Jason Cordova's Website

I’m getting ready to do my disappearing act for a few days and I’m, well, bored. I want my readers to be entertained but how can they when I’m not entertained?

So tell me, all you aspiring authors out there… do you have a plan for NaNoWriMo yet? And if so, is it sensible?

I know my sister participates (no, I’m not coauthoring with her… we’re on two whole entirely different planets in thought process) but I never know who else does. Is it bad, or chocked full of goodies? Do your stories make you want to sing praises or slam your head repeatedly against the wall?

Tell me, I’m bored interested.

The hell you mean my roast is going to cook for 14 hours?? I’m hungry NOW!!!

Ah, patience. I so wish I knew thee better…

Like any good pulled pork (well, any good Southern pulled pork that is… still waiting for them northern folk to figure out that you can’t fast-cook everything) a good novel takes time. A lot of time, really. Even if you’re only at your keyboard for six hours writing, the story is in your mind all the time. And the plot lines, characters, destinations and localities all reside there on a permanent basis. The author should have a solid grasp on everything, and it’ll taste wonderful at the end (insert crude joke here… c’mon, you know you want to).

So then why, when we read a novel of our favorite writer, are there glaring inconsistencies between books with the same characters?

For me, it’s because the story is always flowing in my head. Things I could have done better, explained better, shown better… and I want to improve. So I improve, and I forget some of the things that made the original so special to me in the first place. Then I start to confuse facts (did you know I called Jade the wrong name a dozen times in the first read-through of Corruptor?) and the next thing you know it reads more like a drunken Mafia don’s hitlist than a novel. Trust me, the woman who edited Corruptor cried tears of blood once she finally finished working her way through my mess. She’s wonderful and I should get her a Christmas card this year…

But for other authors, part of their problem is is that they don’t use any sort of tracking chart. Or they don’t take many notes on what they write. Or, best (worst?) of all, they have written so many farkin’ books that they can’t even keep track of what series they’re writing in at the moment. Authors like King, John Ringo and Laura K. Hamilton have so many books out there that inevitably they’re going to screw up some minor detail that, while the publisher and editor might miss, that one fan in Iowa sure as hell won’t. It’s the nature of the game, really.

Does anyone else notice this, or am I just blowing smoke (and pulled pork, which is currently sitting in a tub of brine in the refrigerator waiting for me to cook it)?

As I sat through the weekend doing things (boring things, but things nonetheless) I started wondering: just what do people think of the book they bought? More specifically, my book.

The floor is open, and nobody’s comment will be refused. Did it suck worse than Pearl Harbor? Better? About the same?

Let me know, it’s eating me alive over here…

Incoming rant… you’ve been warned.

One of the things that grabs my goat (do people still say that?) is when someone officious tells everyone that some form of entertainment is bad for your children and it should be removed. They’ll tell parents that “such and such ought to be ashamed of themselves, showing their bare shoulders on a late night television program when kids may be watching!”.

Really. And this week, the Parents Television Council has accused Fox’s TV show “Glee” of doing the most sinful thing of all time: having a racy photo shoot with actors and actresses all over the age of 23. How dare those young whippersnappers show off any form of cleavage! Thy family ought be shamed by yon person and thy behavior.

Really people, it’s not that hard. If you don’t want children to see something bad, you simply tell them “No”. Practice it with me. “No”. One more. “No”. See? Was that so hard? Your child is threatening to throw a tantrum because they’re not getting their way? Gee, who’s the adult here and who is the child? Whose ass is going to be grounded and who will probably be up til ten tonight watching the news? Who, if said tantrum will continue, will lose all privileges and toys while the other will smirk and listen to the impending wail of doom? And after a while, who will be listening (and obeying) who?

Parents need to be parents, which means being involved in what your children are doing. Having some assbackwards, officious individual or group telling me this television show is bad for my children (if I had any) will only make me wonder if I really want to piss someone off and let my child watch said program.

Believe it or not, most parents aren’t morons. I added “most” because, well, I used to be a teacher at a public school. ‘Nuff said. Parents know if something might not be appropriate for their children. Jenna Jameson’s Finest Four? Probably something I’m not going to let children watch. Bambi versus Godzilla? I saw it when I was ten. It was 30 seconds of Bambi then 5 of Godzilla. Not much of a contest, and as a child I learned a valuable lesson: mutant Japanese monsters always kill cute Disney mammals.

I’ll admit it. I like “Glee“. It’s frickin’ hilarious. I ignore the “drama” they try to have throughout the show and listen for the great one-liners and gags which are scattered about like a playroom after a group of five year olds went through it. Plus, their singing is pretty entertaining (hey, I’m turning into a theater connoisseur) and I listen for the Broadway hits I recognize. Oh, and they like Journey. A lot.

So please, PTC and all you other agencies out there who are only “thinking of the children” when they tell people what to do, where to go, what to eat, how to sh*t, etc… stop.

All I’m going to end up doing is exactly the opposite of what you say.

Reviewed Out of the Dark by David Weber over at SBR. Decent book, though you wouldn’t know it if you read the Amazon reviews. I liked it, and since only my opinion matters….

Heh, yeah right. But all in all, not bad. I’m slightly annoyed, however, because I just bought my third copy of Monster Hunter International. I swear to Cthulhu I am not going to lend this copy out.

So Corruptor seems to be doing okay in the initial sales. I’d like to see higher sales (naturally), but the amount I’ve sold so far with so little publicity behind it is amazing. I am truly blessed to have great people read this blog and show interest in an author and book nobody has really heard of. The reviews I’ve heard have been positive, which is always an encouraging sign.

Went out white water rafting yesterday out on the Gauley River in West Virginia after some friends had a cancellation and already prepaid. I had a blast hanging out with my friends, and doing some Class III and Class IV rapids on the Lower Gauley. Hopefully next season we can do the Upper. I hear it’s an insane ride.

A Bad Year For Tomatoes closed Saturday night, with another amazing audience. I’m going to miss the cast and crew of this wonderful play.

In two weeks I’ll be attending the Sheutzenboomenvigger IV in Wabash, Indiana. It’ll be a nice trip, and I’ll get to drive through the campus of Ball State (Muncie, IN) and show people around. The campus has changed quite a bit since I’ve been there, though, so I hope I won’t get lost.

Oh, and someone in Israel bought a copy of my book. That’s awesome! I love Israel and have given thoughts to moving there. I remember Haifa and the hills above the harbor there, the diamond factory, the temples… it’s a gorgeous city with a great atmosphere. Maybe I should feature (what I remember anyways) Haifa in a future book… that’d be cool. Well, I hope whoever in Israel bought it really enjoys the book.

Yes, it’s just the non-DRM formatting, and I don’t think the cover is up, but the book in its entirety is now available at Twilight Times! OMGWTFBBQ!!!1!1!

Uh, yeah. Go buy it, if you’re interested…

It’s Friday! Do you know what that means?

Neither do I, actually. Just a few notes today about other people. Not nearly as exciting as it could be but hey, I’m easy to please.

First off, congratulations to Larry Correia. I interviewed him a few months back and this past week he hit the NYT bestseller list with his novel, Monster Hunter Vendetta. We reviewed it over at Shiny Book Review a week or so ago and it’s an astoundingly good follow up. And if that wasn’t enough, he’s been contacted about writing a bunch of short stories set in the Monster Hunter universe. He’s becoming a busy man.

Next, I will be out of town the last weekend of October (28-31), so SBR and here won’t have any updates from me. Please don’t email me asking about things during that time, because I probably won’t be able to respond until I get back and (some people) might grow annoyed at waiting for a response for so long. Barb should be around at SBR, but no guarantees. I’m not even sure I’ll have internet access, and I definitely won’t have my desktop (aka GodComputer 3.5) with me.

Third, my friend Daniel was just nominated for the Top 100 donut places in the US and will be featured in some upcoming “Donut War” episode on the Food Network. He’s been through a hellacious year, with his house burning down and the economy nearly killing his business. But Blue Collar Joe’s has pressed on and Daniel’s persistence has finally started to pay off. So I guess another congratulations are in order…

Fourthly, I heard from TTB that an artist was contracted to do the book cover for Corruptor. I’m in contact with him about some ideas I had (hey, he asked). Let’s hope it comes out how I envision things…

And finally, this is the last weekend of A Bad Year For Tomatoes, the play I am currently in. I’m of two minds here. First, it’s the last weekend and the cast and crew has been an absolute blast to work with. I’ll miss them tremendously, since this is my last play until next summer (at least). On the other hand, I can finally sit down and finish Wraithkin, as well as the Christian Cole rewrites.