Jason Allen Amelio's Blog

Well the year is rapidly drawing to a close and for me that means a number of things. My wife dragging down the fall decorations that I just got used to having up and putting out the christmas stuff. Trips to both Disneyland and Knott’s Berry Farm under the guise of “shopping for presents”. And more pie than any man of my size really needs to have around the house. But this year it means something else for me as well. It means that I only have a few short weeks before I start the weekly episodes of Jake Swift: Knight! 

Part 1 and 2 have been out for a few weeks now and hopefully some of you have had a chance to check it out. If not don’t worry I’m totally going to plug it right now.

Jake Swift: Knight Chasing the Tail Part 1&2

Nook: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/chasing-the-tail-part-1-2-jason-amelio/1117474042?ean=2940148944805

Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00GKDM1EO

Kobo: http://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/chasing-the-tail-part-1-2

But that is just the beginning for Jake! There are still 6 more episodes coming out starting in January and it’s time to tell you a little bit about the next case: Suicide Girls! 

Still dealing with the fallout from his last case Jake is put onto the trail of a technomancer, a deadly magic user who is using his powers to force camgirls all over the city to commit suicide while he watches. Can our knight put an end to the murderous spree before it claims another victim?

This episode was a lot of fun to write and not just because of the research I had to do into camgirls and the sites they populate. I got to get a bit deeper into the world of The Table with this one something I hope you will see a lot more of as time goes on. I also had my first opportunity to really start to use some of the cool creatures I found researching the book. After season one is out I plan on starting a “monsters and creeps” page here to keep track of all these guys as the series moves on! 

I almost forgot to show you the cover, how rude of me!

I’m shooting right now for a release date of Tuesday, January 2nd and I think there is a good chance it may even happen that way. There is a slight chance I delay it a week just to make sure episodes 4-8 are also ready to roll on the weekly schedule but as of right now everything is on course! As always stay tuned here for all the details.

I also want to take a quick minute to plug another book, Write. Publish. Repeat. by Johnny B. Truant and Sean Platt whom some of you may know from The Self Publishing Podcast. I can honestly say that the Jake Swift series came 100% from my listening to the sage advice put out weekly by these guys. The book is more or less everything Platt and Truant learned over this last year as between them they wrote and released over 1 MILLION words. I look forward to writing a review once I have made it through the whole thing but to anyone who is even thinking of self publishing this is something you are going to want to pick up!

Well that about covers it for now. Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas and all that crap!!! 

Friday November 1st through Sunday November 3rd was this year’s Comikaze Expo. This third year con smack dab in the heart of Los Angeles has come a long way in a short amount of time. Spearheaded by the clearly passionate and driven Regina Carpinelli along with her partners the legendary Stan Lee and the ageless Cassandra Peterson better known as Elvira the expo bills itself as “Where Pop Culture Rules the Earth”. Looking at the smiling faces gleefully going from booth to nerdy booth on the packed convention floor there is no doubt that is indeed the case.

This was our second year attending the event and much like the last year I was impressed with the sheer scope of fandom that was on display. As a person who was lucky enough to get in a few trips to the San Diego Comic Con’s before the movie studios took over it felt like going home. There was independent movies, books, artist prints, crafts, clothing, exclusive toys and honest to god comic booths, something woefully lacking at the San Diego Con these days. You could buy that awesome shirt you saw online that one time in some cases straight from the artist that drew it or pick up that vibrating tribble doll you never knew you needed. You could see 37 people dressed as various versions of Deadpool (the new Slave Leia of cosplay) and even life-size working versions of R2D2 and Wall-E, the latter of which made my wife squeal with sheer joy. Most of all you saw happy fans of all ages having a good time surrounded by likeminded people and not having to pay an arm and a leg to do it.

In a Forbes article that came out towards the end of the weekend their commitment to an affordable experience for the fans was made clear by Carpinelli who was quoted as saying “You don’t have to be greedy to make a good show and quality show. If you put the fans first, you’ll get a lot of people and you will still do well.”  An admirable stance that I hope they stick too as the event grows in both size and popularity, something I see as inevitability.

One of the things that will go a long way to help them with that is the sheer size of the LA Convention Center. They have a big tent to put a whole bunch of bodies in. The San Diego Con was affordable itself until they started selling the place out year after year. Comikaze Expo had a solid crowd all through the weekend with lower levels in the morning all three days reaching its peak during the later hours on Friday, Saturday and midday Sunday. Even during those peak times the floor never felt cramped to a point where you could not see what was going on around you.

The 2012 Comikaze had its fair share of issues with long lines and being seemingly unprepared for the sheer number of people that showed up with passes purchased online. If there were any issues of that sort this year I was blissfully unaware of them. This was something I quickly passed on Saturday morning as I walked by Regina and a radio clutching, stressed out looking (and adorably tiny) Dani Snow winner of SyFy’s Fangasm. I’ve looked at a ton of pictures posted online from the weekend and had a lot of fun pointing out to my wife every time I saw Dani in one still clutching that radio. (Seriously, did you glue it to her hands Regina?)

Anyway, we walked up Friday fresh off of catching Elvira’s farewell performance at Knott’s Scary Farm the night before having purchased our tickets online. It took all of about 10 minutes to get our badges and be on our way in with at least 3 of those minutes spent staring at costumed people in line with us and the hilarious signs posted all over the convention center.

I’m sure that people walking up to buy a single day ticket on Saturday had some waiting to do but anyone who expects otherwise is being unrealistic.

There were a couple minor things that I was personally disappointed with this year. The first was a lack of quirky card and board game booths. In 2012 we were able to pick up a few really fun new games and had hoped to do the same this year. Maybe next year it is something that the vendors will bring back.

Second was the panel schedule for me was lacking a little, that said panels are sort of a mixed bag anyway and interest in them more or less depends on what you are most into at that moment. I did make a great panel for the animated short “Tallica Parking Lot” from Metallica bass player Robert Trujillo and Titmouse Animation Studio. In addition to Trujillo also on the panel was Dethklok main man, the always entertaining Brandon Small as well as Chris Prynoski (Motorcity, Metalocalypse, Megas XLR) and Antonio Canobbio (Motorcity, Metalocalypse, Black Dynamite). Mike Judge (Beavis and Butthead, King of the Hill, Office Space) was also advertised as being on the panel but was not there and no reason was given for his absence. All of that said, the main stage had some great stuff from geek king Bruce Campbell, Weird Al and a fired up Michael Rooker to a Power Puff Girl reunion, Medieval Times stunt show and Jedi Lightsaber Training.

Third was the lack of a pre-party this year. At the 2012 party I got to witness Stan Lee performing a duet of “That Old Black Magic” with former Bauhaus frontman Peter Murphy which you can see here. It was hands down one of the most surreal things I have ever had the pleasure to witness in person. I would have loved to see something equally as weird again but I think it is possible that after that moment last year it was decided that nothing could ever possibly top that so why even try.

Fourth was the Cosplay Contest on Saturday. It was a little clunky and honestly I think that there were much better costumes on some of the people watching the contest from the floor than there were on those entered in it. I don’t quite know what happened here. It seemed like they had a good cash prize and clearly there were a large number of cosplayers in attendance. Maybe this was a case of people wanting to spend their time on the floor instead of worrying about the competition. Whatever the reason, I hope that next year there are more competitors to drive the contest. As far as the “Clunky” nature of the show that can just be chalked up to being live on stage in a situation that you cannot possible rehearse for. In all my years in San Diego the only time I saw a cosplay contest host really prepared for task was the couple years that Hercules actor Robert Trebor hosted. It’s a tall order and not everyone is cut out for it.

None of these things detracted from my enjoyment of the event. All in all Comikaze is a great time and as a fan I am excited to see how this thing grows as the years go on. Having now been to 2 out of the 3 of them I feel invested in a way that I never did with that other con. I want to see it do well. I want to see it become the biggest con in the country. Hell, if I was a few years younger and didn’t have a face well suited for writing and radio I would have been one of those kids trying out for an internship. I believe in what they are trying to do as fans, for us fans and I eagerly await the announcement of next year’s dates.

With the release of my book I hope to make the jump from attendee to vendor in 2014 but even if that turns out not to be in the cards I already know I want to go back. Just like I did back in “the day” I drug my feet all of Sunday afternoon not wanting it to end but knowing that it had to. As I walked under the “Stay Classy Los Angeles” banner for that last time it was bittersweet. However I did so confident that even as the vendors packed up and the last Deadpool left the building Regina and company were probably already thinking of ways to make next year even better. I can’t wait to see what they come up with!

In late 2012 I was more than a little lost when it came to deciding what to write next. I had officially signed the option on my screenplay Green Fees which was awesome but had also shelved the epic fantasy novel I spent most of the last year writing. I knew/know that I have a lot of interest in writing fantasy and science fiction genre television like the stuff I grew up on. I knew that what I should be doing was working on an original pilot and show bible. I also knew that even if my wildest dreams were realized and I wrote something that managed to get me a job the chances that the pilot would ever see the screen were slim at best. I had a couple ideas I liked but spending the next year of my life working on something that no one would ever see sounded like a crock of shit to me.

Around that same time I had discovered The Self-Publishing Podcast and on it writers Sean Platt and David Wright. These two crazy bastards were self-releasing a serialized book every week on kindle. They were treating their various titles like TV shows and not only did it seem like they were having a lot of fun they were also making a living doing it at the same time.

Now I should back up for a second here and tell you something about myself. To say that I am a fan of all forms of serialized fiction would be a gross understatement. If I were to name off my top twenty books of all time I can almost promise you that the only stand-alone books would be a couple random biographies. The rest would include books from The Destroyer Series, The Dresden Files Series, Star Wars Expanded Universe Series, Dragonlance Series and various Star Trek Series novels. I’m sure you are seeing a pattern here but just in case you don’t let me also throw in that my obsession with series also extends to TV and movies and a lifelong love of Old Time Radio detective shows. Hell, even the epic fantasy book I have shelved for now is intended to be part of an ongoing series.

Suddenly here were these guys writing TV shows and releasing them weekly as books and it was like the clouds of uncertainty cleared and I could see what I needed to do. I needed to start writing some god damned serialized fiction! So on October 30th 2012 Jake Swift was born. I started with a simple concept, what if the stories about brave knights fighting dastardly dragons were not only real but was still happening today. Inspired by old time radio shows like Box 13 and Yours Truly Johnny Dollar as well the books in The Dresden Files and The Destroyer I set out to create a character who was in short a bit of a bad ass. He would be as flawed and sarcastic as he was tough and heroic. He would be knee deep in the world of the super natural but still very much human. I also knew I wanted my guy to be based in Los Angeles; if it was good enough for Philip Marlowe it was good enough for me!

Now almost a full year and 110,000 + words later I am cautiously optimistic that I have done what I set out to do. I am nearing the end of principal writing on the final case in the season as well as the editing of the first three cases. As I start this page I do so hoping to not only to promote the eventual release of the series (and have no doubt about it there will be a whole lot of that once I have set the release date) but also to share my experiences along the way.

I hope you join me and Jake for the ride!