Maybe I've mentioned this previously, maybe I haven't. But when I went on long-term disability leave from work due to some serious health issues, I left with a definite plan on how I wanted to spend my free time now that it wouldn't be consumed by work. specifically, each morning would go like this: write about 500 words of the sequel to my debut novel, Badge of Lies. Then narrate an auedio episode of The Dark Inspectre. It was an ambitious schedule, I will admit, one that I knew would require quite a bit of discipline.Well, I am happy to say that I have been kicking ass. I've written abou 35 pages of the sequel, which I consider to be a little less than half. The secret is that most of my waking hours, the plot and dialogue are running around in my head, so i'm constantly working on it anyway. And I've recorded 72 Dark INspectre episodes. Considering there are 76 total, I'd say that's pretty damn good.So, yeah, I've been busy, writing the further adventures of Detectiive Frank Arnold and recording the travails of the Dark InSpectre.I must say, I'm pretty proud of myself for keeping to the schedule I set when I went on disability. It certainly helps that I find the actual writing so enjoyable, and that every time I sit down, after a few minutes it just starts to flow.
In other news, I'm still waiting o hear something definitive from my publisher on how they want to handle my next two manuscripts, True Mastery and The Dark Inspectre. I know 5hey will be publishing them, but apparently decisions still need to be made on the best way to handle them. The editor in chief asked me to wait 2-4 weeks for further details. So fingers crossed. And in the meantime, I'll just do what all writers do, keep scribbling away!
Tuesday, September 2, 2014
Monday, June 2, 2014
Tuesday, May 20, 2014
Dark InSpectre news
It was a simple facebook message from my editor over at Pro Se Press: The Dark InSpectre is moving forward. That's all I needed to hear. I've been excited about it for days. Turns out my editor has been buried in her wedding preparations and will get back to me in June about the manuscripts I have on hold at Pro Se. One is a YA fantasy, and the other is my noir sci fi series, The Dark InSpectre. So I've been way amped ever since I got that message, especially since I haven't heard anything fro Pro Se in a while.
In other news, It looks like in a couple of weeks I'll be able to start narrating all the episodes of The Dark InSpectre I haven't gotten to yet. I bought a spiffy new digital voice recorder just for the project. That way I can send all of the audio episodes to my friend Paul Cole who plays them on his radio station program up in Rockland Maine. And that also means something else I'm totally psyched about: audio disc. That's right, it's going to happen. There will be an audio disc of the Dark Inspectre. Paul has already expressed enthusiasm for promoting it. I haven't really talked about it with Pro Se, but why wouldn't they be into it, too?
And then of course there's the sequel to Badge of Lies which I have to get back to. Here's the title: Pick and Roll. Yeah, I got a lot of projects for May and June. Time to get down to work!
In other news, It looks like in a couple of weeks I'll be able to start narrating all the episodes of The Dark InSpectre I haven't gotten to yet. I bought a spiffy new digital voice recorder just for the project. That way I can send all of the audio episodes to my friend Paul Cole who plays them on his radio station program up in Rockland Maine. And that also means something else I'm totally psyched about: audio disc. That's right, it's going to happen. There will be an audio disc of the Dark Inspectre. Paul has already expressed enthusiasm for promoting it. I haven't really talked about it with Pro Se, but why wouldn't they be into it, too?
And then of course there's the sequel to Badge of Lies which I have to get back to. Here's the title: Pick and Roll. Yeah, I got a lot of projects for May and June. Time to get down to work!
Thursday, December 12, 2013
What's Up!
Hello all, I"ve been away for a while, but as some of you may know, I've been dealing with some rather serious health issues that have taken up a lot of my time and energy. But that doesn't mean I haven't been semi-active in the writing game!
First of all, my ever-lovin' series The Dark InSpectre has been submitted and accepted for publication by my publisher, Pro Se Productions, the home of my debut novel, Badge of Lies. I've taken all the episodes of Dark InSpectre, woven them together, and made a single novel out of it. It will be coming out in 2014 after the usual editing process with my publisher. So Yay for Jack Garrett and friends!
I also submitted a new short story to a magazine for the first time in a while. I should be hearing back in another month or two. It's a dark historical fantasy with the best title I"ve ever come up with: The Vivisectionist's Daughter. Is that cool or what? I really hope it gets picked up.
And I now officially have a couple of Amazon reviews for Badge of Lies, and they're good! I'm so thrilled I can't even tell you. I can tell by the names of the reviewers that they were readers of my Dark InSpectre series who I managed to turn onto Badge of Lies. So the lesson is: e-marketing works! And if someone likes your stuff, they generally like your stuff!
Here's the link to the reviews.
Oh and speaking of Badge of Lies, the guy who runs the audio-narrated episodes of Dark InSpectre on his radio show has put together an ad for Badge of Lies that will go at the end of his pod cast. It's so cool, an ad for my book on the radio! I've heard it and it's awesome, he'll let me know when it airs.
So what's next? The long awaited sequel. As I"ve discussed before, I have to get my ass in gear and start writing again. It's been tough given my health, but I've got an opening scene that needs to get on paper. From there, the sky's the limit. Stay tuned...
First of all, my ever-lovin' series The Dark InSpectre has been submitted and accepted for publication by my publisher, Pro Se Productions, the home of my debut novel, Badge of Lies. I've taken all the episodes of Dark InSpectre, woven them together, and made a single novel out of it. It will be coming out in 2014 after the usual editing process with my publisher. So Yay for Jack Garrett and friends!
I also submitted a new short story to a magazine for the first time in a while. I should be hearing back in another month or two. It's a dark historical fantasy with the best title I"ve ever come up with: The Vivisectionist's Daughter. Is that cool or what? I really hope it gets picked up.
And I now officially have a couple of Amazon reviews for Badge of Lies, and they're good! I'm so thrilled I can't even tell you. I can tell by the names of the reviewers that they were readers of my Dark InSpectre series who I managed to turn onto Badge of Lies. So the lesson is: e-marketing works! And if someone likes your stuff, they generally like your stuff!
Here's the link to the reviews.
Oh and speaking of Badge of Lies, the guy who runs the audio-narrated episodes of Dark InSpectre on his radio show has put together an ad for Badge of Lies that will go at the end of his pod cast. It's so cool, an ad for my book on the radio! I've heard it and it's awesome, he'll let me know when it airs.
So what's next? The long awaited sequel. As I"ve discussed before, I have to get my ass in gear and start writing again. It's been tough given my health, but I've got an opening scene that needs to get on paper. From there, the sky's the limit. Stay tuned...
Monday, August 5, 2013
Mad Scribblings Interviews Author Aaron Smith
Today I’m talking
with Aaron Smith, a fellow Pro Se Press author whose book, Nobody dies For Free, just came out in June. Aaron was kind enough
to answer a few questions about his influences and what makes him tick as a
writer. Read below and be enlightened!
Q: When and how did you start writing fiction?
Aaron:
I think I was born with a writer’s brain in the sense that I’ve been making up stories for as long as I can remember, but it took me thirty years to realize I could actually be a writer! In 2008, I answered an ad that Ron Fortier had posted, looking for pulp writers for Airship 27 Productions. I wrote a short
sample piece—flash fiction is what it would be considered—although I don’t think I knew the term at the time. It was about a vampire having an argument with Adolph Hitler! Ron liked the sample and asked me if I wanted to contribute a story to his upcoming Sherlock Holmes anthology. I was blown away. My first writing job and it gets published and involves my all-time favorite fictional character!
So that started it and the ball kept rolling and I’ve been writing ever since and never want to stop.
Q: Who or what are some of your influences?
Aaron:
Well, I truly believe that all creative people are influenced on some level by almost everything they’re exposed to, whether it’s something they like or hate, but to narrow it down to books and other forms of entertainment, I’d certainly have to list the following writers: Ian Fleming, H.P. Lovecraft, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Robert E. Howard, Roger Zelazny, JRR Tolkein, Bram Stoker, Isaac Asimov, Stan Lee and all his collaborators, Agatha Christie, and Edgar Rice Burroughs. I should also mention the original Star Trek series, the films of Alfred Hitchcock and Otto Preminger, the Universal and Hammer horror movies, and a lot of the music I’ve listened to over the years which ranges from jazz of the ‘30s and ‘40s to Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, and the Beatles.
Q; Your latest release, Nobody Dies For Free, is available from Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Tell us a little about it and where the inspiration came from.
Aaron:
I think it was inevitable that I would eventually write a spy novel. After all, I’ve loved the genre since I saw my first James Bond movie at the age of seven. So Nobody Dies For Free was inspired by a lifetime of enjoying that type of story and is influenced by the Bond novels and movies, the writing of Tom Clancy and John LeCarre, the Jason Bourne movies, Mission: Impossible, the British spy series Spooks, and Taken, which is easily my favorite action movie of the past decade or so. Those are the influences I’m aware of, but I’m sure other stories I’ve encountered, whether in books or in films or comics or wherever, played a part in the book coming together, too.
Nobody Dies For Free is the story of Richard Monroe. He’s been a CIA operative for years, loyal to his country and skilled in the ways of espionage. He’s been stationed in Paris for some years and fallen in love with a French woman. He takes early retirement and marries her, intending to stay in France and enjoy a danger-free life. But when we first see Monroe, he’s on the steps of the Paris Opera, cradling his dying wife in his arms. Somebody’s shot her. Monroe goes a little off the deep end after this and uses his skills to track down the assassin. He kills the hitman who shot his wife, but ends up being caught and thrown into a Turkish prison. He’s soon sprung and brought back to the United States where he’s recruited back into the clandestine services, but there’s a difference this time. He won’t be working for a publicly known agency like the CIA or FBI, but will instead be a lone agent reporting to a mysterious supervisor who will assign him to missions too secret or sensitive to ever be made public. Monroe’s mode of operation is staying as far under the radar as possible, using no gadgets or over-the-top technology, but relying instead on just a car, a gun, and his wits.
Nobody Dies For Free is my first full novel for Pro Se Press, a wonderful New Pulp company for whom I’ve done several short stories in the past. It’s available in print or as an e-book for Kindle or Nook.
Q: What else do you have coming out that you’d like to talk about?
Aaron:
Just last week, the latest issue of Pro Se Presents magazine was released. In that, you’ll find the newest story to feature my detective character Lieutenant Marcel Picard. The last Picard story, which came out in the same magazine several issues ago, got some of the best reviews I’ve ever received for my work. Something about Picard, who is a former professional hockey player who now catches killers, seems to have really attracted a set of followers among the readers of New Pulp.
A few months ago, Airship 27 Productions released Quatermain: the New Adventures, in which Alan Porter and I each wrote a novella about H. Rider Haggard’s classic character Allan Quatermain.
And over the next few months, I have two more novels coming out. In August will be Across the Midnight Sea, which is the sequel to my first vampire novel, 100,000 Midnights.
Then, right around Halloween, my horror novel, Chicago Fell First will be released. This one’s about zombies and how a small group of strangers are brought together in the face of tragedy and chaos.
This has been my busiest year as a writer. It’s tiring at times, but it’s also great fun.
Q: What about writing do you find the most challenging, and how do you deal with these issues?
Aaron:
As much as I love writing, I’ll admit that it has its rough points. It can be hard to find time to get the writing done when you have to work a day job (as most writers do, despite what you see in the movies), but the solution, I find, is discipline. Set a goal for yourself, say, a thousand words a day, and stick to it unless it is literally impossible not to. No excuses unless circumstances make it absolutely unavoidable.
Then there’s rejection, which can sometimes be hard to accept, but you have to keep in mind that the editor or publisher who rejects your story is judging a series of words on paper, not judging you personally. If he doesn’t like it, maybe the next editor will.
There are a lot of frustrations that go with writing, such as worrying that your books aren’t selling well enough, or having too many ideas to devote enough time to each of them (yes, sometimes too much inspiration can feel like a bad thing!), or the long periods of waiting between writing a story and having it come back from editing, and then the other waiting between preparation and publication. All these things can be hard to deal with, but I find that, most of the time, the good outweighs the bad. We writers are the brave ones who throw ourselves out there where the world can see all the crazy things that go on inside our heads. We give the most intimate thing imaginable to our audiences: the contents of our minds! And sometimes we get lucky and they give something back, like a nice review, a comment about enjoying the book, or just the simple act of buying a copy.
So yes, being a writer can be challenging, but it’s the peripheral stuff that’s hard, never the pure act of writing. That’s sheer joy, release, maybe even destiny for those of us who can’t imagine ever stopping. That’s why we do it, I think. At least I know that’s why I do it. The story has to come out and live beyond the womb that is the writer’s mind.
So I guess that’s the best way to deal with the difficulties. Just keep writing.
Thanks for your time Aaron and best of luck in all your future endeavors!
Here are a few links to find out more about Aaron's writing:
Q: When and how did you start writing fiction?
Aaron:
I think I was born with a writer’s brain in the sense that I’ve been making up stories for as long as I can remember, but it took me thirty years to realize I could actually be a writer! In 2008, I answered an ad that Ron Fortier had posted, looking for pulp writers for Airship 27 Productions. I wrote a short
sample piece—flash fiction is what it would be considered—although I don’t think I knew the term at the time. It was about a vampire having an argument with Adolph Hitler! Ron liked the sample and asked me if I wanted to contribute a story to his upcoming Sherlock Holmes anthology. I was blown away. My first writing job and it gets published and involves my all-time favorite fictional character!
So that started it and the ball kept rolling and I’ve been writing ever since and never want to stop.
Q: Who or what are some of your influences?
Aaron:
Well, I truly believe that all creative people are influenced on some level by almost everything they’re exposed to, whether it’s something they like or hate, but to narrow it down to books and other forms of entertainment, I’d certainly have to list the following writers: Ian Fleming, H.P. Lovecraft, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Robert E. Howard, Roger Zelazny, JRR Tolkein, Bram Stoker, Isaac Asimov, Stan Lee and all his collaborators, Agatha Christie, and Edgar Rice Burroughs. I should also mention the original Star Trek series, the films of Alfred Hitchcock and Otto Preminger, the Universal and Hammer horror movies, and a lot of the music I’ve listened to over the years which ranges from jazz of the ‘30s and ‘40s to Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, and the Beatles.
Q; Your latest release, Nobody Dies For Free, is available from Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Tell us a little about it and where the inspiration came from.
Aaron:
I think it was inevitable that I would eventually write a spy novel. After all, I’ve loved the genre since I saw my first James Bond movie at the age of seven. So Nobody Dies For Free was inspired by a lifetime of enjoying that type of story and is influenced by the Bond novels and movies, the writing of Tom Clancy and John LeCarre, the Jason Bourne movies, Mission: Impossible, the British spy series Spooks, and Taken, which is easily my favorite action movie of the past decade or so. Those are the influences I’m aware of, but I’m sure other stories I’ve encountered, whether in books or in films or comics or wherever, played a part in the book coming together, too.
Nobody Dies For Free is the story of Richard Monroe. He’s been a CIA operative for years, loyal to his country and skilled in the ways of espionage. He’s been stationed in Paris for some years and fallen in love with a French woman. He takes early retirement and marries her, intending to stay in France and enjoy a danger-free life. But when we first see Monroe, he’s on the steps of the Paris Opera, cradling his dying wife in his arms. Somebody’s shot her. Monroe goes a little off the deep end after this and uses his skills to track down the assassin. He kills the hitman who shot his wife, but ends up being caught and thrown into a Turkish prison. He’s soon sprung and brought back to the United States where he’s recruited back into the clandestine services, but there’s a difference this time. He won’t be working for a publicly known agency like the CIA or FBI, but will instead be a lone agent reporting to a mysterious supervisor who will assign him to missions too secret or sensitive to ever be made public. Monroe’s mode of operation is staying as far under the radar as possible, using no gadgets or over-the-top technology, but relying instead on just a car, a gun, and his wits.
Nobody Dies For Free is my first full novel for Pro Se Press, a wonderful New Pulp company for whom I’ve done several short stories in the past. It’s available in print or as an e-book for Kindle or Nook.
Q: What else do you have coming out that you’d like to talk about?
Aaron:
Just last week, the latest issue of Pro Se Presents magazine was released. In that, you’ll find the newest story to feature my detective character Lieutenant Marcel Picard. The last Picard story, which came out in the same magazine several issues ago, got some of the best reviews I’ve ever received for my work. Something about Picard, who is a former professional hockey player who now catches killers, seems to have really attracted a set of followers among the readers of New Pulp.
A few months ago, Airship 27 Productions released Quatermain: the New Adventures, in which Alan Porter and I each wrote a novella about H. Rider Haggard’s classic character Allan Quatermain.
And over the next few months, I have two more novels coming out. In August will be Across the Midnight Sea, which is the sequel to my first vampire novel, 100,000 Midnights.
Then, right around Halloween, my horror novel, Chicago Fell First will be released. This one’s about zombies and how a small group of strangers are brought together in the face of tragedy and chaos.
This has been my busiest year as a writer. It’s tiring at times, but it’s also great fun.
Q: What about writing do you find the most challenging, and how do you deal with these issues?
Aaron:
As much as I love writing, I’ll admit that it has its rough points. It can be hard to find time to get the writing done when you have to work a day job (as most writers do, despite what you see in the movies), but the solution, I find, is discipline. Set a goal for yourself, say, a thousand words a day, and stick to it unless it is literally impossible not to. No excuses unless circumstances make it absolutely unavoidable.
Then there’s rejection, which can sometimes be hard to accept, but you have to keep in mind that the editor or publisher who rejects your story is judging a series of words on paper, not judging you personally. If he doesn’t like it, maybe the next editor will.
There are a lot of frustrations that go with writing, such as worrying that your books aren’t selling well enough, or having too many ideas to devote enough time to each of them (yes, sometimes too much inspiration can feel like a bad thing!), or the long periods of waiting between writing a story and having it come back from editing, and then the other waiting between preparation and publication. All these things can be hard to deal with, but I find that, most of the time, the good outweighs the bad. We writers are the brave ones who throw ourselves out there where the world can see all the crazy things that go on inside our heads. We give the most intimate thing imaginable to our audiences: the contents of our minds! And sometimes we get lucky and they give something back, like a nice review, a comment about enjoying the book, or just the simple act of buying a copy.
So yes, being a writer can be challenging, but it’s the peripheral stuff that’s hard, never the pure act of writing. That’s sheer joy, release, maybe even destiny for those of us who can’t imagine ever stopping. That’s why we do it, I think. At least I know that’s why I do it. The story has to come out and live beyond the womb that is the writer’s mind.
So I guess that’s the best way to deal with the difficulties. Just keep writing.
Thanks for your time Aaron and best of luck in all your future endeavors!
Here are a few links to find out more about Aaron's writing:
Sunday, July 21, 2013
What Now Brown Cow?
Let's review where things stand.
Point one: My debut novel, Badge of Lies, came out last month. I couldn't be more psyched about it. It's gotten one positive review so far and hopefully more are on the way (it's only gotten 1 review total at this point).
Point two: I've already edited and submitted the entire Dark InSpectre series to my publisher and am waiting to hear back about it. It's TBD as far as what kind of format they want to publish it in: digest? webisodes? doesn't really matter to me. I consider it a totally unique vision and am just excited to see it out there in some form.
So where does that leave me in terms of what I'm working on? Well, the Dark InSpectre is finished, the last episode posted a few weeks ago. that's done. As I said, I'm just waiting to hear back from my publisher. Once I do, I'm sure there'll be edits, etc. Which will be all normal and good.
But that's not new material. I'm a writer. Writer's write. What's next? Has to be a sequal to Badge of Lies. I have a couple ideas chasing around in my head that seem promising, but they haven't quite gelled into a coherent whole. but more importantly, I have an opening scene, and I know that's where I need to start.
The problem? My health has not been good lately, and that could be a problem moving forward, especially if I'm trying to get back to writing regularly. But whatever, writer's write. I've got an opening scene, that's where I'll start. Where it takes me....? Well, that's the whole fun of it, isn't it?
Point one: My debut novel, Badge of Lies, came out last month. I couldn't be more psyched about it. It's gotten one positive review so far and hopefully more are on the way (it's only gotten 1 review total at this point).
Point two: I've already edited and submitted the entire Dark InSpectre series to my publisher and am waiting to hear back about it. It's TBD as far as what kind of format they want to publish it in: digest? webisodes? doesn't really matter to me. I consider it a totally unique vision and am just excited to see it out there in some form.
So where does that leave me in terms of what I'm working on? Well, the Dark InSpectre is finished, the last episode posted a few weeks ago. that's done. As I said, I'm just waiting to hear back from my publisher. Once I do, I'm sure there'll be edits, etc. Which will be all normal and good.
But that's not new material. I'm a writer. Writer's write. What's next? Has to be a sequal to Badge of Lies. I have a couple ideas chasing around in my head that seem promising, but they haven't quite gelled into a coherent whole. but more importantly, I have an opening scene, and I know that's where I need to start.
The problem? My health has not been good lately, and that could be a problem moving forward, especially if I'm trying to get back to writing regularly. But whatever, writer's write. I've got an opening scene, that's where I'll start. Where it takes me....? Well, that's the whole fun of it, isn't it?
Thursday, July 11, 2013
The Reviews Are In! (Well, one anyway)
Got my first review of Badge of Lies from Nadine over at her My Addiction Blog.
I'm very grateful to Nadine for taking the time to read my book, and happy to report that it's a good review. It's hopefully the first of many more, but this one will always be special cuz it's my first novel, and my first review. So yay, warm fuzzies all around!
Here's an excerpt:
I'm very grateful to Nadine for taking the time to read my book, and happy to report that it's a good review. It's hopefully the first of many more, but this one will always be special cuz it's my first novel, and my first review. So yay, warm fuzzies all around!
Here's an excerpt:
What makes this novel so intriguing – at least for me - is the fact that Jason Kahn went out of his way to throw readers into the explicit truths of not only the main character but also that of the friend – Mitch Connell, who he mourns. The story is weaved majestically between the faltered main character and his obsession to unravel the secrets his friend had tried to carry to his grave.And a link to the whole review. Check it out!
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