Author Archives: Joe Hinojosa

Unknown's avatar

About Joe Hinojosa

Official account of a writer in potentia. Blogger, student, bibliophile and novice book reviewer.

Writing Project: Giada

Posted on by
Reply

It’s Saturday night, and once again I’m at home, twiddling my thumbs, wishing I had something to do. That’s not quite true. I have something to do, I’m just not doing it. What I mean to say is that I wish I had somewhere to go. No matter. I need to sit myself down to do some serious writing.

I’ve started another project, which in all honesty is an extension of another, my first and still unpublished book, Son of the Father. The new book is called Giada, after a character I’m pulling from my first book, and expanding upon.

As originally conceived, Giada worked as an escort, which really was a cheap shot at my ex. I wanted to get back at her, so I made her character a prostitute, and to make it even better, I killed her. Unfortunately for me, by the time I did so, I fell in love with my own creation. I have bad taste in women, even fictional one that I create.

The Giada character worked well, she was funny, mischievous, and a great foil for my main character, a priest by the name of Israel Mendoza. The problem was that she didn’t fit the story I was telling. I introduced her in a serious of flashbacks, using her to tell some of Israel’s back story. It took away from the story I wanted to tell, of a bishop finding out he has a grown up son, and having to deal with the fall out from the news, both emotionally and privately, and publicly, as the face of a U.S. Roman Catholic Diocese.

I had to cut her out, but I didn’t want to lose her, and I didn’t want to completely cut out her role in Israel’s life. Instead, I chose to write the back story as a separate piece, to set up the next novel, which will be a rewritten version of Son of the Father, with more emphasis on the son and not a dead prostitute.

Now that I decided to do that, I found that it’s not easy to tell an offshoot story, in this case a prequel, although if published, it will come as the first book of a series. It’s difficult to expand a role that only fit into three chapters of the original incarnation of the story. I’m having to create new characters, as well as creating a new expanded story line.

I’m only at 5000 words at the moment. I need to set a daily word goal, say 2K, and work to meet or exceed that goal. That’s an easy 14k a week goal. I have ample time to write, I just haven’t maximized my time. So that puts my at 45K words by the end of the month, which should put me about halfway through the book.

I need to be done by the end of February, when I will hopefully turn my attention back to the book I wanted to publish last September, Unseen Obsession. I need to come up with a better title than that. I hate that title. I hope to publish that by the summer. All I need is to edit, rewrite, edit some more, find someone to make me a book cover because I’m useless when it comes to visuals, and then edit some more. I’m not panicking. Okay, I am.

I know what needs to be done, I just need to do it. So good night. I have more writing to do tonight.

Book Review: The Birth of Vengeance

Posted on by
3

The holidays are over, and we are at the beginning of a new year. So to all of you, Happy New Year! To start of on the right foot, I have a great book for you all. The Birth of Vengeance, by Paul Ross. You can follow him on Twitter @rossywrites.

frontcover tbov

When I began reading The Birth of Vengeance, I quietly wondered what the story was about. To begin with, you meet Jonathon Harper, a rather unremarkable young man, nearing the end of his school career, and looking forward to beginning college. His is a life which takes a turn for the worse when he’s becomes the target of a local gang of bullies and thugs, causing him to lose his one and only friend, and making him and his father flee his hometown for his safety.

It isn’t until several chapters on that he meets Thorn, a beautiful and dangerous woman, held captive and forced to be the subject of government experiments, and oh yeah, she’s a vampire. Once he is able to free Throne, the real story begins. Vengeance, then, is another entry into the burgeoning, and I would say over-crowded genre of Vampire literature.

So what makes Vengeance unique? We’ve seen vampires as heroes and we’ve seen vampires as villains. Thorn, at least in this novel, is neither. She’s content to be, to exist and co-exist, to feed and let live, only killing when she senses her victims mean to do her, and others harm. Not quite virtuous, but not entirely evil in a classical sense. Which is not to say she has a strong moral code.

She begins to mentor the weak and pathetic Jon, teaching him, molding him to become a man, to fight and to stand up for himself. Aided with a serum developed by Thorns captors, which when injected, gives the injectees vampire-like strength and aggression, Jon learns to fight, and begins a campaign to seek revenge on those who tormented him. In the end, this becomes a test. Jon has to prove his devotion to Thorn, and his worthiness of becoming a vampire.

The Birth of Vengeance is an easy read. Nothing remarkable about it, which is not to say it’s not worth checking out. It may not have the broad commercial appeal of a Twilight Saga, or the upcoming Vampire Academy, which in my book makes it even more appealing. This is not some lame, tween vampire romance novel.

What it is, however, is a coming-of-age story, where the protagonist must learn to face his fears, to grow up and take charge of his own destiny. He is forced to make life-altering decisions and accept the consequences of said decisions, and I’ll admit that I felt a grim sense of satisfaction whenever he meets his former tormentors.

Vengeance is a good, solid story, that should appeal to those who would like to enjoy a casual read. It’s entertaining, with some dark moments which are resolved in a satisfying manner. I wholly recommend you read it.

List of Book Reviews
Next Review – Crimson Return
Previous Review – Firstborn

Wanted: Writer needs writing project

Posted on by
1

Today is day three of 2014, and I’ve yet to find the motivation to get back to work on my writing. I’m sure I’m not alone in feeling apathetic about sitting down at the computer to pound out a couple of thousand words on a manuscript, or maybe putting off working on edits or rewrites. Have I given up completely on writing?

I hope this is temporary, and that I’ll find my mojo soon. I’m ready to get back to work, or I should say I’m ready to feel excited about wanting to write. I know I need to sit down and write, but the story I’m working on is a dead-end, again. I don’t like the main characters and I hate where the story is heading. I’ve shelved that project for the time being.

Now I’m left without a project to work on, and I’m feeling guilty about it. I’m thinking about resurrecting my first attempt at a novel, which I wrote as my first NaNoWriMo novel back in 2011. Funny how I can’t let 2011 go.

Son of the Father is about a Catholic Bishop who one day finds out he has a grown up son. At least that’s the premise I started with, but that’s not what I wrote. I want to rewrite the whole book so that I am left with what I originally intended. What’s keeping from starting is knowing that most of the original story will have to be sacrificed in order to create that story.

I’m enamored with one particular story arc, and I’m having a hard time letting it go. Bishop Israel Mendoza, prior to becoming a bishop, is a priest in the employ of the Vatican. He meets a woman in need of help, a prostitute who wants out of her situation. In the course of their interactions, they fall in love.

I love the story because it’s so tragic. Love is a wonderful thing, and there’s something about forbidden love that captivates us. I’m just not sure who it ties in to the narrative as a whole. Perhaps the answer is to spin it off and write it as its own book.

I’ll have to give it some thought before I commit myself to it, but it seems to be a good idea. That way I can take it out of my original story without having to lose it completely.

Turning away from the past

Posted on by
Reply

Joe Hinojosa

All my old posts have been successfully mothballed. I created a private blog and moved them so I would still have easy access to them, but no one else would, unless I give them access. I don’t see a reason why I would, but you never know.

Before I continue, Happy New Year! I know it’s a day late, but I worked all day yesterday, and coupled with only four hours of sleep, it made me a very tired and grumpy person. I’m better today, although I didn’t get much sleep. But I’m off today so I’ll get plenty of rest. Probably.

Now to the reason I’m writing today. I was asked on my Facebook page why I made all my old posts private. I didn’t have an answer then, but I do now. I want to take some time to address it one last time. I created this blog as a way to deal with a very painful chapter in my life. My marriage fell apart, I got a divorce, got into a new relationship, and then that relationship fell apart. Emotionally, I was a falling apart.

Psychologically, I feel that I wasn’t well. I was depressed, angry, and hating myself and life in general. I left a horrible job but ended up unemployed for a year. In a matter of about two years, I lost everything I had in my life, everything I had worked so hard to gain. Through it all, this blog helped keep me sane. So from 2011 through today, almost three years I’ve recorded my life on this site, my pain accessible to anyone who cared to visit it, not that I had many visitors.

For the past few months, a thought has been growing in my mind that I needed to prune the bad from the good, and that maybe the time had come to focus this blog solely on my writing. I came to the conclusion that the new year would be the time to do so.

This year, I’m moving forward with my life by leaving all my baggage behind. My intention was to leave everything I had ever published accessible forever, but now I decided otherwise. Moving on has come to mean leaving the pain behind. I’m not repressing it, I’m not burying it, but I am wrapping up that part of my life. I don’t want to look back on it any more. I want to focus my attention on what’s ahead.

As such, I’m dedicating this blog to reading and writing. I’ll continue to do my book reviews as long as people are willing to let me do them. I still plan to post on a regular basis, I haven’t decided what that schedule will be. The only decision I’ve made regarding that is I will no longer publish three times a week. At least for the foreseeable future.

We look at the new year as a time of renewal, a time of new beginnings, so I’m taking advantage of this belief. I’m saying goodbye to the painful memories and embracing the possibilities that await me in the future. I’ve carried 2011 with me for far too long. I’m ready to live in the present and I’m determined to make 2014 the best year of my life to date.

 

Book Review: Firstborn

Posted on by
1

Christmas is almost upon us, and we only have two weeks until the big day! – or if you work in retail like I do, the misery is almost over. Whether you celebrate the holidays or not, the weather is becoming colder, and it’s a great time to curl up with a good book. Luckily I have one for you.

I am reviewing Ryan Attard’s debut novel, Firstborn, the opening novel of The Legacy Series. It goes on sale Friday, December 13. You may follow Ryan on Facebook.

Firstborn © 2013 Ryan Attard AEC Stellar Publishing, Inc.

Firstborn © 2013 Ryan Attard AEC Stellar Publishing, Inc.

Hidden away from the view of men, a war has been waging between heaven and hell, between angels and demons. Life on Earth depends on striking a balance between the two forces, and for ages it has done so. But now a new terror is emerging, tipping the delicate balance and threatening mankind.

In Ryan Attard’s debut novel, Firstborn, we are introduced to Erik Ashenborn, a hero for hire who specializes in supernatural phenomena. He is a wizard from a magical family, one whose familial bonds have been strained, and one that is pushed to its breaking point when an unknown threat emerges.

We begin as Erik is hired to protect an innocent college student, a young woman who has caught the attention of demons. As he tries to protect her, he finds himself pitted against his twin sister Gil, a warlock who has aligned herself with angelic beings. Confused by the strange partnership, he nonetheless attempts to protect his charge, only to discover that she has a secret, one that she doesn’t even know, one which puts her in mortal peril.

As the danger mounts against him and humanity, it becomes compounded by mysteries that need to be explained, yet he fights against all odds. All the while, he grapples with discovering the truth about himself, and his family, and the curse that both binds them together and that tore them asunder.

Erik will need to choose between pride and doing what is best, for the sake of the innocent he has been hired to protect, and the safety of the earthly plane, Can he make peace with his sister, his past, and his destiny, or will the threat consume him and the world?

Let me first say that I was skeptical when I began to read this book. My chief problem was that the book is a story about wizards and the supernatural. Mix in a few demons and angels, and it easily could have become a joke. The risk in dealing with magic is that it’s all too easy to turn to the magical arts as a method to solve a problematic scene.

Happily, my worries were quickly put to rest. He not only created a universe, populating it with a rich assortment of characters, but he wrote in constraints to the use of magic, rules which helped him create a believable world. I had no trouble in envisioning it.

The push and pull between Erik and his sister is familiar, as is the need for Erik to prove himself to her, his family, and himself. The story was tense and the dialogue was crisp. The jokes could be a little corny at times, but Erik as the narrator seemed to acknowledge it with a wink. Sometimes it became a little to self-referential for my taste.

Other than that minor issue, I only have great things to say. Firstborn truly was an enjoyable read. This book is one of my favorites that I have reviewed so far. Since this is the first of a series, we can look forward to the next installment, one that I hope will not be delayed for too long.

List of Book Reviews
Next Review – The Birth of Vengeance
Previous Review –  Rogue Hunter: Dark Space