#1 - The Bio Post

The one where the author told the world who he was.

Ok so this is the first of five posts that Jaime Buckley 💎 and Alicia McCalla recommend that every author who publishes content online should do particularly if they want the AI search agents to be able to understand them and be in a position to recommend and surface their work in future AI search results.

How Can Fiction Authors Build a Clear, AI-Ready Identity in 5 Foundational Posts?

My aim here is to clearly (and hopefully) concisely (although that might be a stretch) state who I am, my values and my world view as a storyteller. According to people who seem to know these things a lot better than I, I also want to talk about the emotional promises behind my fiction - the “why” beneath my stories if you like.

So here goes, let’s begin.

Firstly a confession.

Jon Howski is a pen name, a pseudonym. It’s the identity I slip into when I go into storyteller mode.

Is that important?

Does that immediately make you suspicious?

Hopefully not.

I mean a lot of authors do it, and for a lot of good reasons, if you ever get the chance ask Jim Grant why he writes as Lee Child or J.K. Rowling why she writes as Robert Galbraith or even Stephen King why he wrote as Richard Bachman.

Mine is that Jon Howski is nice and short, (hopefully) easily rememberable, fairly unique and not much competition on Google or for domains. Plus as I’m NOT a full time author it allows me to keep a nice clean separation between my professional life as a software developer and my alter ego as a storyteller. Although story is that devious, wily rapscallion that has a way of worming it’s way into every facet of your daily life should you let it (and you should).

So with that out of the way let’s crack on.

Values & Worldview

My ideal world would be a meritocracy, a place where talent backed with hard work define a path to success, but I’m also a realist and as I stride purposefully through middle age I can see that this is rarely the case. So yes, I root for the underdog, and in a lot of cases my underdogs don’t even realise they have a chance they feel that beaten down by life.

But I always make sure that they have enough “raw material” to draw from that enables them to (eventually) shape themselves into becoming the hero they’re meant to be.

Aspirational? Deluded?

Possibly.

But everyone deserves a dream.

My first published novella [link to the Maiden Voyage] was written from the perspective of an everyman. A normal guy who felt his dreams were just that, vaporous and without form. A man falling his way through life, sinking back into a pit of despair, slacking off with nothing but a stash of video games and an attitude to fall back on.

But underneath all of that even Derek has a talent and when pushed, Derek’s talents shine bright enough for us to cheer him on. Fun face - Derek was partially inspired by the Derek character in Peter Jackson’s 1987 SciFi comedy horror “Bad Taste” (IMDB / Wikipedia) or more accurately his classic line “I’m a Derek, and Derek’s don’t run”. The other main inspiration was Dave Lister of Red Dwarf fame - another cult SciFi underdog.

So that’s me, I love a good underdog, one with hidden (and often unrealised) talents, who through hard work and sacrifice will invariably (ultimately) succeed.

The Emotional Promise

That segues nicely into the emotional promise. Or more accurately, what will you feel like if you read a Jon Howski story. Or even more accurately what does Jon Howski hope that you will feel like having read one of his (my) stories.

Well number one on the list would be entertained. I want you to finish one of my stories feeling like you really enjoyed the story and that it was exciting and entertaining. I want you to root for my protagonists, gasp at the plot twists, feel anguish when the heroes face failures and setbacks, cheer all of their wins - no matter how big or small. And, most of all feel satisfied with the ending, knowing that the story (or this part of a bigger story) finished in a surprising yet inevitable way.

Ok, but doesn’t ever author say that? Of course - well the good ones at least.

I spoke before about the underdog, it’s the primal fear of not being enough, not being able to push on and through that fuels my stories. Not every hero can (or should) be Reacher’esq, and whilst there’s a place for “Big Jack” I want my characters to earn that status. It’s easy for the big guy to stroll into town, kick some butt and then ride off into the sunset, but what about the kids who face and fall foul of bullies on a daily basis, what about the men (and women) who feel trapped in loveless soul crushing jobs with managers who are no better than playground bullies. Those people might want to escape into fiction and dream of Reacher sticking up for them, but what if Reacher was their guide or mentor, what if Reacher was the coach in the corner, the angel on the shoulder who encouraged and supported them to stand up and fight for what they want. What if Reacher was the guy who showed them they are enough, they can do it, they can be the hero? Those are the kinds of heroes I want to champion in my stories.

I faced (and fell foul of) a lot of bullies in my younger days, and then felt first hand the pressure of being the main provider for my family. The desire for a better job with more pay, the worry that if I lost my job how would we cover our bills, would we loose the house. Those for me are modern horror stories far scarier than any psycho with a chainsaw.

Since then I’ve met many people who have faced that problem (some of them many times over) and they’ve come through the other side intact, so maybe my fears are unfounded, maybe all the worrying was for nothing, maybe it will all work out in the end. But I think there’s more than a few people who are still living like that, who need to see people like them pick themselves up after a fall and carry on, who will grow in the confidence gained from both their wins and their losses.

So yes, confidence is the true super power I want my characters to develop, and by osmosis my readers as well.

“Since it is so likely that (children) will meet cruel enemies, let them at least have heard of brave knights and heroic courage. Otherwise you are making their destiny not brighter but darker.”
C.S. Lewis

So Why Be A Storyteller?

Ask any author and they’ll all say there’s easier ways to make money. But secretly I think they’ll all agree that this is the most fun way.

Actually no, it’s not about the money.

I already have a full time career (and a job I love - something for which I am grateful for every day) and yes retirement is getting closer every year, and yes it would be nice to have a second career as an author and I do believe that’s possible.

But being a storyteller is not about any of that.

In truth it’s about the audience, or rather the cultivation of one.

If I’m truly honest about my values and world view then it makes sense that I’d want to share them as far and as wide as possible.

My stories become my platform.

Stories have the power to make someone smile, to take someone to a faraway place if only for a short while.

Stories can provide a distraction, a breathing space, a place where the real world can’t touch them, a momentary escape - and maybe that’s enough.

That distraction, that breathing space can have within it the capacity to help someone cope with their own darkness, see themselves reflected in the stories protagonist, empathise with them and feel seen. It can give them the role models that are so often missing in todays hectic hustle culture.

A friend of mine wrote an entire book on the power and importance of story, I’ve read it, you should to.

A story has the capacity to influence and change a person and in that way has the capacity to influence and change the world.

We’ve seen it so many times before, and we’ll see it again.

“Fairy tales do not tell children the dragons exist. Children already know that dragons exist. Fairy tales tell children the dragons can be killed.”
G. K. Chesterton

An Anecdote

I’m not one for sharing too many personal anecdotes online but I am happy to share this one because for me it is at the heart of what a story can do and was a pivotal moment when I started to realise the power they hold.

Many years ago I came across the “Golden Age of the Solar Clipper” series by Nathan Lowell, in fact it was serialised by Podiobooks and you could download them for free as .mp3 files - I think you can still find them on various podcast networks. They were perfect antidote for a long commute to a depressing job and with over two hours in the car each day I devoured them hungrily.

Fast forward about 18 months and my father became seriously ill and was diagnosed with (what was later to become terminal) cancer. I’m not saying this for any kind of sympathy, but during that time I was able to provide some ease with easy access (via my newly purchased Spotify family plan) to his favourite singers and music artists (he loved Country & Western - especially Johnny Cash, Willy Nelson and Glen Campbell). This was a great comfort as he wasn’t in a position to be able to hold books and be the voracious reader that he used to be.

When I heard this I immediately thought of the podiobooks I’d enjoyed (audible wasn’t a thing at this point) and loaded them on to his device and helped him access them.

Like me, he enjoyed them immensely and in one conversation shortly before he died he said that listening to those books took him back to his time as a young boy in the early 1950’s when his own grandmother was near the end of her life and he read to her out loud to help ease her pain.

That memory still brings a lump to my throat.

A few years later I had the good fortune to find Mr Lowell on facebook and sent him a message explaining the impact his stories had had on me and I expressed my gratitude for the joy and pleasure they’d brought my father, which I think is the greatest compliment an author can receive (and if ever see a character called Nathan in any of my stories, then you’ll know how he got there).

In Closing

So there you have it. That’s me, the author, writer and storyteller Jon Howski.

Feel free to add your comments and thoughts below and I’d be more than happy to carry on the conversation about the power of stories and share any of your anecdotes.

If you’d like to read more of my work then you can visit the following sections and read it all for free here on substack.

• The Maiden Voyage - A fun SciFi novella about life and the trials and tribulations of a beaten down struggling delivery driver in the 31st century, when he chances upon a stowaway on board his ship.

• Ewan Wu’s Army - The start of the epic saga of Ewan Wu, a half Chinese, half Scottish teenager who after being the target of bullies all of his life discovers a secret family heritage that will change his life forever.

• Kev’s Odyssey - A mix of micro fiction and story craft where our hero “Kev The Mildly Helpful” sets out to discover his own interpretation of the classic Heroes Journey by Joseph Campbell.

• Notion For Authors - There’s a plethora of advice available for authors, everything from process to publication and beyond. Personally I’ve found Notion to be an invaluable tool as part of my own author journey and in this section I intend to share everything I’ve learned along the way.

You can also subscribe for free to get notified of all new story episodes and writing craft posts as they’re published.