Jason Stokes

Dark Friends Series

Today’s featured artist is a personal friend whom I came to know when another mutual friend and writer (thanks, Mary Pembleton!) invited me into a small writer’s group here in Asheville. I had just attempted to self-publish my first collection of stories, The Thirteenth Day of Christmas, and Jason kindly agreed to look at it with the possibility of bringing me into the Gestalt Media family.

Aside from being the co-owner and creator of GM with his very talented wife Anna Ray (featured in the April 26 issue of this newsletter), Jason is a talented writer and sculptor, an entrepreneur, and a well-traveled observer of people the world over.

The Interview

We’ve had plenty of wonderful conversations (sometimes over drinks and cigars) about writing, politics, and life’s absurdities, so it’s a special pleasure to have you as the featured guest in this newsletter.

You are a man of many interests and abilities which is reflected in your artistic endeavors as well. You draw, write, and sculpt. Do you have a favorite medium, or is it really just whatever project is at hand?

At heart, I am a storyteller. Any way you can do that is something I have interest in exploring.

My two oldest passions have been writing and drawing. They were the easiest to learn growing up, the easiest to do in terms of having no income and they were accessible. So I really enjoy both of those.

I enjoy nothing more than sculpture, however. It really is a unique art form that takes on its own majestic qualities.

Which of these do you find the hardest?

Drawing is the hardest. Working in two dimensions is extremely difficult in terms of learning how to force perception. Making something that is already a thing is easier than creating the illusion of it. So drawing for sure is very difficult in that regard.

Which is the most rewarding?

Each has its own reward. Writing Watcher for my wife is the most rewarding thing I’ve done so far. Getting to do something for the disabled community, to bring awareness to MS and other immune diseases and most importantly to put a character like her in a story as something more than a gimmick or pandering was huge. She’s the real hero and now she gets to be one where the world can see.

What inspired you to try your hand at sculpting?

Literally, I was drawing and I found it frustrating that I wasn’t getting all the angles I wanted and I couldn’t quite express the depth of what I was trying to create so I was like….screw it, let’s just make it in 3D.

It seems like sculpting anatomy would require some formal training. Have you had formal training in this area?

Very little, honestly. I found that I just had a natural knack for it. Part of that is from studying anatomy as a pencil artist. I was a pretty accomplished pencil artist before I began sculpting so I knew the forms and I’ve studied people extensively. (Read: creepily staring at strangers in public.)

I did get a chance to do a week-long session with Phillipe Faraut, who, in my opinion, is one of the true modern masters of the craft. That was several years into my own work but what I learned was invaluable for sure.

Is being able to draw well a prerequisite for sculpting?

I think it helps but no. There are sculptors who can’t hold a pencil straight. But all figurative art informs the rest, so anything you can be good at will give you a leg up on the other styles.

It’s very very useful for either painters, pencil artists or sculptors or anywhere in between to practice the other disciplines for a fresh outlook on their own work.

(Above image: a Jorōgumo, “a type of Yōkai, a creature from Japanese folklore that can shapeshift into a beautiful woman. The kanji for its actual meaning is 女郎蜘蛛 or ‘woman-spider’.” – Wikepedia)

Are any of your sculptures available for the public to purchase?

At this moment, no. However, that will change in the near future. If anyone would like to talk about commissioning a piece, we are definitely exploring that avenue right now.

I’m available at Jason@Gestalt-Media.com and my work is only presented on our Facebook page Gestalt Studios at the moment but we will expand that in the coming year.

(Figure: Chun-Li from the Street Fighter video game series)

Let’s talk about writing for a bit. You’ve published two novels so far and I know you have plans for many more. One of them, Watcher, a terrific action suspense thriller, features a female protagonist with Multiple Sclerosis.

It’s no secret that Teri’s character was inspired by your wife and her valiant daily struggle with MS. Is this personal connection to the story why Watcher was your first published book? Did that connection make the story easier or harder to tell?

Watcher was the fifth novel I wrote but it was the first one I let my wife read. I think having that accountability and the fact that it had such a powerful message is the reason it became the first finished MS. I was really motivated to get this story into the world and if I never did anything else, I think that one accomplishment would have made me happy.

What kinds of reactions have you had from readers about Watcher? Any who also deal with physical challenges as Teri does in the story?

It’s hugely popular among the MS community but honestly, it’s extremely well-received everywhere it goes. Like most fiction these days it suffers from circulation sickness, as in we’re not getting any. But whenever it does get picked up I’ve never had a bad review. People love this action-packed mystery with a feisty but flawed heroine and a cast of characters that keep you engaged beginning to end.

Your second novel, Ghost Story, is a great tale that relates a very unique road trip for its main character, Justin, a young man who is what many people refer to as “spirit sensitive.” The terrifying scenes in the book are portrayed so realistically, one can’t help wondering if any of them were inspired by real-life incidents that you experienced. Were they?

All of them. And I mean that. Anyone who reads my work will see Justin’s apartment again and again. I’ve made no secret that the Ghent area in Norfolk provided massive amounts of paranormal story fodder for me while I was living there. I finally sat down and told what exactly happened there for the audiobook Haunted: True Tales of the Paranormal.

The other cities Justin visits in Ghost Story are favorite places of mine around the US, most I’ve lived in or spent a lot of time in. The Key West portion is actually less than true because I originally wrote out exactly what did happen there and it was unbelievable. It just didn’t seem possible, or at the least, likely, so I tapered it back a bit. Everything contextually was true but I tamed it down a bit to seem more like fiction and less like…real life.

You’ve also edited a collection of true ghost stories that are compiled into an audio book called Haunted: True Tales of the Paranormal. What was the process like for creating this project?

This was the most fun I’ve had on a project in a long time. I’m a huge paranormal nerd. I LOVED X-Files and Tales from the Crypt–– anything creepy growing up––so collecting ghost stories was something I wanted to do. We just decided it’d be really cool if we published in audio (with a paperback companion available from Gestalt Media ) and put some really creepy music behind it.

Luckily the uber-talented musician and friend of ours Mombi Yuleman was available and he actually scored the entire thing as an original for us. It REALLY made the difference and the finished product is something I’ll be proud of for a long time.

(Note from DAV: the ambient soundtrack for Haunted: True Tales of the Paranormal by Mombi Yuleman without the narration, like the other works previously mentioned, is accessible by clicking on the link provided or on the image shown here.)

The stories in Haunted are really creepy, especially because the listener gets to hear them from the people who experienced them. Since you’ve written about the supernatural and helped publish people’s personal ghost stories, what do you think? Are ghosts real?

Probably. From what I’ve seen and experienced it’s hard not to believe something is happening. What that is…that’s harder to say.

Now aliens…that shit is DEFINITELY real. Write it down.

Your publishing company Gestalt Media has a mission of serving independent artists. What inspired you to create Gestalt Media?

Gestalt Media was created at first to hold my own stories, a place where I could retain creative control of my own work, but very shortly after I created the LLC we were approached to publish Dark Tides. Even before Stephen King and Neil Gaiman and the twenty-seven other incredibly talented authors signed on, the opportunity to do something profound for my former hometown of VA Beach which was suffering a great loss was impossible to pass up. From there, we kept talking to members of the writing community and it seemed like we had something to offer––a platform for underserved authors––and I truly love being able to make those dreams come true.

GM has recently launched a creative book service called Read This Next. Would you briefly explain what it is and how it works?

Read This Next is a platform that looks and feels exactly like Book of the Month except for two major differences.

1: We do not serve exclusively big-name authors.

We pick books based on merit alone. This means you might see a Barnes&Noble bestseller in our box, but you’re just as likely to see an indie author who proved through their storytelling they deserved to be one.

2: We’re digital only.

I’m a BOTM subscriber and I have over 1,000 books in my house right now. We didn’t need more paperbacks shipping out to people’s homes which are expensive to produce and ship and impossible to offer at a fair price. Indie Book Box did a wonderful job of that and when they closed I contacted the owner and we hashed out where they went wrong.

Then with the advice that had been lingering from a certain newsletter author *cough * David *cough, cough* …uh, you helped form that idea when we were discussing podcast ideas, I believe.

We were looking for yet another way to help out authors struggling to get noticed and this is what happened.

There are big changes coming from RTN in the future so that’s definitely a space to watch.

You’ve also been intimately involved with a series of anthologies that have included some pretty big names in horror fiction. Could you tell us how that project developed, and what we can expect in the future?

Dark Tides, the original anthology that launched GM in the first place came about after a tragic shooting in VA Beach in May of 2019. A friend of mine John J. Questore who is editor on the collection wanted to do something to help so he leveraged his contacts, which included a ton of super talented horror writers and formed the idea for Dark Tides.

We managed to get lucky swinging for the fences and gathered in some huge names who kindly donated their stories and in turn we donated 100% of the profits to the families who were affected that day. And we still do, all sales for Dark Tides will continue to benefit charity 100% forever.

We have another anthology releasing on Indiegogo (because a normal pre-sale just wouldn’t work with the perks we want to give out) sometime in June. This one will be the third entry in the Tales of the Lost series and the table of contents on this one is nothing to sneeze at, trust me.

What’s next on the creative horizon for Jason Stokes?

More? You want more?!?

I don’t know, man. Keep creating, keep telling stories and hopefully keep making a difference in society ’cause…what else can you do, really?

Links for Jason Stokes:

Gestalt Studios Facebook Page