From the Desk of J.M. Poole

Hello, everyone!  It’s already the start of summer.  Wow.  This year is totally flying.  To quote my wife from just a few days ago, whomever is in control of the time needs to get their finger off the fast-forward button.

My snowbird clients are roosting in other states while the rest of us bake our brains out.  Its due to get over 100 today, and it ain’t gonna cool off anytime soon.  Yep, our “winter” has arrived.  It’s the time of year in which the locals here just don’t venture outside.  To all of those visitors that flock to our fair city towing HUGE boats with tricked out trucks, bless you.  You bring all kinds of $$$ into the city.  Not that I typically see anything from it.  Not many thrill seekers bring their computers with them, so the only enjoyment I get out of it is reading about their shenanigans in the paper.  Oh, yes!  You do something stupid and get arrested here in Havasu your name will show up in the paper.  Plus, it makes for some entertaining calls over the police scanner.

Wow, do I need to find more hobbies…

But I digress.  Lentari is calling, and I’m already past the original deadline I gave myself to get this book done.  So it’s time to buckle down!!!  Everyone ready to read about Lentari’s fabled Lost City?  I’m bustin’ tail right now to get it finished!

Hi, everyone!  I just posted the 2nd excerpt from The Lost City on the Excerpts page.

The first excerpt has maroon text while the 2nd has green text.  Makes it easier to find when you’re scrolling down.  Hope you like it!

Got the specs ironed out.  See the first comment below to read all about it.  Plus, I’ve decided to let this contest run until the end of next month.  Good luck everyone!  Can’t wait to see the pics!

Hello everyone!

I’m officially starting my first contest!  Up for grabs is an autographed print copy of my first book, The Prophecy.   There are just a few requirements.  First off, thanks to a batch of Trolls that just won’t leave me alone, you have to fill out the form below.  Trust me, I won’t ever share your info with anyone.  Second, the contest is open to anyone who has Liked the Bakkian Chronicles page on Facebook (the link can be found by clicking the little Facebook button at the top right of the page).  And finally, leave a comment on this post so that I know you were here and tell me who your favorite character was from the series.  They can be in books 1, 2, or 3!

Good luck to all who enter!  And just a quick reminder, I don’t care where you’re from.  Any fan of the series, regardless of country, can enter, new and old!  The contest will go for two weeks, concluding Tuesday, the 9th of April.  At the end of the contest I’ll write down everyone’s names on a slip of paper and present them to Keeley, my corgi (she’s the inspiration for Peanut in the books).  Whichever slip of paper she selects will be the winner!

J.

UPDATE:  Fixed the inability to log-in.  Changed the security to let people comment w/o registering.

For those of you not on Facebook I’ll repost this here…  🙂

Bought six bales of hay yesterday and made my archery backstop. Set to 35#, the bow was sinking those arrows 12″ and deeper into the bales. The archery cube/target thing I ordered hadn’t arrived yet so I tacked up a flyer from a local grocery store.

I actually said this to my wife: “I hit the ad, babe! I’m going for the pot roast!”

It’s a lot of fun. I had planned on returning my bow back to 60#, but seeing how strong that damn thing is, and since I’m in my backyard, it’ll stay where it’s at. I looked up medieval long bows. They were anywhere from 100# to 150#. Simply incredible!

I figured it was time for a change.  I wanted to do something different for the site, so I started looking for another WordPress theme to use.  Trust me, there aren’t many fantasy-themed, well, themes out there that I liked.

Then I came across this “Desk Mess” theme.  I thought it looked nice and that it had a “homey” feel to it.  So, until I can find a theme that I really like, I’ll give this one a try.

Now, the point of this.  I have an excerpt ready for you guys!  This is taken from the first chapter of The Lost City.  Please bear in mind since nothing has been finalized, there’s a chance that the text could change before it becomes publicly available.

Because of the length of the excerpt, I created a separate page for it.  You should be able to see it listed along the top links, but in case your browser is being difficult, here’s the link to the page:  excerpts!

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy it!

Hi everyone!

I just finished another chapter of The Lost City. Really having fun with this. A couple of new species making an appearance… water sprites and a new (ancient) class of dragon that has the misfortune of having two heads! Infused with action, adventure, and a healthy dose of humor, the latest tale set in Lentari will be sure to please many fans of the fantasy genre!

Hey, I have a question for the fans. I could use a name for the general classification for the two-headed dragon. Not an individual name but a name for this “variant” of dragon. Any ideas?Just finished another chapter of The Lost City. Really having fun with this. A couple of new species making an appearance… water sprites and a new (ancient) class of dragon that have the misfortune of having two heads! Infused with action, adventure, and a healthy dose of humor, the latest tale set in Lentari will be sure to please many fans of the fantasy genre!  Hey, I have a question for the fans. I could use a name for the general classification for the two-headed dragon. Not an individual name but a name for this “variant” of dragon. Any ideas?

To those of you that might be wondering why there’s a Protected page here (see the last post), I wanted to give an explanation in case anyone thought I was acting like a snob.  🙂

Another author from the book club that I co-moderate, Indie Book Club from Goodreads, asked for some help on his book that I’m presently reading.  The problem was, he didn’t want what was being discussed out in the public in case it gave away any details of his book.  We tried to create a private thread in Goodreads, but apparently GR doesn’t have that capability.  I know WordPress does, which is what this site runs on, so I volunteered to move the conversation here.  And it’s password protected.

For those of you who don’t know, like the character Steve in the Bakkian Chronicles, I am a Microsoft Certified computer tech.  I go around to residences and businesses and fix whatever is ailing their computers.  So tech problems, formatting problems, software problems, you name it I’ve seen it.  I’ll even go so far as to make this offer to any fans of the series…  got a computer problem?  Ask away!  I’ll be more than happy to see if I can point you in the right direction!

Hope everyone is having a great week!  Back to work on The Lost City!

J.

It’s Wednesday.  It’s my duly-designated day to write.  I don’t see clients today.  I typically won’t run errands today.  Just write.  Seeing how I’m now relying on the royalties I receive as a way to pay the bills, I figured it was the least I could do so that I can continue to release stories in a timely manner.

What’s holding me up today, you might ask?  Writer’s block?  Nope.  Sick dog?  Nope, although it’s happened before.   Ate too much?  Aha!  Therein lies the problem.  Damn Chinese food.  That all-you-can eat restaurant certainly didn’t make their money on me today.  It was the first time my mother and I visited that restaurant, so clearly I had to try a little of everything, right?  Well, I’m paying for it now.  I want to curl up into a ball and take a nap.  However, my wife is working and I believe in equality.  She works, I work.  Since I won’t take clients today, that means I write.

I know what you’re thinking.  Suck it up, take your punishment, and get back to work!  Yeah, yeah, yeah.  Easier said than done.  It’s gorgeous outside!  70 degrees!  I’d much rather be insde.  I can’t wait for it to get dark again and I can play with my telescope.

Now wait.  Before you jump to the wrong conclusions, and I have to tell you to pick your mind up out of the gutter, I want to say that I meant that literally.  I have an 8″ Schmidt-Cassegrain Meade telescope that I can control wirelessly from my iPad.  It’s awesome!  I have an astronomy app that shows me what the sky looks like from my location (I input my lattitude/longitude), and my wife bought me the wifi adapter that plugs into my telescope, and then my iPad connects to it wirelessly.  It’s a lot of fun.

But, it’s a toy.  I have work to do.  I am really enjoying how this story is developing.  My wife is pointing out flaws in previous chapters (which I’ve corrected), so hopefully when I get ready to give the story to the editor it won’t come back to me resembling swiss cheese.  I guess what I mean to say is, I really love writing.  I might not be the best at it, but I sure as hell will strive to be better.  That’s why I tell everyone who reads my stories that if you find something that is wrong, or else you didn’t like something (concept or execution), let me know and I’ll see what I can do!  The fans are what makes this possible and I enjoy interacting with you guys!

Kendall, just wanted to say that not only is Athos armed with a crossbow, he is also armed with a dragon-shaped collapsible boomerang he keeps strapped to his left forearm!

J.

I posted this question on my Facebook page, but I also thought I should post this here.

I have a question. Since I have released all three books in the Bakkian Chronicles, I’m thinking about releasing an omnibus, namely all three books as one ebook.

I was also thinking about including the short story I wrote, Bakkian Chronicles – the Disneyland Debacle, with it. It’s a story I wrote for an anthology to benefit Lyndsey Roughton, a young woman dying of cancer.

What do you think? Should I or shouldn’t I? And if I do, what price should I charge?

I’ll also mention that The Lost City is progressing nicely! I’ve since restructured my week to allow for nothing but writing on Wednesdays and Fridays. You know what? It’s working! I’m really enjoying how this story is playing out! I’ve used quite a few of the name suggestions and I’m nowhere close to being done. Thanks again for all the help!

I’ll keep everyone posted with progress updates. Got questions? Suggestions? Or find a typo? Please let me know!