I was talking with my dad this morning about the French Open tennis tournament. Before I lose you with sports talk, this is a great metaphor for life that I think is worth your time, so stay with me. One of the tennis greats is Rafael Nadal, who had a stellar early career, and in […]
For Steam And Country — The Song!
I am not sure it’s going to ever get much cooler than this, even when the book comes out. A wonderful person by the name of Ben Zwycky came to me a few weeks ago and told me he’d written lyrics based on my work (Ben also did some copyediting/proofreading on the book, thank you […]
The Right Geek Podcast Interview
My apologies for not posting this link when it was live but today I was on The Right Geek podcast talking For Steam And Country, Star Realms as well as their respective genres. It was fun times. Enjoy:
#SteampunkMonth Retro Review: 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea
I had originally thought that this would a short read, something quick that I could get into and show its influence on the streampunk genre, as in steampunk communities, this book is talked about regularly. I’d considered it proto-steampunk from my loose memory of it as a child. Perhaps its due to its attitude, just […]
#Steampunk Month Guest Post: Author J.M. Anjewierden
This marks the first time I’ve ever had a guest post on my blog. Not sure how often I’ll do it but I saw that J.M. here had a really awesome Steampunk novel released this week, and invited him to come talk about his release a little bit. The book is Penny Dreadful and the […]
The File 770 Crowd Loves Me, Quite Literally
I’m actually pretty thrilled that Mike Glyer‘s crew over at File 770 has such incredible obsession with me. I don’t know any of these people in person, have barely talked to any of them if at all, except Mike proper, so it’s really flattering to say the least. Last week, I got a creepy poem […]
Behavioral Observations In Science Fiction
Now, I’ve been active in this scene for a long time. Been hanging around big name authors since about 2010, been reading since the 90s, so I think I have a good sample size of the general landscape, and how people react. Here’s the truth: There’s two groups, the old guard burnout mentality, and the […]
For Steam And Country – Now On Goodreads
Exciting news, fam! I would appreciate if you’d take a little bit of time for the below. There is a pre-order link there but please DON’T buy the book now. Amazon’s algorithm doesn’t count preorders toward day one sales. Wait for the June 15th release so we can get all of the Amazon rankings in […]
#SteampunkMonth On Naming Conventions
Already I’m seeing a small divide in the reviewers of For Steam And Country, and it has to do with the naming conventions. It’s a small thing, but it could lead to be a big thing if all goes well. I figured it’d be fun to talk about before the release (9 days to go!). […]
#Steampunk Month: Anime Rewatch – Last Exile Eps 1-3
Steampunk has been a concept that’s cropped up in a lot of Anime, some of which I’ll talk about more of this month — but Anime is a medium that’s allowed retro-futurist tech to flourish in their concepts, as they don’t have the same American need for “hard” science fiction or fantasy delineations, often making […]
The Last Crusade: Go Forth And Trust In God
One of the hardest things to do is trust in God. There’s always a doubt about what you’re going to do, but that doubt is seeded, and it’s something intentional to keep you from enacting God’s will. A lot of the time you’ll have this nagging sense in the back of your head: I need […]
#SteampunkMonth Short Story Review: Chasing Christmas Past by Melanie Karsak
I learned of Melanie Karsak’s Airship Racing Chronicles through a friend yesterday, and figured I’d check out the short story last night. The short is very short indeed, and it’s actually available for free on amazon, so well worth a try. The short opened in a personal moment, a sad Christmas eve of getting drunk […]
#SteampunkMonth – Why Steampunk?
I’ve tackled this topic on the blog before in a brief form, but I’ll expand upon it. Yesterday, on Twitter, I mentioned “I love steampunk because airships.” And this is mostly true. I would also say that seeing such elaborate and diverse costumes over the years has been equally as inspiring, but what drew me […]
Welcome To #Steampunk Month!
June 2017 marks Steampunk month, in which I and several other folk around the internet intend to celebrate all things Steampunk! I’m starting this initiative because mid-month, I’ll be releasing my second novel, For Steam And Country, which is my first steampunk fantasy: This book’s already getting some great buzz. The first professional review […]
Gorilla Mindset – It Really Works
This is more a reflection on the book Gorilla Mindset by Mike Cernovich and what it’s done to me than a straight review of the book. I’ve applied it, and shown how it’s been applied. How you utilize it will be your story. But this book actually allows for that more than many others,which is why […]
It Gets Even Crazier: Baycon and File 770’s Recent Tantrums
Last weekend, while I was having the time of my life, having a politics-free time with some cool folk who enjoy books and genres that I do, fake science fiction news site File 770 had one of their contributors write a weird fan fiction poem about me. Apparently, this person took quite the exception to […]
Bre Faucheux Interviews Jon Del Arroz – Wednesday May 31st!
I’m super excited to be talking with Bre. She’s got a really cool series of Fantasy novellas called Violet Blake, and she’s one of my favorite youtubers. I’m slightly offended that I didn’t get to be on “Champagne Thursday,” as I’m sure I’d about 3x as fun an interview with champagne, but what can you do. […]
#Steampunk Clockwork Alchemy 2017 Round-Up
Clockwork Alchemy in San Jose, CA marked the first time I’d attended a convention wholly dedicated to steampunk – and it was a lot of fun! The crowd had about the highest percentage of people in cosplay I’ve seen, all in elegantly designed Victorian or Steampunk attire, and many I talked to are regular participants […]
Hello Massive Influx Of New People!
Seems like I get these huge spikes in readers every couple of weeks. This time it came in from a couple sources — new friends at Clockwork Alchemy (I’ll do a write up of the convention tomorrow) and from space opera writer J.A. Sutherland who was kind enough to send out a nice newsletter post […]
Review: Your Name by Makoto Shinkai
I went into reading Your Name. thinking that it was going to be a stupid bodyswapping movie. Unfortunately, from American media, the whole “Freaky Friday” thing is so overdone in every television show – and done so poorly, that the concept jars me and makes me not want to pay any attention in the least. […]
Clockwork Alchemy – San Jose, CA – Tomorrow!
Come find me tomorrow at the Steampunk convention, Clockwork Alchemy. Might be around Sunday as well but no guarantees on that. I’ll have For Steam And Country bookmarks and special Grand Rislandian Army ribbons in promotion of the book. Hope to see you there, I’ll take some good pictures of the costumes. More Info: http://www.clockworkalchemy.com/
Retro Review: Star Wars: Dark Force Rising by Timothy Zahn
In my review of Heir to the Empire, I called it space opera t its finest. After reading Dark Force Rising, I am sorry to report that I am wrong, because THIS is space opera at it’s finest. While Heir to the Empire did a lot to set up the story in Dark Force Rising, […]
Sneak Peek of For Steam And Country – One Page Podcast!
Author and blogger Dawn Witzke of the One Page Podcast did a quick reading of the first page of For Steam And Country. It sounds fantastic read aloud! You can check it out here: http://dawnwitzke.com/index.php/2017/05/25/one-page-podcast-for-steam-and-country-by-jon-del-arroz/
Storyhack: A New Short Fiction Magazine Inspired By The #PulpRevolution
Storyhack is a new short fiction magazine, which is up on kickstarter now. I read their free Issue 0 which is available on their website, and have backed this kickstarter project as it’s got some of my favorite short fiction writers involved: Jay Barnson, Jon Mollison, and David J West to name a few. It’s also […]
