Hello!

My name is Jay O’Keefe and I am a writer. I started this blog because I know that I have enjoyed reading the blogs of some of my favorite authors, and it is my sincerest hope that in the not-to-distant future I might be someone else’s favorite author. That’s the goal anyway. My first book, “Mattson Academy,” is coming out in 2023. I fully intend for there to be other books too. I suspect one book isn’t enough to become someone’s favorite author, so I suspect I’ll need to publish at least two or three more to go with it. Before I do that though, I figured introductions are in order.

I always liked reading. I was one of those lucky kids who had a bedtime, but it only meant I had to be IN bed, and could go on to read for as long as I damn well pleased because how much trouble could I get into if I was just up there reading? Well there were more than a few nights where I stayed up until 2am on a school night “just reading” but I don’t recall my mom ever formally trying to put a stop to it. I was and still am a fantasy junkie. I’ll dabble in other genres (especially horror) but fantasy in all its forms is the place I like to operate.

I have been writing for about five years, maybe more by the time you read this—I don’t plan to update it—which means my writing career, such as it is, started when I was 30. Prior to that my writing history amounted to a number of half-assed papers and books reports, a brief attempt at some anime fanfiction in middle school, and also a “chapter” (no idea how long it was) of a novel, also middle school. None of it went very far at the time or in the many years following—writing didn’t feel like it was for me. I did consider myself to be creative. I did a lot of sketching from childhood through college. I started learning by copying comic books and videogame instruction manual art, but I fell in love with anime in middle school and it heavily influenced my art from then on out. 

Once I got to college videogames and socializing became the primary interests in my life and most of my creative pursuits fell to the wayside.

Then, in 2017, I was going through a bit of a rough patch. I had a lot going on and I needed an outlet, and suddenly the crazy idea that I could write a novel popped back into my head. I figured, I liked reading, and I had a wildly overactive imagination, so how hard could it be?

Pretty darn hard, it turns out!

But I did it. My first novel took six months to write and clocked in at 112,000 words. And I’ve continued to write ever since. Writing got its hooks in me early. It turned out to be exactly what I needed exactly when I needed it. And the first time a friend of mine told me they finished my book I couldn’t quite believe it. Then some impostor syndrome stuff set in (a topic for its own post, I’m sure), but then other friends read the book, and some family. And then they said they wanted to read more. That was when I knew I wouldn’t stop writing. Even if it never amounted to anything. Even if the only people who ever read my books were family and friends, I wanted to keep doing it. I liked creating worlds too much to give it up.

That first novel is the one I’m going to ask you to buy. I liked it a lot. When I was writing other things I was always working on it in the back of my mind. I knew it could be better, and I wanted it to be better. The world was enjoyable to explore, the characters came naturally to me, and the story was, for lack of a better, fancier word, fun. It was a fun book to write and to read and to just be a part of and I wanted more of that. I went back and revised it based on feedback, both friendly and professional, and I am now working with a publisher to get it into the best shape it can be, and that’s the version I’ve been most excited to share. The book that will be on the shelves is going to be the closest thing I can give the world to the vision of this story that bangs around in my head day and night.

Getting my book published is a huge milestone for me, but it is certainly only the beginning of what I consider to be my writing career. I’m going to keep writing stories because at this point I think I have to. I can’t imagine a world where I’m not doing it, maybe not always at the same pace as now, but I imagine that itch will never truly go away. Hopefully at some point in that journey I become someone’s favorite author. Maybe more than one someone. But if not, that’s fine too. If a couple people say, “Oh yeah I read that Jay O’Keefe guy’s book. It wasn’t bad,” I’d be pretty ok with that too. 

I’m going to keep up this blog too. I’ll talk about my life, my books, my thoughts on writing (for what those are worth), and anything else that seems worth writing about when I sit down to do it. It should provide some decent insight into me, if that’s what you’re looking for. And, someday, if I’m your favorite author, and I’m taking too long to get that next book in your favorite series out, you can come here and see what I was doing instead of writing. 

I won’t blame you. I’ve done it myself.