Thanksgiving and the Christmas season are upon us already!
Man, this year has flown by! It’s hard to believe that December is just a few days away.
I have been wanting to write a seasonal series of stories for a couple years now, but have never seemed to find the time.
Well, I chose to buckle down and use the spirit of NaNoWriMo this year and finally get to work!
I’ve known for a while the series title, North Pole Zombies, and the basic plot line:
Santa’s elves turn into zombies and Santa’s got to put them all down.
But in this past year, I really pinned down the story and it came to life in these past few frantic NaNoWriMo weeks.
And I got to say:
It’s freaking awesome.
It has been so much fun to write and to craft this story’s world and characters.
Oh man, the characters.
One of my favorite things about writing is when you fall in love with a character that you thought was just a supportive role, but turns out to be such an intregal part of the story.
I’m super excited about a character for Part 2 of the series, but I won’t dive too deep into him, because, you know, spoilers…
So, North Pole Zombies is being released this Black Friday. (You can pre-order it now, though.)
If I could describe it simply, it’s like a mix between DOOM, The Evil Dead, and those claymation Christmas specials that come on ABC Family, or whatever that channel is called nowadays. You know the one.
It was refreshing to just be kind of silly and write this outlandish short story. To take a break from the bleakness of the world and just have fun with it.
The story follows Nicholas Klaus, the Bringer of Gifts, as he prepares for the Christmas season. After visiting “down South” he returns to the North Pole to find out a mysterious sickness has overcome the elf population. What follows throws Klaus back into a life he had long put behind him…
If you need something to read while you’re standing in line this Black Friday, or just want to read something fun to start getting into the Christmas spirit, check out North Pole Zombies!
Click the cover above and it will take you directly to the Amazon page.
Alright, so I may be posting this a little late in order to promote the book signing, but the whole thing kind of just materialized out of nowhere anyways.
So, October totally snuck up on me this year.
I knew it was October. I knew Halloween was coming, because me and my daughter have been planning on being Darth Vader and Princess Leia for the longest time now. But the fact that it was October and that it’s been 4 years since I first released A New Death into the wilds of the internet, that completely slipped my mind.
4 years.
Isn’t it crazy how time just flies by?
4 years ago and I just had this silly idea of self-publishing a zombie e-book amongst a sea of zombie e-books.
Silly, silly Joshua.
Anyways, as I often do, I got somewhat reflective and nostalgic about the past 4 years. My cousin played a small part in it as well, as he is in the process of writing his first novel and asked me a few questions the other day.
Which led to the above video.
I recorded this the day before the book signing, so my apologies for not telling you sooner.
But you can still listen in on the five (now six) things I wish I knew before I published my first novel. These are completely subjective and were really the first things that came to mind when I asked myself the question of what would I have done differently.
1. I wish I would have taken it a little slower at the beginning.
I remember finishing the first draft and the sense of relief and accomplishment I felt. I also remember feeling the impending doom of “Okay, now what?” I knew there was editing, formatting for Amazon Kindle and Barnes & Noble Nook, and promoting to be done, but how? When? But mostly, how? I had no idea what I was doing and just kind of kept putting one foot out in front of the other, hoping that there would be ground underneath, sighing a breath of relief whenever there was.
So, the whole publishing process went fast, maybe too fast. Looking back on it now, I wish I had slowed down and stopped to think about where I was heading with this whole author/publisher thing, but looking back on it now, I’m just reminded of a clip from Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Night:
2. I would have launched the books differently. (read: better)
When I first released A New Death, I launched it just as an e-book. That was the extent of what I planned on doing, as I had no idea that printing options were available. Again, see above gif. So I launched A New Death in the Amazon Kindle ecosystem and into the cold, shallow waters of the Nook. I spent more time with the Kindle, as it was A.) more user friendly and B.) the more popular of the two.
Knowing what I know now, I would have liked to publish both the e-book and the paperback at the same time, so if you’re still waiting for A New Daybreak, know that you’re going to have to wait for me to finish both now. (Sorry.)
3. I would have liked to finish the trilogy before I published them.
Okay, so this one is debatable. And it comes solely from the perspective of me trying to sell and market my books. (Spoilers: I like getting paid for my work.) But my thinking behind this point is this:
People are more apt to dive into a series that they know they can finish and not wait on the author to finish writing them. (Looking at you George R. R. Martin…)
Again, I’m still personally up in the air about this one, but hey, there it is.
4. I wouldn’t have wasted time on e-readers other than the Amazon Kindle.
Remember when I mentioned the Barnes & Noble Nook earlier?
I think I can count on both my hands how many copies I sold on that thing. (That’s less than ten for all my fellow public school kids.)
And the Kobo? Aww jeez, Rick.
Amazon is the Pickle Rick of the e-reader world.
5. I would have spent more time on the print books.
When I first started, print wasn’t even on the radar. I thought that was only something you could get from an actual publisher or one of those vanity publishers, which I knew to stay well clear of.
But there was Amazon, goading me onwards, deeper into the jungles of the self-publishing world.
“Hey, you’ve done e-books with us. Have you met our friend CreateSpace?”
“Why, no Amazon, I haven’t. Nice to meet you, CreateSpace.”
It was something like that, I think. It gets kinda fuzzy after a few years.
Anyways, the paperback versions of my books have been great for making small waves here in Savannah. I’ve been able to do book signings and get my books into some cool local shops, something I would never be able to do with an e-book. This all goes back to me slowing down in the beginning and actually doing some research into self-publishing outside of e-books.
6. I would have treated this more like a job.
There was a shift somewhere, where this stopped being “just some cool thing I could do” and turned into “Man, I would really like to do this for the rest of my life.” I’m not 100% sure when that happened; I think maybe in between CJ’s Story and A New Darkness, or maybe it was there somewhere all along.
I knew eventually though, that I should have been treating it more professionally and more like a job, but still, for some reason I just wasn’t all in. I don’t know.
But I do know now, that I’m stuck in between the rock and hard place of: having a good, well-paying, providing job that sucks the life out of me everyday, but I do it because I love my family and want to take care of them OR this author job, which grants me fulfillment and I enjoying doing, but the financial side of it is, um, questionable.
Knowing now, what I wish I had known then was, if I had slowed down, and thought about this a little bit more than just publishing some e-book, if I had thought about it as a potential career, and then treated it like one, where could I have been now?
But like they say, hindsight is always 20/20.
Can’t say that I would change anything though. It’s been a long ride, and I could have made it a little easier on myself, but to think about all I’ve learned, I think the journey was worth it.
So if you’re just starting out, take my advice, or don’t. You’ll get there eventually and I’ll be there waiting to tell you what I’ve learned in the meantime.
Here’s some food for thought for my fellow writers, artists, and creators:
Everyone wants to be an Avenger. To be Iron Man or Captain America, or heck, even just Hawkeye for one day would be the dream for many of us. To us, our Avengers are authors like Stephen King, J. K. Rowling, or filmmakers like Spielberg, Lucas, or Christopher Nolan. Or maybe artists like Warhol, Rembrandt, or even Jack Kirby and Stan Lee. The ones who people think of when the words “author, director, artist” come to mind. We all want to be big shots in our creative fields, not because we crave fame, (although some of us do, I’m looking at you Tony Stark) but because we want to make a difference with our art.
Here’s the thing: you can make a difference.
But be a Defender, not an Avenger.
Yeah, the Avengers get all the limelight, the tent-pole movie blockbusters, and all the sweet Hasbro action figures to go with it. But the Defenders, the Defenders are fighting crime on the street-level. They’re in the trenches, getting the work done that the Avengers don’t have time to deal with, which isn’t a knock on the Avengers. They obviously have bigger issues on hand, such as fighting off alien invasions led by an Asgardian god of mischief or stopping the destruction of the world at the hands of an unruly artificial intelligence program.
Some of us may never see the big time. But what we can do is make a difference in our cities. In our own creative circles. We may never have a big blockbuster or New York Times best seller on our hands, but we’re there in the trenches, getting the work done. We’re hitting those word counts and working a full-time job. We’re uploading quality content to YouTube and interacting with our audience, all while we’re raising two year olds and wiping noses. We’re on the Twitters, doing the tweets, and tweeting the things.
It may not seem like much, but it’s what we got.
And what we got, is sometimes all the world needs.
So get out there and make a difference in your circles, in your city, or even in your neighborhood. Because you never know, sometimes even a friendly, neighborhood Spider-Man can become an Avenger.
Here’s the first part of A New Death: CJ’s Story, the audiobook version. You can read along with the free ebook available here.
This short story set in the Savannah Zombie Novel universe takes place at the same time as the first entry, A New Death. It focuses in on thirteen year old CJ and his family, who appear in A New Darkness. This story bridges books 1 and 2.
That’s me in our local paper’s DoSavannah section, which features local music and happenings each week.
No big deal.
Haha, jk. It’s weird though, because this is the first time I’ve really put my work out there locally. My books have been in several local bookstores, but unless someone just walked in there, they would have no idea my books exist.
Sad, I know.
But now, “real” people know about my books, not just “internet” people. (No offense.)
Anyways, this was a really cool start to the new year and as I get back on track with A New Daybreak, this really gives me motivation to press forward. I just shared the Prologue with my email list (which you should join by the way and get a free ebook) and will continue to share sneak peeks with them until release day.
You can read the article here and you should probably share it on social media, because it’s 2016 people and that means it’s the future.
Right now you can get Book 1 in the Savannah Zombie Novel Series for FREE on your Amazon Kindle!
This promo will last for FIVE days, so now would be a good time to pick it up if you haven’t read it yet! If you have, then now would be a great time to tell your friends!
Here’s what some readers have said about A New Death on Amazon:
“When you read A New Death,I think you will be shocked to learn that it is the authors first novel. The story is well written and has a good quick pace. It is surprisingly upbeat for a zombie apocalypse novel. I enjoyed it and definitely recommend it.” -J. Meister
“I can’t believe this is the authors first book. Very well written and flowed great. You Mr. Vasquez are a gifted story teller. I really enjoyed the character development, I could not put this book down I think this is the fastest I’ve read a book.”- Jesse E.
“Josh Vasquez has done a fine job for his first effort. The characters grab your attention and pull you along with them. This is very much a character driven tale and it works well. Plenty of zombie action and questions to answer. I am looking forward to the next installment.” – Belle Rouge
“Easy to read and entertaining. Fast moving. I Looking forward to the next book! Perhaps the Bible talk may be a turn off for some but so far it was tolerable.” – Amazon Customer
“one of the better zombie books I’ve read in awhile! fast paced, great characters…Loved lexx! really hope there is a sequel!! hoping for more from this author!” – Lisa Cook
“This is a bit different from other zombie books. There are the usual slow ones and some runners. What makes it different is that the bitten change into muscle bound rage monsters. While this not the best book I have ever read it certainly isn’t the worst. It’s a good first book.” – ladyboss230
“Josh Vasquez obviously found his calling in writing a zombie novel, keep up the great work!! A can’t put down read!” – Debra Ryan
That’s just a few people’s opinion. You can make yours by either clicking the picture above or by clicking here.
I should mention that I’ve never been good at resolutions.
My bad.
But that being said, I hope I can make it up to you! With these three things!
Behind door number 1: Are you on Goodreads? Cause I am. Do you like free books? Cause right now, on Goodreads, I’m giving away A New Death. (Yes, you heard right!) You can enter into a giveaway and win one of TEN signed copies of the first installment in the Savannah Zombie Novel series! So, you should click here and go enter to so can win! (Heck yes, you should!)
Behind door number 2: I’m a little late on saying this (unless you follow @savzombienovel on twitter) but I’m running a Kindle Countdown Deal in the UK on both books. Well, tomorrow is the last day, so if you live across the pond (Do you guys even like that phrase?) go snatch up some cheap zombie ebook goodness while you can here!
And finally…
Door number 3: Remember CJ’s Story, the short story that takes place between A New Death and A New Darkness? Ever wonder what my voice sounds like? You are in luck! I’m in the process of teaching myself how to make audiobooks and I’m starting with CJ’s Story! And just like the ebook version, I’m making it free to listen to! It’ll be available on Youtube. (You’ve heard of that, right?)
Here’s the thing though: I’m still kinda working out the bugs in the whole audio department. The first episode is up, but I would love some feedback on how it sounds. You can check it out here and leave a comment on what you thought. Thanks so much.
Okay, that’s everything, I think…
Hmm…
Yeah, that’s it. I hope this makes up for not blogging and know that if I’m not posting stuff here, I am working! If you want more up to date info, then it might behoove you (heh, heh, behoove…) to follow the above twitter account. I tend to be there more than here.
