It's getting close to August again, and you know what that means...
Come join me at the Spokane Comic Convention from August 15th through 17th at the DoubleTree Hotel in Spokane, WA!
As many of you know, I've been working with the SpoCon for years now, and even though I'm not in Spokane this year, I'll be coming up from Santa Barbara to be with you all at the event. It's not set in stone yet, but I'll post my schedule so far for you here.
Friday, August 15th
Building Dynamic Supporting Characters - Learn how to write strong supporting characters like Sam, Spock, and Ron at 12:30 PM in Ballroom B.
Fallon Jones Reading - Join me at 6:00 PM in the Reading Room, where I'll be reading from my newest novel The Lazarus Serum.
Up & Coming - At 8:00 PM in Ballroom D, learn tips and pointers for promoting your work and taking it to the next level.
Saturday, August 16th
Self-Publishing 101 - Learn about the pros and cons of self-publishing with me at 3:30 PM in Parkside II.
Sunday, August 17th
Writing a Dynamic Children's Character - How do you turn back time to relate to a child character? Solve the riddle with me at 9:30 AM in Ballroom A.
Showing posts with label books. Show all posts
Showing posts with label books. Show all posts
Monday, July 21, 2014
Wednesday, March 19, 2014
Meet Me at MacWorld
What are you doing in a couple of weeks? Playing with gadgets? Exploring Apple technology-infused art, music, and film, in all its glory? Hanging out with me? Yes?
MacWorld takes place at the Moscone Center in San Francisco from March 27-29th. As you may know, PhatWare Corporation brought me out a few years ago, since I write pretty much all of my books on their iPad/iPhone app, WritePad, and do all my brainstorming on PhatPad, the iPad app.
Hey, we can't all be Moleskine-toting all the time today! My purse gets heavy with all those notebooks, pens, journals, sketchpads, books to read...you get the point.
Come find me at PhatWare's MacWorld booth signing and giving away copies of my newest novel, The Lazarus Serum, all weekend!
I hope to see you there!
Wednesday, January 22, 2014
Non-Fiction Books to Fuel Creativity
Believe it or not, I do have hobbies outside of writing, editing my work, and crying about it. Between marketing for The Lazarus Serum and fleshing out the beginning of a new book, I've needed to take breaks so I can learn something new.
That's where hobbies come in. I was recently asked how I keep up the "steam" for writing and editing. I'll post a new vlog on the topic soon, but until then here's a brief answer: take in as much information as you put out. I thought I'd share some of my findings with you, so here are four non-fiction books I plan on using to fuel my creativity!
1. A Beautiful Mess is a pretty neat book including tips on photography and photo challenges to inspire you.
2. Happy: Secrets to Happiness from the Cultures of the World is exactly what it sounds like - the book collects cultural secrets and teaches you how to apply them & bring a little brightness to your life.
3.Instant Happy is a great book for bitter writers - it's full of clever motivational tips and photos on how to stay happy. Sometimes a 10 second attitude makeover is enough to get you back into writing!
Have you read any of these books? Am I missing something important here?
If so, leave a comment below or shoot me an email at fallonjones@live.com!
Thursday, December 26, 2013
Friday, November 15, 2013
Sunday, October 27, 2013
Coming Soon: The Lazarus Serum Paperback Edition
A few weeks back I had a poll on my website and my Facebook page on whether my readers would prefer a paperback or ebook version of my newest book, The Lazarus Serum.
Well, the results are in!
It looks like I'll have my work cut out for me the next few weeks as I format The Lazarus Serum for paperback publishing! The novel will be approximately 300 pages long, and it should be available before Christmastime. In the meanwhile, the digital version is already for sale here. Publishing a physical version of this book is going to be a long and expensive process, but I really do believe that this is the best thing I've ever written and I want the chance to share it with anyone who is interested in reading it. This story is worth the work.
On a similar note, I've taken a lot of time to think about my future recently. As an English major at a large university, I often worry that I'll get lost in the crowd and pressured to take classes that won't really help me grow as a writer. But I'm ready to cast my back-up career aside, because writing is honestly what I want to do. It's what I've always wanted to do.
Sometimes it's hard to let go of your back-up plan and commit 100% to your dream because there are so many "what-ifs". What if I don't succeed? How will I make enough money to support myself? What if my dream gets contorted along the way, or I change my mind? These are a few of the questions I've found myself pondering, and it's something all of us go through at some point in our lives.
In all honesty, I just had cold feet.
I've been scared because I've come so far in such a short time, and soon I won't have a lot of other options. Once I truly commit to writing, I won't be looking for anything else. All of my other possible futures will fade into the backdrop and eventually melt away. It's sort of like getting married, I guess. But when I set time aside to seriously consider my options, I realized that I do know what I want. And I want this. I want to write, to be a writer, even if I have to take out student loans and work multiple jobs to do it.
So I made the commitment. I switched out of my massive English major into the smaller college on the same campus--into a Literature major with less than a hundred students. Now I'll be primarily taking courses on reading and writing, I'll be in more discussion-based classes, and I get 24 hour access to a typewriter!
I applied, crossed my fingers, and I made the cut. Next quarter I'll be a Literature student taking classes on how to write for modern media and how to read like a writer! I feel very blessed to have this chance to work with other like-minded students who understand what it means to pursue literature as a career.
I'm ready to cast my doubt aside and focus all of my time, energy, and heart on my dream--are you?
~Fallon Jones
Well, the results are in!
It looks like I'll have my work cut out for me the next few weeks as I format The Lazarus Serum for paperback publishing! The novel will be approximately 300 pages long, and it should be available before Christmastime. In the meanwhile, the digital version is already for sale here. Publishing a physical version of this book is going to be a long and expensive process, but I really do believe that this is the best thing I've ever written and I want the chance to share it with anyone who is interested in reading it. This story is worth the work.
On a similar note, I've taken a lot of time to think about my future recently. As an English major at a large university, I often worry that I'll get lost in the crowd and pressured to take classes that won't really help me grow as a writer. But I'm ready to cast my back-up career aside, because writing is honestly what I want to do. It's what I've always wanted to do.
Sometimes it's hard to let go of your back-up plan and commit 100% to your dream because there are so many "what-ifs". What if I don't succeed? How will I make enough money to support myself? What if my dream gets contorted along the way, or I change my mind? These are a few of the questions I've found myself pondering, and it's something all of us go through at some point in our lives.
In all honesty, I just had cold feet.
I've been scared because I've come so far in such a short time, and soon I won't have a lot of other options. Once I truly commit to writing, I won't be looking for anything else. All of my other possible futures will fade into the backdrop and eventually melt away. It's sort of like getting married, I guess. But when I set time aside to seriously consider my options, I realized that I do know what I want. And I want this. I want to write, to be a writer, even if I have to take out student loans and work multiple jobs to do it.
So I made the commitment. I switched out of my massive English major into the smaller college on the same campus--into a Literature major with less than a hundred students. Now I'll be primarily taking courses on reading and writing, I'll be in more discussion-based classes, and I get 24 hour access to a typewriter!
I applied, crossed my fingers, and I made the cut. Next quarter I'll be a Literature student taking classes on how to write for modern media and how to read like a writer! I feel very blessed to have this chance to work with other like-minded students who understand what it means to pursue literature as a career.
I'm ready to cast my doubt aside and focus all of my time, energy, and heart on my dream--are you?
~Fallon Jones
Sunday, October 20, 2013
Author Jessica Rising on Writing About the Apocalypse for the Next Generation
I don't know if you've noticed yet, but the apocalypse is getting quite popular. Everywhere you go, books, television shows, and movies are reminding the public that our inevitable end is near. But where does that fit into young adult media? The Hunger Games are a hit, and dystopian books are selling better than ever! My newest novel, The Lazarus Serum, is a dystopian sci-fi fantasy written by a teenager about teenagers. (Click here to check it out!) This article is written by Jessica Rising, a fellow post-apocalyptic author who explains how (and why) to write in the genre for middle grade readers.
~Fallon Jones
Writing About the Apocalypse for the Next Generation
By Jessica Rising
How many times have you heard parents exclaim, “You know what I really want for my kids? Post-apocalyptic books. Where are they, anyway?” I know. All the time, right?
(Okay, so it’s more like, “why would I EVER want my children reading about the end of the world?” but I digress.)
I’ve had plenty of funny looks from people when I tell them I write post-apocalyptic fiction for kids. Dystopian also raises a few brows. I’ve heard all sorts of questions and doubts, from “that must be very difficult to keep child-friendly” to “I just don’t think that’s a good idea at all”. So here you are, all in one gooey, crème-filled blog post – my reasons for doing… what it is I do.
My genre is generally termed speculative fiction, though perhaps a more literal term would be “obviously fiction”. These are the stories that take the world and twist it up like taffy until the colors, swirls and tastes of reality are transformed into something entirely new. Fantasy. Science Fiction. Horror. Steampunk. Post-Apocalyptic. Dystopia. These are all speculative fiction. To read spec-fic is to escape reality in a runaway boat. To write it is to add a rudder and try to steer.
My current series, “Guts and Glory”, is best described as post-apocalyptic dystopia, or Apocalypse-Punk. And yes, it is for kids.
Lately, apocalyptic visions have become extremely popular. The other day I saw some graffiti that perfectly sums up why I believe this is so. It read, “In a society that has destroyed all adventure, the only adventure left is to destroy that society”.
We are all looking for who we are in this world, and the vast majority of us are no longer finding a satisfying answer. The drone mentality of work-and-sleep-and-work-again is slowly killing our spirits. And so we fight back with our imaginations. “What if this stifling cubicle was torn to shreds? What if this highway was bombed to bits so that it could never again carry its mouse-maze of deadlocked traffic? What if this whitewashed world was suddenly painted in the colors of explosive rebellion? What if society was so ruined that I could finally do something that mattered?”
We all want to be the hero.
Two of the best-known pillars of dystopian literature are George Orwell’s “1984”, and Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New World”. Though their totalitarian societies are very different in many ways, they have one major theme in common: nobody is allowed to be an individual. The stifling of individuality is the number-one most powerful weapon any supervillain could possibly wield, for it turns a society of free dreamers into a single lifeless machine which supports the power of the few. Take away someone’s very identity, and they have nothing left to fight for. A nobody has no hopes, dreams, or even family to care about. A nobody only does one thing – work for the one who controls him.
More and more, we as a society are feeling like nobodies. And we don’t like that.
In “Guts and Glory”, the only free citizens are the Kids. Though they are born nameless, without family or homes, they have created a society that honors the individual. They adopt each-other. They take care of each-other. But most importantly, they have names. Every Nil Kid carries her name with pride, because that name was not given, but earned. Nil Kids have names unique to them, like Papercut, Books, Roach and Turtle. These names define who they are and what they contribute to their society.
And every one of them contributes something that matters.
My stories are for kids -- my heroes are kids -- because this world won’t be fixed overnight. Who knows, perhaps it will take an apocalyptic calamity to set things back to zero. But when the sun finally rises over a new tomorrow, the ones to see it will be the children of today. And those children still believe they aren’t nobodies.
My job as a writer is to make sure that never changes.
Jessica Rising writes all kinds of crazy books for the discerning – and somewhat mad – young reader. You can check out her books at gutsandglorybooks.com or Facebook.com/GutsandGloryBooks
~Fallon Jones
Writing About the Apocalypse for the Next Generation
By Jessica Rising
How many times have you heard parents exclaim, “You know what I really want for my kids? Post-apocalyptic books. Where are they, anyway?” I know. All the time, right?
(Okay, so it’s more like, “why would I EVER want my children reading about the end of the world?” but I digress.)
I’ve had plenty of funny looks from people when I tell them I write post-apocalyptic fiction for kids. Dystopian also raises a few brows. I’ve heard all sorts of questions and doubts, from “that must be very difficult to keep child-friendly” to “I just don’t think that’s a good idea at all”. So here you are, all in one gooey, crème-filled blog post – my reasons for doing… what it is I do.
My genre is generally termed speculative fiction, though perhaps a more literal term would be “obviously fiction”. These are the stories that take the world and twist it up like taffy until the colors, swirls and tastes of reality are transformed into something entirely new. Fantasy. Science Fiction. Horror. Steampunk. Post-Apocalyptic. Dystopia. These are all speculative fiction. To read spec-fic is to escape reality in a runaway boat. To write it is to add a rudder and try to steer.
My current series, “Guts and Glory”, is best described as post-apocalyptic dystopia, or Apocalypse-Punk. And yes, it is for kids.
Lately, apocalyptic visions have become extremely popular. The other day I saw some graffiti that perfectly sums up why I believe this is so. It read, “In a society that has destroyed all adventure, the only adventure left is to destroy that society”.
We are all looking for who we are in this world, and the vast majority of us are no longer finding a satisfying answer. The drone mentality of work-and-sleep-and-work-again is slowly killing our spirits. And so we fight back with our imaginations. “What if this stifling cubicle was torn to shreds? What if this highway was bombed to bits so that it could never again carry its mouse-maze of deadlocked traffic? What if this whitewashed world was suddenly painted in the colors of explosive rebellion? What if society was so ruined that I could finally do something that mattered?”
We all want to be the hero.
Two of the best-known pillars of dystopian literature are George Orwell’s “1984”, and Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New World”. Though their totalitarian societies are very different in many ways, they have one major theme in common: nobody is allowed to be an individual. The stifling of individuality is the number-one most powerful weapon any supervillain could possibly wield, for it turns a society of free dreamers into a single lifeless machine which supports the power of the few. Take away someone’s very identity, and they have nothing left to fight for. A nobody has no hopes, dreams, or even family to care about. A nobody only does one thing – work for the one who controls him.
More and more, we as a society are feeling like nobodies. And we don’t like that.
In “Guts and Glory”, the only free citizens are the Kids. Though they are born nameless, without family or homes, they have created a society that honors the individual. They adopt each-other. They take care of each-other. But most importantly, they have names. Every Nil Kid carries her name with pride, because that name was not given, but earned. Nil Kids have names unique to them, like Papercut, Books, Roach and Turtle. These names define who they are and what they contribute to their society.
And every one of them contributes something that matters.
My stories are for kids -- my heroes are kids -- because this world won’t be fixed overnight. Who knows, perhaps it will take an apocalyptic calamity to set things back to zero. But when the sun finally rises over a new tomorrow, the ones to see it will be the children of today. And those children still believe they aren’t nobodies.
My job as a writer is to make sure that never changes.
Jessica Rising writes all kinds of crazy books for the discerning – and somewhat mad – young reader. You can check out her books at gutsandglorybooks.com or Facebook.com/GutsandGloryBooks
Wednesday, October 9, 2013
Wednesday, October 2, 2013
Update: Facebook Page
As of today, I have updated the Bite Me. facebook page to include not only the Serpents and Saints series containing Bite Me. and The Jaws of Life, but also The Lazarus Serum.
Click the link below to check out the new page!
Teen Writer Fallon Jones--Facebook Page
Click the link below to check out the new page!
Teen Writer Fallon Jones--Facebook Page
Tuesday, October 1, 2013
Friday, September 27, 2013
5 Tools to Self-Publish
I use Grammarly's free plagiarism checkerbecause sampling is only okay in the music industry!
A week has passed, and I'm ready to publish my latest book, The Lazarus Serum. A lot of people have asked me how to go about self-publishing, since there are so many different ways to do it now that the industry has exploded!
In this post, I have compiled a list of tools that have helped me tremendously in the epic adventure that is self-publishing.
1. Smashwords
If you are looking for a quick and cheap way to publish e-books, I strongly recommend using this website. You can access formatters for your book through their website, and they will get all of the kinks worked out so that your book looks professional when it gets into the market. And did I mention the distribution benefits? Provided your book passes the formatting requirements, (which it will if you pay for formatting) you can get your book carried through Barnes & Noble's website, along with Amazon and various e-readers.
2. Lulu
This is much more expensive than Smashwords, but your best bet for quality print works. They have a wide selection of editors, marketing packages, and formatting selections. You can do hardback, paperback, or iPad e-books with this option.
3. Grammarly
In addition to its free plagiarism checker which compares your work to billions of others', Grammarly offers contextual grammar corrections and word choice suggestions. It's way more comprehensive than what you'll find in your word processor - it's cheaper than hiring an editor, too!
4. WritePad
I used this iPhone/iPad app to write two of my novels - The Jaws of Life and The Lazarus Serum. It's a word processor that lets you write your books by hand rather than by keyboard on your screen. It has built-in handwriting recognition that will translate your scribbles (even cursive) into neatly typed words. You can customize your own text and color themes, export documents as PDFs, and sync with any cloud.
5. Your Blog
This is your best marketing tool. And believe me, marketing is the most important part of self-publishing. I use social media like Blogger, Facebook, and Twitter to keep my readers informed about what I'm up to next. Your blog is also a great way to link people to your products. For instance, I have separate pages for each of my books on my website that tell a little bit about each story! Besides talking about your own works, your blog is a great place to talk to your fans directly and rant about your hobbies - like I'm doing right now.
To get a feel for what a self-published book looks like in its final form, check out The Jaws Of Life
or The Lazarus Serum!
A week has passed, and I'm ready to publish my latest book, The Lazarus Serum. A lot of people have asked me how to go about self-publishing, since there are so many different ways to do it now that the industry has exploded!
In this post, I have compiled a list of tools that have helped me tremendously in the epic adventure that is self-publishing.
1. Smashwords
If you are looking for a quick and cheap way to publish e-books, I strongly recommend using this website. You can access formatters for your book through their website, and they will get all of the kinks worked out so that your book looks professional when it gets into the market. And did I mention the distribution benefits? Provided your book passes the formatting requirements, (which it will if you pay for formatting) you can get your book carried through Barnes & Noble's website, along with Amazon and various e-readers.
2. Lulu
This is much more expensive than Smashwords, but your best bet for quality print works. They have a wide selection of editors, marketing packages, and formatting selections. You can do hardback, paperback, or iPad e-books with this option.
3. Grammarly
In addition to its free plagiarism checker which compares your work to billions of others', Grammarly offers contextual grammar corrections and word choice suggestions. It's way more comprehensive than what you'll find in your word processor - it's cheaper than hiring an editor, too!
4. WritePad
I used this iPhone/iPad app to write two of my novels - The Jaws of Life and The Lazarus Serum. It's a word processor that lets you write your books by hand rather than by keyboard on your screen. It has built-in handwriting recognition that will translate your scribbles (even cursive) into neatly typed words. You can customize your own text and color themes, export documents as PDFs, and sync with any cloud.
5. Your Blog
This is your best marketing tool. And believe me, marketing is the most important part of self-publishing. I use social media like Blogger, Facebook, and Twitter to keep my readers informed about what I'm up to next. Your blog is also a great way to link people to your products. For instance, I have separate pages for each of my books on my website that tell a little bit about each story! Besides talking about your own works, your blog is a great place to talk to your fans directly and rant about your hobbies - like I'm doing right now.
To get a feel for what a self-published book looks like in its final form, check out The Jaws Of Life
or The Lazarus Serum!
Thursday, September 19, 2013
Wednesday, September 18, 2013
The Lazarus Serum--Release Info
The book market is changing. There's no denying it.
Along with these changes comes uncertainty in the future of publishing--especially for writers. There are plenty of different ways to publish a book now--self publishing, epublishing, ebooks, print paperbacks, expensive hardback editions. Most authors need to ask themselves what the best option is for their books.
I occasionally find myself uncertain as well.
When I first started writing Bite Me. I was twelve and didn't know anything about the industry. I just knew that I wanted to tell stories. At fourteen, my dream was to get my work picked up by Harper Collins so I could become the next L.J. Smith. At fifteen, I decided that self-publishing was my best bet because I could keep all the rights to my works and I would know that however my book sounded in final form, it was 100% mine. At eighteen, I decided I should try to get a literary agent--someone to help me promote and support my work. Someone who would love these characters and their lives as much as I did. While I did receive some very positive feedback from a few of these agents, I have yet to find the one for me.
The Lazarus Serum has been edited, formatted, and approved for Premium Distribution (the Kindle, Nook, & iPad market.) In other words, the book is available for release now.
But something inside me keeps warning me to hold off, just for a few more weeks, just in case the agents of my dreams is about to pick up the phone and fall in love with these stories the same way I have.
And so, I will continue to wait.
I am thrilled to show you all what is waiting, so I've found a compromise. Although I still find myself holding out for my literary knight in shining armor before I release the novel in its entirety, I can give you the first quarter of the book, absolutely free.
Click here to be linked to The Lazarus Serum's page on Smashwords. This will give you access to a variety of different ways to download the first 25% of the book.
The complete book will be released on October 1st.
I hope you're holding your breath the same way I am. Or not, since we'll probably all asphyxiate by the end of the month.
Happy reading,
Fallon Jones
Along with these changes comes uncertainty in the future of publishing--especially for writers. There are plenty of different ways to publish a book now--self publishing, epublishing, ebooks, print paperbacks, expensive hardback editions. Most authors need to ask themselves what the best option is for their books.
I occasionally find myself uncertain as well.
When I first started writing Bite Me. I was twelve and didn't know anything about the industry. I just knew that I wanted to tell stories. At fourteen, my dream was to get my work picked up by Harper Collins so I could become the next L.J. Smith. At fifteen, I decided that self-publishing was my best bet because I could keep all the rights to my works and I would know that however my book sounded in final form, it was 100% mine. At eighteen, I decided I should try to get a literary agent--someone to help me promote and support my work. Someone who would love these characters and their lives as much as I did. While I did receive some very positive feedback from a few of these agents, I have yet to find the one for me.
The Lazarus Serum has been edited, formatted, and approved for Premium Distribution (the Kindle, Nook, & iPad market.) In other words, the book is available for release now.
But something inside me keeps warning me to hold off, just for a few more weeks, just in case the agents of my dreams is about to pick up the phone and fall in love with these stories the same way I have.
And so, I will continue to wait.
I am thrilled to show you all what is waiting, so I've found a compromise. Although I still find myself holding out for my literary knight in shining armor before I release the novel in its entirety, I can give you the first quarter of the book, absolutely free.
Click here to be linked to The Lazarus Serum's page on Smashwords. This will give you access to a variety of different ways to download the first 25% of the book.
The complete book will be released on October 1st.
I hope you're holding your breath the same way I am. Or not, since we'll probably all asphyxiate by the end of the month.
Happy reading,
Fallon Jones
Saturday, September 7, 2013
Thursday, August 29, 2013
Mailing List
Join my mailing list and get early access to new stories, sneak peeks, and notifications of my future events!
To join the mailing list, scroll to the bottom of this page and list your name, email, and write "mailing list" along with any additional comments in the message box.
Click send to join me on my adventures as a writer!
To join the mailing list, scroll to the bottom of this page and list your name, email, and write "mailing list" along with any additional comments in the message box.
Click send to join me on my adventures as a writer!
Saturday, August 17, 2013
Book signing at Hastings 8/30
Come visit me Friday, August 30th at Hastings on Wellesley for my last book signing in Washington this year. I will be signing and selling copies of Bite Me. and The Jaws of Life for fans from 4 PM to 8 PM.
Visit for a sneak peek of my newest novel, The Lazarus Serum, which will be released in its entirety two months from now.
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