About Jim Yackel:
Jim Yackel is an author and Christian-rock singer/songwriter/recording artist. “Remembering Will” released in May 2015 is his latest novel. “Eyes Pried Open” released in October 2014 is the sequel to the End Times suspense/thriller “The Sleepwalkers” released earlier that year. The revised, omnibus Christian/End Times Fiction “The Wayfarers Complete Collection” encompasses the three original books of the Wayfarers Trilogy and was released in October of 2013. The intriguing Christian/End-Times fiction book “Dead-Ringer” rounds out his current bibliography and came in April of 2013.
What inspires you to write?
I’m inspired by my faith combined with the world I see and events transpiring around us. Additionally, the culture serves to inspire me as well as people I meet and even the conversations I hear in person and online. I am a sponge, so to speak.
Tell us about your writing process.
I’m an outlining seat of the pants writer – how’s that? I do a very basic and short outline on a notepad file, and fly by the seat of my pants from there. I like to allow the story to carry me along as I write. There has to be some spontaneity and improvisation, and yet I try to maintain the integrity of the original theme that inspired the story.
For Fiction Writers: Do you listen (or talk to) to your characters?
I don’t listen or talk to them so much as I try to think like they would think. I put their shoes on and walk in their steps. I do begin to admire some of these people that I create; some of them are much better as a person than I am…that’s SOME of them! I try to feel what they are feeling, but to answer this question most directly – no, I don’t talk or interact with them.
What advice would you give other writers?
Write what you would like to read. Certainly, we all have the desire to be a commercial success, but don’t sell out in that process. Write where your heart is and pour it all out. I write Christian fiction that is edgy and portrays a world and culture that isn’t always a clean and pretty place, and I do get criticized for it because there is a template for my genre and a stigma attached to it. My heart is led to write this “edgy” stuff and I believe it is where the Holy Spirit leads me. I’m trying to reach people that wouldn’t normally read Christian fiction in a way that they can understand, based on the world that they see and live in. So again, the bottom line is write what you like and be sure to proofread carefully. Hopefully, many others will love what you write.
How did you decide how to publish your books?
I decided to self-publish so as to maintain artistic control. Certainly, I’d love the money and promotion that one of the corporate publishers might put behind me, but I fear I’d end up writing to please them. It’s like this in the music business as well – do you make records your way or their way? And referencing the question above this one, I don’t know if the Christian fiction publishers would like the way that I tell a story. Some of my worldly characters speak in a less than eloquent manner you could say, so there you go. My advice to any new author would be to think carefully about your career and where you’d like it to go. You can make is as an Indie author, but certainly an established publisher can be a major asset to you.
What do you think about the future of book publishing?
It is so much like the music business. There are so many releasing product and so much for the reader to choose from. Indie publishing will continue to grow as long as everything stays the way it is now…and you can read into that what you may. Whatever the future may hold for book publishing, it will be driven by indies.
What do you use?: Professional Cover Designer
What genres do you write?: Christian fiction, Suspense, Mystery, Thriller, Spiritual Warfare
What formats are your books in?: Both eBook and Print
Website(s)
Jim Yackel Home Page Link
Link To Jim Yackel Page On Amazon
Your Social Media Links
Twitter
All information in this post is presented “as is” supplied by the author. We don’t edit to allow you the reader to hear the author in their own voice.
