Welcome to AJ Writing. I'm Alexander Jacobs.

It's funny how terminology so quickly seeps into our every cultural crevice. In 1999, the word “blog” held very little meaning to most individuals. A decade later, there's talk that the age of blogging may already be approaching its senescence. Micro-blogging social services like Twitter and even Facebook are pushing our already short attention spans even further towards oblivion, while traditional media outlets struggle to find their places in the wild, wild internet. Sound pretty chaotic? Well, it should. But with all the chaos comes a healthy dollop of excitement resting on a mounting pile of fresh opportunity.

Our society has traditionally been one of content consumers. We watch the news, we read books, and we view movies. Anyone could write a book, but few could distribute it without entry into a fortified castle owned by a traditional publisher. When a book is published, it's almost entirely a one-way corridor. You have the writer on one end and the readers on the other. It had to be this way because no plausible infrastructure for two-way communication existed. This is the old media model, and I'll come right to it: I want nothing to do with it.

I want to share my work directly with you. I'd like a transparent writing process so those of you who are interested can share your thoughts, and those who simply want a finished story will get that as well. I want to help others grow as writers, and I want to enrich my own storytelling with fresh perspectives. Most of all, I'm excited about how all of this will end up affecting the final product; I fully expect the site to grow and change in ways I can't anticipate.

Right now, though, I can tell you what you'll find on AJWriting.com:

The “Home” page will act like a typical blog: it'll hold site updates, my writing-related observations, and the occasional special feature.

Landon's World is a young adult science fiction novel I've been working on for the past couple of years. I'll be releasing it chapter-by-chapter at the rate of one chapter each month.  Along the way, there'll be illustrations, additional side stories not slated to appear in the final novel, and plenty of opportunities to share your own thoughts on the progression of the story. 

In Assorted Tales, you'll find short stories released on a semi-regular basis. First up, a comical tale about a paranoid employee's worst nightmares finally coming to fruition after ten dull years.

Enjoy!