Welcome, gentle Reader, to 'Jaselle' - a free, online 'blogel'.

I guess this is something of an experiment. So as you understand, 'Jaselle' is a novel written some years back when I was 18 years old. It has been taking up space on my hard drive for quite awhile now. It seemed like an interesting idea to 'publish' it here and see what kind of reaction it gets.

The story itself is deceptively simple; it's about revenge and how blind hate can twist a soul and the lives around an individual, warping them, destroying them. But it is also about hope.

To a degree, I based the story structurally on Classical Greek tragedies (and if you read on and are familiar with Greek tragedies, you may guess which one influenced the story most).

'Jaselle' is by no means a perfect novel/blogel or piece of writing - not by a long shot! But there are things about it that I like to this day. There's a certain naivete about the central character, Jackson, as well as the writing itself that I like, though there are times I find Jackson disagreeable and frankly, quite annoying.

The title character herself, Jaselle, on the other hand is someone I grew very fond of. And yet annoyed with, too, for she became such a strong force in her own right that she wrestled the story away from me (to a degree), manipulating events seemingly to suit her own ends, which is so within her nature.

It would be easy to define 'Jaselle' as a typical 'Sex and Sin' potboiler (it certainly fits into that genre); the kind of book you would pick up from a newsagents at the airport, bus terminal or train station - something to while away the hours on a long trip. And that would be true, to a certain degree. But I would like to think that it has a little more going for it than that, if you so choose to look deeper. If you don't, that's fine too - just enjoy the ride.

I ought to point out that even as I write this introduction, I am still in the process of editing 'Jaselle'. The original manuscript was incredibly long and wordy and so I've been making a number of fairly ruthless cuts. I think the story will benefit and not suffer from this process. And please note that some chapters appear with 'Part 1' or 'Part 2' in the title, as opposed to a couple of chapters that have a '(1)' or a '(2)'. For example, Chapter 13: Jackson's Tale (Part 1), or The Meeting (1). The explanation behind this is simple: some chapters are just too long to present as one entry when writing in a 'blogel' format, so they've been spilt into two (or more) 'parts' for the benefit of online Readers; chapters that have a '(1)' or a '(2)' in the title indicate that there is another chapter of the same name, following a particular theme to the story, but otherwise these chapters are quite separate entries.

You might notice that I'm accepting donations via PayPal, as links or buttons appear on each page. No, this is not in order to fund a jet setting lifestyle. Part of this project is - hopefully - to raise funds so that I can self-publish my next novel. Whether or not Readers make donations is entirely up to the Readers themselves and I have no huge expectations. But I do admit: every little bit will help, so my thanks in advance.

All Readers who make donations will (unless they specify otherwise) receive a 'thank you' mention in the 'acknowledgements' of the novel I'm currently working on.

Like any struggling, would-be writer, I'm happy to take criticism and will respond to feedback so please feel free to leave a Note.

If you're interested, you can check out the author's own diary here at Diaryland by clicking here. I sincerely hope you enjoy 'Jaselle'.

Kind regards to all,

Jay Kerin

Thursday, August 5, 2004

PLEASE NOTE: Due to technical problems, updates ceased at the end of March 2005. However, new chapters will be added to Part Two of 'Jaselle' as of July 1, 2005. Thank you for your patience.