NETWORKING NEW AUTHORS
ONE STORY AT A TIME
SURPRISE! THIS IS NOT ABOUT FINAL SOLUTION!!! We’ve been working on the album for about a month now and things are going great. We don’t have a professionally recorded song to post at the moment but we hope to have some samples ready soon. In the meantime, I have posted a cover of Avenged Sevenfold’s song “A Little Piece of Heaven.” My band did not perform this with me and all the music is pre recorded but I still think it turned out pretty good. If interested, you can go to the coming attractions page for new updates on The Evil We’ve Created and a few other projects. Hope you like it.
February 15, 2011
Jason Michael Hiaeshutter
Big news for Matchstick Entertainment. The Evil We’ve Created is now closer than ever to being made. We’ve formed a band, Nineteen To Dawn, and are currently writing a soundtrack album to go with the movie. No more worrying about the expenses of song rights because we are doing it all on our own.
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A NEW RATING
October 23, 2010 So Final Solution got another rating from Goodreads. This time it was three out of five stars, not too shabby. Mostly I’m just happy people are reading it. Schuler Books ran out of copies again. That makes three times now they’ve sold out Final Solution. I am very excited about that. I have no delusions that my books are going to make me rich, but the idea that people are reading my work is enough to make me extremely happy. After all, that’s all a writer truly wants, right? Just to be read? It makes me even more exited for Panic Gate to be finished because if Final Solution is doing so much better than I expected, Panic Gate is just going to explode. I have read Final Solution again recently and noticed how novice the work actually is. Over the ten year period in which I wrote it, my writing style continuously changed. I must say, I have learned a great deal since then and Panic Gate is looking much more promising. I will always stand behind the story of Final Solution, but the format in general could have been better. They say you are always your own worst critic but in this case, I think I am right on the money. I have contemplated reediting Final Solution and doing a second edition, but then changed my mind. As much as I recognize the weakness in some of the writing style, I believe it reads the way it is supposed to read. Sure it’s choppy and jumps points of view quite a bit, especially in the beginning, but that’s just how that story flows. Changing it now that it’s been out and circulated just seems wrong. I don’t know, I just like it. These flaws are part of its raw beauty. I wouldn’t want it any other way. _____________________________________________ In other news, a small Michigan bookstore chain called Schuler Books and Music is officially carrying Final Solution. And I’m not talking special orders like everywhere else either. They actually have it on the shelves. That’s right ladies and gentlemen; I can finally walk into a brick and mortar establishment and see my name among the great ones: King, Tolkien, Dr. Seuss. (Come on, who wasn’t mesmerized by Dr. Seuss at one point?) Look for me somewhere between Robert Heinlein and Patricia Highsmith and I’ll be there. Granted it’s only one chain, but hey, it’s a great start. Outside of these two exciting pieces of information I don’t really have much else to say this month. I am going to concentrate on soliciting more independent bookstores and maybe get some reach outside of Michigan, but until then I am very happy with these baby steps. So anyway, that interview got me thinking about something my partner, Bryan Mason, said to me a couple weeks ago. It was something about the fact that since we (Bryan and I) have day jobs, we don’t have to count on anything coming out of Matchstick Entertainment to make us any money. And that is a great statement to make because what we are doing is exactly what we want to do. I mean, I can go to the websites of most literary agents that are out there and look at the “suggestions” page for story lines and tailor make a story to fit what is “in” right now. Write my own vampire romance story or child with magical powers story because that is what is currently selling, but I don’t HAVE to do that. I feel very successful today about that fact that I have the ability to write a story about anything I want. I don’t have to rely on what the “experts” of the industry believe is good and what isn’t. I may not make any money, but at least I am writing for me. A story should never be forced out of a person. To make a writer write on a topic they just aren’t feeling at the time is simply criminal in my opinion and I am very happy that I am in a position in my life where I can keep a decent paying day job, yet still create a story that makes me feel like a creator. Which is all I truly want to be anyway. Not a rich creator (though that would be nice) but a creator nevertheless. Another thing I discovered today was a small company founded by Nicholas Brendon. You know, Xander from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Well he has a company called Six-Eyed Monster. It actually looks a bit like Matchstick Entertainment where he and his friends come up with these story lines. But what I thought was really cool was that, at least it seems that, if his story lines don’t get picked up by anyone, he takes that story line and makes a comic book series out of it. What a great idea. It’s like saying, look, I believe in this story and one way or another I want people to have access to it. That is exactly what we are trying to do at Matchstick. We believe in these stories. We want people to have access to our universe. And if I have 10 followers that think Colton Vaughn(Final Solution) is a great character, or the M’Dae (Panic Gate, Evil We’ve Created) should become a cult classic, than those 10 followers are all that will matter to me. Agents who think I should carbon copy Twilight don’t hold a candle to those 10 people who think L’Enfant Terrible is a springboard for a great story arc. After all, didn’t Evil Dead start out with minimal attention like that. And where is Sam Raimi today? So, in closing, to those 40 some odd people who have purchased my work, thank you. And you can expect this small universe that Bryan and I are creating to slowly grow bigger and bigger with each story we release. And for everyone else, someday the Matchstick universe will be too big for anyone to ignore. _____________________________________________ ME VS STEPHEN KING Here’s the thing, I don’t take it personally. Not in the least. I do not believe my low sales have anything to do with the quality of my work. I am still very proud of the way Final Solution turned out. Obviously, my writing style improves with every story I write, but still, Final Solution was a good first run.
Jason Michael Hiaeshutter
SOME BIG NEWS FOR THE LITTLE GUY
February 23, 2010
Jason Michael Hiaeshutter
Not too long ago, I discovered my first book rating. I was searching Google to see all the places where my book pops up (apparently I’m available all over India and Australia), and I came across a website called Goodreads. Final Solution was given 4 out of 5 stars, which I am very excited about. I held off posting this blog to see if the rater would eventually add a review to go along with it but he didn’t. No big deal. He obviously liked it to give it 4 stars, otherwise why would he bother, right?
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FOR THE LOVE, NOT THE MONEY
December 18, 2009
Jason Michael Hiaeshutter
Today, I started watching some Youtube videos with the drummer of the greatest rock band of all time, Queen’s Roger Taylor. I started watching Roger Taylor today because I was thinking about an old performance he did with his band The Cross along with Tim Staffell and Brian May and I wanted to see if it was on Youtube. Anyway, I came across an interview that I hadn’t seen in years where Roger says something about just putting songs out there and sometimes they become “quite good” but you never really know. Now, obviously by the time he said this, Queen was already very well established and the guy was a multi millionaire so financially he didn’t have to worry about how great a song is. But he cared in a sense that he was putting out what he wanted to put out. What he felt. Not what other people wanted him to put out.
November 25, 2009
To keep myself from becoming discouraged, I did some research regarding some known authors of our generation. Mainly, Stephen King. It is a documented fact that Stephen King had a place on his wall specifically reserved for the massive amounts of rejection letters he would get for his story submissions. This begs a very important question for me. If King were to brush the dust off of some of those rejected stories today, would they sell? You bet your sweet bippy they would. Why? Cause it’s Stephen King that’s why. His name has grown larger than his talent (not that I am knocking on his talent-Say thankee, Sai). Movies have boosted him to a household name. I know people who have bought Stephen King books that they've never even read just because they liked the movie and simply want to own the original source material. But that’s great. More power to the man. I’m sure we all would like that type of notoriety someday.
So what is my point? Simple. I have no reason to be heartbroken for my low ranking on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. I mean, first of all, where is my publicity? It’s almost nonexistent so how can I expect people to look for my work if they don’t even know it’s there, right? Second, it was my first effort. Carrie was not Stephen King’s first effort. If it was, he wouldn’t have had a collection of rejection letters. To truly make it in this business you have to expect the rejections. Third, this lack of attention for my work only inspires me to write more. Now, I know of people who submit the same story over and over again for years hoping some agent will bite on their one and only effort. I do not believe that is the way to succeed. Every agent I submitted to turned down Final Solution. So be it. I am not going to waste time revising it over and over until it grabs someone’s attention. Instead, I went on to my next project. Since Final Solution I have written two short stories, L’Enfant Terrible and Text Me. Both I believe to be great stories. However, they have yet to grab the attention of any magazine. Fine, so I write more. I am currently working on my next novel, a horror story called Panic Gate. I am very excited about this project and believe in the story whole heartedly. Eventually, I plan to have the market so saturated with the mythos of my work, it’s bound to grab someone’s attention. And when that happens, agents will be banging my door down. Well, probably not, but as long as I continue perusing this dream, and as long as I am passionate about sharing my imagination with the world, I will consider myself a successful writer.
As of today, November 25, 2009, approximately 15 people I have never met before own a copy of Final Solution (Kindle or hardcopy). 18 to 20 people I don’t know own Text Me and L’Enfant Terrible on Kindle. That’s approximately 33 to 35 copies of my work floating around out there. Hey, if those numbers aren’t something to celebrate, I don’t know what is.
So hurray for the age of self publishing and good luck my fellow starving artists, never give up your dream. Long days and pleasant nights.