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.

Rediscovering My Creative Roots – Novels, Games, Movies

Hi everyone!

I know, 10 days since my last blog article, such a slacker :/  No worries, I won’t make any excuses…not like Han Solo here.

Image Source – vox-cdn.com

(Yeah, I’m just a little excited about the upcoming new Star Wars movie :D )

Which brings me to the actual point of this article – rediscovering my roots.  Novels, movies, video games.  Okay, so when I say discovering my roots, I mean my creative roots, my sources of inspiration.

I know I’ve mentioned them all in the past, but what I’ve not talked about is how I’ve lost touch with many of them lately.  I’ve spent so much time doing other things over the past year that I’ve read maybe 5 books in the past 12 months (an insanely low number for me), and played even fewer video games.

And these have always been fantastic sources of creative inspiration for me in the past.  Not the only ones, mind you, but I feel like I’ve strayed very far away from an important part of who I am: stories.

That’s why I watch movies, and read novels, and play video games.  Yes, even video games.  I hardly play them for the challenge, it’s the story I love :D

Must One Be Inspired In Order to Inspire?

Before anyone thinks otherwise, I’m not saying these are the only things that inspire me or make me happy, not by a long shot.  But I have felt like I’d lost a lot of my inspiration, and am only now rediscovering and rekindling that inspiration.

I mean, come on, I produced an entire novel in 3 months once (but it still needs some revision.)  Now…well when was the last time I wrote and finished a novel?  Last year.

Last.  Year.

Image source – google.com

That’s horrendous for me.  I used to write 9 novella-length stories a year when I was producing my fan fiction series.  Now it’s been over a year since I actually wrote a novel.

Is it because of my lack of inspiration lately?  I do know that I’ve begun to slowly immerse myself back into creative works, such as novels, movies, and even a little bit of gaming again.  And what has happened as a result?  I’ve finished all prewriting work on book 3 of The Sword of Dragons, and I’ve begun production of a series of short stories (okay, let’s face it, they’ll end up as novellas most likely, lol.)

But still no writing.  Until today.  Today, I’ve done just a little bit of actual writing, for the first time in what feels like forever.  And it was exhilarating!!!!  :D

The Power of Geekdom

So it’s no secret, I love these three creative sources.  But it goes soooo far beyond that.  It’s the people, the attitudes, the spirit, the culture.

Image Source – RMFW.org

That’s something I also started to discover before my slump.  When I started this blog, I went to the Colorado Gold Conference (writers are geeks in their own right :D ) and the Denver Comic Con.  It was so fantastic to meet up with and chat with people who understood and loved the same things I did.

Denver Comic Con 2014

So, as I continue to rediscover all of my sources of inspiration, I think I’ll start immersing myself in the culture yet again.  I have some pretty awesome friends who can help with that, one of whom comes to mind is the same man who interviewed me for his podcast on VtW Productions, Wayne.  He’s hosting a gaming weekend at his house in a few weeks, and I’m really looking forward to meeting and hanging out with a bunch of fellow gamer geeks :D

Anywho, I’d write more, but…frankly, I want to get back to writing the story I started earlier :)  So until next time, I’ll see you all later!

Game on, read on, watch on, and never ever lose sight of what makes you who you are.

-Jon