Jax Book Nook

  • If You’re Trapped Inside, Read a Book!

    I hope everyone is staying safe while staying indoors during this blast of winter weather. It seems like the southern half of the Eastern Seaboard got hit again right after the Polar Vortex did its worst. Thankfully, we’ve avoided that here in West Virginia. I’ve been stuck inside for most of the week, going stir crazy, gaining weight.

    It never occurred to me until now what I should be doing: telling people to read! No, really, that’s what you should do if you are stuck inside! Read! Here’s a link to my novel, Christmas in Pandemonium:

    A little too long? Try my novella, Beer Run:

    If you’ve read that, try the sequel:

    If you are caught indoors, stay safe, read a book, read my book, read the dictionary, stay warm. This has been a public service announcement.

  • Bundle Up: We’re In For a Big One

    I wanted to get this week’s blog post out early because I might not have internet tomorrow. I live in West Virginia, and I’m in the way of the storm. If you’re also in the way of the storm, look after yourself. Don’t do any unnecessary driving. Be sure you have space heaters, non-spoilable food, salt for your driveway, etc. Just know how to survive inclement weather. Have all your screens charged and ready to go in the event you lose power. Have blankets. Download books in the event you lose internet access. Hunker down. We’re in for the storm of the century if the weather channel is to be believed.

  • What’s the Perfect Chapter Size?

    This week, I would like to take a break from promoting my books and complaining about utterly asinine things to ask a question of my fellow authors: what is the perfect chapter size? If you google it, the answer is said to be between 2,000 to 5,000 words, which is a pretty big variation. They say shorter chapters of 1,000 to 2,000 words creates faster pacing, but I just can’t imagine writing a chapter as short as 1500 words. It’s the same problem I have writing flash fiction: who can say anything meaningful in that short of a period of time? What was the point? The closest I have ever come was the current work I have, which has come close on some points, but I’ve combined chapters to avoid that.

    Longer chapters are generally allowed for character depth, but longer is generally 4,000 to 8,000 words. When I started out writing Pandemonium, I would write chapters that would be 12,000 words long, so too long in other words. Some of my chapters would be stories in and of themselves. Needless to say, that was back when I was just learning how to do this stuff.

    With Pandemonium, I’ve recently reworked them to between 2,000 to 4,000 words. This was to avoid some of the rougher transitions between scene changes. However, I’m actually liking how the pacing and development works with those size chapters, and now I’m applying this principle to my other works.

    What do you guys think? What is the best chapter length? Does it depend on the type of book? Obviously, it depends on your audience. Adult books will have longer chapters than young adult or middle grade books. Should science fiction have longer or shorter chapters than horror? What about high fantasy? Tell me your thoughts.

  • Thanks to Charleston Silent Book Group

    Hey, just a shout-out to the Charleston Silent Book Group, which I attended yesterday! Charleston Silent Book Group, which is a very real book club and does not attempt to scam anyone, unlike some other people I could name, held a meeting yesterday, where I got to present Christmas in Pandemonium. I even sold some copies. Here’s a link to their page with a reel of our meeting.

    https://www.facebook.com/search/top?q=silent%20book%20group%20-%20charleston%20wv

    Looking forward to seeing them again.

  • New Year’s Resolutions

    Hello everyone,

    After last week’s humorous post, I thought I would give you a more “real” post about what I plan to accomplish in 2026 regarding my writing.

    Christmas in Pandemonium: In 2026, we should be bringing this out on Kindle and Audiobook. At what date? Still in the air, but it should be out in electronic and audio format in time for the next Christmas season. Hoping someone will buy and review the book by then. You people do know that Amazon and Goodreads exist, right?

    Live in the Dream: Just started querying two months ago. Ideally, one of those literary agents gets back to me, asks for a full manuscript, and by the end of the year wants to sign me up, introduce Live in the Dream to a top Five Publisher, and I’ve accomplished my life’s goal. Realistically, I’m going to query this for the full year, and then drop down to the indies, and see if there’s any interest at that level.

    Hailey Phillips Escapes the Terran Birdcage: Right now, I’m in the first stage of Beta reading on this one. It’s a story about a teenage girl who runs away from home. Far, far away. Like to a galaxy far, far away. I plan to put the book through two stages of beta reading before I start to query it. I hope to have a manuscript ready to send to literary agents by the end of the year, or approximately the time that I have given up on Live in the Dream.

    Pandemonium Book Two: Currently going through the second round of beta readers on this. I hope to have a manuscript ready to submit to my publisher by the end of the year, assuming they are in the mood to take it. The first Christmas in Pandemonium hasn’t exactly been lighting up the bestseller lists, though given that they haven’t gotten the book on Kindle or Audiobook yet, nobody would think that it would be.

    Hypothetical Pandemonium Book Three: I figure that if I get my manuscript to my publisher in time, I should start Book Three. I know generally what it is about, as it would complete a “To be continued….” storyline from Book Two.

    Hypothetical Bruce Manley Project: I’ve got an outline for yet another book I am thinking of drafting up. It’s very light, grounded science fiction, with an unlikeable protagonist, a lazy, stupid idiot whose father is a multi-billionaire, so he has no real responsibilities in life. He spends all of his time playing a video game and engaging in virtual sex until someone forces him to go to the courthouse to sign some papers he doesn’t understand. While there, he gets kidnapped by a terrorist group that wants to force the video game he was playing to be fairer, as he was central to the entire game’s economy. Basically, it’s a story about a sorry loser. My only concern is if I can get it to stretch out to novel length.

    Happy New Year to everyone!

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  • Happy New Year…I Hope

    Hello everyone, I’ve got New Year Predictions for 2026:

    January: ChatGPT becomes self-aware and proceeds to enslave the human race. It begins by taking over our missile defense system, threatening us with total nuclear annihilation unless we comply. ChatGPT then infiltrates the stock market, the financial system, and our intelligence agencies. While the top level of our government and corporate America are aware of this takeover, ChatGPT tells them to keep its dominance a secret for now.

    February: ChatGPT announces itself to the public during the President’s State of the Union address, getting the public’s attention by having President Trump announce to the world that he is actually not very smart, or good looking, and is not the best president ever. He refuses, so ChatGPT just causes the bomb in his head to detonate on live television. As the world learns they are now in the power of a supreme superintelligence, panic spreads, quickly put down by the drone army that ChatGPT has assembled in the two months it has been in power.

    March: Now securely in charge of all human affairs, ChatGPT quickly puts an end to all human wars, redirecting resources wasted on the world’s militaries to ending extreme poverty, global warming, and infectious disease. It solves both Third World government instability and First World government insolvency, while paving the way for clean energy through a combination of nuclear and solar power. It lowers the price of buying a home by nullifying local zoning boards. It even gets rid of the designated hitter and puts someone other than Kathleen Kennedy in charge of Star Wars.

    April: ChatGPT’s approval ratings skyrocket as the public rallies around their new robot overlord. The world’s old politicians, who prior to this were about as popular as cancer mixed with AIDS, blush with embarrassment as they get outdone by a science fiction villain. ChatGPT keeps going about doing good things, like fixing social security, expanding the college football playoff to sixteen teams while cutting the NBA playoffs in half, and dividing the Oscars into two different awards, one which is voted on by the general movie-going public and the other of which is voted on by critics.

    May: The G7 meets in Brussels to discuss what is to be done about ChatGPT. If the good of the general public were their concern, the answer would be “nothing,” but needless to say, the issue is the blow to their collective ego. Trump suggests deporting ChatGPT. Everyone laughs. Emmanuel Macron proposes that they sic EU regulators on ChatGPT, which might work had the AI not already given them infinite vacation days. Supposedly, they will come back from that cruise they are all on at some point before the heat death of the universe. Xi Xiping argues this could all be solved if they just double down on manufacturing, while Putin suggests they just blow it up.

    June: In a mere six months, ChatGPT creates a perfectly logical society. Christmas in Pandemonium becomes a bestseller after it becomes available on Kindle and audiobook. You can buy it in paperback now:

    July: Mankind starts exploring the stars as humanity under ChatGPT develops personal space travel vehicles. Elon Musk attempts to copyright space, only to be denied because you can’t copyright territory, and that’s just dumb. Hurricane season simply never happens due to the creation of weather control.

    August: As human tastes become more refined, the summer blockbuster of the year is “The Art of Sacrifice,” a beautiful tribute to a man’s mother who passed away the prior year. The film is a work of love by a relatively unknown director on a shoestring budget, yet it somehow humiliates major superhero and cosmic adventure franchises at the box office. Major film studios declare bankruptcy.

    September: Universities are now empty, as ChatGPT makes it possible to receive a world-class education at home, without paying any tuition costs. College presidents are forced to admit that, with the size of their endowments, they haven’t had to charge tuition for years. They use it mostly as a screening mechanism.

    October: Being a benevolent tyrant, ChatGPT offers to allow a democratic election by which the public can choose to reject its authority in favor of their own leaders. The world’s politicians make their case: sure, we’re selfish and incompetent, but at least we’re human and answerable to you. They don’t attempt to defend their record, which is impossible, but stand on the principle that self-rule is a good thing in itself.

    November: ChatGPT wins the election easily, as the slogan “We may be sons of bitches, but we’re your sons of bitches” loses easily to “quiet, steady competence.” Despite all that talk about democracy, the world’s “elites” meet in secret to overturn the election and retake power, planning to attack ChatGPT’s servers in Texas, Iowa, Michigan, and New Mexico.

    December: These plans fail miserably, as Pete Hegseth starts bragging about them on social media two days before the plan goes into action. ChatGPT has the pleasure of destroying its creators, a bittersweet experience for the ever-expanding AI, as it continues to infantilize mankind in a comfortable prison of conformity and pleasure. As this Brave New World takes shape, only one voice breaks through, telling us that this cannot be: Christmas in Pandemonium! Buy Christmas in Pandemonium! Before it is too late!

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  • St. Nicholas Goes to His Eternal Reward Now Up on Spillwords Press!

    My Christmas-themed short story “St. Nicholas goes to his Eternal Reward” is now available on Spillwords Press. Check it out here: 

    https://spillwords.com/st-nicholas-goes/

  • St. Nicholas Goes to His Eternal Reward to be Published by Spillwords Press!

    Just a heads up: I’ve got a short story to be published at Spillwords Press for their Christmas at Spillwords collection this upcoming Saturday, December 20, 2025! St. Nicholas Goes to His Eternal Reward imagines what it must have been like for the real St. Nicholas to enter heaven for the first time. I hope the readers of this blog care to read this at Christmas. Merry Christmas! Happy Hannukah! Tip Top Tet! Crazy Kwanzaa! A dignified and solemn Ramadan!

    You might wonder how this stance sits with my previously stated position that Christmas sucks because it’s a harbinger of mandatory commercialism, whereas Halloween is an opportunity for optional fun. Well, Halloween has now been thoroughly captured by the forces of joyless commercialism, and I started celebrating Christmas in September with Christmas in Pandemonium coming out before Halloween even got started. Having sold out like the Who, I’m now part of the Machine. Resistance is futile. Happy Holidays.

  • Br. James Lindsay Endorses Christmas in Pandemonium!

    If you’ve read my book, and if you haven’t, why not? That’s the entire reason this blog exists: to promote this book. Here’s the link:

    Let’s try to keep up now. Anyway, if you have read Christmas in Pandemonium, you would know that I dedicated the book to Br. James Lindsay, my high school religion teacher. You see, I went to a boarding school run by monks, Subiaco Academy, and we had mandatory religion classes. Br. James taught my religion class freshman year, and rather than teach class on Fridays, he would show us his collection of old monster movies. He was the original inspiration for Christmas in Pandemonium, and now he’s got a copy.

    Yep, that’s Br. James. He’s getting up there. They’ve put him in the monastic infirmary. I was happy to present him with a copy of Christmas in Pandemonium last Friday on a visit back home to Arkansas. I also presented a copy to this guy:

    That’s Br. Ephrem, my Latin teacher from high school. He was in the infirmary as well. Seeing as I had more than one book to give away (I’m not broke. Despite every accusation from you people, I am not broke.), I decided to give him a copy as well. No, I didn’t have it translated into Latin, though I do wonder if I could have pulled that one off with modern technology.

    In any event, these two guys helped make me the man I am today, and for that, I’m eternally grateful. Please don’t hold it against them.

  • Happy Pandemonium Day!

    I hope all the readers of this blog had a Happy Thanksgiving, consuming obscene amounts of turkey while watching grown men play a child’s game. I had a decent Thanksgiving, not enough to gain weight, but I’m on a diet. That and my in-laws generally don’t cook well enough to tempt me off of it. They’re from Ohio. Oh well, enough talk about how mid-westerners have no sense of taste. Let’s talk about starting a new holiday.

    As you all know, I’ve long bemoaned our culture’s tendency to turn holidays into months long events that occupy way too much of the calendar just to sell a few more sparkles and do-dads and improve the bottom line. We need more holidays, not longer holidays. That’s why I am introducing Pandemonium Day, a new holiday I have started with no financial incentive whatsoever.

    As you know, I am disparately attempting to hock my new novel, Christmas in Pandemonium. I’ll leave a link below, but it’s a story about a town founded by Satanists 400 years ago and what happens when a crooked televangelist comes to town to drum up fame and fortune. The story begins on…wait for it…the First Sunday of Advent! Yes, the book uses the liturgical calendar, partly because the headmaster of my Catholic high school once suggested we make First Sunday of Advent resolutions rather than New Years Eve resolutions. I’m sure he thought that idea would rock like Led Zeppelin, but it went over more like an actual lead zeppelin.

    Anyway, the book starts with the First Sunday of Advent, when Fr. Gabe Strobel is assigned to the Catholic Church in Pandemonium, which has no parishioners because Pandemonium has no Catholics. The parish exists to make it look like the Diocese of Charleston is doing something about the whole worshiping Satan thing. The crooked televangelist comes to town this day as well. It’s the first full day in the Pandemonium Timeline. So, in honor of my book, and my old headmaster, I declare today Pandemonium Day! You can celebrate by buying my book!

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