Jon Christopher's Blog

Joshua Tree Literary Scene

One year ago yesterday I walked into Space Cowboy Books in Joshua Tree for the first time. My debut novel, Somewhere Out There In The West, was coming out in a few weeks and we wanted to check out the bookstore and see if they’d be interested in carrying my book.

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I was intimidated. As a new author I did not have a ton of confidence. I knew my book was good but I had no idea how to approach the bookstore owner. Jean-Paul, the co-owner, immediately put me at ease and after talking a bit and checking out my proof copy, said he’d be happy to take my book on consignment. And then he threw me a curve ball I wasn’t expecting.

“Do you want to do a reading?” he asked. Fear gripped my heart. A reading… in front of people?!?  I told him I would think about it.

After much consideration, with fear and trepidation, I agreed to do the reading and it was scheduled for late November with several other writers.

I ended up enjoying it more than I expected, and people bought my novel! Thus began my entrance into the nascent Joshua Tree literary scene, a rapidly growing network of writers, publishers and readers. At the center of this burgeoning scene is Space Cowboy Books.

Jean-Paul L. Garnier, a poet and science fiction writer, runs Space Cowboy with his partner, artist Zara Kand. They have just been in business for a couple years but already they’ve had a major impact in the community. They host several events a month featuring up-and-coming local writers doing readings from their latest work on the stage of the small amphitheater at the Sun Alley Shops where they’re located.

The readings are a chance for writers to meet one another and encourage each other. There is also a perfect opportunity for us to become familiar with each others’ work, expose our writing to a greater audience and sell books. After all, we are trying to sell books ;)!

Since then I’ve had the pleasure of meeting Rich Soos, poet extraordinaire and publisher of Cholla Needles Magazine, author Brent A. Harris, Susan Rukeyser, and Gabriel Hart, just to name a few. If you haven’t heard these names before, you will in the future. There is some great talent out here in the hi-desert!

Writing Novels

I didn’t know a year ago that Jean-Paul would become my editor and edit my next three novels. I didn’t even know that I was going to write three more novels over the next year.

In late September and into October, right after the release of my debut novel, I wrote my second novel, Moving At The Speed Of Time.

The first novel took six years to write, but it was like a dam was released when the book was finished. My second novel took just three weeks to write the first draft.

When I found out Jean-Paul was an editor I asked him to take a look at the new novel. He agreed and by late February the book was edited and ready to be laid out. We released the book on April 20th because the muse of the story is marijuana, so there’s that whole 4/20 tie-in. We had a great party to celebrate its release.

I was on a roll, and before Jean-Paul even got to editing my second novel I had written my third novel, Meanwhile There Were Dragons.

The book is about dragons, ice hockey and a mind-controlling cephalopod, among other things. I’m very fortunate to have Zara Kand doing the illustrations for the book. Editing on the novel is nearly done, the illustrations by Zara are finished, and it should be out in November, in time for the “Meet the Writers” event. I’ll tell you more about that in a moment.

I wasn’t done writing for the year. I kicked out my fourth novel in June called Joe’s Late Great American Dream.

This novel follows an average Joe, a guy who is a huge Bruce Springsteen fan, in search of love and the American Dream. Unfortunately for Joe, the world is coming to an end on May 25th, at least that’s what a street preacher in Long Beach has been predicting. The story also includes an international terrorist, a TV evangelist, the richest man in the world, aliens from a far away planet called Estes-Sol, and more. This novel will be out in late spring, next year.

Aside from writing three novels this last year I wrote a few short stories. Two of them have been featured on the speculative fiction podcast called Simultaneous Times, which is produced by Space Cowboy Books.

When I haven’t been writing novels I’ve been busy reading and editing my manuscripts, over and over. I’ve found that I like to read through a novel at least twenty times before it’s ready to be released. Meanwhile, I’m working on my next novel, along with a novel I’m co-writing with Jean-Paul. Busy times!

Traveling Shoes Press

Of course, a good chunk of my time is spent designing books for Traveling Shoes Press. We published Jean-Paul’s first book of short stories this year, Echo of Creation.

Right now we’re working on a book by local writer Gabriel Hart, a pair of twin novellas called Virgins In Reverse/The Intrusion, which should be available in January, 2019.

We’re nearly at the finish line with an art book we’ve been designing for Uli Boege, an artist we met here in the hi-desert. We just finished an art book for Nora Novak titled “The Femme Fatale Collection, Volume 1”.  We’re currently in process with an anthology for Space Cowboy Books and a book of poetry by Jean-Paul.

Meet The Writers

In November the literary scene will become a bit more established with the first ever hi-desert “Meet The Writers” event. These will be held at four different locations, at a new place each weekend, where a number of local writers will have books available for sale, and people will have a chance to meet the local writers in their community. I understand that there will be readings and other good things going on. Make sure to put it on your calendar.

Saturday, November 3rd – 11:00 to 3:00

Art Colony of Morongo Valley

Sunday, November 11th – 12:00 to 5:00

Space Cowboy Books

Saturday, November 17th – 12:00 to 5:00

Rainbow Stew Gift Shop

Saturday, December 1st – 12:00 to 5:00

Raven Book Shoppe

When you’re in the hi-desert make sure to pick up a copy of the first edition of “Meet Your Local Writers” magazine, just put out by Cholla Needles. I’m in it, on page 12 :). The magazine/catalog is available at Space Cowboy Books and other venues around Joshua Tree.

My second novel, Moving At The Speed Of Time, was published on April 20th and we threw a book release party at our cabin, A.K.A. The Outpost!

So, I’ll be busy this next month, in a good way…

I’m working on designing two books at the moment. One is an art book for an artist named Uli Boege, and the other is an amazing political manifesto by actor and writer Christopher Judges.

This is probably enough to keep me busy, but today I added another layer to the cake of activities. I decided to write a novel this next month.

[image error]November is National Novel Writing Month, NaNoWriMo. The goal is to write a 50,000 word novel during the month of November. That’s 1,667 words a day for 30 days. I had a new acquaintance suggest I sign up for NaNoWriMo recently but I hadn’t considered it seriously until today.

At some point yesterday afternoon a title for a new story popped into my head and started to capture my imagination… the title was Silence Of The Machines.

I designed several book cover ideas just for the fun of it in the evening. Here’s our favorite:

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Once I had a title and a cover I thought, all I need is a story and I’m good to go

I’m busy doing research for an upcoming story…

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I have no idea at this point what the story will be, but I’m getting familiar with the scaffolding that will be hovering in the background of the story.

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What I know so far is the story will be about the process of becoming conscious and what that entails. All I need is a cast of characters and a plot line, and I’ll be off and running soon. After I finish doing some more research, that is.

I’ll keep you posted on how this goes…

So, my debut novel has just come out!

I’ve had the amazing feeling of holding the first copy of my first novel in my hand, and nothing really compares to that moment.

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I immediately announced it on Facebook and Twitter and Instagram and launched my book website.

I got it on GoodReads and created numerous graphics for online promos for days, letting everyone know it’s available to order online at Amazon.com and on the not-so-well-known Lulu.com.

I made three video trailers which are posted on YouTube.

I had a small amount of bookmarks made so I could offer them along with hand-signed books if people wanted to order them off my book website, as well as give them away to people in hopes it would lead them to order a copy of my book.

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I brought my book to a cool little local science fiction bookstore I’d been frequenting in Joshua Tree and got some copies of my novel in there- and they asked if I’d be interested in having a book release and reading with another local sci-fi writer… “Yes!” I replied- as nervous as the thought made me at first. That will be in late November at Space Cowboy Books.

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Through a friend of a friend, another bookstore, Pipe & Thimble, is carrying it in the South Bay area…

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These are heady times!

Then… it’s like- what do I do now? I DIY’d all that I could think of! How do I get my book before the eyes of the masses?

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I’m at the very, very beginning of my career as an author and it goes without saying that at this point I’m a million miles away from the New York Times Best Seller List.

Like hundreds, if not thousands, of self-published authors- I’m wondering what to do next, without spending a bunch of money?

I understand the problem I’m up against.

While I know my book tells an entertaining story, and is well worth someones time to read it, I am unknown as an author.

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How do I get people to take a chance on me as a writer? I mean, I’m a completely unknown author, and not even most of my friends or family know what my writing is like.

I’d best describe my writing as a combination of speculative fiction and visionary fiction, but the feedback I’ve been given is that you don’t necessarily have to like either of those genres to enjoy reading my book.

To me, my “unknown” quality is the biggest issue I’m facing. After that comes all the other issues involved with marketing and promoting a book.

Because I’m in this game for more than just one novel, my strategy to tackle this issue involves looking at the bigger picture. How can I get my book in front of (many) people- and get them to take a chance on my writing? How do I win fans who will be interested in my next novel and the one after that? This is what my debut novel should do, right? Introduce me to the world as a writer.

This weekend I decided to launch an idea towards those ends – something to give people a chance to try out my novel and see if they like my writing.

Because my novel is written in a series of little bite-size pieces, it lends itself to an interesting idea – serialized mini-episodes.

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I set up the book website to automatically post one bite-size episode each morning, Monday through Friday, at 10:00 Pacific Standard Time.

Click here to start reading: somewhere.travelingshoespress.com/read-the-novel/

The whole series will run from October 9th, 2017 through April 11th, 2018 and consists of 133 episodes.

I’ll let you know how this project works out.

Meanwhile, I’m slowly editing my next novel, called Moving At The Speed Of Time, and I’ll be trying out various chapters here in the months ahead- so subscribe to my blog and don’t miss a single post from The Outpost!

Until later, best of health.

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Bite-sized snacks of my novel are now available to help beat the work week blues… take a break and read a little section of Somewhere Out There In The West for your entertainment and relaxation- to laugh and wonder…

New episodes posted 10:00 a.m. Monday through Friday!

Visit somewhere.travelingshoespress.com to start reading today!

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Something to mark on your calendars for next month! Book Release and Reading!

Join authors Robert Deloyd and Jon Christopher as they read from and discuss their new novels at Space Cowboy Books in Joshua Tree.

Saturday, November 25th 2017 from 3-4pm

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Map to Event

I spent about five years writing Somewhere Out There In The West, and now the time has come to let go of the story, and turn it over to the reader.

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Writing the story began when I discovered a page I had written nearly thirty years ago in an old notebook. What I had discovered, after some editing, became the first page of the novel. Finding it ignited my imagination, and I began to write the story.

It was the summer of 2012 and I had been reading a number of “conspiracy” websites that were always talking about the coming changes on December 21, 2012. Reading the websites were like reading real-life fiction, and they fueled my imagination as I wrote the beginning of the first part of the story. At the time it’s working title was “The Late-Great American Novel.” The first chunk of the book was written in a few weeks and then sat around for several years.

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It took several rounds of picking up the manuscript, working for a couple of weeks on it and then setting it aside again. Having never written a novel I had no idea how the process would go, or even if my story would ever get to the end and become a book.

I’d made extensive notes about the story, and at one point I planned for the story to be stretched into a series of books. Most of my ideas ended up getting tossed aside or left unused in my notebooks, waiting to inspire me on some future story.

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This last summer I decided to take another look at my story. Around this time I created a graphic of a couple of toddlers from an old photo and turned them into alien-looking creatures.

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They fired my imagination and within a couple of weeks I had written another story that took place in the same universe as my first story. The new story was just novella length, about as long as the story I had already written. My wife suggested I combine the stories, which is an idea I had had in my head for several days. The stories coexist nicely, like two episodes of the same show, and were brought together in the epilogue.

The novel all takes place in the same universe, but tell a number of different stories. Part I could be read by itself, Part II could be read by itself, but together they make for a fun and interesting ride once they’re combined with the epilogue.

So finally the book is done, and I’m going to let go of the story, and turn it over to the reader and their imagination. I could keep tinkering with it, but I have other stories to tell, other novels to write.

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Until later, best of health,

P.S. The links to buy the book…

First off, I want to say thank you to everyone who has purchased my debut novel. I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the response to Somewhere Out There In The West.

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What readers are saying about my new novel:

“Jon Christopher’s amazing debut novel is a clever synthesis of situations connected to an anything-is-possible and otherworld plot line…which is at once fast-paced, surprisingly metaphysical, and undeniably clever.”

– Mark Leysen, author of “The Klown,” Irvine, California.

“William S. Burroughs meets X-Files inspired mind-twisting fiction.”

– Adrienne Linn, Paramedic in Yuciapa, California.

“I laughed out-loud reading this book. Very entertaining… delivered in a style that says ‘You’re in on the secret.’”

– Michael Whyte, a really great cook in Hailey, Idaho.

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Secondly, we now have signed copies of my book available for only $15.00, which includes shipping and a free Somewhere Out There In The West bookmark. How cool is that?

Just visit somewhere.travelingshoespress.com to order your copy today!

Here’s a few photos from satisfied readers