COMING SOON | Specter: A Short Story by Jade Alyse

I had someone come up to me while visiting friends in Maryland this weekend and say, “I knew you wrote, but I didn’t know you were an actual writer”.  That was unbelievably flattering.  For the past year and a half, I have been patiently building a small empire of sorts.  I want to be a writer, I know where my future lies, I know what I want.  To hear someone say that they’ve read something I wrote and actually enjoyed it is music to my ears.

I’ve been doing a lot of writing lately. Blame it on the lovely weather we’re having in North Carolina, my positive outlook on life, or all of the inspiration that surrounds me on a daily basis.

And I have something else very exciting to share with you all!  I’ve been developing this since the summertime, when I took a graduate poetry class at North Carolina State University (my alma mater).  I’ve been developing an entirely new way of looking at my writing, and I’ve investigated ways in which I could incorporate a new angle: magic realism and surrealism.   I’ve studied Chilean writers like Neruda and Allende for many years and wondered how their brains worked, how they cultivated these visions into words.

And do you remember that grungy rock band, Nirvana? While Kurt Cobain admittedly creeped me out as a kid in the ’90s, I was always drawn to the song, “Where Did You Sleep Last?”.  The macabre tonality of it mixed with Cobain’s eerie, I-see-a-bright-tunnel-of-light-ahead-of-me voice, immediately made me think of decay, heat and death.  I did a little research to discover that it was actually a remake of a 1917 recording called “In the Pines” sung by a black musician named Lead Belly.  Being the history buff and research enthusiast that I am, I dug a little deeper to discover that the song dates back to the 1870s, believed to be of Southern Appalachian origin.

Cool, right?

Without further delay, I’m introducing yet another short story for my growing repertoire, appropriately entitled “Specter”.  Without giving too much away, imagine an failed writer suffering from delusions and heartbreak, a old plantation reformed into a hotel, and a pretty, young stranger who doesn’t remember who she is.  

Aren’t sufficiently creeped out yet?  Check out these lyrics, and the accompanying music provided below.

I can’t wait to share this with you guys! 🙂

“Black girl, black girl, don’t lie to me
Where did you stay last night?
I stayed in the pines where the sun never shines
And shivered when the cold wind blows”

My Short Story “Rusted Halo” has sold more than 2,000 copies! Read it for FREE now!

As you can tell I’m pretty happy about it! I cannot describe how incredible it feels to see such a small project balloon into something that several people have enjoyed.  I definitely love the direction I went in with this particular story, and I intend on writing things like this in the near future.

For a limited time, I am offering this story for free.  Please share it with your friends and fellow book lovers!

DOWNLOAD NOW: Rusted Halo Short Story

My Author Spotlight is back up and running! Check it out now :)

My Author Spotlight is back up and running! Check it out now 🙂

The Fall will be a busy season for this young writer…

Why, you may ask?

Well this time last year, I was still reeling from the high of publishing my first novel, When You Come to Me, which, since it’s release last year has sold somewhere over 2,000, perpetuating my legitimacy as an author.

The reality of how far I’ve come in a year’s time still hasn’t settled in, so while I’m still riding on Cloud Nine, I’ll milk the experience for all it’s worth in the interim.

I’ve been working on a number of projects this summer, and reading excessively, getting myself geared up for a pretty exciting Fall season.

Earlier this year, I started writing a novella entitled The Trail’s End, which I initially intended to release on my birthday (October 1st), but got a pretty great surprise in June: I was invited to Whidbey Island, Washington, for a week-long Master Class and creative writing residency.  I will be working on the novella at length, getting advice from the experts, while enjoying an amazing view of Mount Rainier.

 

Go ahead and click that thumbnail 🙂 

 

And if you haven’t read it yet, When You Come to Me ends with a cliffhanger that have angered a few of the readers because they’ve become so attached to Brandon and Natalie’s story.  So, I’ve started work on the sequel of which is called “Skin Like Dawn”, which chronicles their story after the honeymoon phase is over.  I’ve already shared the outline of this story with a couple of my closest friends and they love it so far.  While it doesn’t have a release date yet, I’m hoping to put it out there early next year!

 

My main focus in the meantime is making sure “The Trail’s End” is perfect and ready for release at the end of this year — just in time for the holidays!

I sincerely thank everyone for joining me on this journey.  I can only get better from here!

My Short Story, Rusted Halo, Has Sold Almost 150 Copies!

Two estranged sisters. One sneaky groom. A blood-stained wedding dress. And a mute teenager who witnesses it all.

Haven’t read it yet? Here’s a preview: Rusted Halo Preview

A Date Has Been Set… October 1, 2012: The Trail’s End by Jade Alyse

Want to learn more? Check here 🙂

PREVIEW, PURCHASE & READ: Rusted Halo – A Short Story by Jade Alyse

 

With this one, I constantly emphasized the fact that this is two years in the making.

This is no exaggeration.

I watched a movie about dueling women, both beautiful, both physically attractive, one inferior to the other.  The inferior woman felt it necessary to finally steal the one thing that the more “powerful” woman could never get: the first night with the man they both admired.

Of course this film took place in ancient India and a lot of what goes on between women when it comes to one man is not nearly as stealthy or classy.

So, I was driving around one hot summer night, and the idea came to me piece by piece: wedding. Two sisters. One man. An intelligible brawl. A mysterious family.

Of course it all sounds like a tawdry soap opera at first glance, so I added another element: I wanted it to be told from the perspective of a young, innocent boy…who’s voluntarily mute.

It started coming together in a frame narrative, but I never could get the ending right.

It was even selected for presentation at a Creative Writing Workshop in California – but I didn’t go. I was afraid.

So here I am, two years later, with a preview and links to where you can purchase the whole thing.

I’d loved it since day one – my hope today is that you will too.

All the best,

J. Alyse

Download and Preview Rusted Halo: Rusted Halo Preview

Buy Rusted Halo: Smashwords / Barnes & Noble / Amazon

COMING March 16th: “Rusted Halo” – A Short Story by Jade Alyse

Two estranged sisters. One wedding. A sneaky groom. One murder. And a mute teenager who witnesses it all. 

Rusted Halo was selected for presentation at the Creative Writer’s Conference at University of California – Fullerton.

COMING FALL 2012: “The Trail’s End” by Jade Alyse

Flighty and whimsical Esme Duval travels to France to study abroad. She meets Lucas Wood, a young British man on a weekend excursion to Biarritz, and quickly falls in love with him. It is only later that the man reveals that he’s actually famous in his country and warns her that the media spends a great deal of time inventing stories about him.

And not long after, the media becomes fascinated with their relationship, though they attempt to keep it as private as possible. None of the stories that they fabricate are remotely close to their actual lives and to escape the scrutiny, they saunter to a friend’s house in the mountains near Asheville, North Carolina. Everything seems peaceful and copacetic until a friend is mysteriously found dead in the woods.  And the only clue that the police are able to find is a ratty 5-subject notebook. There’s a problem, however: the police cannot discern whether or not it’s a diary or manuscript highlighting their relationship in an obsessive form.

And who wrote it?

Another problem: Esme and Lucas aren’t talking…and they seem to have a secret of their own.