and the holiday cheer Saturday night doesn’t help recording Sunday morning)

By the way, did you know that Kindle is an excellent gift? It’s instant, and there are no shipping charges!
Thanks for stopping by!