Welcome!
1. When did you start writing?
I’ve been writing fiction my whole life, but I began writing professionally as a high school student (around 2004). I wrote researched opinion pieces for a local newspaper. This began a ten-year career as a print journalist. I ended up being an editor, as well. I worked for newspapers and a magazine and even won awards for some of my work. In 2013, health issues got in the way and forced me to quit my staff writer and editor position. While I took a few smaller jobs in the field, I inevitably had to quit altogether. The moment I found myself without much to do, I began writing my first book The Pyre Starter.
2. What motivates you to write?
I have stories in my head that I want to share with others. I also want to create stories with LGBTQIA+ and disabled characters so that my readers can experience those points of view. I feel an urge to write pretty much all the time.
3. What genre do you write in and what made you chose this particular genre?
I wrote a seven-book urban fantasy series because I wanted to see our world enhanced by magic. My two most recent books are sci-fi, however. I like both genres very much, and I also have an unpublished children’s book that is general fantasy with talking animals.
4. What is your goal in writing? Do you have dreams where your writing should take you?
My main goal is just to get readers. I want them to experience and hopefully enjoy my stories. Like most authors, however, any success would be appreciated. I want to do book talks and signings (I have done one and have one scheduled), become a bestseller, and maybe win an award or two. I will be more than happy without those things, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want that kind of success.
5. Do you ever suffer from writer’s block and if yes, how do you deal with it?
I do, occasionally. I find that if I go back to the last thing I wrote and look it over, there’s usually something wrong with it, which, if I change it, breaks the writer’s block and allows me to continue. If I take it in a new direction, for instance, that usually fixes it for me.
6. What advice would you like to give new, hopeful authors?
Just write. Don’t worry about if your piece is original enough or if it is marketable. Especially for a first book, the story inside you needs to get out. Help it.
As for those trying to get books published, consider all types of publishing. We all want that big book deal, but there are tons of reputable small presses with great contracts out there, and you typically don’t need an agent to submit your work to them. Self-publishing is also a good option, but keep in mind that it’s a lot of hard work to produce and market your own book. If you go the traditional route, try not to get discouraged. There are a lot of agents out there, and you may need to adjust your querying approach to reach the right one.
7. Please, tell us about your work.
I have published nine novels.
Seven were part of an adult fantasy series called The Talisman War. The series follows several protagonists as they deal with magic and a world that is torn apart by it. The main character, Dakota, has clinical depression and later a physical disability. I wrote him because I was dealing with PTSD and chronic illness and wanted to express what I was feeling. To this day, Dakota is my favorite character that I’ve written, and I relate to him the most. Kenna, a different character in the series, has PTSD, as well.
The eighth book is an adult sci-fi called Visions of Iotan, and it features benevolent, bison-sized aliens, a married gay couple with a child, and a talking capybara.
And the ninth book is The Wasteland Kings, a fusion of dystopian survival sci-fi and cyberpunk themes. This novel follows a gay hacker and a bisexual accountant as they both, through different reasons, end up in a wasteland between domed, high-tech cities. Their fates become intertwined as they try to survive.
As I mentioned earlier, I also have a finished children’s book that I plan to release under a pseudonym. I want to keep my adult books and any Middle Grade or Young Adult pieces separate.
It is important to me that all of my books contain diverse and fundamentally different characters. I want the reader to have fun, but I think they can do that with characters that are not necessarily like them. At the end of the day, I hope people like what I’ve written.
Thank you for being my guest. It was such a pleasure to have you here!!
Get to know Jaimie
Author Bio:
Jaimie N. Schock is an author, editor, and journalist with nearly two decades of professional experience. She has been published in newspapers and magazines and has released nine fiction novels.
She is married and living in Northern Virginia. Though she have an extensive career, she is disabled with PTSD and chronic illness. Schock tries to incorporate her life experiences into the fictional pieces she writes while delivering complex and diverse characters. Her pronouns are she/her, and she is proudly a member of the LGBTQIA+ community.
Author Website: https://www.jaimieschock.com/
Author Facebook (Personal): https://www.facebook.com/jai.schock
Author Facebook (Author Page): https://www.facebook.com/JaimieNSchock/
Author Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/heroesgetmade/
Author Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/18982110.Jaimie_N_Schock
Author Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Jaimie-N.-Schock/author/B07THB22QK
About the book:
Author Name: Jaimie N. Schock
Release Date: Saturday, November 25 2023
Tour Type: 7-Day Blog Tour
Tour Start Date: Sunday, January 7 2024
Publishing Company: JMS Books
Primary Plot Arc: Speculative Fiction
Pairings: There are three romantic pairings in the book, all of which are MM. I would say it is half romance, half sci-fi.
Main Genre(s): Romance, Science Fiction
Sub-Genres: Cyberpunk, survival, dystopian, queer
Story Type: Novel (>50k)
Word Count: 68,025
LGBTQ+ Identities (if applicable): Bi, gay, and non-binary
Keywords/Categories: robots, wasteland, future, futuristic, androids, cyborgs, body modification, queer sex, MM, MM romance, romance subplot, gay romance, love and lost, queer love, cyberpunk, dystopian, survival, sci-fi, science fiction, new release, announcement
Tropes: HFN
Is This Part of a Series?: No
Was This Book Published in An Earlier Edition?: No.
Book Blurb:
Hacker Bast has it all: a cushy condo, a sexy boyfriend, and a place among the wealthy elite. When his past catches up with him, he flees into the dreary and dangerous wastelands between domed cities. There, he meets Delphi, who saves him, and Galeron, who runs a small town. He is anything but safe, however, as robotic “dogs” roam the countryside, looking for people to kill, and humans can be just as deadly.
As Bast settles in to life in the town, he develops a controversial relationship with Galeron. They fall in love, but all is not well in their world. Can the two of them survive and reach the happy ending they long for, or will the wastelands take everything they hold dear?
Warnings: Guns, death, child death, violence, animal death, suicide, drug use, nazis.
Non-Exclusive Excerpt:
Breakfast was water. Lunch was water. Dinner was water. By the end of the next day, he had very little left.
He looked for anything that might help him survive. He found paper to start a fire; large decorative stones that he could throw at an animal; an ancient first aid kit featuring gauze, medical glue, tape, and rubbing alcohol; and a shaker filled with salt.
Bast couldn’t believe he’d found so much. He still needed food, however, and his hunger pangs were getting more severe as time went on.
He took an unopened bag of potato chips—not to eat, but to hopefully bring out animals that might be interested in consuming its contents. That night, he dumped the degraded snack into three piles and waited with a rock in hand.
The only thing that showed any interest was a large rat. It looked less than appetizing.
Bast didn’t hesitate. He threw a stone and then jumped on the dazed animal. He smashed its head with a larger rock. Breathing quickly, he sat back and stared at the dead creature.
He wondered if it was safe to eat, even cooked. After all, this animal lived in a polluted world.
First things first, he had to gut it. He’d seen people do it in old survival videos. Taking his small knife, he made an incision along the abdomen and began carefully digging out the digestive system, so as not to break it open. He imagined the bacteria in the stomach and intestines would ruin the meat if it got out. He gagged more than once and tasted bile.
Bast cut off the crushed head and placed the animal in a cigar box. It would last a day or so, he thought. The air was cold, to the point of making him shiver, so it should help preserve the rat.
Now, he really needed to find a way to make fire.
After sleeping for a few hours, he started out as soon as the sun poked through the trees. He wasn’t an expert on survival—not even close. But he knew from movies that there were ways to produce a spark without the use of a lighter or matches.
Near mid-day, he found what he needed:
An old pair of glasses, tucked into the pocket of a person’s naturally mummified corpse.
It was one of several bodies he encountered so far. Bast didn’t want to touch it. The thought of being around a long-dead body made him queasy. The only other times he’d seen a dead body were at funerals and when he killed that police officer. This was different. The body thankfully didn’t smell anymore, but it looked horrific. Drawn lips over skeletal teeth. Missing eyes. Gnarled hands clutching at nothing. If he didn’t need the glasses to survive, he would have stayed far away from the corpse.
He planned to utilize the sun by focusing light onto the paper and hopefully burning it. Bast took the glasses and the rat and found a clearing. He placed the paper and some small sticks on a pile and tried to aim sunlight at it.
At first, it didn’t work. Then, the paper began to smolder. Small amounts of smoke rose up, and he could smell ashes. Bast joyfully added bigger sticks and blew on the fire to encourage it. When the fire grew, he stuck his dead rat on a metal rod and held it over the flames. He couldn’t be happier to eat a day-old polluted rat.
He cooked the animal until it was nearly too tough to eat. Bast pulled off the greasy meat with his fingers and ate it all in little more than a minute. He was still very hungry when he discarded the bones and fur.
Regardless, he felt energized by the small amount of food. And now he knew he could cook something if and when he caught another critter. For the first time, he felt hopeful—and then he ran out of water.
For the next twenty-four hours or so, Bast spent nearly every waking moment looking for more liquids. He would have tried old beverages of almost any kind if it meant he could have his thirst satisfied.
He found nothing. With the empty water jug in hand, he stooped over a stream, wondering if it was worth tempting fate. He could certainly find a pot and boil the water, which would take care of germs, but if it was filled with chemicals, plastics, and man-made contaminants, no amount of boiling would fix that. He knew he was still pretty close to the cities. He knew it could kill him. Sighing, he filled the jug and put it in his bag.
Bast went another full day without drinking anything. It was agony. He found an empty metal bottle and put that in a fire with some of the creek water. By the time it cooled enough to drink, a black slime covered the top of the liquid. He threw it out, preferring to die over drinking something that disgusting.
His limbs stopped working properly. He tripped while walking along uneven asphalt. When he looked down at his bleeding knee, his vision tunneled, and he passed out.
Universal Buy Link:
https://books2read.com/TheWastelandKings
Giveaway:
Jaimie is giving away a $20 Amazon gift card with this tour:
Direct Link: http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/b60e8d47305/
Brought to you by:
Other Worlds Ink
Writer's Treasure Chest 
You must be logged in to post a comment.