I know it's been awhile , but I wanted to check in with everyone and let you know what  was going on with me.  For the last  3 months I've been spending 30-40 hours/week creating and recording music and it's been a blast!  My band is called TRIGGERFIST and you can find us at http://thetriggerfistband.com

Music is my first passion, and I'm not sure where it's going to take us to be perfectly honest. So, if you're into  the darker side of music  and want to journey further into the void,  check us out!  We launched our first  song/video  7 days ago.  Video below!

WRITING NEWS:
I've been rewriting the first Subject 15 book, adding all kinds of exciting adventure and  drama to the fold, and in case you've forgotten, I've changed the  entirety of Book One, to take place  ONLY in the lab.  So, 40,000 new words of  Jack  McCoy and other neat  stories are being included.  As of this time, I'm  about  48% done, but gaining every night.  I'm also writing a novella called,  'The Clever, Yet  Poor Thief,'  set in Chris Philbrook's world of Elmoryn.  That's going  kind of slow, but it's  really good so far.

OTHER COOL STUFF:

One of my best friends, Chris Philbrook is about to be a  daddy in one more month, if you see him,  pat him on the back!

I've recently been the victim of identity theft!  Yes, it can  happen to anyone.  I filed my taxes and  was told by the IRS that someone already filed taxes under my social security number and name...  Now I have to jump through hoops and clear all this up, don't worry though, they said I might get my refund around this time next year.

Well, that's all for  now. Peace out !

Happy Halloween Everyone!

Many good things happening as winter makes its approach.
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1: Music Studio Progress.

That last photo you saw was  barren ground with buckets... here  are the latest photos. We should be ready to start recording by  late November at this rate.
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2:  Youtube promo for Moller International (Flying Car Company)  was revised because TED TALKS doesn't permit their  content to be used for promotional  purposes. (BOO!) Here is the quick remake I did for them. Still good, but ...

3:  I'm going to be with Chris Philbrook, Alan MacRaffen and J.C. Fiske at the  Infinity Con  near Saratoga, NY on November  15th.  If you're in the area, stop by! I'll be selling  the Limited Edition copies of  Subject 15 Book One :  The Loser's  Streak. Get them before  I make all the changes!

4:  I was part of the Halloween Story Hop  along with 13 other  authors, including Chris.  Check out my story, and then Chris's, and then everyone else,. Let us know what you think! Click the pic to  get to  my story, "It's  Not My Fault"
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5: My Halloween Costume!
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Hello everyone!

It's been awhile since you've heard from me, because I've been very, very busy.  Here is a list of things that have happened and things that will be happening.

1: I updated the website.
Feel free to look around here, there' s plenty of new things.

2:  I started building a music studio from the ground up, literally. 

It doesn't look like much, but where those 3 buckets are lined up, we dug 4 foot holes and placed in concrete posts which will be the support  for the floor.

If you are wondering why I am building a music studio, it's because I am , at heart, a 
very passionate musician. I've partnered with my lifelong friend, Charles Acorn to create some rocking hard  music under the name, TRIGGERFIST. The studio will enable us to record and produce our own albums which will be available for purchase on iTunes and Amazon. I am also using the studio for audio creation and foley-work in my films. I  love making music and I love singing. Our music is more on the heavy side, but we  have all the capabilities of creating any genre and sound. 

More updates to come.

3:  I created a lego video for Chris Philbrook and his fiance Leah.
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It took me 8 hours to  click out 350+ photos and another 22 hours to edit.  Video is here:  

It's not technically supposed to be out yet, but hell with  it , it's my website.

5:  I am  splitting Subject 15  Book 1 into TWO books.

Book One:  The Loser's Streak will now be entirely set inside of Nexus Research Labs and  a total of 40,000 new words will be added to expand on what happened inside. New information about Randy, Emily, Rudy, Lynette, and Asshole Squad will be available. Among many other haunting details. 

 Book Two will take place  right after the events of  Jack's escape from the labs and will also include 40,000 new words.

​ It's really exciting. The good news is, if you already have the kindle version, you won't have to repurchase the first book once it's updated, as it will update automatically.

6:  I  have  resumed all my writing! 

Please see the  'BOOKS' tab for more information.

Well, that's all for now. I hope to  have most of my projects wrapped in 2016 and appreciated every one of you who is here to support my endeavors. Thank you all so much!

Best,

​Joe

Writer's block is no joke. It's very real and  ridiculously annoying.  It's about the same problem you face when you tell yourself you need to get to the gym, and then never do.  So the solution  is pretty simple. Just do it. Write, write, write.  

The problem is... How the fuck do I  fucking  write if I don't  know what to write??? Or,  I don't fucking feel like writing right now!!!

Yup... that's the shit storm caused by writer's block.  Here's my solution and it should work for you. 

Write about your writer's block.
It's on your mind. It's attached to your brain and it's killing your production. Going back to the gym example... just imagine how buff you'd be if you'd gone to the gym all the times you'd decided not to...  Well, there you  go.  Imagine how many  books you'd have written if you'd just sat down and written words.  

Below, is an example of me writing  about my writer's block. Read it and then you try it. You'll  discover, that by simply, "writing about writer's block,"  you can bust through that  damn  wall and get back to work.  DO IT!

I’m attempting to write. I want to write. I know what I want to say, I don’t know how I’m going to say it. The words seem to escape me. I don’t like it when words escape me and yet, the words to write this stupid piece about my writer's block... are coming out rather flawlessly. I have writer’s block. No you don't. Yes I do, shutup! I have a giant fucking wall of resistance to writing right now. Like two magnets of equal polarity trying to make contact, but repelling with great force instead. What has caused this? I was doing so well… but something happened? Lack of motivation, focus and desire. No, not true, the desire is there, but the energy and determination have all but disappeared. I think about sitting down to write the next chapter and my body and mind shut down. So I go off and do something else, something non-productive and then I feel like hell. I feel as if I’ve given up, or lost the ability to write.

This is not good. Tiredness creeps in. The lights dim and I feel as if writing is a great chore, too much to deal with, too tiresome to confront. Another day perhaps… When I’m better rested, or better fed, or when I’m feeling energized. Oh, but look… I’ve written 200 words here in the span of 3 minutes and I’ve done so rather easily. Why? Why is it so damn easy to get this out, and yet I can’t decide what Wally Masterson, the main character of my novel, is going to do next? Actually, I know what he’s going to do next, but why do I have such trouble sitting down to type it? It’s as if all of my energy escapes me the second I sit down and try to write… Wally you bastard, what are you doing right now? What's happening in that stupid universe I created around you? Wait.. what's that? Shhhhh (Wally's trying to get my attention)

  Wally leapt out of his chair quickly, like a cobra striking its fangs into the neck of a drunken snake charmer. The red-faced man barreled into the kitchen with heavy thuds and snatched up his flamethrower which had been carelessly tossed into the sink the night before. The night he accidentally burned down his mother's house. He strapped it over his back and stared murder at the front door. Time to burn some fuckin' asses, he thought as he ventured back into the living room.

See how that works? Pretty  workable, so go ahead and try it.  You can describe your writer's block like a force, or maybe a monster, or anything really, just write about it and see where it leads.

Sometimes, okay, a lot of times, an  author gets so  deep into his/her own writing that  he/she can't  see all of the mistakes that  are blatantly obvious. Typos, incorrect word usage, repeated words or phrases, run-on sentences and the like are all passed by because an author doesn't have what's called an "exterior point of view" to the story.

What is an exterior point of view? Well, remember the last time you had a really BIG problem in life and it seemed impossible to solve? You were so wrapped up in it, emotionally bogged by it and deep into it that you just couldn't see any way out of it? Remember having a problem like that? Then one day, you told a few friends about it and they helped you solve it with incredible ease? 

Or how about the time you looked at someone else's problem and helped them solve it just as they were about to meltdown in hopelessness... It's always easy to see solutions, and see things correctly when you are exterior to the problem and not too immersed into it. That is an exterior point of view.

It's the same way with writing... You get so immersed into your owns story that you literally cannot see every flaw, problem and incorrectly spelled word. This is why we hire editors. This is why we have our friends read it and give us their feedback. But who has hundreds or thousands of dollars for an editor? Or a friend that can and will come to your beck and call every time you need to know if your writing is trash or not? Not many of us do, unfortunately. Furthermore, how many friends actually know anything about proper grammar or well executed plots? It's a small list.

So what is this new way to edit that will help to alleviate this problem of being to  internalized  into  one's own writing?   

It's called,  Text To Speech (TTS)  A  computer  program that  reads your text aloud to you, so that you can hear your own story told from an exterior source. There are many programs online that can be found, which  use natural sounding voices, both British and American to read your  story aloud.  

It cannot catch every mistake, but it will  find A LOT of mistakes, AND it will  allow you to hear the story  as a reader might read it , which is huge.  I've been using a  program called Naturalreader and it 's amazing. It  integrates  right into Microsoft Word and  has  extremely human sounding voices.

It has  helped me tremendously  and I  hope it can help you too!

The moment everyone has been waiting for has finally arrived! You can now purchase and read, 'The Loser's Streak.'

Get your copy today!

If you've read Adrian's Undead Diary by Chris Philbrook then I've got a treat for you.  He recently released an anthology set in the AUD universe and it's amazing!  I actually have a story in there myself that you might like to read.  Here is the link for you.