All Categories - Jeff Ayers - Author

Beware of spilling ink!

Skate is a thief, trained and owned by the local crime syndicate, the Ink. When she tries to burgle a shut-in’s home, she gets caught by the owner—a powerful undead wizard. He makes a deal with her: “borrow” books from other wizards in return for a place to stay.

Caught between her growing fondness for the wizard and her past with the crime syndicate, Skate doesn’t know where her loyalties lie. But she’d better figure it out, because there’s a new player in town, one whose magical hypnotism puts them all at risk.

On the run!

Her mentor is dead, but he doesn’t have to stay that way. He’s left Skate a clue to bringing him back, and she and her friends are determined to follow it.

No sooner do they set out for unknown lands, however, than things get dangerous. Hot on their tail is the wizard Ossertine, furious over Skate’s part in her friend’s death and thirsty for revenge. Worse still are the attacks that come at night: dark, mysterious, and palpably evil.

In this race against time, magic, and implacable foes, Skate must rely on her wits and her friends to save not just her mentor’s life, but also her own.

Bookshop dogs

5/2/2024

Skate 3
Working, working, working. Maybe half done with a first draft, tons more work to do. No real news here.

Media
I’ve been playing old games recently. There’s something comforting in the pixelated, point-and-click simplicity of the first Baldur’s Gate on the PC (Enhanced Edition on Steam for updated graphics and bug fixes, but still), the sprawling 4X fun of Civilization V, the blocky jumping and flying of Super Mario World – these are evergreen to me, never worth scoffing at, always fun in their seasons and times.

I’m halfway through Sanderson’s Rhythm of War, and I’m fully engaged with the plot and characters. It’s been a while since I’ve visited Roshar, so it took some time for me to get reacquainted with everyone, but I’m there now.

Miscellany
Other projects are in the works, not just Skate. Nothing to announce there, but I’m writing, writing, writing. With summer coming on, I hope to visit some bookshops. I went recently to a new one in the region, Fox & Fable. Here’s a tip for any shop owners: Get a friendly shop dog.

That’s all from me, for now.
Tell your story!
– J. E. Ayers

Out like a lion?

4/3/2024

Rag & Bone 3

The work, as ever, continues. I'm about 1/3 of the way through a rough draft. After that will come revisions and then more revisions before I am ready to show anything to my publisher. Moving along, though I wish I could move it faster.

Media

I blew threw Netflix's adaptation of The Three-Body Problem in a week, and it has been a while since I've done that with a series. I knew the basic outline of the plot from summaries online of the book, but I still found myself eager to start each new episode. It was also fun to see both new and familiar actors having fun with their roles in the story.

I still haven't managed to get around to seeing Dune: Part II or Miyazaki's Heron. I'll have to content myself with rewatching Part I and Howl's Moving Castle in the meantime, I suppose.

Image and property belong to Netflix.

I picked up Timothy Snyder's On Tyranny from the library (you should always go to your library), and found the points within mostly useful in the current political climate. I've finally gotten around to Sanderson's Rhythm of War, and am enjoying it so far. It's been so long that there are a few characters I've managed to completely forget, so I keep having to go back and keep notes on them all.

Video games remain a favorite past-time. Dwarf Fortress, Civilization V, and Donkey Kong Country 2 have been taking up most of my fun time recently. The boys have been into Minecraft as well, wandering through creative mode with reckless abandon.

That's all from me, for now.
Tell your story!
-J. E. Ayers

Changing weather means your face hurts

3/1/2024

Rag and Bone 3

Nothing more to report here, though my schedule took a hit from a round of COVID followed by a round of flu. It still goes and goes, and it will go and go a while yet before the draft is done.

Copyright NBC Studios. All rights reserved.

Media
I finally finished The Good Place. My lovely wife and I had gotten to the final season together and then just never found time to watch the rest. This last week, we found that time. It was good! I love the tackling of moral questions through the silliest lenses possible.

There’s still The Boy and the Heron to watch, though it will probably not be until June or July that I get around to it. I look forward to Dune: Part Two as well, and that one might get me to a theater seat. I loved the first one so much that it convinced me to finally read the book, and I have high hopes for this next installment.
I also finally got around to watching DC’s Son of Batman. The writers were clearly having a blast writing Damien’s dialogue, and I respect the commitment to absurdity in making sure Ra’s al Ghul’s operation absolutely refuses to invest in a single gunpowder weapon. Gatling crossbows and trebuchets holding their own against automatic rifles and combat helicopters? Delightful.

Miscellany
As I reread one of my favorite books that got me immersed in fantasy novels, The Cleric Quintet by R. A. Salvatore, I find myself remembering other speculative pastimes of my youth that I haven’t had the opportunity to indulge much in my adult life. D&D, LAN parties, rummy on a Friday night over cheap, bad pizza.

I had a sense, even then, that those times were not going to last, as people left for college and work and life. The realization struck me my senior year of high school that our time was running out, and I took to these times almost every weekend with feverish intensity, determined to strain every drop of fun from each night that I could. I miss it, sometimes. Not that I would trade my life now to get it back – the magic of fatherhood and marriage is too much to even dream of trading for anything else – but the loss is there.

I fear that’s going to be a consistent theme, moving from one season of life to the next knowing that it won’t be permanent, and never being able to do anything to stop it. Ah, well.

That’s all from me, for now.
Tell your story!
– J. E. Ayers

A Hog of Ground and Winter

2/2/2024

Rag and Bone 3
Work continues, and continues, and continues. A chapter here, a chapter there, and then when it's all done, it will be time to cut and paste and rewrite and so on and so on. My point is, progress!

Media
Books, movies, shows. Too much to see, too much to read. I read through Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics: the Invisible Art, and enjoyed it immensely. I'll keep it on my shelf in case I ever make the insane decision to work in visual media or (more likely) find someone who already works in it who might want to work with me. I also picked up Scott Moore's adaptation of Marie Lu's Nightwalkers book, and that was a lot of fun. I hope Lu does more with this, and that Moore can continue to adapt the work.

Watching Fellowship again (yes, yet again), and I'm consistently blown away by the movie. It's all good -- the acting, the pacing, the sets, the costumes, the score -- and I genuinely don't know if we'll ever get something like this out of Hollywood again. It's not perfect, but it may be as close to it as such a movie ever can be.

I've also been watching CNN's The Seventies mini-series, which has been interesting enough to get me wanting to watch their retrospectives on the other decades when I'm done with this one.

I want to watch Miyazaki's Heron movie, as I've heard nothing but praise for it, but I'm afraid I may have to wait for it to come to a streaming platform in ... June? Ugh. Oh well.

Miscellany
We've had snow days and sniffles, dogs and storms. The day-to-day creeps in at its petty pace and moves on. On the whole, everyone is healthy. Snow days meant lots of games and blankets and a deep longing not to return to work and school for everyone, but we'll move past it. Eventually, I'm sure.

That's all from me, for now.
Tell your story!
- J. E. Ayers

New year, same me

1/8/2024

Rag and Bone book 3
Work's begun on the first draft of book 3. At this point, I'm roughly 1/3 of the way through the manuscript. There will be endless revisions afterward, I'm sure, but I am hopeful to have something in the hands of the publisher before the end of summer. Don't hold me to that; if I miss that deadline, you can bet that I'm going to go ahead and pretend I never set it.

Media
There's quite a lot out there I haven't watched or read yet, and I'm trying to come to terms, on an existential level, that there's just a hard limit on what I'll ever be able to see and read. I finally got around to reading George R. R. Martin's A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, and it might be my favorite thing he's written in Westeros. My current TBR pile includes Sanderson's Rhythm of War, Danielewski's House of Leaves, a reread of The Stand, and something by Erik Larson -- either The Splendid and the Vile or In the Garden of Beasts, I don't know which.

I started a re-watch of Jackson's Lord of the Rings, which will take me another month of snippet watching to get through, no regrets. I need to watch The Boy and the Heron," but I'm afraid I will probably have to wait until it comes to streaming service (MAX, I think?) before I will get a chance to see it.
My boys and I have have been playing a lot of Kirby these past few weeks on the Switch, and I'm overjoyed to be able to share this with them. Gaming's been such a big part of my media diet since I was a boy, and they're finally of an age to appreciate it alongside me.

This is the cover art for Kirby and The Forgotten Land. The cover art copyright is believed to belong to the distributor of the game or the publisher, Nintendo or the developers, HAL Laboratory.

Miscellany
The website still needs some updating. That's on my list. Reviews continue to come in for both books, and they're always welcome. I'm over on Threads, so go find me there if you haven't already. It's mostly nonsense, every day. What fun!

That's all from me, for now.
Tell your story!
-J. E. Ayers

Busy, busy

10/1/2023

Skate the Seeker
As previously mentioned, the book is out! Some reviews are coming in, and they’re all good so far. How encouraging! Work has already begun on book 3, and will continue for quite a while.

Book signings
I’ve had a few book events happening since Seeker came out, and I’ll append all the pictures I have so far at the end of the post. I didn’t get to do this with the release of book 1 back in 2020, so I’m really glad for the opportunity to do it this time around. I’ve met a lot of really cool people who are interested in the books, either because they came recommended by someone they know or just because they like to support local authors. I’ve had a great time talking to people, answering questions, and chatting about books and writing. I even got to talk to some aspiring young readers about what writing and publishing is like, which was a really fun time.

What’s next
Why, more writing, of course! As I said, book three is going along; I’m not exactly sure when I'll have a first draft ready to go, but I have hopes that I’ll have something to work with before the end of the year (fingers crossed!), if I can keep up the pace until then.

That’s all from me for now.

Tell your story!

–J. E. Ayers.

Book signing photos

An event in September

9/14/2023

Book signing
I will be at the Barnes & Noble in Rogers, AR on Saturday, September 16 to talk about Seeker and sign books. If you're in the area, I'd love to see you there. Bring a friend!

I was recently interviewed by our local NPR station. If you missed it, you can find the whole show here; I'm on during the last fifteen minutes or so.

Just a short one today.
Tell your story!
- J. E. Ayers

"Seeker" is here!

9/12/2023

Skate returns for The Rag and Bone Chronicles, Book 2!

Publication day is always a nervous time for me. I hope people who want the book can find it; I hope that people don't know about the series find that; and I hope everyone likes both and leaves good reviews for both.

Whatever happens, it's out there now.

I've also got a sale on book 1 to help people get into both books at once (lasting until September 16).

That's all from me for now.
Tell your story!
-J. E. Ayers

A Sample of Seeker!

8/16/2023

Available 9/12/23

We have a sample chapter out for Skate the Seeker! Find it here.
There is also a sale in the shop until the 20th of August, so go get some cool stuff.
I look forward to September 12th!

-J. E. Ayers

Something Wicked (Awesome) This Way Comes

8/1/2023

Skate the Seeker
Proof copies are on the way, and there will be some early reviews coming after that. I’m to the point where it’s time to start doing more than thinking about book 3. I expect I’ll start the draft within a month or two. Events for Seeker are lining up; most of my weekends in September are gone already! Keep an eye out for previews here and elsewhere.

Media
To get ready to teach creative writing this semester, I’ve been trying to make sure that as I read and watch stuff, I’m paying attention to choices and thoughts behind them. Anything that I can talk about with the class, I want in my pocket.

I’ve been rereading some of my comics/graphic novels. The Long Halloween continues to be a stellar reread, which is saying a lot for a comic book run from almost thirty years ago. I suppose good storytelling stands out against time no matter the medium or genre. This continues to be THE Batman story for me, and marks a pretty clear point of deviation from the Miller years in terms of tone and attitude, all for the good.

Image belongs to Bones studios. All rights reserved by owner.

I also started My Hero Academia over since I can’t remember where I left off before. The show does so much characterization with design and dialogue. It’s a great example of economic storytelling in a visual medium, and I’m blown away by how engaging it is from the start. I've also enjoyed a re-watch of One Punch Man's episodes, which does a fantastic job of telling one joke, but somehow making it funny each time it builds to the anti-climax.

Miscellany
There’s stuff coming up soon, all about a month away. School starts in a few weeks. I’ll post stuff on here and social media about local events and whatnot when the time comes. Speaking of social media, you can find me on Threads … which I cannot yet link here because the app doesn’t have desktop capability. Hmm.

I'll be trying to update parts of the website more broadly soon; keen-eyed observers may have noticed a "Store" button up at the top of the page. Until I can get to work right on here, I've just plopped a link there to the Red Bubble store and called it good enough.

Anyway, side projects abound. Now that all the major work is done on finalizing Seeker, I’m ready to start on book three, so those will now probably have to wait.

That’s all from me, for now.
Tell your story!
-J. E. Ayers