Burning Skies Now Available in Audibook!

Hello, there!

I’m excited to announce that the next audiobook for the Sword of Dragons saga, Burning Skies, is now available!  Currently only available on Amazon, Audible, and iTunes, keep checking other vendors as the audiobook goes wide!

Click Here for Amazon

Click Here for Audible

Taking A Break From Audiobook Recording

As I’d mentioned in my previous article, I’m stepping back from Audiobook recording for the next few months.  The place we currently live in is not conducive to recording quality audio, and it’s getting worse and worse.  On top of that, I’ve just started a new job, a new career, and as does happen often with new careers (I think?), I’m exhausted every day after work as I try to learn everything.

But that doesn’t mean I’m done – I will record the rest of the Sword of Dragons saga, including book 5 when it’s done, as well as the Chronicles of the Sentinels trilogy!

Thanks for reading (and listening!) and keep checking back for more updates!

Thanks,
-Jon Wasik

Life Update – Audiobook Finished, Back to the Grind

Hey everyone!

I know it’s been a while since I wrote a blog on here, and I’m so sorry for that.  I’ve been trying to ‘keep up with’ posting on Instagram and Facebook, and being the introvert that I am, that…pretty much is all the energy I have, when it comes to social media.

And I’m honestly not sure it’s worth it.

Instagram is no longer a photo app – it’s all about the videos.  Scratch that, it’s all about the reels, which are limited to a minute and a half.  Recording any meaningful content in that short amount of time?  Not easy.  And I had to take something like 30 to 60 takes each time, trying to get it right while compressing the topic to 90 seconds.

I think I might give up on that.  While my initial foray into reels proved promising, with new followers and a couple of comments, it quickly died out, and is stagnant.  Again.

I guess I just suck with social media.  *shrug*

Burning Skies Audiobook Coming Soon!

It’s…been a battle.  I intended to record one audiobook per month once I was furloughed from my day job.  I succeeded with Rise of the Forgotten!  Then I got sick for the month of November with a throat thing.  Started recording in December, made pretty good progress, buuuut….grew increasingly frustrated with the noise in my neighborhood getting worse and worse.

And, well, things just kept getting delayed.  I finally, finally finished recording Burning Skies in January, and started editing.  Editing took a lot longer, because the noise I mentioned in my neighborhood?  It meant that I had to re-record a bunch of sections.

But finally, as of last week, editing is finished!  And I spent the first half of this week listening to Burning Skies “in the wild” to see how an average listener might listen to it.  I found some minor things, about 6 chapters needed breaths removed throughout that somehow wasn’t audible during my editing phase, and a couple of lines needed re-recording, but all in all, I’m really happy with how it turned out!

Especially Nuuldan, the dark dragon?  Oooh.  I channeled Sam Witwer’s version of Darth Maul when I recorded those lines, and they came out sooooo good!  I can’t wait for you all to hear it!

Yesterday, I uploaded all of the files to ACX, and submitted for approval!  So, assuming no quality issues are detected by the ACX techs, Burning Skies should show up on Audible, Amazon, and iTunes in the next 2 weeks!

So despite the setbacks, I battled through, and completed my second Audiobook!

Now…what’s next?

Wellllllllllll….

Assessing The Situation and Adapting

So after all of the delays with Burning Skies, I knew I was running up against a wall, time-wise.  My furlough only allowed me 3 months of paid-for insurance by my employer, and unemployment only allowed a little more than that.  My plan had been to record Rise, then Burning, then start auditioning for jobs to actually get paid for my voice work.

That last part was originally supposed to start in December.

When I hadn’t finished recording Burning Skies until January, I knew my original plan was in big, big trouble.

Then I started looking into how much I could expect to get paid as a voice actor going through ACX, without an agent, without a director or producer or editor, with me doing all of it.

So here’s the thing.  Audiobook narrators, and voice actors in general, don’t get paid for however long it takes them to do the job.  We get paid for a product.  We get paid Per Finished Hour of audio, or PFH.

Let’s say it takes me an hour to record a segment.  That’s an hour of audio, right?  Not necessarily, and especially not as a beginner.  I make mistakes.  I have to re-record.  I’ve learned that, in order to keep my flow on a story, when I mess up, I just immediately re-do that line or wherever a good break is to edit later.  Sometimes that’s only a little bit, and sometimes I mess up a lot.

Then, later, I have to go back and listen to and edit that hour.  Editing involves cutting, adjusting, and generally takes 1.5x as long to do, at least for me (dunno if I’m missing some trick of the trade…)  So that hour recording actually took 2.5 hours of my time to polish, and I may end up actually only having 50 minutes of a final product.  Maybe more, maybe less.

As a beginner, as a nobody on the ACX platform, I could probably expect the lower end of pay for jobs, which is a range of $50 to $100 PFH.

Now, let’s do some math, yeah?  I know, I hate math, too.

Rise of the Forgotten came out to about 10 hours finished.  At the low end, that would mean $500, at the high end, $1000.

In theory, that should have taken me 25 hours to finish, with the 2.5x math, right?  Less than a week, in theory.

It took me longer.  A lot longer.  It basically took me a month from beginning to end.  Now granted, throughout that month, my voice started weak and I couldn’t record for 8 hours a day, so that’s probably why.  Some days I could only do one or two chapters at most, my voice was still recovering from previous days of recording for 6 or more hours.  That’s part of it, your vocal chords are a muscle that need to be strengthened over time.  By the time I finished recording RotF, I was doing pretty good!

But it basically took me a month to finish.

Sooooo…if this was for someone else’s project?  That’s $500-$1000/month.  Before taxes, not  counting medical insurance or anything.  That’s it.

That is not enough to live off of, even in a dual-income home.  Not even close.

So that has led to a…difficult decision.

Back to the Grind – Day Job

After figuring all of that out in January, and knowing that my medical and unemployment benefits were about to run out, I knew I had no choice – I had to go back to a day job.

I really, really didn’t want to.

And I’m so, so incredibly frustrated!!!!  Of course my body decided to get a new illness in the middle of all of this!  Of course I then had to re-build up my vocal chords afterwards and take longer than I should have to record Burning Skies!  Of course everything had to fight me every single step of the way!

At least, that’s been my thoughts lately.  I’m not happy about how it all played out.  This…this was supposed to be my chance.  This was supposed to be how I was able to become a full-time creative.  I didn’t expect to get rich, I didn’t want to get rich, I just wanted a sustainable income!

Maybe, someday, I still can.  It’ll be easier with ‘professional’ gigs, where I have an agent and a producer and I record my work, send it off for someone else to edit, and then move on to the next project.  Maybe, but that’ll mean trying to get an agent to represent me, just for starters.  That’s a big if.

But for now, I have to take care of myself and my family.  I have to make sure we don’t end up on the streets.  And let’s face it, with practically zero social safety nets in the U.S., that’d be a scary prospect.

So I started applying for jobs on indeed.  Sys Admin jobs.  It literally made me nauseous when I first started looking – I not only didn’t want to go back to a 9-5 job, I really didn’t want to go back to the immensely stressful Sys Admin career, where employers increasingly take advantage of employees, adding more and more work and hours without any added pay.

At one point, I started wondering about trying to find other jobs.  Maybe as a proofreader or copy editor.  I started looking at those jobs, and felt like I had a leg up on those, since my Bachelor’s degree was in English.  But a lot of it was ‘gig’ work or temporary contracts, not a reliable source of income at all.

Then I thought…what about technical writing?  I started looking into that.  It looked…promising.  I’d take a definite pay cut, tech writers aren’t paid nearly as much as sys admins, but it was more than I was getting from unemployment by a significant amount, and we’d already proven that, if we had to, we could make that work!  So, why not go for it?

I posted on my private Facebook about thinking about going tech writing as a career, not really thinking anything about it.  But then, that same day, an old co-worker called me up and said he was a manager on a program in dire need of a proper documentation program, and he knew and liked my work in that regard (I’ve always built up the documentation programs for any job I was a sys admin at), and he wanted to hire me!

A few weeks later, and here I am, about to start not just a new day job, but a new career!

I’m excited.  I’m terrified.  I’m anxious.  I’m all over the board about it!  But one thing is for sure – I’ll be glad to have a steady paycheck again.

For more than one reason.

What’s Next?

Remember how I was saying that my neighborhood was getting worse and worse with noise?  Well, honestly, worse and worse in general.  This apartment complex is utter shit, the management company that took over after we moved in is horrible (Seriously, second time Greystar has taken over an apartment while we lived there and turned it to shit!  How are they surviving as a company??)

So with a steady paycheck again, we’re gonna move to a better apartment/neighborhood.  One that doesn’t stress us out, and one that won’t interfere with my ability to record audio.

Until then?  No more recording.  It’s too frustrating.

But once I’m settled into my day job and get a new daily routine going, I will continue writing and publishing novels.  The Sword of Dragons needs book 5, and Project Sirius book 2 needs to come out this year!

I don’t plan on publishing Sirius 2 until after we move, though.

I’m going to probably pull back from Instagram – it’s just not worth the effort I put into my videos, I get no engagement.

I’m probably going to delete my Patreon.  Absolutely no one seems to give a shit about it or has any interest in supporting me through that platform, so no sense keeping it online.

But overall, for the next few months, I’m going to focus on two things – moving, and mental/emotional health.

I’ve worked for employers who don’t give two shits about me for too long.  I’m hopeful that this new job won’t be like that (the manager’s a pretty cool guy!), but either way, I’m going to focus more on taking care of me, and being healthy and better.

I have no doubt that this new year is going to be full of even more change.

I’ll try to be better about keeping you all in the loop here.  After all, this blog is a better avenue for that – I’m a writer!  Writing is what I do best :)

Assuming anyone is still around reading this, and assuming anyone has read all the way to the bottom of this rather long post, thank you for your support and patience!

Until next time!
-Jon Wasik

Juggling Different Creative Efforts

Hello, there!

Welcome to 2024!  Let’s hope it’s a better year than the previous four!

I thought I’d kick things off by just letting you all know what I’m working on these days, and where I’m at with them.  So let’s dive in, starting with my next audiobook!

Burning Skies Audiobook Coming Soon

Earlier this week, I finished recording Burning Skies!  That doesn’t mean it’s ready to go, not by a long shot, but it is a huge milestone!

What’s next?  Well, editing primarily.  Throughout the process of recording, I occasionally took days off from voice work and did editing, so I’m not starting from scratch on it, but I do still have about 3/4’s of the book audio files to edit, so it’s still a long ways to go!

I also know for a fact that there are some dialogue sections I’ll need to re-record.  Especially for the crystalline entities known as the Navitas – I started off voicing them one way in one chapter, and then later changed my mind and voiced them different, so I’ll need to re-record those earlier dialogue sections.  Not a huge deal, and shouldn’t slow me down much.

After that, I’ll need to ‘listen to it in the wild,’ taking the MP3 files and listening to them while driving, exercising, etc, to see how it sounds and if anything needs additional work.

Project Sirius Book 2 Will Be Out This Year

I finished writing Project Sirius Book 2 (title still undecided) last year, so the hardest part is already done ;)  Today, taking a break from, well, everything else, I started another round of proofreading on it.

Once that’s finished, I’m hoping to start working on the publication package.  I’m…well, sad that I haven’t gotten further feedback from beta readers.  But I can’t wait forever, so I’m going to move forward on this one.

Right now, due to the whole job furlough situation, I can’t afford to engage the cover artist, but that situation will probably be resolved soonish.  (More on that further down.)

I already know what I want for the cover, and should be able to communicate it very easily to the artist, so I expect work on the cover to go fast :)

The Sword of Dragons Book 5 Stalled

Unfortunately, writing book 5 of the Sword of Dragons has…stalled.

And I can’t really point to just one reason for it.  Part of it is…struggling with stress and anxiety, so creativity is hard to come by.  (That whole job furlough thing.)  Also, due to the delays to audiobook recording, I focused heavily on that lately, and that left little time for any other creative efforts.

Will I start it up again soon?  That’s the plan!  Though it’s a bit frustrating, because I really want to write Project Sirius Book 3!!!!!

Anything Else On The Side?  Why, Yes!

Long-time readers of this blog know – I’m a gamer.  It’s one of the ways I decompress.  But when I game, I often find myself playing survival games that allow building structures, ships, etc.  I’ve loved building starships on Starfield, for instance!

But a big project that I’ve collaborated with my wife and my best friend on is getting closer to completion, and I’m excited to share it with folks soon!  In the video game 7 Days to Die, we’ve recreated the Raccoon City Police Station from Resident Evil 2 Remake!  It’s taken months, and there’s still a lot of work to be done on it, but most of that now is detail work :D

Back To Work?

Speaking of my job furlough earlier, I’ve reluctantly acknowledged that, for now, I cannot yet make a living off of voice acting.  As a beginner, the most I could expect is maybe $1k/month, depending on the projects I could get outside of recording my own books (and those pay considerably less ;) ).

That’s not enough, by a long shot, to live off of.  Hence why I always intended to try to segue into it part-time at first.  As does happen frequently in my life, those plans are always shoved aside.

So I’m going to start actively looking for a new day job.

I don’t really have a choice.

My novels are selling better than ever, but still fall far short of ever becoming sustainable, my voice acting isn’t even close yet either, and there has been zero interest in my Patreon :(

What does that mean for creative stuff?  It means the output frequency is going to drastically decline.  Who knows when I’ll finish writing my next novel.  Who knows when I’ll finish my next audiobook.

I’m back to square one.

But I gotta do what I’ve gotta do to survive.

On the bright side, I acknowledge that a lot of my resistance to day job work has been toxic managers or work environments at the last couple jobs I’ve worked.  So I’m going to try to be a bit more discerning with whom I apply to and accept a job from.  I recall from past experiences that I absolutely loved I.T. work when I was with companies and had coworkers that I loved!

True, I might not have a choice at first, I might have to take whatever comes my way right away.  But I’ll definitely try for better.

Anywho, that’s all I’ve got for today.  Thanks for reading!  And if you feel like helping out a poor, starving writer/voice actor, tell your friends and family about my work, like my posts, subscribe anywhere you can, and especially to my Patreon page!

-Jon Wasik

First Audiobook Available! Rise of the Forgotten

Hello, there!

I am so very excited and proud to announce that my first audiobook, Rise of the Forgotten, is now available!  You can find it on the Audible and iTunes apps by searching for Jon Wasik, or you can click the link below to go straight to the Amazon store page!

Rise of the Forgotten Audibook

If you’ve been a regular reader here, you already know this, but not only is this my first novel converted into audiobook format, it’s also narrated by me!

Now, before you scoff and say, “Great, another author who thinks they can narrate their own book,” it’s more than just that.  (And for the record, some authors are fantastic at narrating their own books!)  I’ve been working towards switching careers to voice acting for quite some time now, and this first release is a culmination of practicing, of taking classes and voice lessons, and several false-starts and learning experiences.

In fact, this isn’t even my first completed audiobook that I’ve recorded!  But, well, the first one I completed was before I took lessons.  The quality of the voice acting reflects that fact very much, and I’ll be re-recording that book at a future date ;)

It’s also not the first time I started recording a Rise of the Forgotten audiobook, it’s just the first time I’ve finished and been happy with the results.  This single release represents hundreds of hours of learning, trying, learning some more, adjusting, learning even more, and then finally completing.

This particular version took me nearly a month to record, edit, and do re-recordings of a few chapters whose quality were too substandard to be recoverable.

To quote a song, “It’s been a long road, getting from there to here.”  But now I’m here, and this is just the beginning :D

What’s Next?

So, the next thing I was supposed to start over a week ago was recording Burning Skies.  I say supposed to because for the past two weeks, I’ve had a throat illness (maybe strep, maybe not, tests and diagnosis are inconclusive…)  This week, I’ve been doing my voice warmups every morning, but my throat has been very keen to tell me, “No, dumbass, I’m not ready for this yet!”  Sooooo yeah.

Artwork by Vuk Kostic

But, once I’m able, I definitely will begin recording Burning Skies in earnest.  After that?  Well, yes, I do intend to record audiobooks for all of the main-series Sword of Dragons novels (Orc War Campaigns, however, I’m not currently planning to).  I also intend to record audiobooks for the Chronicles of the Sentinels trilogy.

However, due to circumstances outside of my control (and details of which I won’t be going into,) I have several months off from work.  So I’m using this opportunity to try voice acting full-time.  Conceivably, recording my own audiobooks is a big and important step towards making that dream a reality, but unless my books suddenly get a lot more popular than they are now, that’s not sustainable.

So after Burning Skies, I’m planning to start auditioning for other, paying gigs.  Starting with audiobooks, but I’ll also be trying to find an agent willing to take me on as a client and find me roles.  As I’ve learned in class, the most common role that ‘pays the bills’ are commercials, so I’ve no doubt I’ll be doing lots of those, but I’m hoping for more audiobooks and, even more of a dream, working on projects like video games or animated shows/movies!

Those are lofty dreams, and may be a long ways off.  And honestly, if I only ever do audiobooks, if I am able to get steady work and (relatively speaking) steady income from audiobooks, I’d be super ecstatic and would happily leave the I.T. world behind.

That’s a lot of future I’ve just imagined and covered.  It’s possible that none of this will work out.  I may be going back to work as early as January, and if my voice acting is showing no promise by then, I’ll relegate it to part-time (but won’t be giving up on it).

What About Your Writing?

Well, like the blog name says, I’m a writer at heart ;)  I won’t be giving up on that.  But it is, for the moment, taking a bit of a back seat.  While I’m sick and can’t record new audio, I am writing the next Sword of Dragons book, but it’s slow work and, once my voice is good, it’ll once again take a back seat.

But you can’t keep an obsessed writer down.  I’ll finish Sword of Dragons 5.  And Project Sirius book 2 is already written, it just needs polish.  I intend to publish it sometime in 2024!

So don’t worry, there’s still plenty more to come from me, and plenty more content for this blog :)

Thanks for reading!  And as a reminder, click here to head to the audiobook page for Rise of the Forgotten :D

-Jon Wasik

So It Begins – The Sword of Dragons Book 5

Hello, there!

First a quick update from my previous post – I am still furloughed, but as I had planned, I have been treating voice acting/audiobook narration as a full-time job, with some success!

RotF’s Audiobook Cover Art

As of last week, I finished editing of my first Audiobook, Rise of the Forgotten, and I’ve sent it into ACX!  As soon as they approve it, it’ll go live on Amazon, Audible, and iTunes!  :D

Unfortunately, last week I also came down with strep throat.  (Again.)  I’m on the mend, but my voice is still out of commission, probably for this entire week.

So what am I to do?  No way to record new audio, and no other audio to edit?

Why, write, of course!

And so today, finally, after so much development and plotting and scheming, I start writing book 5 of the Sword of Dragons saga!!!!

I have to say that I’m really glad that I decided to stick with 6 books for the saga – that gave me freedom to come up with a really good build-up novel, and if it comes out as well as I see it in my head, you all are in for a real treat :)

Obviously, I’m not gonna give any real spoilers, but I will say this – just like in Advent Darkness, book 5’s prologue won’t be the ‘traditional’ fantasy/adventure prologue, but will be from a character’s POV, and will help set up the primary conflict.  And I’ll be introducing a new character right away, one whom no one knows or has heard about, but whose name will suggest a particular relation to Kemlia of Gevron.

Speaking of whom, after re-reading the saga over the past couple months in preparation for writing book 5, I have to say that Kemila has become one of my favorite characters.  She’s so fun to write (and read!) and I’m looking forward to writing more flirtatious and sarcastic dialogue from her :)

Anywho, the more time I spend writing this, the less time I have to write book 5, so that’s all for today!  Stay tuned for the announcement of when the audiobook is available!  :D

Thanks for reading,
-Jon Wasik

Seeking Help In Hard Times

In my last article, I wrote about how my day job furloughed me, and I decided to use the time away from work to try to become a full-time voice actor/audiobook narrator.

But.

I’m still not there yet, and that means I’m not getting paid from either my job or my voice acting.  And that means I now have zero advertising budget.

What happens when you are forced to pull advertising for your product?

Zero sales.  Zero reads.  Zero interest.

For a writer, what else does that mean?  Renewed, deepened depression.

And things only got worse…

So, my wife and I are watching Big Bang Theory (stay with me, I promise this is relevant).  We’re in season 7.  And a couple days ago, we watched the episode where Penny gets an acting job on NCIS.  But when the episode debuts….her entire scene is cut.

Penny spirals into depression, having banked on this finally being her break that would lead to more acting roles.  She goes on a drunken rant to Leonard about how “I got this stupid temp waitress job until I made it, and I’m still there ten years later!   I’ve lived here for ten years, and I’ve got nothing to show for it!”

And…her words just hit me.  They resonated with me.  I never felt for her character quite as deeply as I did in that moment.

I’ve been a writer for 30 years.  I’ve been published for 8, with 9 novels on the market.  But I’ve never been profitable.  I’ve never been popular.  My books aren’t being reviewed.  I stopped advertising, and sales and Kindle Unlimited reads dropped to zero.

No one’s talking about my books.  No one’s spreading the word.

Does that mean they aren’t good enough?  Aren’t worth talking about?  I honestly don’t know anymore.

But I thought I’d ask you, dear reader, if you’d be willing to help me out, and it’ll cost you nothing.

Spread the word.  Tell others who are readers about my books.  Tell them why you like them and why you think they should read them!  And please leave reviews for them, on Amazon, Goodreads, wherever you can.

I feel like I’m being desperate here.  Maybe I am.  I just know that I feel like an utter failure as a writer, and unfortunately the only way to reverse that is for people to start talking and spreading the word.  I can’t do anything else right now.  It’s up to you.

To quote a famous princess, “you’re my only hope.”

But to try to help make it just a little easier, here’s some links you can share to help lead people to my work.

My Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Jon-Wasik/author/B00X4Y6116

The Sword of Dragons (Fantasy Adventure) Amazon Page: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07KY3HJBR

Project Sirius (YA Sci-Fi) Amazon Page: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CHPN3FLG

Chronicles of the Sentinels (Urban Fantasy) Amazon Page: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0981NDFG1

Thank you.

10 Year Anniversary – Completing the First Sword of Dragons Novel

Hello, there!

Cover by Christian Michael

This month marks the 10 year anniversary for when I finished writing what would become my first published novel, The Sword of Dragons (later rebranded as Rise of the Forgotten, The Sword of Dragons book 1)!

While the novel wouldn’t see publication for a further 2 years, it still was a remarkable accomplishment!  Since then, a lot has happened, and a lot has changed.  One of the more notable changes is how I write novels today compared to how I wrote them back then.

I once wrote about my method for developing and writing novels, but I think the time has come to revisit that, and discuss how that has changed.

Back Then – Planning Every Chapter

Ask any novelist about plotters vs pansters, and they’ll probably probably state which they are, why, and maybe what they think about the other type of writer.

Back in 2013, I was through-and-through a plotter.  I developed chapter-by-chapter outlines for every novel I wrote, starting with the Sword of Dragons book 1.

I’d start with an idea for a story, write those ideas down, and start to develop a plot.  Once I felt I had enough ideas and themes figured out, I’d write down what I called the “general plot progression,” telling a basic version of the story from beginning to end.

Once that was done, I’d then go back, and start writing the basics of what would happen in each and every chapter, going into as much or as little detail as I felt was necessary to remind myself what should happen in each chapter.

After that, I’d begin writing the actual manuscript.  I’d usually have two word documents up on my screen, the chapter I was writing, and the chapter-by-chapter outline, so I could constantly refer back to my notes.  I generally tried to stick with my notes, and was really just ‘filling in the details’ as I wrote.  Sometimes new ideas would come to me, and I’d go a little off course, but I didn’t want to stray too far.  I didn’t want to have to re-develop the rest of the story.

How had I come up with this method?  In a way, it stemmed from how I developed my old fan fiction, Star Trek Dragon.  Starting around season 3, I had a general idea for the entire series, and a more specific idea for the season.  To help ensure there were no plot holes or ‘wasteful’ filler episodes, I plotted each episode out, ensuring that every episode contributed to the overall story.

This served my very well for developing a series.  When the first iteration of the Sword of Dragons failed to impress anyone, and I decided to rewrite it from scratch, I adopted this process.  Aside from a horrific 4-year writer’s block about 1/3rd of the way into book 1, it kept me on-task, and helped me write the story you all know today.

Because of how successful I perceived that method to be, I kept it up.  I developed Burning Skies with the same method, kept the momentum going, and then continued with Secrets of the Cronal.  Back when I wrote the first version of Legacy, Chronicles of the Sentinels book 1, I likewise wrote a chapter-by-chapter outline.

I felt like this method worked very well for me.  There were only a few times where it didn’t, like in Burning Skies when I added about 4 new chapters that I hadn’t originally planned while I wrote it, but all in all, it worked!

Except…

There was one problem.  And the first time it ever reared its ugly head was when I wrote Secrets of the Cronal.  I had a very solid plan for how things would go in it, including at the end when Reis was meant to betray Cardin and the others and steal the Sword of Dragons.

If you’ve read Secrets of the Cronal, you’ll know that didn’t actually happen.

It was the first time where a character so viscerally refused my plans for them.  This wasn’t who Reis was.  The actions I planned for him were so against his character that it broke the story.  And because so much of the plot I’d developed, chapter-by-chapter, depended on this happening, when I got to that point and realized it couldn’t happen…writing came to a full-on stop.  I not only had to re-write that chapter, but I had to figure out how the rest of the novel would play out, not to mention the rest of the series.

I felt shackled by the plan I had come up with.  So, finally, I said, “Hell with it,” and I threw the rest of the plan out the window, and I just ‘went with it.’  I wrote whatever came out.

Later, going through revisions and proofreads, I had a lot of cleanup and adjustment to do.  Secrets of the Cronal had one of the longest production and post-production times for any of my novels back then.

And it got me thinking – maybe plotting every single chapter wasn’t the best way to go.  It kept me from letting the story evolve in the direction it needed to.

Then, in 2019, everything changed.

Neither Plotter nor Pantser – The Hybrid Approach

In 2019, I had an idea to revive Legacy, and it involved a complete re-write.  At the time, I’d been reading the Dresden Files, and I liked the approach Jim Butcher used – a single character’s point of view, rather than a myriad.  I had been thinking of how to make Chris Tatsu a more interesting character, and the story overall more interesting, and then it came to me – it needed to be a more personal story for Chris, and the single POV would facilitate that.

I also knew that some of my original plot ideas wouldn’t work with this new, limited POV, plus some of the plot elements just…didn’t make sense or weren’t interesting.

Fresh off of writing Secrets of the Cronal, I decided that instead of going back to the drawing board, so-to-speak, and writing down a new chapter-by-chapter outline, I’d just…wing it.  And Let the story go in whatever direction it needed.  Sure, this might introduce inconsistencies and errors, but those could be cleaned up and corrected in editing and revision.

With that freedom, I flew through the first draft!  I was so enthusiastic about it that I couldn’t stop writing!  When pandemic hit and my day job came to a virtual stand-still, this only made it easier, and before I knew it, Legacy was completed.

I capitalized on that, and after developing the basic plot for book 2, I wrote Retribution, and then once again, after spending some time developing the plot for book 3, I wrote Champions without a chapter outline.

I’d never written so much, so quickly, and I was proud of the work I’d created!  I was so happy with this new method of half-plotting (IE developing the general story) and then half-pantsing (writing the story without outlines, letting it take me wherever it needed to go) that I adopted the exact same method for writing Advent Darkness.

Now, those of you who don’t like Chronicles of the Sentinels might point to that series as an example of why this new, hybrid method is a mistake.  However, Advent Darkness has been lauded as my best-written work so far, and kicked off a resurgence in popularity for the Sword of Dragons saga!  So, while I still don’t really understand the relative failure of Sentinels, clearly Advent Darkness is proof that this method works, and works damn well.

It’s how I wrote The Awakening, as well.  I’ve shared The Awakening with more beta readers than any previous novel, and responses to it have been highly encouraging!

Of course, how a story is written obviously isn’t the only reason for a story’s success or failure.  But I do feel like this method helps me develop and write better stories.

The Future – Will I Change What I’m Doing?

As a writer, I’m going to continue to evolve and change.  Any writer worth their salt should.  To say, “I’ve found my method, I’m never changing it,” makes you unable to adapt to a changing world and to changing stories.

For now, this method very much suits me, and at this point, I’ve written more novels in this method than the plotter method.  But who knows what might happen tomorrow.

All I can promise is that I won’t stop writing.  :)

Thanks for reading!
-Jon Wasik

The Importance of Consistency – New Series, New “Bible”

Hello, there!

First, let me reassure folks – due to unforeseen circumstances, I thought I would have to delay the release of the first book in the upcoming Project Sirius series, but that is no longer the case.  Things have managed to work out, and release should be towards the end of summer!

Having said that, it’s Project Sirius I wanted to chat about today.

Up until now, I’ve pretty much relied upon all of my initial notes to write and finish book 1 in the series, and that’s been adequate.  However, last week, my ever-changing, ADHD-inflicted mind decided that NOW was the time to start writing book 2 (instead of Sword of Dragons 5 or the Dystopian Cyberpunk series I’ve wanted to write).

While writing that, I’m still going through a proofread of book 1, and that’s when something caught my attention – quite arbitrarily, I had a particle weapon in the form of a pistol classified as a “class 5 particle weapon.”

As soon as I read that, I stopped and wondered, “Why class 5?  What are the other classes?  Are there class 6 and above?”

That’s when it dawned on me – it was time to write a series ‘bible,’ as the term goes.  A living document that would act as a touchstone, a place to go to keep everything straight.  Every big series out there has one, you often hear writers and producers talk about it in “Making Of” documentaries for TV shows or movie series.

It would also give me the perfect opportunity to define all of these facets of technology (and while doing so, I changed the pistol to a class 3 particle weapon).

For me, I’d done it before with the Sword of Dragons.  But this time, it’s going to be completely different.

But just how different?

Writing the Sword of Dragons Series “Bible”

The Sword of Dragons “Bible”

Somewhere around 2014, or maybe even in 2013, I bought a leather-bound journal from Barnes & Noble that I designated the “Sword of Dragons Story Bible.”  In it, I began to write down the ‘rules’ of the fictional Universe, as well as fictional histories that either were or would become relevant to the stories.

Nuuldan’s name and origin, for instance, was first jotted down here, long before I wrote Burning Skies.  The Darksteel Army’s name and origins was also written here, the details of which have yet to be fully revealed even in Advent Darkness, but will be key for the final 2 books in the saga.

I also specified exactly how magic works.  That, too, has yet to be fully explored in the existing books, but will become absolutely integral to what happens in books 5 and 6.

Places and their histories, characters and their histories, all of it has been written down in this journal, and I’ve still not filled all of the pages.

Why?

Because consistency is vital to good story telling.  Because suspension of disbelief in a fantastical world can so easily be broken if you change how something works.

Granted, in a world of magic, like the Sword of Dragons, those ‘breaking of the rules’ could almost always be attributed to ‘it’s just magic, it’s unpredictable,’ but A: that’s now how I work, and B: that’s still momentarily breaking suspension of disbelief and pulling them out of the narrative.

Since Project Sirius can never have the excuse of ‘magic’ to explain away inconsistencies, it is even more vital to remain consistent…

Beginning Project Sirius’s Series “Bible”

One of the biggest differences for Project Sirius is that I am writing the “Bible” not in a leather-bound journal, but in a word document that’ll be easily searchable.

You might think, “Oh, that’s because it’s a sci-fi story, full of tech, so it makes sense to use modern tech, right?”

You’re not wrong.

However, I also know that I will be getting far more detailed in this series “Bible” than I ever did with the Sword of Dragons, and therefore I want to be able to more easily search and reference it.

Because technology must remain consistent.

You might hear otherwise from some writers.  Just ask the writers of Star Trek and how often they stray from canon ‘just to tell a good story.’  Maybe the most (in)famous example comes from Babylon 5 – the story writers were once asked, “Just how fast can the White Star go?” and the writers famously replied, “The speed of plot.”

Even Leonard Nimoy once remarked, “Canon is only important to certain people because they have to cling to their knowledge of the minutiae. Open your mind! Be a ‘Star Trek’ fan and open your mind and say, ‘Where does Star Trek want to take me now’.”

So is canon, is consistency, not important?

With all respect to the original Spock, I disagree with his stance, at least in part.  A failure to remain consistent in a story, as I already noted, can break the suspension of disbelief and pull a reader (or viewer) out of the narrative.

That is a failure on the writer’s part.

The idea that they can only tell the stories they are telling if they break canon is a failure of imagination and creative writing.  If you cannot figure out how to make it work, you aren’t trying hard enough.  It’s a creative world, you absolutely can come up with a solution that both tells the story and remains consistent with the Universe’s established workings.

Everyone makes mistakes – I know I have continuity errors in some of my writing.  Hell, my fan fiction back in the day, the last time I read through the whole series, in the final season I came across an instance where I had a ship, the USS Paris, show up to help support my protagonists.  In the very next episode, I had somehow forgotten I’d done that, and the USS Paris was still off on the other side of Federation space, unaware that the crew of the USS Sentinel were being set up.

It happens.

My issue comes from those writers criticizing viewers for noticing that and crying foul.  Mind you, those writers have whole teams of people to get it right.  And especially after seeing all of the little tiny, almost-forgettable facts from Star Trek The Next Generation turned into important plot points in Star Trek Picard, they obviously can get consistency and canon right, as long as they are actually willing to try.  So there’s really no excuse on their part.

…And that all was a massive digression.  Welcome to my ADHD world ;)

In any case, why is the story “bible” different for Project Sirius than from the Sword of Dragons?  I started with the technology.  And that’s why I expect this to be considerably bigger than the Sword of Dragons.  There’s going to be loads and loads of technical details in there, ensuring that the technology is consistent and makes sense in the story Universe.  If something I’ve previously established in canon interferes with a story?  Well, then, I’ll just have to work the story around that, rather than ‘conveniently forget’ consistency.

In fact, as I’m writing this, I’m realizing that I’m more or less creating a technical manual for Project Sirius.  To help keep my own sanity, character and locations, and their histories, should probably be documented in a separate “bible.”

Conclusion

I’m not a scientist or an engineer…okay, actually I am a computer engineer of sorts.  But regardless, I also want to point out that I’m not a fan of “Hard Science Fiction” as a genre.  Too much time and effort is spent on detailing the technology and not enough spent on the characters.  (I’m not bashing it, it’s just not my favorite form of sci-fi.)

So while there definitely will be descriptive narratives about the technology featured in Project Sirius, the focus will always be on the characters and their adventures, their trials, their hardships, and their triumphs.  The focus on technology will largely be on how technology has changed society and affected their lives.

But I won’t ignore the tech.  And I won’t let plot get in the way of consistency.  You, the reader, deserves to be treated as the intelligent, thoughtful person that you are.  If you ever see plot or technical inconsistencies in my stories, that’s on me, that’s my bad, and that is not a conscious or intentional choice.

That’s why the story “Bible” and, in this case, the ‘technical manual’ will remain a vital resource for me to use.

Thanks for reading!
-Jon Wasik

Chronicles of the Sentinels Digital Box Set Pre-Order!

Hello, there!

I’m so excited to announce that my first ever compilation of novels, Chronicles of the Sentinels Trilogy, is now available to pre-order!  This is a digital-only box set, though I could be convinced to release a print edition if enough folks ask ;)

Click here or click the cover to head on over to the Amazon page and pre-order today!

I’ve been thinking about doing this for a little while now, but I felt like enough time had passed since the final book came out, and who doesn’t love a good summer read?

Does Sentinels Have A Future?

As many of you already know, later this year I’m releasing the first in a new series, Project Sirius.  I also plan to begin writing the Sword of Dragons book 5.  So where does that leave Sentinels?

Honestly at this time, I have no plans to further write the story.

But I did.  Once upon a time, this trilogy was meant to kick off a larger saga.  Unfortunately, due to the struggle I’ve experienced finding an audience, I don’t currently plan to write any more stories.

However, that doesn’t mean I won’t.  If I finally find the audience, if I finally figure out this whole marketing thing and Sentinels explodes in popularity some day, there’s definitely plenty of tales left to tell.

Once upon a time, I’d intended to write two standalone stories, one from Alycia’s perspective and one that would be from Emmi’s perspective, before kicking off a second trilogy.

Alycia Taylor – Created with MetaHuman Creator

Alycia’s story was meant to be a sort of detective story.  While coming to terms with her powers and the loss of her father, Alycia begins experimenting more with her enchantment abilities – eventually imbuing abilities into herself through self-tattooing her skin.

But when apparent magical suicide bombers are found to have similar enchantments on the remains of their skin, the eyes of the Sentinels turn towards her.  Intent on proving her innocence and stopping the culprit, Alycia dives into investigations.  Her journey would take her to one of the smaller Sentinel field offices in North America, and quite possibly ensnare her into deeper, darker magic.

Emmi Dubois – Created with MetaHuman Creator

Emmi’s story would take place after – struggling with the aftermath of London, trying to find meaning in life again without getting lost in her animal forms, Emmi starts to isolate herself from the others.  When covert troops from Shara’s home world strikes at the new Sentinel facility, intent on abducting the gnome Babbar, she’s thrust into the middle of action once again.

With the governments of Earth still reeling from all that they have learned about magic and other worlds, this couldn’t have come at a worse time.  But since Shara is now Commander of the Sentinels, she is tasked by the President of the U.S. to travel home and negotiate.  She chooses Emmi to go with her, hoping that being around other shapeshifters might help her better control her powers and find her center.

But Shara’s home is nothing like she remembers, and Emmi becomes embroiled in a far more sinister plot, very quickly finding herself in way too deep…

From there, the trilogy would pick up, and while I didn’t have full story ideas worked out, I intended for news of Earth’s defeat of Marduk to have spread to the far corners of the Universe, drawing the attention of many admirers, and making many others feel threatened – especially other Infernals.

Someday I hope to be able to tell these stories, but for now I’ll let them sit on the back burner and hope that Sentinels finds the audience it deserves.

Until then, enjoy this new box set, spread the word, and don’t forget to leave a rating or review on Amazon!

Thanks for reading this far!
-Jon Wasik

The Importance of Characters You Can Connect With

Hello, there!

Last week, in a quick side discussion about Project Sirius book 1, one of my beta readers relayed something her fiance (who is also beta reading it) said to her: that the protagonist, Mika, sounded just like her.

It was a quick, in-passing kind of remark, but it made me smile.  It also reminded me of the importance of writing characters that people can relate to, characters your readers can connect with.

And if you’ve ever wondered why representation matters in artistic endeavors such as novels, movies, or TV shows, then this article is for you.

Connecting With Characters

Think about some of your favorite stories.  Think about some of your favorite characters.  What is it you like about them?  Is it their courage?  Is it their sarcasm or wit?  Maybe the way they defuse every situation with humor, or the way they roll their eyes at every Dad joke they hear (or, maybe like Ellie in The Last of Us, they love Dad jokes!)

Chances are good that at least some, if not all of your favorites, are characters you connect with on some level.  And before you say, “this favorite character of mine is nothing like me!”, that’s not what I mean.  Connection doesn’t necessarily mean, “I see myself in them,” although those are powerful connections in themselves, perhaps the most powerful.  But also characters who remind you of others, in some way.

After all, you probably aren’t going to see yourself in every character in a single story – that would make for a very narrow-cast set of characters, and probably would be boring.  Diversity is important not just because it broadens who can relate to the story, but it also makes it more interesting.  It makes it more real and believable.  Because we live in a diverse world.

But while you might see yourself in one or two characters, and you might see parts of yourself in others, you might also see a parent in another, and a best friend in another, and your significant other in yet another character.  When that happens, those characters can come alive on the page far easier than if you didn’t connect to them on some level.  It helps fill in the gaps, the details and histories that aren’t written on the page.  You see them as people, not as arbitrarily crafted entities.

The best fiction stories are those that you forget are fiction, at least in the moment.

Us and Them, or All Of Us

So why is diversity and representation important?  Why, for instance, is it a good thing that the Motion Picture Academy is requiring diversity to be considered for Best Picture?

Because if you’re in an industry like writing novels, movies, or TV episodes, you’re in a position of influence on society.  Maybe your influence is extremely minimal.  Or maybe you’re writing for a big TV show or a summer blockbuster.  Either way, you help shape the vision of where society was, is, and will be.

Not a good enough reason?  Then don’t forget the financial aspect.  When you leave out under-represented groups of people, you’re basically saying, “I don’t want them to buy and read my material,” which basically equates to, “I don’t want their money.”  And yes, it really does make a difference.  If you don’t believe that, then check out how well the MCU movie Black Panther did in the box office.

But let’s say for a moment that money isn’t your only motivator.  And let’s face it, if you’re a novelist, chances are you aren’t doing it for the money.  (Really.  This profession doesn’t pay well, unless you’re one of the lucky very few.)  Let’s say you write stories because you are truly passionate about your art and the affect it has on readers.  So why does it matter?

For one, people who are used to never seeing themselves or their friends and family in stories suddenly find one in which they do.  In my experience, that creates a wellspring of giddy, happy feelings in a person, and they’re way more likely to fall in love with your novels.

Plus, in the larger picture, it helps demolish the “Us and Them” syndrome that pervades our society.  If you’re a writer or a reader, chances are you have a powerful imagination, so imagine this with me for a second: you live in a society where all of the popular media, including movies, TV shows, books, advertisements, everything, shows people who look or think nothing like you.  Since art is meant to imitate life, you might start to wonder, “Am I an outsider?  Do I not count?  Do I not matter?”  Over time, you might start to see “us,” meaning people like you, and “Them,” the people who, apparently, matter.

Now imagine after decades of this feeling, a major motion picture comes out, and the leading star is just like you.

How much is that going to blow your mind?  How happy do you think you’d feel?

If you’re reading this and you’ve experienced that, you know exactly what I mean.  If you’re reading this and you haven’t experienced it, just imagine it.  Just imagine something you’ve wanted all of your life but thought would never happen suddenly is there one day.  How happy would it make you?

And if you saw that new blockbuster movie and it was awesome and you fell in love with the character, wouldn’t you want to go out and tell all of your friends and family how great it was, and they should go see it right now?

Now, still in this imaginary world, fast forward to a time when every single story you see has people just like you in them, working and living and adventuring side by side with people from all kinds of races, creeds, and orientations.  Suddenly the world goes from, “Us vs Them” to “All Of Us Together.”

The utopian Earth we see in Star Trek suddenly doesn’t seem so far-fetched when that happens.

Humanity doesn’t seem so reprehensible and hopeless.

LGBTQ+ in Project Sirius, and More

This is why Mika was always meant to be LGBT.  This is why she isn’t the only one.  This is why, as the story unfolds over the course of multiple books, there’ll be multiple queer, as well as straight, characters.

This is also why The Sword of Dragons introduced an openly LGBT character in Advent Darkness (although there were hints to LGBT as early as The Orc War Campaigns).  This is why there was a non-binary character in Chronicles of the Sentinels.

Like reality, not all of my characters will be queer.  My cast will always be diverse.  But as someone who isn’t “normal,” I look for characters like me in other stories, and I love when I find them.  It makes me feel validated as a human being.  It makes me feel seen.  And I want to give that same feeling to others.

Are there risks to doing this?  Absolutely.  Ultra-conservatives have bandied the phrase, “Go woke, go broke,” around lately (and then complain about “cancel culture” like they aren’t doing that very same thing).

But I again point to incredible successes like Black Panther and say that if you include people from all walks of life, chances are you’ll do alright.  And along the way, you’ll help make the world a brighter, better place, for everyone.

Thanks for reading, everyone!
-Jon Wasik