Happy New Year everyone! 🎉🥳
I trust this post finds you all well. I was due for an update and wanted to share my resolution for this year. Let’s start with that resolution.
2024 Resolution
My New Year’s resolution is to actually probably not a surprise, but it’s to create more. “No duh,” I hear you saying. Well, that extends past my literary work and means more posts here. I am also going to dabble on Substack a bit. I’ve also been toying with the idea of dusting off my old podcast, Audio Disclosure.
The stress of my full-time job has been a lot these past few months and I need to lean into my passions to minimize the stress it brings. Plus, I have been working on this side project that I’m losing passion for with each edit I’m asked to do. I’m going to turn in my work for season 1 and probably call it quits to work on something I’m more passionate about. Trying to bring someone else’s ideas to life in screenplay form was a formidable challenge, especially when they don’t exactly know what they want or have enough content to fill 10 episodes at approximately 25 to 30 minutes of screen time. I’m grateful for the opportunity, enjoyed it at times, and feel the work we did is good. It helped me refine how I work on screenplays and ask the right questions to better understand what the director wants, but it’s time for something else. This is a good segue to talk about my next book.
The Shackles of Time
My short story anthology, The Shackles of Time, is moving full steam ahead. We are finalizing cover designs this month and I’ve already signed off on the proof for the book. My publisher, Sixth and Central Publishing (formerly WND Press), is working on setting up some interviews with podcasts so I can talk about the book and more, which I am super grateful and excited for. The first of which will be on the Reading and Writing Podcast, hosted by Jeff Rutherford. Jeff has a great show where he interviews authors from all genres and voices about their beginnings into writing, their process, the current and upcoming works, and more. The second will be with Mike and Shane at South and Central on their show, I Don’t Wanna Hear It. I’m stoked be getting interviewed and will share the dates once I know more.
2024 Plans & Projects
I’ve accepted that the podcasts episodes I wrote aren’t going to get produced as The Grey Rooms podcast seems to have shut down and gone dark. I submitted the ones they picked to No Sleep, but I haven’t heard back from them in over 4 months. I know they get tons of submissions and maybe they will get back to me eventually, but I don’t want to wait anymore. My plan is to resubmit the podcast to some other horror podcasts over the next few months. I also have some other podcast story ideas I am going to work on.
My next novel, House of Grim (working title) is my next big project to complete. As I mentioned previously, I have written three chapters already, mapped out the next ten chapter plot points, and have a firm direction to take the story. I’m looking forward to getting back to that and digging into all the books I bought for research. I think the story will be a fun take on the haunted house genre with a few twists along the way. 😉👻
I’m also planning on finding some writing groups to join so I can talk shop with like minded folks and work on sharpening my tools. Lastly, I am toying with the idea of posting reviews on my blog / Substack. I must admit that when I’m writing I really don’t read much as I worry about subconscious influence from whatever I’m reading, but I also want to support the community more this year. There are so many great voices out there and if I can find a way to help make their voices louder for more people to hear them, I want to do that.
That’s everything for now. As always, thanks for taking the time to read this and for your support. I’m wishing you a great 2024 and can’t wait to share more with you. Take care.
Literally Jesse 