Holy cow...

I mean, I know I don't update this page as much as I should, but damn...

I'll do better.

So, what have I been up to?

Well, I've written a four book series with Richard Fox called the Terra Nova Chronicles. It's set in his Ember War universe and the final installment just published today!  YAY!! This series has been a blast to write. I love the characters and really enjoyed crafting the action sequences, especially the final battle between the Pathfinders and Kyrios, that gave me chills.

I've written a crap-ton of short stories. 

I've written a novel in Jason Anspach's and Nick Cole's Galaxy's Edge Universe called "Stryker's War". Right now it's exclusively on Audible.com, but soon it will be out in ebook and print. That was a ridiculously fun story to write and I'm honored and blessed I had the opportunity to write it.

I've started a project called Ashland, set in JN Chaney's Renegade Universe, which has been a blast so far. It's basically Mad Max in an alien planet with lots of violence and big explosions. It's pretty legit... LOOK I even have a cover to show you:

Also, last but not least, my very first solo novel, Edge of Valor is coming out in a couple days and I'm nervous as hell about it! Everyone that's had a chance to read an early copy has absolutely loved it and I've received some pretty kick ass editorial reviews, so I'm really excited to see how the readers receive it. Valor has been a passion project of mine for about six years, so seeing it finally hit book shelves is kind of a dream come true for me.

So, anyway, that's where I've been. I shall not neglect you again fair blog!

So, if your a regular visitor to my page, you'll know that I post a blog here about once every three blue moons. That's my bad.

But there's is some pretty cool stuff going on in my writing life that I wanted to share!

For almost two years now, ever since I decided to jump into this whole indie publishing thing, a fellow author, Scott Moon, and I have been getting together once a week to talk about our writing, production ideas, marketing plans and just about everything else that's involved with writing (and selling) books. Froese meetings have been hugely beneficial to both of us for a many number of reasons, most noteably for motivation to keep going. Honestly, if you're a writer and you don't have a writing buddy, get one.

Anyway, a couple of months ago we couldn't meet up on our scheduled day because my house was full of children and one very hyped-up Shitzu, so we decided to meet online. We talked for our usual hour and throughout that time we began to realize that maybe we were saying things that other writers might be interested in hearing. So, The Write Stuff Show was born and so we decided to record our meetings and share them with the world, (those who cared to listen anyway.)
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Our original idea seemed to grow and grow as we talked and planned, and over the next few weeks the idea which started as a simple weekly discussion between friends grew into Keystroke Medium. Now, instead of one show, there are three and instead of just friends chatting, we now are talking with successful authors and reviewing their books. We've had two interviews so far on our show LIVE! and reviewed our first book, Control. Alt. Revolt!

We've had a blast watching how excited people are about the show and seeing it grow, literally right in front of our eyes. We've got some fantastic guests lined up for the show and think our listeners/viewers are going to get a ton of value for their time.

Normally, we record our shows on Friday mornings, generally between 930am and 11am, usually on a site called Blab (however, due to some technical issues that may be changing. We'll see.)

Check us out live, or check replays of the show on YouTube or at our website: Keystroke Medium

The Forgotten Prince has arrived, and after a fantastic day for Breaking Through this weekend has been very exciting. 

You can pick up both from here: Josh Hayes Author Page

Over 1700 people snatched up copies of Breaking Through over the last week, and pushed the first book in the Second Star series to #1 in Space Opera on Amazon and #10 overall in science fiction in the Amazon free store. Not to mention the awesome reviews and that have been coming in for both books.

I’m truly humbled by the amount of people taking the time to read my book. With The Forgotten Prince being in KDP Select I can see how many pages are actually being read, and let me tell you that’s pretty darn cool.

With Prince finished and published, I’ve started draft work on Shadows of Neverland and I’m very excited to be working on something fresh for a change. After looking at the Prince manuscript for over six months, day after day, it’s nice to see some blank space on the screen, waiting to be filled.

I’ve already got most of the book planned out and the words are flowing, I’m hoping I can keep up my current pace and have the draft done by November. My goal is to have Shadows released by the New Year. It’s a pretty ambitious schedule, but I think I can make it work. Book 3 gets into the meat of the story and is where I think all the characters will really start to shine.

Thank you to everyone that’s bought the book already, your support means the world to me! I hope you all continue to enjoy our journey through Neverland together.

Josh

Amazon uses algorithms for everything and one of those is how they calculate rankings for titles on launch day. New release titles receive bonuses to help them move up the charts easier than titles already published, to give them more visibility.

This is where pre-orders come into play:

All purchases received during the pre-order period are not counted until launch day, no matter when the person actually bought the book. This adds to the actual launch day sales and hopefully will push the title higher up the charts and get some real visibility.

So, what can you do to help?  PRE-ORDER   Click here:  The Forgotten Prince

And for everyone that pre-orders and sends me proof of purchase, I will put them into a list to receive one of three signed paperback proofs of The Forgotten Prince when they become available. (Should be a week after official launch)

It’s a win-win, help me out and win a free signed-book. How can you go wrong?

So, I completely forgot how much work it takes to release a book after the writing is finished.  I put The Forgotten Prince up for pre-order and have spent the last couple of days sending out emails, making release announcements and working out a promotional strategy to get the most out of launch day.

I spent all my “writing time” last night reformatting Breaking Through so that readers can simply follow a link at the end of the book to the next one. I added some cool chapter headings that match the typeface of the new covers and in my opinion the book looks a lot more professional than the last version.

Still pounding away at the keys and making progress on Edge of Valor. I moved the completion date back 2 months to give me more time for marketing and things for The Forgotten Prince. If I can keep on task and get my daily word counts while still prepping to launch Prince I should have a completed first draft by Sept. 30th.

Definitely looking forward to what the next month brings. Launching is always exciting and I’m hoping this launch will be even more successful than book one!

Not a whole lot to post today, so back to writing it is!

Happy Independence Day!

Sent off my latest manuscript to my editor this week and I’m feeling pretty good about it. They say the number one hurdle to overcome as a writer is finishing the book. Well, now I’ve done that twice. I’m not sure what took me so long to finish it, though.

When I published my first book [Breaking Through] I had book two [The Forgotten Prince] almost completely written, well the first draft anyway, and it’s taken me almost six months to revise and produce a finished manuscript that hopefully doesn’t suck.

Having said that, I think that Prince is a much better book than Breaking Through, both in style and format. We get to learn a little bit more about the people and unravel some of the mysteries of Neverland. I’ve received some good early feedback from by alpha readers and I’m looking forward to getting the book out there to the masses.

I’m aiming for a September launch, but I’m holding off on setting a pre-order date until I see my editor’s notes on the manuscript. Once I get those back I’ll have a pretty good idea how long it will take to wrap everything up and put it all together for release.

I’m still looking for ARC readers, so if your interested give me a shout and I’ll make sure you are one of the first to get your hands on The Forgotten Prince when it’s ready!

Oh, and on a side note: Breaking Through is now *permafree* on Amazon, so if you know someone who hasn’t read it yet, now would be a perfect time to get them into the series!