Life Models

My novel Life Models has been live and for sale in paperback and Kindle editions for about a month now.  I was very pleased that the artist Katy Hamilton allowed me to use her incredible drawing of me as the "author photo" on the back cover of the paperback edition.  The book is available at https://www.amazon.com/dp/1733090800

And here is the full paperback cover:

New book "Life Models" Cover Reveal

My novel Life Models is finally coming in early July, and I wanted to reveal the cover here in my long neglected art modeling blog.  So here it is...

Audio Book is On Sale!

It has been awhile since I updated this blog.  I am still modeling, but it seems as if the modeling work has slowed down lately.  I've also switched careers in my full time work, which may make taking more modeling gigs difficult, but I can never give up modeling.

The good news now is that the audio edition of The "Volunteer" is now out.  Danielle, the main character in the novel, takes up modeling for art classes during the story.  Here are the links to purchase the audiobook:

Amazon:  https://www.amazon.com/The-Volunteer-A-Novel/dp/B077YR8NSY/

Audible: https://www.audible.com/pd/Erotica-Sexuality/The-Volunteer-Audiobook/B0785NJCZN/

iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/audiobook/the-volunteer-a-novel-unabridged/id1322630342

Upcoming Audiobook

I am very happy to announce that the audio book edition of The “Volunteer” is now in production.  It is being narrated by the talented voice actor Loral Miller, who sounds like I envisioned Dani’s voice sounding.  We hope to have the audio book live on Amazon and Audible.com some time in March.  The “Volunteer” continues to be available in paperback and Kindle editions, of course.  In the meantime, here is the cover for the upcoming audio edition…

Carrie Fisher (from my author blog)

I posted this on my author blog at http://dhjonathan.com but I thought I would post it here too...

Like most people my age, I grew up watching the Star Wars movies.  The original was released the summer before I turned eleven years old.  Six years later, I was better able to appreciate that slave girl outfit that Princess Leia was forced to wear by Jabba the Hutt in Return of the Jedi.  She looked stunning, but then again, she had always looked stunning in the Star Wars movies in spite of the strange other-worldly hairstyles.

I never had serious aspirations to act, although I did participate in my high school theater club.  Writing was always my passion and my goal in life.  I started countless novels while finishing only a few, but everything I wrote was part of my education as a writer.  Four years after Return of the Jedi, Carrie Fisher published her first novel, Postcards from the Edge.  I remember picking it up in the bookstore and looking at the author photo, realizing that the person who had played Princess Leia was so much more than that character, and that that person had some of the same dreams that I had.  That she had persevered long enough to finish a novel and see its publication while also continuing an acting career was a great inspiration to me.

I saw Carrie Fisher last year at a Comic Con in Dallas.  The line to get her autograph was ridiculously long, and we had already spent way too much money at the event.  So we didn’t wait in that line.  Now, after her passing, I wish we had.  So long Carrie.  May the force be with you…

Author Blog

I have long been absent from this blog, and for that, I apologize.  I haven't modeled anywhere since the end of April, but I've been busy with an epic family vacation to Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks, a political campaign (I'm the Libertarian Party candidate for state representative in my district), and the publication of my debut novel.  My novel is published under my pen name, D.H. Jonathan, and is called The "Volunteer".  It is available in both paperback and Kindle editions here: https://www.amazon.com/Volunteer-Novel-D-H-Jonathan/dp/1534635246/

I've also started a new author blog for that pen name, which can be found here: http://dhjonathan.com.  It's registered via Wordpress, and I'm still trying to work my way through creating content on that platform.

The novel had its debut less than three weeks ago and has gotten a good response from readers (two five-star ratings on Goodreads.com and two reviews on Amazon, one a five-star and the other a four-star).  Because I posted a few months ago about my ongoing novel called Life Models, I do want to make it clear that The "Volunteer" is a totally different project (in fact, I wrote it while suffering writer's block on Life Models).  Life Models is still a work in progress...

I hope you'll visit me at dhjonthan.com and that you will give The "Volunteer" a try...

Life Drawing: a Novel

I have finally begun editing and rewriting the novel, called Life Models, that I started back in October 2013.  I never actually finished that first draft since the story had taken a turn that I knew would have to be drastically changed.  Because of this, my motivation just kind of petered out without putting an ending on the 84,000 word manuscript.

I retrieved the manuscript after it had lain dormant for over a year and started over at page one, revising and re-writing.  My female main character, Lydia, has undergone some radical changes from how I had written her in the first draft, which has necessitated changes throughout the story.  The plot also needed a lot more conflict to make it interesting, and these changes to Lydia help provide that.  I’m hoping to finish this draft in October so that I can start on a new project for 2015’s National Novel Writing Month.  I’ll pick up Life Models again in December for a third draft and a polish and hopefully have it ready to submit by February.

In the meantime, I’ve got a short story or two that I plan on submitting to magazines and literary journals.  To prepare for this, I bought the newly released 2016 Novel & Short Story Writer’s Market.  In one of the articles about outlining in the early part of that book, a novel called Life Drawing by Robin Black was referenced.  I was immediately intrigued since the first title for my novel was Life Drawing (I changed it to Life Models in December of 2013).  In fact, I was so intrigued that I ordered a copy from Amazon and read it in about two days this past week.

I will say that Robin Black’s Life Drawing is not the type of novel I normally read, but there are similarities to Life Models.  Both are told in first person and both involve (sort of) recently widowed spouses.  Infertility also plays a part in both stories.  When I received Life Drawing in the mail, I was surprised to find a full nine pages of quotes from reviews, which made it seem to me like the publisher was trying too hard to sell the book.

Ms. Black’s novel deals with an artist who is married to a writer.  The writer’s death is alluded to in the opening pages, but the rest of the novel deals with the two of them trying to maintain their marriage after a previous infidelity.  It is the type of family drama that I normally don’t enjoy, and I didn’t think I would like Life Drawing until late in the story, when the couple takes a trip to Cape Cod.  It was their exchange on the drive there that really sucked me into the story (finally).  When the writer’s death does come, it is shocking and jarring and would have been far too much if it hadn’t been alluded to in those first pages.  The story is, ultimately, a tragedy, but it is one that I did enjoy.  I’m glad the title prompted me to buy it, although there were no scenes in an actual life drawing class, nor were there any references to drawing the nude (in spite of the woman in what appears to be a robe on the cover).

I did notice that one of the review quotes in the opening pages of Life Drawing was from author Alice Sebold, the author of The Lovely Bones.  In 2007 Ms. Sebold did write and publish a novel called The Almost Moon which features an artist’s model as the central character.  I read it a number of years ago and had mixed feelings about it.  I do recommend it, however.