The First World Problems of Jason Gunter

It's been 15 months since Sorry I Wasn't What You Needed was released, back in May 2015. It could be another year until my next book comes out. What in the heck have I been doing all this time?

Well, after a series of false starts, I finally found the right story last December. The First World Problems of Jason Gunter (working title, always subject to change) is the tale of a young man who has been waiting nearly 16 years now for his parents to grow up. While his dad loses his paycheck one ante at a time and his mom cruises the happy hour scene, Jason haunts Seattle's coffee joints and independent cinemas with his best friend and fellow intellectual Drew. The often hilarious accounts of his ill-matched odd jobs, summer fling, and the mysterious and exotic new neighbor lady are detailed in emails to Drew and others. This will be one summer Jason will never forget--try as he might.

The first draft was finished earlier this summer. There are still several rounds of buffing and polishing to go, but that isn't the real holdup. No, the delay is the next book. The sequel. I'm actually envisioning a trilogy eventually and would like to have at least two ready to go before releasing any of them. And considering I'm only a few days into the second one, it's a long road ahead. Early days.

New blog, new name, same price

Okay, so here we are, on yet another blog. Why? Well, since you asked, it boils down essentially to two things: cost and spam. My existing (since 2011) site, has become one of the most prolific spam magnets ever to fall between the cross hairs of bored Russian hackers. The comments require much more regular cleansing than I care to monitor. And the cost, well, let's just say there's something darn attractive about a Google blog. (For me; for you, the price is the same as always, just whatever you value your time at.) Actually, let's make that two darn attractive things. I think they're easier to maintain than WordPress blogs. Maybe that's on me for not investing the time to become a blog wizard. But that's kind of the point, innit? I don't want to invest that kind of time. I just want the damn thing to hurl words out into space. I don't want to deal with the rest of it. And I used to hand code the HTML and XML for my sites myself. Can't be bothered anymore. Not if I'm actually ever to finish my next book.

Second question on your mind. I can read it. I know. "What does Loose Vowel Movements mean?" Well, if you'd carefully read my second book, you'd know it was the name of Milo's band, back in the day. And I figured it kind of fit a blog as well as a band, because both songs and blog posts essentially break down to loose vowel movements, the churning of language, i.e., a word dump. Plus, jamesbailey.com was already taken, so I had to get clever, and that's about as clever as I get. So there you have it.