May 12, 2025 • 49 mins
In this powerful episode of Palm Harbor Local, host Donnie Hathaway sits down with Jacob Moon, a U.S. Army veteran, retired corrections officer, and now a self-published crime fiction author. Jacob shares his incredible journey from serving in Hawaii and working in Pinellas County Jail for nearly three decades to writing gripping novels like Furlough, Dead Reckoning, and Letter 26.
Jacob opens up about his childhood passion for storytelling, his fascination with the human psyche, and how decades of experience in corrections inspired his authentic, chilling tales. He also dives into the world of self-publishing—sharing the process, the challenges, and why control over his stories mattered more than tradition.
What You'll Learn:
- How Jacob's military and corrections background shaped his writing style
- The difference between self-publishing and traditional publishing
- Why Letter 26 is his most psychologically thrilling novel yet
- The real-world mental health struggles inmates face and how Jacob captures that complexity in his books
- Tips for aspiring writers looking to self-publish their work
Links & Resources:
- Visit Jacob’s website: writerjake.com
- Purchase his books: Amazon Author Page
- Follow Palm Harbor Local on Instagram: @palmharborlocal
Stroll through the laid-back streets of the Palm Harbor community with this informative podcast, proudly brought to you by Donnie Hathaway with The Hathaway Group, your trusted guide and local expert in navigating the diverse and ever-changing property landscape of Palm Harbor.
Work with me + FREE Resources
Would you like help buying a home in Palm Harbor? - Buyer Consultation
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Download our free buyer's guide today - Buyer's Guide
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thank you for tuning in to another episode of Palm
Harbor Local, the podcastdedicated to building community.
I'm your host, Donnie Hathaway,and today we are joined by
Jacob Moon, who's a local author, with his most recent book
being Letter 26.
Now, Palm Harbor Local is allabout spotlighting individuals
and businesses who are making adifference, overcoming
challenges and fosteringconnections right here in our
(00:22):
hometown.
If you're passionate aboutgrowing together, getting
involved, involved andcelebrating the people who are
making Palmerville thrive,you're exactly where you need to
be Now.
In today's episode, you'lldiscover how long it took Jacob
to write his first book, whereJacob gets his inspiration for
his writing and the differencebetween self-publishing versus
traditional publishing.
Now don't forget to connectwith us on Instagram at
(00:43):
palmharborlocal, forbehind-the-scenes content, and
join our weekly newsletterLiving Palm Harbor at
palmharborlocalcom.
Now let's dive in and meetJacob.
Jacob, welcome to the podcastman.
I'm excited to have you here.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
Thanks a lot, Donnie.
It's a true pleasure to be here.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
Yeah, so I want to start with your background.
So you're one, you're an Armyveteran.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
I am.
I went into the Army right outof high school.
Graduated I was a little lostbecause I didn't know if I
wanted to go to college.
Just things were just going, asI'm sure it is for a lot of
people.
You don't really know whereyour future is going to go.
And for me from moving from upnorth, it was kind of traumatic
(01:32):
moving down here in the middleof high school.
So I just kind of wanted to getaway.
So Army Recruiter offered me aspot in Hawaii and I took it.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
Yeah, Hawaii, I mean that's hard to pass that one up,
right.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
Yeah Cool.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
So then, you had worked for Pinellas County Jail
for quite some time.
How many years were you in theArmy?
Speaker 2 (01:53):
I was in for three years, so I got out actually
about a month after my 21stbirthday, unfortunately, oh, wow
, yeah, because in Hawaii thedrinking age they're very strict
with it.
So if you want to go out to anightclub and actually like live
the experience of being on theIsland, uh, you pretty much have
to be 21.
So, yeah, I started 21 about amonth before I ETS got out and,
(02:20):
uh, came back here to my home orrecord, which was St Petersburg
at the time, to have all myfamily having left out of state,
so I was just getting a divorce.
It was just a rough time for meand luckily, about a year after
I got out, I got the job at thesheriff's office.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
Okay, and is that something you always wanted to
do?
Or is that just because of yourtime in the military that led
you to the sheriff's office?
Speaker 2 (02:47):
It was actually an accident.
Okay, how I got the job.
So, funny story I'm drivingwith a friend and I look down on
the floorboard and there's ajob application with a star on
the front and I was like, what'sthis?
Yeah.
So I was like, oh, it's afriend of mine's friend's job
application for the jail.
So I pick it up and lookthrough it and at the time here
(03:08):
I'm making seven bucks an hourstruggling.
I was like, wow, okay, thepay's better.
It's actually a profession, aprofessional career, and what I
really was attracted to it wasthe quasi-military kind of
nature of it.
You know the training you getto shoot weapons.
But other than that, it wasjust.
It just gave me a sense ofsecurity and I really was kind
(03:34):
of missing that.
My family was breaking up, Iwas alone, I had a new nobody
down here, and so what you'remissing from the military is a
huge family yeah you know, and Iwent from the nation's largest
employer to the county's largestemployer, so it kind of made
sense yeah, did you?
Speaker 1 (03:53):
did you ever think about, like, where was your
family moving to?
Were they all moving back upnorth, or or kind?
Speaker 2 (03:58):
of uh they kind of scattered everywhere.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
Okay, so it wasn't like, oh yeah, let me go.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
Let me go back where my family's at right, yeah, and
the only reason reason I cameback here is because the Army
will only ship your householdgoods and your car to your home
of record.
So I was kind of stuck.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
Yeah, okay, so you get this job at the Pinellas
County Sheriff's Office, andthen is it the same job you had.
You cut that same job for howmany years, or did you bounce
around in that?
Speaker 2 (04:24):
I did.
You.
Had you cut that same job forhow many years?
Or did you?
You bounce around?
I did.
So there's a there's adistinction between the the
corrections academy and the lawenforcement academy.
They have about the same, abouthalf the classes are about the
same, but they're differentdisciplines.
Okay.
So corrections will teach youhow to work, the jail patrol
will teach you how to work onthe road.
So I eventually actually wentback to the police Academy and
(04:47):
finished those classes, so Icould have done both jobs.
But my daughter had just beenborn, I got some seniority, I
was on the shift I wanted.
So those mean, those thingsmean a lot, yeah, and they did
to me.
So that's where I had stayedand stuck it out for 28 years 28
years.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
What did you um?
What was?
What was your biggest takeawayabout that job, that career?
Speaker 2 (05:12):
Oh, the biggest takeaway.
There were so many things, butif I had to distill it down to
the most important were ifyou're in a job and this applies
to anybody who's who's in anykind of job or career that has
um, requires a lot of mentalfortitude and what I call
(05:35):
stick-to-itiveness.
Where you're getting up andit's a grind, you know whether
you're a teacher or a realestate professional or an
electrician, whatever it is.
You know if you're a single, asingle parent or a dual parent,
it's hard to raising kids hardenough doing that, let alone
having an extremely stressfuljob.
(05:56):
So just the fact of me gettingout of that career after 28
years being broke, as can be forthe first half dozen of those
years, I mean it was a struggle.
Uh finally building it up,keeping my sanity, uh keeping
myself safe, because you'reliterally working around every
(06:16):
type of criminal and killersthat you can think of every day.
Uh watching coworkers who youknew and respected uh
unfortunately die of suicide oraccidents.
Uh, just life in general.
It was, it was a toughexperience and uh just getting
(06:38):
out of that in one piece.
I feel very fortunate.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
And for 28 years too.
That's a long, that's a longtime.
What, what was it that thatmade you like stick with it?
Speaker 2 (06:54):
Mostly it was the security.
So it's it's a tough job, uh,but it's not all bad.
So the benefit package that thesheriff's office offered really
can't be beat in the civiliansector Not that I could find.
So the retirement in itself ismotivation to stick it out,
(07:17):
because basically, you know, Iwent in at 22 years old and it
was either 25 years of serviceor when you reached age 55, you
could retire with a full pension.
And when I compared apples toapples, from the military
retirement to the sheriff'soffice, which is the Florida
state retirement system, uh, thesheriff's office, one out every
(07:39):
time and I get to go home andsleep in my own bed every night.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
Yeah, that's always nice.
Yeah, what um?
What was your?
Day to-to-day, like with thatjob.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
So the first half of my career we're on eight-hour
shifts, the second half 12-hourshifts and you can bounce around
to different divisions.
But the day-to-day you'redealing with county prisoners
and basically there is adistinction between the county
jail and state prison.
So everyone that winds up instate prison started out at the
(08:13):
county jail.
Okay.
So we were dealing with everyonefrom the petty thief to serial
killers, and you got to keepyour head in a swivel.
You have to know how to talk topeople for sure, because you
don't carry guns in the jail.
Yeah.
Unlike our brothers and sistersin patrol that had every kind
of weapon, including firearms.
(08:34):
You don't have that in there,is that?
for safety reasons, like for theinmates to steal it from you,
or whatever, absolutely,absolutely crazy, yeah which
yeah, even if they gave us theopportunity like zero deputies,
I knew that worked in the jailwould have elected to carry one.
Yeah, it's gonna.
It's gonna get taken at somepoint yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
Yeah, Wild, so you're .
So you, with that position,you're in charge of just kind of
like keeping order, making surethey're doing inmates are going
where they're supposed to beand kind of doing what they're
supposed to be doing.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
Yeah, exactly, the.
The basic tenant of the jobitself is care, custody and
control of the prisoners.
So most of them are pre-trialdetainees.
So they've been arrested, theyhaven't been sentenced yet, but
some have, and if they're in thecounty jail they're there for a
year or less.
If they've been sentenced to amisdemeanor, a felony, they're
(09:32):
going to state prison for a yearand a day or more.
They're going to state prisonfor a year and a day or more.
So everything you see in themovies and all that you know,
there's a lot of televisionshows and movies that have to do
with prisons, not a lot thathave to do with the jail.
So that's another reason whyI'm, you know, I feel fortunate
to be able to shed a littlelight on that part of the
(09:53):
society.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
So county um the county jail.
They're only there for a yearor less, not necessarily they're
.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
Usually, if they're sentenced, they're there for
under a year, but we've hadinmates there for four or five
years awaiting trial, like bigmurder cases.
There are people there.
It didn't even have to be formurder.
You could be any type ofserious felony.
You're going to be there for awhile if you don't make bond and
if your bond's $100,000, you'regoing to be there for a while
(10:22):
if you don't make bond and ifyour bond is $100,000, you're
going to stay more than likely.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
Yeah, that's crazy to sit there for that long just
like waiting for your trial,right?
Okay, so you are now apublished author, now a
published author.
So where did you know?
How did you go from you knowArmy veteran to you know
Pinellas County Jail, to apublished author?
Like, where is that somethingyou, like, you've always had a
passion for?
Speaker 2 (10:52):
That journey started when I was probably 10 or 11
years old and it just that flame, never really died.
You know, I was writing allthrough high school, all through
the army, publishing shortstories, scribbling in notepads,
typing on manual typewriters.
But it wasn't until about maybeabout 10 years ago I really
(11:15):
wanted to become serious at itand for me that meant writing a
novel.
I didn't know how to do that.
I had an outline.
I knew I wanted to write ajailbreak story because I was
familiar with that environmentand I'll never forget what
really motivated me to start.
(11:35):
That is a coworker of mine.
We're discussing the book andshe was like you know, you
should go home and just start ittoday.
I was like, yeah, yeah, yeah, Iwill.
You know, we all have thosekinds of motivations and you
know it's just putting thingsoff and I'm a I'm a
procrastinator.
She's like, no, go home todayand start it.
(11:56):
And I did and it was just thegreatest feeling, getting that
out and just starting theprocess.
Now that book took me sevenyears to write.
Wow, Because I took.
You know, in the beginning Ikind of just took it as a hobby,
and anyone out there listeningwho wants to write a book and
isn't sure how.
(12:16):
First just get your butt in theseat and write that's what I
was told.
And then, when you do, it's along process.
Just imagine writing a 30-pagethesis.
Multiply that by 10, and nowrewriting it five or six times,
and even then you're only about25% done.
So it's a long process, but thefirst book came out in December
(12:39):
of 2020, furlough.
It's about the% done.
So it was a long process and uh.
But the first book came out inDecember of 2020, uh, furlough.
It's about the jailbreak, and,uh, it was a big accomplishment
for me.
Speaker 1 (12:47):
Yeah, what do you?
What is it you enjoy aboutwriting?
Speaker 2 (12:54):
I've always had a very vivid imagination and just
growing up being fascinated withjust stories yeah, Watching the
Twilight Zone, amazing storiesjust being just enraptured by
how someone could create a storythat brings you to another
(13:14):
world.
You know we all watch movies,yeah, and TV world.
You know we all watch moviesand TV.
So, whatever is your, whateveryour thing is, you know, do you
want to recreate that?
Or are you fine just being aspectator, and there's nothing
wrong with both?
But I didn't just want to be aspectator.
I was like I want to do thatand I started doing it and it's
(13:37):
just something magical aboutgetting those thoughts out on
the paper and for other peopleto read it and enjoy it is just
a very special thing.
Speaker 1 (13:46):
Yeah, so I imagine.
So it's like you you have theseideas and that's kind of like
your way of of expressing thoseideas, right, like some people,
like a musician might express itthrough music, or a producer
might produce a movie, but youenjoy writing.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
I do.
It's a very catharticexperience being able to get
those thoughts out.
You know you could do it byjournaling.
You could write a memoir.
In fact I'm writing a memoirnow about my sheriff's office
experience and it just it helpsme process just a lot mentally,
(14:28):
emotionally, psychologically,just it is like self-therapy in
a way.
And aside from that, you know,on the fun side, it is just
extremely satisfying and funjust to create a story.
Speaker 1 (14:45):
Do you wish you would have done it earlier Sort of
writing earlier or does yourexperience because some of your
books that you just mentionedtoo, is about a jailbreak right,
so that leads into your 28years of the jail.
Is there any like oh, I shouldhave started this earlier, or
like it was, it was the perfecttime.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
I think it was the perfect time for me.
Yeah, I have been writing and,like I had mentioned, I was a
short story and a short storywriter and a poet before that.
But as far as the books I thinkthat was that came about at the
right time for me.
You know, I was raising kids,I'd reached a level of my career
where you know that was safe,retirement was close on the
(15:29):
horizon, and so once that firstbook came out, I was like okay,
wow, this isn't just a hobbyanymore.
I want to actually turn thisinto a career and do this full
time.
And it was only three or fouryears away from retirement, and
so I just put my nose at thegrindstone and the second book
dead reckoning, uh, took meabout 11 months.
Speaker 1 (15:52):
Wow, so seven years.
Second book is 11 months andyour third book, letter 26,.
That's the most recent one.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
It is.
It just came out in December of2024.
And that one was a ton of funto write for a lot of reasons.
So I grew up as a horror writer.
I love scary stories, and thefirst two have some of those
elements, but the third onereally it's a horror police
procedural.
So I get to mix the detectivestory, almost silence, of the
(16:22):
lambs type, where they'rechasing this very inventive
serial killer that's stalkingwomen, based on the first letter
of their, of their jobs.
And so I came up with the, withthe idea actually what the
short story contest is.
Just, it's's just weird how youget these, these ideas
sometimes.
Yeah, and it was a short story,a thousand words, and I decided
(16:43):
to turn it into a novel.
Speaker 1 (16:45):
Yeah.
Very cool.
What are your so?
Um, yeah, so most of your.
So all horror kind of storiesthat's, that's what you enjoy.
Writing is in same thing, likewhen you were younger were you
writing the same like your shortstories.
Speaker 2 (16:58):
Then were they all the same actually right in all
genres, okay, uh, but horror isjust one that I think I write
the best.
Okay, or I should say, maybeenjoy writing the most just
comes about kind of naturally.
Like I love stephen king when Iwas growing up, all the scary
creature features and all thatthose didn't scare me, it's just
(17:22):
being able to create.
It's not just about instillingfear.
It's like in letter 26,.
Yes, it's the scariest book Ithink I've written by far and
there are some very seriousissues involved in that.
But more so than that is likethe psychological angle and I
(17:45):
think that's why I workedprimarily and volunteered to
work with a lot of psych inmatesat the jail for probably 20,
almost 25 of my 28 years workingdirectly with them, just
because the power of the mindand seeing why people do the
things they do, even if they'redoing terrible things, is it
(18:08):
nature or is it nurture?
And a lot of the, a lot of it,at least in my experience, was
the nurture.
What happens after we're bornwith our childhood experiences,
childhood trauma.
I'm sure a lot of us have dealtwith it I have, and I've had
family members and friends whohave and so being able to
(18:32):
express that through writing andin a story, even if you're
writing about a bad guy like thekiller in letter 26 is doing
despicable things and justbecause what happened to him as
a child kind of created thismonster doesn't excuse it.
(18:53):
It just kind of helps explainit.
Speaker 1 (18:57):
Yeah, so you're using your books to kind of highlight
that right, like the mentalstruggle that people go through.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
Yes, yeah, absolutely .
Speaker 1 (19:08):
And so tell me about your experience working in the
jail, so your experience workingwith those inmates, it's from
their traumas are from theirupbringing or childhood in some
way, and it's, you know, led totheir current state, their
(19:30):
current situation.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
Yes and no.
So I don't pretend to be acriminologist.
I don't have, you know, lettersafter my name.
I'm certainly not a like apsych doctor myself, but I do
feel like I'm an expert in therealm of just the actual
behavior.
Worked every single day in thehousing units or in the booking
desk.
So I had direct contact withinmates every day.
(19:54):
Never worked in administrationno, knock on that but I think
what it did is it just gave mean immense amount of experience
with criminality in general.
(20:14):
But to your point, yes, there'sa segment of the inmate
population that had a badupbringing, single parent or no
parent home, living in animpoverished area surrounded by
crime.
Yes, absolutely.
But there are also high-poweredexecutives who are wealthy, who
(20:39):
murdered their ex-wife and hernew lover.
There was the young kid whatprobably a year or two younger
than me when I started at 22,who came from a well-to-do
family Dad was a doctor, youknow silver spoon kind of
situation Killed his girlfriendin a failed murder-suicide,
(21:01):
decided not to do himself andhere he is just sitting there in
a cell, convinced that he'sgoing to be acquitted, just
because that's how he wasbrought up With privilege.
Yeah, you know, parents got meout of everything.
I've got all the money I couldwant, you know, driving a BMW to
school, all this or that,whatever and it was just a very
(21:23):
sobering thing for me to realizethat it's not just the poor
person of color or someone whodidn't have a good upbringing
who goes to jail or prison ordoes bad things.
Really, everybody does goodupbringing.
Who goes to jail or prison ordoes bad things.
Speaker 1 (21:42):
Really Everybody does .
Do you think there's someaspect of like, even like the
privileged kid, that, like youknow, maybe his, his experience
wasn't, you know, in asurrounded by other criminals or
whatever, but just there wassome aspect of his upbringing
that wasn't nurturing, I guess,and you know, and loving, so
(22:07):
maybe that's his you know kindof reasoning, for you know,
having that mindset of what hedid.
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(23:11):
financial year yet.
Speaker 2 (23:16):
That could be the case.
I also think and I try not tobe cynical about this because I
try to judge things at facevalue and not generalize it's
important not to ever generalizeany situation and it's hard not
to do that when you're workingin any kind of profession, you
(23:36):
see the same types of thingsbeing repeated.
You're working in any kind ofprofession and you see the same
types of things being repeated.
Sure, but boiling it down, Icould just say as simply as this
that oftentimes and this is thescary thing about jail, prison
or really anything in life wherethere's serious consequences,
(24:00):
sometimes it just boils down toone bad decision in an isolated
situation.
And that's really theunfortunate thing about it,
because I've seen so many wastedlives and just great
opportunities that are goneforever.
Like the kid I told you abouthe could have gone on to be a
(24:24):
doctor himself, followed hisfather's footsteps, or cured
cancer, or gone into real estateand helped people find homes,
or written books or whatever itwas, but he'll never get that
opportunity the way in thetraditional sense, because he'll
(24:44):
spend the rest of his wakinglife in prison, and it's just.
You know, I don't know hisstory and there are so many
inmates.
I've probably dealt withHundreds of thousands of inmates
that got booked into the jail.
Some of their stories I knewbetter than others.
Some are easier to kind ofdistinguish how they got there.
(25:07):
They've been arrested 50 times.
Yeah, the recidivism is justcrazy.
And they just refuse to.
You know, judge gives themchance after chance, yeah, and
they're getting out and theycome right back in two days
later.
It's just okay, you're justnever going to learn.
And then you have the other kidor whoever.
It is young woman who was astraight-A student.
(25:29):
She gets into this thing withanother rival about a boy.
She goes over and, you know, afistfight turns in.
She brings a basically a knifeto a fistfight.
Wow, 20 years, just like that.
So it's like you could.
You could say you're fortunatebecause you're going to get out
(25:52):
and only lose two decades ofyour life.
But think about that.
That's two decades of your lifegone, living in a cage, having
other people tell you to do.
Speaker 1 (26:01):
That's brutal it is.
Have you noticed like anychanges like since when you
first started in the jail, likeany changes in, I guess,
behavior or that kind of stoodout to you over that time since
you retired?
Speaker 2 (26:26):
I've definitely or times kind of been similar.
Yeah, I've seen differences like, say, for instance, with the
types of drugs, for example.
So when I first started working, people came to jail all the
time for marijuana.
They almost never come for thatnow.
Part of that is because thelaws have changed and you know
(26:49):
whether it's medicinal or whathave you.
But even you know I could godown to downtown, st Pete, and
it's like you're walking througha dispensary, you know outside.
So it's just some of thosethings societal have changed,
where they're just.
But with the inmates themselvesthey tend to mirror the rest of
(27:12):
society.
You know, like the types ofinmates that were coming in when
I was starting out were kind ofold school, like we were.
You know they'd been brought upin the 80s, 70s and 80s and
toward the end of my careerthese kids are being brought up
with cell phones and theInternet and just society is
(27:34):
just seems faster.
So they were very different,very different.
They fought us a lot more backthen than they do now.
Speaker 1 (27:45):
Interesting.
Speaker 2 (27:48):
Yes, that was a strange thing to see happen,
where things seemed to be muchmore violent back then.
Part of it could also have beenthe jail policies that we had.
We also were in the old schoolera, so things tended to just
work differently on patrol aswell, there were no cameras back
(28:13):
then, and not to say thatanything we were doing was wrong
, it was just we also didn'thave any weapons.
We had no tasers, no OC.
So you have a radio and a pairof handcuffs and you're walking
into a cell and someone ballstheir fist and says it's on.
You're not talking your way outof it at that point.
(28:36):
You're fighting your way out ofit, yeah.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:39):
Yeah, that is interesting.
All right, so let's jump backinto your books.
So the three books that you'vewritten.
You've self-published all ofthem.
Speaker 2 (28:50):
I have.
Speaker 1 (28:52):
And did you ever think about what led you to
self-publish versus you know andyeah, let's start there what
led you to self-publish yourbooks?
Speaker 2 (29:04):
So my main editor, great guy, his name is Jason
Pettis.
He used to run a small press,so he's a wealth of knowledge.
Not only is he an editor, buthe gave me advice on pretty much
every step of the publicationprocess to anyone else who's
(29:31):
listening.
Who wants to write a book is,if you're serious about getting
a publisher and goingtraditional uh, less is more.
So furlough my first book was550 pages.
That was never going to getpicked up by an agent or a major
publisher.
Uh, they're looking for a wordcount under probably 90,000,
(29:52):
80,000 words and furlough wasalmost 190,000.
Oh, wow.
Right.
So that was my main motivationto self publish.
Uh, and also I was new, Ididn't really know how to get an
agent and I just wanted to getit out.
Yeah, I was excited out.
(30:14):
I was excited, you know, I'dspent all the seven years to
write this, to edit it, hired acover artist, hired a formatter.
So I get this idea that I'vehad, and now it's in a book form
, and just the thought ofgetting an agent who might take
me on and even then might find apublisher.
It could take two years topublish.
(30:35):
So I wanted it out now.
And that's one of the biggestadvantages of self-publishing is
you have ultimate control overyour project and if your book is
finished today, you couldconceivably, as long as you have
the files, the proper files,you can publish it tomorrow.
Speaker 1 (30:54):
So what's the process for writing and publishing a
book, kind of like you know over, you know big picture Like?
What does that process looklike?
Speaker 2 (31:06):
As far as self-publishing.
Speaker 1 (31:07):
Yeah, yeah, and then, like in traditional publishing,
publishing too.
What's the difference and isthere a benefit?
I feel like self-publishing hasmaybe become more like.
I've heard that word thrownaround more often with some
books.
So I don't know if it's easiernow because of technology and
the availability of resourcesand whatnot, and maybe it's not
(31:31):
uh, not any more common.
But what are your experiences?
Speaker 2 (31:37):
it's much more easy today than it was 10 years ago,
yeah, and 20 years ago it almostdidn't exist at all.
You had to go through a vanitypress and then you had to worry
about, you know, are they goingto take your rights, are they
going to steal your work?
You know, and it was, it waslooked at, it was looked down
(31:58):
upon.
If you self-published 10-15years ago, you know you weren't
a real author unless you werewith a traditional publisher.
So, just in a nutshell,traditional just means that
there is an establishedpublisher who publishes books
and the gatekeeper to get tothem is the agent.
(32:20):
So it is possible to senddirectly to some publishers, but
the majority of them,especially the big five, you
know, penguin, random House,simon Schuster and the type they
will almost always just gothrough an agent, which is very
difficult.
You know, my last book, letter26, is the only of my three
(32:45):
books that I try to get an agentand you query them like a one
page document saying this iswhat the book's about, this is
my background, these are thecomp titles.
You'll query them and they cancome back and say yeah or nay.
Well, I've queried 50 agentsand got 50 rejections and that's
(33:06):
a very common thing.
So I was just at a writing or abook fair yesterday and so many
authors I spoke to had the samestory Rejected 70 times Famous
novelists, stephen King, jkRowling, harry Potter.
(33:29):
She rejected 100 hundred timesbefore she found.
You just need to have oneperson say yes, yeah.
So what are?
Speaker 1 (33:36):
they looking for?
Like?
What is the agent looking for?
Like a story they believe in orthe story that they think will
do well and sell a lot of.
You know, because they're, I'msure they get a cut of of the
sales or whatever right everwrite they do, the agent will
generally get about 15%.
Speaker 2 (33:50):
That's the standard percentage that they get.
It's so nuanced with agents andgoing traditional that a lot of
times you could write the bestbook, the agent could love it.
But if they just published abook or two books like that or
they feel the market isoversaturated with that, then it
(34:13):
doesn't matter what the storyis, how well it's written,
You're probably going to get therejection, unless your name is
so prominent to where they'regoing to sell the book.
It doesn't matter if you writea story on a napkin.
But with self-publishing it'sabsolutely, uh, much easier.
(34:35):
Nowadays, with the advent ofAmazon, you know you could write
a book and publish it forliterally nothing, no cost.
No, they'll take their cut,obviously, Um, but it's, it's,
it's.
It's a very complicated process.
Uh, on my website I've got ablog that kind of gives like the
(34:57):
nuts and bolts of it.
Uh, this writerjakecom andthere are obviously tons of
other resources out there.
You could just Google how toself publish a book.
Um, different podcasts, YouTubeis a huge resource you could
learn to do.
I mean, you could almost dobrain surgery nowadays.
Speaker 1 (35:17):
Isn't that crazy, yeah, yeah.
So self-publishing, like let'sgo back to that, like that
process, right?
So you have a story, you'vewritten, a story is there, and
then what are the next stepsafter that?
Speaker 2 (35:35):
So we'll assume that you've written the book.
Yeah, it's finished.
You know a lot of differentsteps.
First and foremost, you want toget a copyrighted.
So once you have it copyrightedand you want to actually get it
into print, being theself-publisher, you're in charge
(35:56):
of your own business.
You are the publisher.
So, at a major house, they'vegot editors, they've got cover
artists, they've got formattersand all that.
That's your responsibility.
Most people don't know how todo all that.
I certainly didn't.
So it's incumbent on you tomake those hires.
So I went online.
(36:18):
Uh, the company I used, or thewebsite I used, was upworkcom.
They've got freelancers ofeverything you can.
If you want to build a website,web designer, editors, you know
what have you.
So that's where I found mine,as well as my formatter, and you
vet them and you agree in acontract, a timeframe, and
(36:44):
they'll give you your, yourfiles that you need, as well as
a cover, find a good coverartist.
So, as long as you, if you justwant an ebook, they'll just
send you an ebook file.
Okay.
Get a.
You at least need an ebookcover If you want it in the
print.
You'll find someone that willgive you the print cover and
once you get that file you'reready to go.
(37:06):
You just go through Amazon,Apple books, Barnes, Noble,
IngramSpark is another reallygood distributor.
If you want your books inbookstores, and mainly with
IngramSpark is because mostbookstores will only order books
(37:27):
if they're given a wholesalediscount will only order books
if they're given a wholesalediscount.
So if you're just publishing onAmazon, you can certainly do
that, but if you want topossibly get into a bookstore,
the first thing the bookstore isgoing to say is are you on
Ingram?
And if you're not, then itdoesn't make sense for them to
(37:49):
do business with you, becausethen that forces them to buy
retail plus shipping and just toturn around and sell it for
retail.
They're not.
They're probably losing money.
Speaker 1 (37:56):
Yeah yeah, that makes sense.
So once you have so on amazon,like they'll they print the
books themselves or how doesthat?
Like, how does the, how do theyget the physical copy of a?
Speaker 2 (38:08):
book.
Yes, so say you're a reader andyou want to buy any book out
there.
Yeah, then you'll order it onAmazon.
It's print on demand, sothere's not a big warehouse that
Amazon has full of millions ofdifferent books.
Yeah, you'll order the book andtheir print uh plant wherever
(38:32):
it is.
We'll literally uh send theorder there and they'll print it
right then and there and shipit to your house and probably a
couple of days.
Speaker 1 (38:41):
Crazy.
Speaker 2 (38:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (38:42):
So, whether it's like a like a hard copy or a
paperback, like they, they haveall that set up, I guess, to to
print on whatever.
Whatever that author is isdesignated Pretty much.
Speaker 2 (38:54):
That's.
That's that's how it works,cause you, you, you can imagine.
There are millions of booksavailable.
If you were one on Amazon rightnow, like physical hard copy
books.
Multiply that by tens ofthousands of authors who are
publishing every year and youcan imagine the warehouse would
(39:18):
like take up city blocks.
Yeah.
And that's just not doable.
So with tech and moderntechnology now, the print on
demand, that's just the way tothe way it works right now, much
different from a brickandand-mortar bookstore.
Obviously, they have the booksthere, but they only have a few
thousand copies.
There are literally millions ofcopies, and then yep, they just
(39:39):
print them and send them rightto you.
Speaker 1 (39:43):
Yeah, that's pretty cool, pretty amazing.
But it makes sense, right?
You can't have a warehouse fullof books, that may or may not
sell, would you your next book?
So I imagine you have a fourthone that you're writing right
now.
Speaker 2 (39:59):
I do.
It's my memoir, based on mysheriff's office career.
Speaker 1 (40:03):
Okay cool.
So will you self-publish thatone again, or will you do
traditional publishing?
Speaker 2 (40:11):
Only if I have to.
Well, my last experience wasvery emotionally trying, uh,
which was ironic because youthink that as you progress in
your career, whatever it is,that you get better.
Yeah, but sometimes the moreyou do something, the the less
you really know, and I foundthat out.
(40:34):
Made some mistakes, but yeah,it's definitely an option and at
least I feel like I'm learningfrom my mistakes.
And it's not just thedifficulty of doing it, because
I can certainly do it again.
It's if you have a story thatyou really want to try to make
(40:57):
or break into the mainstream,which I do.
Being a serious author, you knowI could sell a few thousand
copies.
I can go to book fairs, like Idid yesterday.
I can sell myself.
You could even sell on your ownwebsite if you want to.
I don't, but other authors do.
But to get my book into brickand mortar bookstores or just to
(41:23):
be a household name, you know,for me it's not about the money
or the stature, it's about Ihave a story that I want to tell
and anyone else who's out therethat has always wanted to write
a book, they would also have todecide am I fine?
Just, you know, writing forfriends and family sell a few
(41:44):
copies here or there, or do Ireally want to try to break into
that mainstream and get mystory told to hundreds of
thousands of people?
Potentially?
Yeah, and I would love to,because I think the stories I
write are enlightening.
They're hopefully inspirationaland entertaining.
Speaker 1 (42:08):
How are you going about promoting the books and
getting out there Like what,what, what are those steps?
Speaker 2 (42:15):
Kind of like what I did and have been doing recently
with with the book fair, localbook fairs Okay, I go to
national conferences.
Advertising is is one thing.
Book giveaways goodreadscom hashas a great giveaway program
where you could put your book upand say, okay, I'm going to
give away 10 hard copies or ahundred eBooks, and in 30 days
(42:42):
my last book had 10,000 entrantsfor it, so that's great
exposure, cool.
Uh, social media is another onewhere you just you know
everyone's doing it.
Whatever business you have, youhave to be on social media, and
I'm a very private person.
I didn't have Facebook orInstagram until like a couple of
years ago.
I refused.
But then you just realizeyou're like, oh, okay, do I?
(43:04):
Do I just want to like sit inmy living room and stare at my
own book, or do I want to liketry to get other people to read
it?
Speaker 1 (43:11):
So yeah, yeah, that's a.
I kind of went through the samething like getting into real
estate.
I mean, I was young enoughwhere I still I like I had
social media accounts, whatever,but I was never big at like let
me post and share everythingthat's going on or create some
account or whatever.
But yeah, it's um, you have todo it.
(43:32):
I heard something the other day, um, about like creating
content and it's like you justhave to like that's who you are,
right, like you just have tobecome that person that like
enjoys creating content and thatsort of stuff and it just
becomes a part of of what you do.
It's like, I think, to reallymaximize like your goal of
(43:52):
promoting the book or promotingyour story and stuff.
Right.
Speaker 2 (43:56):
That's a really good point, because if you're going
to be in any kind of businessyou know, in real estate, or if
you're owning any kind ofbusiness yourself, including
being a self-published author,or I will even say, even if
you're a traditional author, youstill have to market your own
book mm-hmm so you know, if youdon't have a website, get one.
(44:24):
It helps to have a newsletter toput out there.
The social media is huge.
If you're not a social mediaperson, to your point, learn.
You know you're going to haveto.
You know, and it's like and ifand if you don't, uh, you know,
no one's forcing you to do it,but you're going to get left
behind.
So that's the modern age, youknow, and I think part of my
(44:46):
resistance with social media forso long is I didn't grow up
with the internet.
Resistance with social mediafor so long is I didn't grow up
with the internet.
So I grew up in the lateseventies and the eighties into
the nineties.
You know, I had a pager.
My first cell phone was a flipphone that you had to, like you
know, go through the numbers totry to type, type something out.
I had 20 texts a month that Iwas allowed to send and for the
(45:09):
first few months, I think, Isent like 18 texts.
Speaker 1 (45:14):
It's great.
Yeah, that's wild to thinkabout that, like how fast the
technology has changed in thatregard, you know, yeah, so next
step, so you're writing yourmemoir.
Do you have other other ideasfor for books as well right now?
Or how does that come?
How does that work for you?
Speaker 2 (45:33):
do they just kind of come to, come to you and you're
like let me, let me write onthis, write some short stories,
and then it kind of expands, orif you ever had like a bulletin
board where you had like allkinds of things like to-do lists
, yeah, up there, or even likein your phone or whatever, and
you just realized like you addone and you just see like an old
(45:54):
note of something that you hadto do months ago that you
totally forgotten Like oh,that's kind of like how it is.
I've got ideas everywhere.
So, oh, probably a half dozenshort stories and two or three
novels that are constantlyswirling in my head.
I don't have time to write themall, yeah, so that's the
(46:17):
difficult thing.
It's ironic that I retired andI wrote two books, by the way,
while I was still working.
I just assumed that, okay, onceI retired from the full-time job
, I've got all my time.
You know it's like I'll spit abook out every other month.
You know it's just like it'sgoing to be easy.
Uh, it's.
(46:39):
In a lot of ways it's hardernow because I don't have that
structure regulating me.
So it's like you wake up, Idon't have to go to work at a
certain time anymore.
So you just really having to,you're your own boss and you
know you're your own time clock.
(47:00):
So that's a huge challenge forme.
So I definitely put the work in, but now I also have more time
to market and so that takes up alot more time and all that.
But yeah, tons of story ideas.
I was just in New Orleans a fewweeks ago scoping out something
(47:21):
for a potential story down theline Cool.
Speaker 1 (47:26):
Yeah, that's pretty neat.
Well, thanks for being here,man.
I appreciate you coming on tokind of share a little bit your
story and stuff and, um, it'sbeen great being able to chat
with you.
Speaker 2 (47:36):
I really appreciate the opportunity.
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (47:38):
So before before you leave, uh, your your three books
, where can people get them?
And then your website to kindof keep up to up to speed with
what you got going on.
Speaker 2 (47:47):
Yeah, so the three novels are all crime fiction,
they're all standalones.
They're Furlough Dead,reckoning and Letter 26.
They're available on a lot ofdifferent platforms, but the
easiest way to find them is justto go to my author website,
writerjakecom, and there aredirect links to like my Amazon
(48:08):
page.
They can find them there.
Links to like my Amazon page.
They can find them there.
They're available on ebook,print and audio, and on audio
they're on audible and uh andSpotify Cool.
Speaker 1 (48:19):
Did you read the audio yourself?
Speaker 2 (48:21):
I didn't.
No, I didn't, but everythingI've heard is that it's a very
rewarding process, so I'mputting serious thought into
narrating the next book.
Speaker 1 (48:32):
Yeah, you should.
You got a great voice for ittoo.
Speaker 2 (48:35):
Thanks, we'll see how it turns out.
Speaker 1 (48:39):
Cool.
Well, thanks for being here,Jacob.
Speaker 2 (48:40):
Thanks.
Speaker 1 (48:40):
Tony, thank you so much for listening to another
episode of Palmer Local Now.
We are incredibly grateful forour sponsors who make this show
possible.
Jacob, with Roadmap Money, besure to support these local
businesses and let's keepbuilding community together.
Until next time, stay connected, stay involved and keep making
Palm Harbor an amazing place tocall home.
Thank you for tuning in to another episode of Palm
Harbor Local, the podcastdedicated to building community.
I'm your host, Donnie Hathaway,and today we are joined by
Jacob Moon, who's a local author, with his most recent book
being Letter 26.
Now, Palm Harbor Local is allabout spotlighting individuals
and businesses who are making adifference, overcoming
challenges and fosteringconnections right here in our
(00:22):
hometown.
If you're passionate aboutgrowing together, getting
involved, involved andcelebrating the people who are
making Palmerville thrive,you're exactly where you need to
be Now.
In today's episode, you'lldiscover how long it took Jacob
to write his first book, whereJacob gets his inspiration for
his writing and the differencebetween self-publishing versus
traditional publishing.
Now don't forget to connectwith us on Instagram at
(00:43):
palmharborlocal, forbehind-the-scenes content, and
join our weekly newsletterLiving Palm Harbor at
palmharborlocalcom.
Now let's dive in and meetJacob.
Jacob, welcome to the podcastman.
I'm excited to have you here.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
Thanks a lot, Donnie.
It's a true pleasure to be here.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
Yeah, so I want to start with your background.
So you're one, you're an Armyveteran.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
I am.
I went into the Army right outof high school.
Graduated I was a little lostbecause I didn't know if I
wanted to go to college.
Just things were just going, asI'm sure it is for a lot of
people.
You don't really know whereyour future is going to go.
And for me from moving from upnorth, it was kind of traumatic
(01:32):
moving down here in the middleof high school.
So I just kind of wanted to getaway.
So Army Recruiter offered me aspot in Hawaii and I took it.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
Yeah, Hawaii, I mean that's hard to pass that one up,
right.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
Yeah Cool.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
So then, you had worked for Pinellas County Jail
for quite some time.
How many years were you in theArmy?
Speaker 2 (01:53):
I was in for three years, so I got out actually
about a month after my 21stbirthday, unfortunately, oh, wow
, yeah, because in Hawaii thedrinking age they're very strict
with it.
So if you want to go out to anightclub and actually like live
the experience of being on theIsland, uh, you pretty much have
to be 21.
So, yeah, I started 21 about amonth before I ETS got out and,
(02:20):
uh, came back here to my home orrecord, which was St Petersburg
at the time, to have all myfamily having left out of state,
so I was just getting a divorce.
It was just a rough time for meand luckily, about a year after
I got out, I got the job at thesheriff's office.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
Okay, and is that something you always wanted to
do?
Or is that just because of yourtime in the military that led
you to the sheriff's office?
Speaker 2 (02:47):
It was actually an accident.
Okay, how I got the job.
So, funny story I'm drivingwith a friend and I look down on
the floorboard and there's ajob application with a star on
the front and I was like, what'sthis?
Yeah.
So I was like, oh, it's afriend of mine's friend's job
application for the jail.
So I pick it up and lookthrough it and at the time here
(03:08):
I'm making seven bucks an hourstruggling.
I was like, wow, okay, thepay's better.
It's actually a profession, aprofessional career, and what I
really was attracted to it wasthe quasi-military kind of
nature of it.
You know the training you getto shoot weapons.
But other than that, it wasjust.
It just gave me a sense ofsecurity and I really was kind
(03:34):
of missing that.
My family was breaking up, Iwas alone, I had a new nobody
down here, and so what you'remissing from the military is a
huge family yeah you know, and Iwent from the nation's largest
employer to the county's largestemployer, so it kind of made
sense yeah, did you?
Speaker 1 (03:53):
did you ever think about, like, where was your
family moving to?
Were they all moving back upnorth, or or kind?
Speaker 2 (03:58):
of uh they kind of scattered everywhere.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
Okay, so it wasn't like, oh yeah, let me go.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
Let me go back where my family's at right, yeah, and
the only reason reason I cameback here is because the Army
will only ship your householdgoods and your car to your home
of record.
So I was kind of stuck.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
Yeah, okay, so you get this job at the Pinellas
County Sheriff's Office, andthen is it the same job you had.
You cut that same job for howmany years, or did you bounce
around in that?
Speaker 2 (04:24):
I did.
You.
Had you cut that same job forhow many years?
Or did you?
You bounce around?
I did.
So there's a there's adistinction between the the
corrections academy and the lawenforcement academy.
They have about the same, abouthalf the classes are about the
same, but they're differentdisciplines.
Okay.
So corrections will teach youhow to work, the jail patrol
will teach you how to work onthe road.
So I eventually actually wentback to the police Academy and
(04:47):
finished those classes, so Icould have done both jobs.
But my daughter had just beenborn, I got some seniority, I
was on the shift I wanted.
So those mean, those thingsmean a lot, yeah, and they did
to me.
So that's where I had stayedand stuck it out for 28 years 28
years.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
What did you um?
What was?
What was your biggest takeawayabout that job, that career?
Speaker 2 (05:12):
Oh, the biggest takeaway.
There were so many things, butif I had to distill it down to
the most important were ifyou're in a job and this applies
to anybody who's who's in anykind of job or career that has
um, requires a lot of mentalfortitude and what I call
(05:35):
stick-to-itiveness.
Where you're getting up andit's a grind, you know whether
you're a teacher or a realestate professional or an
electrician, whatever it is.
You know if you're a single, asingle parent or a dual parent,
it's hard to raising kids hardenough doing that, let alone
having an extremely stressfuljob.
(05:56):
So just the fact of me gettingout of that career after 28
years being broke, as can be forthe first half dozen of those
years, I mean it was a struggle.
Uh finally building it up,keeping my sanity, uh keeping
myself safe, because you'reliterally working around every
(06:16):
type of criminal and killersthat you can think of every day.
Uh watching coworkers who youknew and respected uh
unfortunately die of suicide oraccidents.
Uh, just life in general.
It was, it was a toughexperience and uh just getting
(06:38):
out of that in one piece.
I feel very fortunate.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
And for 28 years too.
That's a long, that's a longtime.
What, what was it that thatmade you like stick with it?
Speaker 2 (06:54):
Mostly it was the security.
So it's it's a tough job, uh,but it's not all bad.
So the benefit package that thesheriff's office offered really
can't be beat in the civiliansector Not that I could find.
So the retirement in itself ismotivation to stick it out,
(07:17):
because basically, you know, Iwent in at 22 years old and it
was either 25 years of serviceor when you reached age 55, you
could retire with a full pension.
And when I compared apples toapples, from the military
retirement to the sheriff'soffice, which is the Florida
state retirement system, uh, thesheriff's office, one out every
(07:39):
time and I get to go home andsleep in my own bed every night.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
Yeah, that's always nice.
Yeah, what um?
What was your?
Day to-to-day, like with thatjob.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
So the first half of my career we're on eight-hour
shifts, the second half 12-hourshifts and you can bounce around
to different divisions.
But the day-to-day you'redealing with county prisoners
and basically there is adistinction between the county
jail and state prison.
So everyone that winds up instate prison started out at the
(08:13):
county jail.
Okay.
So we were dealing with everyonefrom the petty thief to serial
killers, and you got to keepyour head in a swivel.
You have to know how to talk topeople for sure, because you
don't carry guns in the jail.
Yeah.
Unlike our brothers and sistersin patrol that had every kind
of weapon, including firearms.
(08:34):
You don't have that in there,is that?
for safety reasons, like for theinmates to steal it from you,
or whatever, absolutely,absolutely crazy, yeah which
yeah, even if they gave us theopportunity like zero deputies,
I knew that worked in the jailwould have elected to carry one.
Yeah, it's gonna.
It's gonna get taken at somepoint yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
Yeah, Wild, so you're .
So you, with that position,you're in charge of just kind of
like keeping order, making surethey're doing inmates are going
where they're supposed to beand kind of doing what they're
supposed to be doing.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
Yeah, exactly, the.
The basic tenant of the jobitself is care, custody and
control of the prisoners.
So most of them are pre-trialdetainees.
So they've been arrested, theyhaven't been sentenced yet, but
some have, and if they're in thecounty jail they're there for a
year or less.
If they've been sentenced to amisdemeanor, a felony, they're
(09:32):
going to state prison for a yearand a day or more.
They're going to state prisonfor a year and a day or more.
So everything you see in themovies and all that you know,
there's a lot of televisionshows and movies that have to do
with prisons, not a lot thathave to do with the jail.
So that's another reason whyI'm, you know, I feel fortunate
to be able to shed a littlelight on that part of the
(09:53):
society.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
So county um the county jail.
They're only there for a yearor less, not necessarily they're
.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
Usually, if they're sentenced, they're there for
under a year, but we've hadinmates there for four or five
years awaiting trial, like bigmurder cases.
There are people there.
It didn't even have to be formurder.
You could be any type ofserious felony.
You're going to be there for awhile if you don't make bond and
if your bond's $100,000, you'regoing to be there for a while
(10:22):
if you don't make bond and ifyour bond is $100,000, you're
going to stay more than likely.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
Yeah, that's crazy to sit there for that long just
like waiting for your trial,right?
Okay, so you are now apublished author, now a
published author.
So where did you know?
How did you go from you knowArmy veteran to you know
Pinellas County Jail, to apublished author?
Like, where is that somethingyou, like, you've always had a
passion for?
Speaker 2 (10:52):
That journey started when I was probably 10 or 11
years old and it just that flame, never really died.
You know, I was writing allthrough high school, all through
the army, publishing shortstories, scribbling in notepads,
typing on manual typewriters.
But it wasn't until about maybeabout 10 years ago I really
(11:15):
wanted to become serious at itand for me that meant writing a
novel.
I didn't know how to do that.
I had an outline.
I knew I wanted to write ajailbreak story because I was
familiar with that environmentand I'll never forget what
really motivated me to start.
(11:35):
That is a coworker of mine.
We're discussing the book andshe was like you know, you
should go home and just start ittoday.
I was like, yeah, yeah, yeah, Iwill.
You know, we all have thosekinds of motivations and you
know it's just putting thingsoff and I'm a I'm a
procrastinator.
She's like, no, go home todayand start it.
(11:56):
And I did and it was just thegreatest feeling, getting that
out and just starting theprocess.
Now that book took me sevenyears to write.
Wow, Because I took.
You know, in the beginning Ikind of just took it as a hobby,
and anyone out there listeningwho wants to write a book and
isn't sure how.
(12:16):
First just get your butt in theseat and write that's what I
was told.
And then, when you do, it's along process.
Just imagine writing a 30-pagethesis.
Multiply that by 10, and nowrewriting it five or six times,
and even then you're only about25% done.
So it's a long process, but thefirst book came out in December
(12:39):
of 2020, furlough.
It's about the% done.
So it was a long process and uh.
But the first book came out inDecember of 2020, uh, furlough.
It's about the jailbreak, and,uh, it was a big accomplishment
for me.
Speaker 1 (12:47):
Yeah, what do you?
What is it you enjoy aboutwriting?
Speaker 2 (12:54):
I've always had a very vivid imagination and just
growing up being fascinated withjust stories yeah, Watching the
Twilight Zone, amazing storiesjust being just enraptured by
how someone could create a storythat brings you to another
(13:14):
world.
You know we all watch movies,yeah, and TV world.
You know we all watch moviesand TV.
So, whatever is your, whateveryour thing is, you know, do you
want to recreate that?
Or are you fine just being aspectator, and there's nothing
wrong with both?
But I didn't just want to be aspectator.
I was like I want to do thatand I started doing it and it's
(13:37):
just something magical aboutgetting those thoughts out on
the paper and for other peopleto read it and enjoy it is just
a very special thing.
Speaker 1 (13:46):
Yeah, so I imagine.
So it's like you you have theseideas and that's kind of like
your way of of expressing thoseideas, right, like some people,
like a musician might express itthrough music, or a producer
might produce a movie, but youenjoy writing.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
I do.
It's a very catharticexperience being able to get
those thoughts out.
You know you could do it byjournaling.
You could write a memoir.
In fact I'm writing a memoirnow about my sheriff's office
experience and it just it helpsme process just a lot mentally,
(14:28):
emotionally, psychologically,just it is like self-therapy in
a way.
And aside from that, you know,on the fun side, it is just
extremely satisfying and funjust to create a story.
Speaker 1 (14:45):
Do you wish you would have done it earlier Sort of
writing earlier or does yourexperience because some of your
books that you just mentionedtoo, is about a jailbreak right,
so that leads into your 28years of the jail.
Is there any like oh, I shouldhave started this earlier, or
like it was, it was the perfecttime.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
I think it was the perfect time for me.
Yeah, I have been writing and,like I had mentioned, I was a
short story and a short storywriter and a poet before that.
But as far as the books I thinkthat was that came about at the
right time for me.
You know, I was raising kids,I'd reached a level of my career
where you know that was safe,retirement was close on the
(15:29):
horizon, and so once that firstbook came out, I was like okay,
wow, this isn't just a hobbyanymore.
I want to actually turn thisinto a career and do this full
time.
And it was only three or fouryears away from retirement, and
so I just put my nose at thegrindstone and the second book
dead reckoning, uh, took meabout 11 months.
Speaker 1 (15:52):
Wow, so seven years.
Second book is 11 months andyour third book, letter 26,.
That's the most recent one.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
It is.
It just came out in December of2024.
And that one was a ton of funto write for a lot of reasons.
So I grew up as a horror writer.
I love scary stories, and thefirst two have some of those
elements, but the third onereally it's a horror police
procedural.
So I get to mix the detectivestory, almost silence, of the
(16:22):
lambs type, where they'rechasing this very inventive
serial killer that's stalkingwomen, based on the first letter
of their, of their jobs.
And so I came up with the, withthe idea actually what the
short story contest is.
Just, it's's just weird how youget these, these ideas
sometimes.
Yeah, and it was a short story,a thousand words, and I decided
(16:43):
to turn it into a novel.
Speaker 1 (16:45):
Yeah.
Very cool.
What are your so?
Um, yeah, so most of your.
So all horror kind of storiesthat's, that's what you enjoy.
Writing is in same thing, likewhen you were younger were you
writing the same like your shortstories.
Speaker 2 (16:58):
Then were they all the same actually right in all
genres, okay, uh, but horror isjust one that I think I write
the best.
Okay, or I should say, maybeenjoy writing the most just
comes about kind of naturally.
Like I love stephen king when Iwas growing up, all the scary
creature features and all thatthose didn't scare me, it's just
(17:22):
being able to create.
It's not just about instillingfear.
It's like in letter 26,.
Yes, it's the scariest book Ithink I've written by far and
there are some very seriousissues involved in that.
But more so than that is likethe psychological angle and I
(17:45):
think that's why I workedprimarily and volunteered to
work with a lot of psych inmatesat the jail for probably 20,
almost 25 of my 28 years workingdirectly with them, just
because the power of the mindand seeing why people do the
things they do, even if they'redoing terrible things, is it
(18:08):
nature or is it nurture?
And a lot of the, a lot of it,at least in my experience, was
the nurture.
What happens after we're bornwith our childhood experiences,
childhood trauma.
I'm sure a lot of us have dealtwith it I have, and I've had
family members and friends whohave and so being able to
(18:32):
express that through writing andin a story, even if you're
writing about a bad guy like thekiller in letter 26 is doing
despicable things and justbecause what happened to him as
a child kind of created thismonster doesn't excuse it.
(18:53):
It just kind of helps explainit.
Speaker 1 (18:57):
Yeah, so you're using your books to kind of highlight
that right, like the mentalstruggle that people go through.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
Yes, yeah, absolutely .
Speaker 1 (19:08):
And so tell me about your experience working in the
jail, so your experience workingwith those inmates, it's from
their traumas are from theirupbringing or childhood in some
way, and it's, you know, led totheir current state, their
(19:30):
current situation.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
Yes and no.
So I don't pretend to be acriminologist.
I don't have, you know, lettersafter my name.
I'm certainly not a like apsych doctor myself, but I do
feel like I'm an expert in therealm of just the actual
behavior.
Worked every single day in thehousing units or in the booking
desk.
So I had direct contact withinmates every day.
(19:54):
Never worked in administrationno, knock on that but I think
what it did is it just gave mean immense amount of experience
with criminality in general.
(20:14):
But to your point, yes, there'sa segment of the inmate
population that had a badupbringing, single parent or no
parent home, living in animpoverished area surrounded by
crime.
Yes, absolutely.
But there are also high-poweredexecutives who are wealthy, who
(20:39):
murdered their ex-wife and hernew lover.
There was the young kid whatprobably a year or two younger
than me when I started at 22,who came from a well-to-do
family Dad was a doctor, youknow silver spoon kind of
situation Killed his girlfriendin a failed murder-suicide,
(21:01):
decided not to do himself andhere he is just sitting there in
a cell, convinced that he'sgoing to be acquitted, just
because that's how he wasbrought up With privilege.
Yeah, you know, parents got meout of everything.
I've got all the money I couldwant, you know, driving a BMW to
school, all this or that,whatever and it was just a very
(21:23):
sobering thing for me to realizethat it's not just the poor
person of color or someone whodidn't have a good upbringing
who goes to jail or prison ordoes bad things.
Really, everybody does goodupbringing.
Who goes to jail or prison ordoes bad things.
Speaker 1 (21:42):
Really Everybody does .
Do you think there's someaspect of like, even like the
privileged kid, that, like youknow, maybe his, his experience
wasn't, you know, in asurrounded by other criminals or
whatever, but just there wassome aspect of his upbringing
that wasn't nurturing, I guess,and you know, and loving, so
(22:07):
maybe that's his you know kindof reasoning, for you know,
having that mindset of what hedid.
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Speaker 2 (23:16):
That could be the case.
I also think and I try not tobe cynical about this because I
try to judge things at facevalue and not generalize it's
important not to ever generalizeany situation and it's hard not
to do that when you're workingin any kind of profession, you
(23:36):
see the same types of thingsbeing repeated.
You're working in any kind ofprofession and you see the same
types of things being repeated.
Sure, but boiling it down, Icould just say as simply as this
that oftentimes and this is thescary thing about jail, prison
or really anything in life wherethere's serious consequences,
(24:00):
sometimes it just boils down toone bad decision in an isolated
situation.
And that's really theunfortunate thing about it,
because I've seen so many wastedlives and just great
opportunities that are goneforever.
Like the kid I told you abouthe could have gone on to be a
(24:24):
doctor himself, followed hisfather's footsteps, or cured
cancer, or gone into real estateand helped people find homes,
or written books or whatever itwas, but he'll never get that
opportunity the way in thetraditional sense, because he'll
(24:44):
spend the rest of his wakinglife in prison, and it's just.
You know, I don't know hisstory and there are so many
inmates.
I've probably dealt withHundreds of thousands of inmates
that got booked into the jail.
Some of their stories I knewbetter than others.
Some are easier to kind ofdistinguish how they got there.
(25:07):
They've been arrested 50 times.
Yeah, the recidivism is justcrazy.
And they just refuse to.
You know, judge gives themchance after chance, yeah, and
they're getting out and theycome right back in two days
later.
It's just okay, you're justnever going to learn.
And then you have the other kidor whoever.
It is young woman who was astraight-A student.
(25:29):
She gets into this thing withanother rival about a boy.
She goes over and, you know, afistfight turns in.
She brings a basically a knifeto a fistfight.
Wow, 20 years, just like that.
So it's like you could.
You could say you're fortunatebecause you're going to get out
(25:52):
and only lose two decades ofyour life.
But think about that.
That's two decades of your lifegone, living in a cage, having
other people tell you to do.
Speaker 1 (26:01):
That's brutal it is.
Have you noticed like anychanges like since when you
first started in the jail, likeany changes in, I guess,
behavior or that kind of stoodout to you over that time since
you retired?
Speaker 2 (26:26):
I've definitely or times kind of been similar.
Yeah, I've seen differences like, say, for instance, with the
types of drugs, for example.
So when I first started working, people came to jail all the
time for marijuana.
They almost never come for thatnow.
Part of that is because thelaws have changed and you know
(26:49):
whether it's medicinal or whathave you.
But even you know I could godown to downtown, st Pete, and
it's like you're walking througha dispensary, you know outside.
So it's just some of thosethings societal have changed,
where they're just.
But with the inmates themselvesthey tend to mirror the rest of
(27:12):
society.
You know, like the types ofinmates that were coming in when
I was starting out were kind ofold school, like we were.
You know they'd been brought upin the 80s, 70s and 80s and
toward the end of my careerthese kids are being brought up
with cell phones and theInternet and just society is
(27:34):
just seems faster.
So they were very different,very different.
They fought us a lot more backthen than they do now.
Speaker 1 (27:45):
Interesting.
Speaker 2 (27:48):
Yes, that was a strange thing to see happen,
where things seemed to be muchmore violent back then.
Part of it could also have beenthe jail policies that we had.
We also were in the old schoolera, so things tended to just
work differently on patrol aswell, there were no cameras back
(28:13):
then, and not to say thatanything we were doing was wrong
, it was just we also didn'thave any weapons.
We had no tasers, no OC.
So you have a radio and a pairof handcuffs and you're walking
into a cell and someone ballstheir fist and says it's on.
You're not talking your way outof it at that point.
(28:36):
You're fighting your way out ofit, yeah.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:39):
Yeah, that is interesting.
All right, so let's jump backinto your books.
So the three books that you'vewritten.
You've self-published all ofthem.
Speaker 2 (28:50):
I have.
Speaker 1 (28:52):
And did you ever think about what led you to
self-publish versus you know andyeah, let's start there what
led you to self-publish yourbooks?
Speaker 2 (29:04):
So my main editor, great guy, his name is Jason
Pettis.
He used to run a small press,so he's a wealth of knowledge.
Not only is he an editor, buthe gave me advice on pretty much
every step of the publicationprocess to anyone else who's
(29:31):
listening.
Who wants to write a book is,if you're serious about getting
a publisher and goingtraditional uh, less is more.
So furlough my first book was550 pages.
That was never going to getpicked up by an agent or a major
publisher.
Uh, they're looking for a wordcount under probably 90,000,
(29:52):
80,000 words and furlough wasalmost 190,000.
Oh, wow.
Right.
So that was my main motivationto self publish.
Uh, and also I was new, Ididn't really know how to get an
agent and I just wanted to getit out.
Yeah, I was excited out.
(30:14):
I was excited, you know, I'dspent all the seven years to
write this, to edit it, hired acover artist, hired a formatter.
So I get this idea that I'vehad, and now it's in a book form
, and just the thought ofgetting an agent who might take
me on and even then might find apublisher.
It could take two years topublish.
(30:35):
So I wanted it out now.
And that's one of the biggestadvantages of self-publishing is
you have ultimate control overyour project and if your book is
finished today, you couldconceivably, as long as you have
the files, the proper files,you can publish it tomorrow.
Speaker 1 (30:54):
So what's the process for writing and publishing a
book, kind of like you know over, you know big picture Like?
What does that process looklike?
Speaker 2 (31:06):
As far as self-publishing.
Speaker 1 (31:07):
Yeah, yeah, and then, like in traditional publishing,
publishing too.
What's the difference and isthere a benefit?
I feel like self-publishing hasmaybe become more like.
I've heard that word thrownaround more often with some
books.
So I don't know if it's easiernow because of technology and
the availability of resourcesand whatnot, and maybe it's not
(31:31):
uh, not any more common.
But what are your experiences?
Speaker 2 (31:37):
it's much more easy today than it was 10 years ago,
yeah, and 20 years ago it almostdidn't exist at all.
You had to go through a vanitypress and then you had to worry
about, you know, are they goingto take your rights, are they
going to steal your work?
You know, and it was, it waslooked at, it was looked down
(31:58):
upon.
If you self-published 10-15years ago, you know you weren't
a real author unless you werewith a traditional publisher.
So, just in a nutshell,traditional just means that
there is an establishedpublisher who publishes books
and the gatekeeper to get tothem is the agent.
(32:20):
So it is possible to senddirectly to some publishers, but
the majority of them,especially the big five, you
know, penguin, random House,simon Schuster and the type they
will almost always just gothrough an agent, which is very
difficult.
You know, my last book, letter26, is the only of my three
(32:45):
books that I try to get an agentand you query them like a one
page document saying this iswhat the book's about, this is
my background, these are thecomp titles.
You'll query them and they cancome back and say yeah or nay.
Well, I've queried 50 agentsand got 50 rejections and that's
(33:06):
a very common thing.
So I was just at a writing or abook fair yesterday and so many
authors I spoke to had the samestory Rejected 70 times Famous
novelists, stephen King, jkRowling, harry Potter.
(33:29):
She rejected 100 hundred timesbefore she found.
You just need to have oneperson say yes, yeah.
So what are?
Speaker 1 (33:36):
they looking for?
Like?
What is the agent looking for?
Like a story they believe in orthe story that they think will
do well and sell a lot of.
You know, because they're, I'msure they get a cut of of the
sales or whatever right everwrite they do, the agent will
generally get about 15%.
Speaker 2 (33:50):
That's the standard percentage that they get.
It's so nuanced with agents andgoing traditional that a lot of
times you could write the bestbook, the agent could love it.
But if they just published abook or two books like that or
they feel the market isoversaturated with that, then it
(34:13):
doesn't matter what the storyis, how well it's written,
You're probably going to get therejection, unless your name is
so prominent to where they'regoing to sell the book.
It doesn't matter if you writea story on a napkin.
But with self-publishing it'sabsolutely, uh, much easier.
(34:35):
Nowadays, with the advent ofAmazon, you know you could write
a book and publish it forliterally nothing, no cost.
No, they'll take their cut,obviously, Um, but it's, it's,
it's.
It's a very complicated process.
Uh, on my website I've got ablog that kind of gives like the
(34:57):
nuts and bolts of it.
Uh, this writerjakecom andthere are obviously tons of
other resources out there.
You could just Google how toself publish a book.
Um, different podcasts, YouTubeis a huge resource you could
learn to do.
I mean, you could almost dobrain surgery nowadays.
Speaker 1 (35:17):
Isn't that crazy, yeah, yeah.
So self-publishing, like let'sgo back to that, like that
process, right?
So you have a story, you'vewritten, a story is there, and
then what are the next stepsafter that?
Speaker 2 (35:35):
So we'll assume that you've written the book.
Yeah, it's finished.
You know a lot of differentsteps.
First and foremost, you want toget a copyrighted.
So once you have it copyrightedand you want to actually get it
into print, being theself-publisher, you're in charge
(35:56):
of your own business.
You are the publisher.
So, at a major house, they'vegot editors, they've got cover
artists, they've got formattersand all that.
That's your responsibility.
Most people don't know how todo all that.
I certainly didn't.
So it's incumbent on you tomake those hires.
So I went online.
(36:18):
Uh, the company I used, or thewebsite I used, was upworkcom.
They've got freelancers ofeverything you can.
If you want to build a website,web designer, editors, you know
what have you.
So that's where I found mine,as well as my formatter, and you
vet them and you agree in acontract, a timeframe, and
(36:44):
they'll give you your, yourfiles that you need, as well as
a cover, find a good coverartist.
So, as long as you, if you justwant an ebook, they'll just
send you an ebook file.
Okay.
Get a.
You at least need an ebookcover If you want it in the
print.
You'll find someone that willgive you the print cover and
once you get that file you'reready to go.
(37:06):
You just go through Amazon,Apple books, Barnes, Noble,
IngramSpark is another reallygood distributor.
If you want your books inbookstores, and mainly with
IngramSpark is because mostbookstores will only order books
(37:27):
if they're given a wholesalediscount will only order books
if they're given a wholesalediscount.
So if you're just publishing onAmazon, you can certainly do
that, but if you want topossibly get into a bookstore,
the first thing the bookstore isgoing to say is are you on
Ingram?
And if you're not, then itdoesn't make sense for them to
(37:49):
do business with you, becausethen that forces them to buy
retail plus shipping and just toturn around and sell it for
retail.
They're not.
They're probably losing money.
Speaker 1 (37:56):
Yeah yeah, that makes sense.
So once you have so on amazon,like they'll they print the
books themselves or how doesthat?
Like, how does the, how do theyget the physical copy of a?
Speaker 2 (38:08):
book.
Yes, so say you're a reader andyou want to buy any book out
there.
Yeah, then you'll order it onAmazon.
It's print on demand, sothere's not a big warehouse that
Amazon has full of millions ofdifferent books.
Yeah, you'll order the book andtheir print uh plant wherever
(38:32):
it is.
We'll literally uh send theorder there and they'll print it
right then and there and shipit to your house and probably a
couple of days.
Speaker 1 (38:41):
Crazy.
Speaker 2 (38:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (38:42):
So, whether it's like a like a hard copy or a
paperback, like they, they haveall that set up, I guess, to to
print on whatever.
Whatever that author is isdesignated Pretty much.
Speaker 2 (38:54):
That's.
That's that's how it works,cause you, you, you can imagine.
There are millions of booksavailable.
If you were one on Amazon rightnow, like physical hard copy
books.
Multiply that by tens ofthousands of authors who are
publishing every year and youcan imagine the warehouse would
(39:18):
like take up city blocks.
Yeah.
And that's just not doable.
So with tech and moderntechnology now, the print on
demand, that's just the way tothe way it works right now, much
different from a brickandand-mortar bookstore.
Obviously, they have the booksthere, but they only have a few
thousand copies.
There are literally millions ofcopies, and then yep, they just
(39:39):
print them and send them rightto you.
Speaker 1 (39:43):
Yeah, that's pretty cool, pretty amazing.
But it makes sense, right?
You can't have a warehouse fullof books, that may or may not
sell, would you your next book?
So I imagine you have a fourthone that you're writing right
now.
Speaker 2 (39:59):
I do.
It's my memoir, based on mysheriff's office career.
Speaker 1 (40:03):
Okay cool.
So will you self-publish thatone again, or will you do
traditional publishing?
Speaker 2 (40:11):
Only if I have to.
Well, my last experience wasvery emotionally trying, uh,
which was ironic because youthink that as you progress in
your career, whatever it is,that you get better.
Yeah, but sometimes the moreyou do something, the the less
you really know, and I foundthat out.
(40:34):
Made some mistakes, but yeah,it's definitely an option and at
least I feel like I'm learningfrom my mistakes.
And it's not just thedifficulty of doing it, because
I can certainly do it again.
It's if you have a story thatyou really want to try to make
(40:57):
or break into the mainstream,which I do.
Being a serious author, you knowI could sell a few thousand
copies.
I can go to book fairs, like Idid yesterday.
I can sell myself.
You could even sell on your ownwebsite if you want to.
I don't, but other authors do.
But to get my book into brickand mortar bookstores or just to
(41:23):
be a household name, you know,for me it's not about the money
or the stature, it's about Ihave a story that I want to tell
and anyone else who's out therethat has always wanted to write
a book, they would also have todecide am I fine?
Just, you know, writing forfriends and family sell a few
(41:44):
copies here or there, or do Ireally want to try to break into
that mainstream and get mystory told to hundreds of
thousands of people?
Potentially?
Yeah, and I would love to,because I think the stories I
write are enlightening.
They're hopefully inspirationaland entertaining.
Speaker 1 (42:08):
How are you going about promoting the books and
getting out there Like what,what, what are those steps?
Speaker 2 (42:15):
Kind of like what I did and have been doing recently
with with the book fair, localbook fairs Okay, I go to
national conferences.
Advertising is is one thing.
Book giveaways goodreadscom hashas a great giveaway program
where you could put your book upand say, okay, I'm going to
give away 10 hard copies or ahundred eBooks, and in 30 days
(42:42):
my last book had 10,000 entrantsfor it, so that's great
exposure, cool.
Uh, social media is another onewhere you just you know
everyone's doing it.
Whatever business you have, youhave to be on social media, and
I'm a very private person.
I didn't have Facebook orInstagram until like a couple of
years ago.
I refused.
But then you just realizeyou're like, oh, okay, do I?
(43:04):
Do I just want to like sit inmy living room and stare at my
own book, or do I want to liketry to get other people to read
it?
Speaker 1 (43:11):
So yeah, yeah, that's a.
I kind of went through the samething like getting into real
estate.
I mean, I was young enoughwhere I still I like I had
social media accounts, whatever,but I was never big at like let
me post and share everythingthat's going on or create some
account or whatever.
But yeah, it's um, you have todo it.
(43:32):
I heard something the other day, um, about like creating
content and it's like you justhave to like that's who you are,
right, like you just have tobecome that person that like
enjoys creating content and thatsort of stuff and it just
becomes a part of of what you do.
It's like, I think, to reallymaximize like your goal of
(43:52):
promoting the book or promotingyour story and stuff.
Right.
Speaker 2 (43:56):
That's a really good point, because if you're going
to be in any kind of businessyou know, in real estate, or if
you're owning any kind ofbusiness yourself, including
being a self-published author,or I will even say, even if
you're a traditional author, youstill have to market your own
book mm-hmm so you know, if youdon't have a website, get one.
(44:24):
It helps to have a newsletter toput out there.
The social media is huge.
If you're not a social mediaperson, to your point, learn.
You know you're going to haveto.
You know, and it's like and ifand if you don't, uh, you know,
no one's forcing you to do it,but you're going to get left
behind.
So that's the modern age, youknow, and I think part of my
(44:46):
resistance with social media forso long is I didn't grow up
with the internet.
Resistance with social mediafor so long is I didn't grow up
with the internet.
So I grew up in the lateseventies and the eighties into
the nineties.
You know, I had a pager.
My first cell phone was a flipphone that you had to, like you
know, go through the numbers totry to type, type something out.
I had 20 texts a month that Iwas allowed to send and for the
(45:09):
first few months, I think, Isent like 18 texts.
Speaker 1 (45:14):
It's great.
Yeah, that's wild to thinkabout that, like how fast the
technology has changed in thatregard, you know, yeah, so next
step, so you're writing yourmemoir.
Do you have other other ideasfor for books as well right now?
Or how does that come?
How does that work for you?
Speaker 2 (45:33):
do they just kind of come to, come to you and you're
like let me, let me write onthis, write some short stories,
and then it kind of expands, orif you ever had like a bulletin
board where you had like allkinds of things like to-do lists
, yeah, up there, or even likein your phone or whatever, and
you just realized like you addone and you just see like an old
(45:54):
note of something that you hadto do months ago that you
totally forgotten Like oh,that's kind of like how it is.
I've got ideas everywhere.
So, oh, probably a half dozenshort stories and two or three
novels that are constantlyswirling in my head.
I don't have time to write themall, yeah, so that's the
(46:17):
difficult thing.
It's ironic that I retired andI wrote two books, by the way,
while I was still working.
I just assumed that, okay, onceI retired from the full-time job
, I've got all my time.
You know it's like I'll spit abook out every other month.
You know it's just like it'sgoing to be easy.
Uh, it's.
(46:39):
In a lot of ways it's hardernow because I don't have that
structure regulating me.
So it's like you wake up, Idon't have to go to work at a
certain time anymore.
So you just really having to,you're your own boss and you
know you're your own time clock.
(47:00):
So that's a huge challenge forme.
So I definitely put the work in, but now I also have more time
to market and so that takes up alot more time and all that.
But yeah, tons of story ideas.
I was just in New Orleans a fewweeks ago scoping out something
(47:21):
for a potential story down theline Cool.
Speaker 1 (47:26):
Yeah, that's pretty neat.
Well, thanks for being here,man.
I appreciate you coming on tokind of share a little bit your
story and stuff and, um, it'sbeen great being able to chat
with you.
Speaker 2 (47:36):
I really appreciate the opportunity.
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (47:38):
So before before you leave, uh, your your three books
, where can people get them?
And then your website to kindof keep up to up to speed with
what you got going on.
Speaker 2 (47:47):
Yeah, so the three novels are all crime fiction,
they're all standalones.
They're Furlough Dead,reckoning and Letter 26.
They're available on a lot ofdifferent platforms, but the
easiest way to find them is justto go to my author website,
writerjakecom, and there aredirect links to like my Amazon
(48:08):
page.
They can find them there.
Links to like my Amazon page.
They can find them there.
They're available on ebook,print and audio, and on audio
they're on audible and uh andSpotify Cool.
Speaker 1 (48:19):
Did you read the audio yourself?
Speaker 2 (48:21):
I didn't.
No, I didn't, but everythingI've heard is that it's a very
rewarding process, so I'mputting serious thought into
narrating the next book.
Speaker 1 (48:32):
Yeah, you should.
You got a great voice for ittoo.
Speaker 2 (48:35):
Thanks, we'll see how it turns out.
Speaker 1 (48:39):
Cool.
Well, thanks for being here,Jacob.
Speaker 2 (48:40):
Thanks.
Speaker 1 (48:40):
Tony, thank you so much for listening to another
episode of Palmer Local Now.
We are incredibly grateful forour sponsors who make this show
possible.
Jacob, with Roadmap Money, besure to support these local
businesses and let's keepbuilding community together.
Until next time, stay connected, stay involved and keep making
Palm Harbor an amazing place tocall home.
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