Brandon Hale's Blog

Hi folks. It’s me. Yes, it’s been a long time. I apologize. As many of you know, I’ve been battling cancer for the last three years, and throughout this fight, I’ve intentionally avoided finishing the final Day Soldiers book.

Why?

Because I don’t want it to suffer because of my situation. This is the last book in the series, and I want it to be worth your time. There’s just so much involved with this process… Original draft. Rewrite. Edit for story. Edit for grammar and spelling. Cover design...

How do you define love? And to be clear, I’m talking about the love two people feel towards each other, not the kind of love we apply to, say, watermelon (although my love for watermelon is indeed profound).

Dictionary.com has several definitions for love, but the one that comes closest to what I’m talking about says love is “a profoundly tender, passionate affection for another person.”

Does that cover it for you? It doesn’t for me. Not by a long shot. I think love runs deeper than that.

The...

I recently made a post on Facebook complaining about all the angry political posts flooding my feed, and, of course, I got several replies from folks defending their right to talk about politics.

At first, I tried to defend my post by saying I was referring to the anger more than the topic (politics), but as much as I didn’t want to admit it at the time, I was wrong to make that complaint.

I realize now that I was being part of the problem.

No. That’s not strong enough.

By complaining about p...

It feels like times are rough in America. It feels like race relations are rapidly approaching a boiling point.

When facing the race-related troubles this country is facing, we each should be asking two questions:

1. Is it really as bad as we think?

2. What can I do to help things get better?

Those two questions sum up everything we, as individuals, need to be considering. So let’s get specific…

1. Is it really as bad as we think?

The truth is, there’s no way to know for sure. We have no cho...

First and foremost, I’m not gonna’ do my usual thing where I apologize for getting political. I don’t think this is a political issue. This is a human issue.

According to eye-witness reports, here’s how many of the police officers reacted to the shootings last night in Dallas:

Several officers faced the Black Lives Matter protesters and yelled for them to get on the ground and crawl to safety. They did this with their backs turned to the shooters, their concern for the lives of the protes...

Okay, folks. This is my first video blog. Please be gentle. I’m very insecure about myself these days, but I decided I have to be real in this. I apologize that this one isn’t silly, like my blogs usually are. The silly will come back.

But I wanted this one to be an introduction, so it’s fairly serious. Fair warning, it is a bit long. It runs about 20 minutes or so. I felt it was necessary in my introductory “vlog.” Future video blogs will of course be shorter.

So without further ado, heeeeer...

An Open Letter to Vampires

Dear Vampires,

Hello.

My name is Brandon Hale. Vampires have been a major part of my life since the first time I read “‘Salem’s Lot” when I was 13 years old. Since then, I’ve read most books about vampires and I’m quite the vampire movie buff. I still read Dracula every October.

As a matter of fact, I owe my career to vampires. My series of novels, Day Soldiers, is about a world-wide war between humanity, werewolves, and vampires.

Yeah, I really feel like I’ve been...

As someone who has been fighting cancer for two years, I’ve seen pretty much all sides of this country’s medical system. I’ve seen some things about our medical system that are so utterly infuriating that I’ve literally cried from frustration… and this has happened to me far more than once.

But I’ve also seen some things that were so incredibly inspiring that they genuinely humbled me as a human being. And I’ve met people who have humbled me as a human being.

I’ve had the honor of meeting som...

Today is an important day for me, and not just because it’s my birthday…

I mean, yeah, today is my birthday, but there’s another reason today matters to me. April 16 isn’t just the day of my birth… not anymore.

April 16 is the 43rd anniversary of the day I was born…. but it’s also the two-year anniversary of the day I was give a second chance at life.

Two years ago, today…

I was in a coma.

I had been that way for a week. I had undergone an emergency surgery in an attempt to save my life, and...

I’m gonna’ break the rules and share my birthday wish with you guys. I’m doing this because this is one wish that can’t be granted by Birthday Fairies. This is a wish that can only be granted by you.

Okay. With that said…

Here’s my Official 43rd Birthday Wish…

For my 43rd Birthday, it is my wish that every person who reads this does at least one unexpected, nice thing for a loved one, today.

Yep.

That’s it.

It’s that simple. If you read the sentence above, do something kind for a loved one....