Welcome everyone to the tenth Authors Not-So-Anonymous weekly meeting!! This weekly series is about authors from Twitter and Facebook! This week, I would like to introduce Jesse VanDeWalker into Authors Not-So-Anonymous!
Jesse VanDeWalker
is an Indie author who writes in multiple genres, attends business school three nights a week and works a retail job as the store manager. " I feel most comfortable writing fiction for adults, be it crime, western, science fiction, horror or what have you."
He started writing in high school, when he couldn't find books that fit his reading preferences. "Let me tell you, I wasn't very good at it. I had passion though, and there were stories I wanted to read that no one had written. There wasn't anything for it but to write those stories myself. In the summer of 2011, I won an award for a short story titled Drywaller. Holding that $30 worth of validation in my hands I thought: What's stopping you? I had a sheaf of rejection letters that basically all came down to this-We receive too many unsolicited manuscripts and can't give yours the time of day. It became clear that unless I had some sort of connect or relationship with someone already on the inside of the industry, I wasn't going to make any headway. In the spirit of this great country we live in I decided to do it myself, and damn the torpedoes."
Jesse gets most of his writing inspiration from other authors - Robert E. Howard, Edgar Rice Burroughs, and Clark Ashton Smith. "What they did have was a story to tell and by God, they told it. That's the meat of the matter, telling stories. That's what I wanted to do."
With the recent release of Crow Wing, Jesse has been working on the sequeal Saint Lucy, that is due out in 2012.
Click here to read my full review of Crow Wing.
Jesse VanDeWalker
is an Indie author who writes in multiple genres, attends business school three nights a week and works a retail job as the store manager. " I feel most comfortable writing fiction for adults, be it crime, western, science fiction, horror or what have you." He started writing in high school, when he couldn't find books that fit his reading preferences. "Let me tell you, I wasn't very good at it. I had passion though, and there were stories I wanted to read that no one had written. There wasn't anything for it but to write those stories myself. In the summer of 2011, I won an award for a short story titled Drywaller. Holding that $30 worth of validation in my hands I thought: What's stopping you? I had a sheaf of rejection letters that basically all came down to this-We receive too many unsolicited manuscripts and can't give yours the time of day. It became clear that unless I had some sort of connect or relationship with someone already on the inside of the industry, I wasn't going to make any headway. In the spirit of this great country we live in I decided to do it myself, and damn the torpedoes."
Jesse gets most of his writing inspiration from other authors - Robert E. Howard, Edgar Rice Burroughs, and Clark Ashton Smith. "What they did have was a story to tell and by God, they told it. That's the meat of the matter, telling stories. That's what I wanted to do."
Here is a short list of some of Jesse's favorite authors and titles:
Richard Stark – The Hunter, The Man with the Getaway Face, The Outfit, Comeback, Backflash
George RR Martin – A Game of Thrones, A Clash of Kings, A Storm of Swords
Hayao Miyazaki - Nausicaä of the Valley of Wind
David Weber – On Basilisk Station, The Short Victorious War
Bernard Cornwell – The Pale Horseman, Lords of the North
C.S. Forester – Mr. Midshipman Hornblower, Beat to Quarters
Kazuo Koike - Lone Wolf & Cub
Joe Abercrombie – The Blade Itself, Best Served Cold
Steven Pressfield – The Afghan Campaign, Killing Rommel, The Gates of Fire, Legend of Bagger Vance
Joe Hill – Horns, Locke & Key, 20th Century Ghosts
Ted Chiang – Stories of Your Life and Others
John Steinbeck - Cannery Row, The Winter of Our Discontent
Joe R. Lansdale – Dead in the West, The Big Blow
Max Brooks – The Zombie Survival Guide, World War Z
Stephen King – Skeleton Crew, Everything’s Eventual, Nightmares and Dreamscapes
Art Spiegelman – Maus
Robert E. Howard – The Phoenix on the Sword, The Frost-Giant’s Daughter, Rogues in the House
Brian K Vaughn – Y: The Last Man, Ex Machina
Brian Azzarello: 100 Bullets
Garth Ennis - Preacher, The Boys
Steven Brust – Agyar, Jhereg, Dzur, Issola
Hayao Miyazaki - Nausicaä of the Valley of Wind
David Weber – On Basilisk Station, The Short Victorious War
Bernard Cornwell – The Pale Horseman, Lords of the North
C.S. Forester – Mr. Midshipman Hornblower, Beat to Quarters
Kazuo Koike - Lone Wolf & Cub
Joe Abercrombie – The Blade Itself, Best Served Cold
Steven Pressfield – The Afghan Campaign, Killing Rommel, The Gates of Fire, Legend of Bagger Vance
Joe Hill – Horns, Locke & Key, 20th Century Ghosts
Ted Chiang – Stories of Your Life and Others
John Steinbeck - Cannery Row, The Winter of Our Discontent
Joe R. Lansdale – Dead in the West, The Big Blow
Max Brooks – The Zombie Survival Guide, World War Z
Stephen King – Skeleton Crew, Everything’s Eventual, Nightmares and Dreamscapes
Art Spiegelman – Maus
Robert E. Howard – The Phoenix on the Sword, The Frost-Giant’s Daughter, Rogues in the House
Brian K Vaughn – Y: The Last Man, Ex Machina
Brian Azzarello: 100 Bullets
Garth Ennis - Preacher, The Boys
Steven Brust – Agyar, Jhereg, Dzur, Issola
With the recent release of Crow Wing, Jesse has been working on the sequeal Saint Lucy, that is due out in 2012.
Click here to read my full review of Crow Wing.
Excerpt from Crow Wing:
“The
hardest thing about your part, Dan, will be staying away from women
and booze.” Corsey had told him after the other three men had
bedded down for the night. Daniel had rocked on his heels thinking
that what big bad John-High-and-Mighty-Corsey didn’t know couldn’t
very well hurt one Daniel Washburn, and nodded to show he understood.
Corsey flicked away the bit of dried straw he had been chewing and
spoke further,
“You’ll
think ‘What
could a drink and a woman hurt? I deserve at least that much for
sticking my neck out on this!’
I’ll tell you right now those are the most dangerous thoughts
you’ll ever have. I ain’t threatening you here kid, I’m saying
the way we’ll know you didn’t listen to me on this is you won’t
be in that stagecoach to hold up your end on the heist. Liquor will
start you talking or fighting and pussy’ll finish your talking, or
the Sheriff’ll finish your fighting and then where’ll that leave
us?” Daniel had opened his mouth to frame a hot retort and then
closed it when Corsey kept on making sense. He nodded again, this
time meaning it.
“I
understand Mr. Corsey.”
“Good.
Now get on to your bedroll.”
He had gone, a bit flushed and embarrassed that Corsey had read him so easily, even in the dark.(end)
He had gone, a bit flushed and embarrassed that Corsey had read him so easily, even in the dark.(end)
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