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Location: United States

Member Since: Feb. 22, 2010

11 readers have added this author as a 'Favorite Author'.

Michael Jasper

Biography

Michael Jasper is fascinated with exploring the places where the normal meets the strange. In pursuit of this fascination, he has published over a dozen novels, a story collection, and six dozen short stories. He created and scripted the groundbreaking, nine-issue digital comic In Maps & Legends with artist Niki Smith.

Michael lives with his wife Elizabeth and their two amazing sons in North Carolina, where he's always working on one to three creative endeavors at the same time, which you can track at michaeljasper.net.

Smashwords Interview

What motivated you to become an indie author?

Short answer: I'm kind of a control freak.

Long answer: I had three novels and a story collection published by two different small presses, and while I was happy with the results from those four books, the grind of submitting and waiting waiting waiting (did I mention that I'm impatient?) and never hearing back from 75% of the people I'd sent my work, I got fed up.

I did some research and saw that the learning curve wasn't terrible for creating ebook versions of my other novels, so I created UnWrecked Press (number of employees: 1) and started ebooking. I love the control I have over my covers, descriptions, and layouts. And if I come across some new ebook tricks, it's a snap (well, more or less) to update all of my novels and story collections with new stuff, or if I need to make some edits.

Luckily I retained the ebook rights to three of those four books, so I could publish the electronic versions here at Smashwords.

Watch this space for MORE new ebooks from me.

What is the greatest joy of writing for you?

Short answer: My sanity.

Long answer: The greatest joy of writing is creating something out of nothing, and watching it grow each day as I add to it. I've been doing this since 1995, and I've tried to quit, really. But I can't.

And when I don't write, or when I'm not working on some sort of creative endeavor -- whether it's a novel, a screenplay, a comic script, or even tweaks to my website -- I go a little nuts. I get antsy. I feel like I'm not pursuing my dream, and that I'm just taking up space and wasting time.

Trust me, it's not pretty.

So the world is much better off if I write.