The One Blog

Once Upon a Time with… D.A. Godwin
Posted on November 10, 2019
Welcome to the story-themed interview, Once Upon a Time with… where we interview a fellow author. Today, we’d like to welcome D.A. Godwin, author of the Guardian’s Prophecy series. The first two books…
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Qwillery Interview Up and Readable
Posted on April 9, 2019
Hey Friends. The Qwillery (an awesome blog page and all round amazing website) just published an interview we did with them about the release of The Darkest Lord. Take a look and leave some feedback i…
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Paperback Writer
Posted on April 2, 2019
Dear Sir or Madam, Will you read our book. It took us months to write, will you take a look. It’s based on sci-fi and fantasy novels we’ve read over the years, and we love being paperback writers. Wit…
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Qwillery Blog Post
Posted on March 6, 2019
We just posted a new blog entry about “the trials of trilogies” on the Qwillery blog. If you get a chance wander over a take a look. The Qwillery A blog about books and other things speculative
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One Door Opens… And There’s Another Door (another open letter from Jack)
Posted on March 2, 2019
Hey All! First, I would like to thank everyone that sent back photos wearing our gear. Very cool! It really makes our day here in the Wonderful World of Jack to see all the Avery fans out there. Secon…
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Days 8 & 9: Where We Realize We Should Be Counting Down Not Up
Posted on February 24, 2019
Aha! So, you have been diligently logging in to follow Jack’s recent flurry of blog posts and you are beginning to ask, “What exactly is he up to?” The answer of course is celebrating the e-book relea…
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Day 7: References? We Don’t Need No Stinking References!
Posted on February 22, 2019
We are now 5 days to the launch of the final chapter of the Avery Stewart trilogy, and I want to turn your attention to one of my favorite parts of writing the Mysterium books: the references. If you…
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Days 4-6: Life, The Universe and Everything
Posted on February 20, 2019
This blog entry is entitled “Life, The Universe and Everything” because sometimes it seems as though all three of those conspire against our better intentions. Take this blog. Our intention was to cou…
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Day 3: Co-Authoring
Posted on February 17, 2019
Hey All, this is Harry, Jack’s East Coast arm here to celebrate Day 3 of the Countdown to The Darkest Lord (e-book publication date 2/26.) One of the questions that I’m asked at conventions and book s…
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Day 2: A Recap of Things That Have Been, Things That Are, and Things That Will Be
Posted on February 16, 2019
Hey All, this is John, Jack’s West Coast arm here to celebrate Day 2 of the Countdown to The Darkest Lord (e-book publication date 2/26) with a little recap of where we are and how we got here. By thi…
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On The 1st Day
Posted on February 14, 2019
Jack said let their be many prizes handed out. I want to thank all those that left comments on our website. I also want to thank everyone that engaged with us on Facebook or shared our post with other…
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Revealing A New Website For Jack
Posted on February 7, 2019
Hey all, it’s your good pal Jack. I realize it has been some time since there has been any activity on the blog and website. The reason for that is three-fold. First, I was trying to get The Darker Lo…
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The Farthest Shore: Reflections on Ursula K. Le Guin
Posted on January 26, 2018
Life rises out of death, death rises out of life; in being opposite they yearn to each other, they give birth to each other and are forever reborn. And with them all is reborn, the flower of the apple…
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The Magic of Totality
Posted on September 4, 2017
On August 21, 2017, many people across the United States were able to view a total solar eclipse. Estimates put the number somewhere in the vicinity of 20 million. I was one of them and I wanted to sh…
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Thank you.
Posted on May 27, 2017
On May 26, The Dark Lord was an Amazon Kindle Deal of the Day. There was no prior announcement. We hoped that it meant that we would sell some extra copies. We did what we could to inform people on Tw…
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The Disappearance of Jack Heckel
Posted on May 25, 2017
Hi everyone! This is the Harry half of Jack Heckel, and I’m writing this after speaking with John. The other day, a van pulled up and the occupants asked me why Jack Heckel had disappeared from his ow…
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My First Princess
Posted on December 28, 2016
She was my first princess, and she is still the image I carry in my mind when the word princess arises in any context. The year was 1977 and I was eight when Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope was rel…
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Into the Heart of the Dark Lord
Posted on October 28, 2016
There are times that the inspiration of a story can be traced to a single point in time. Stephanie Meyer has revealed that her Twilight series was born from a dream in which she saw a person in a mead…
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Once Upon a Time with… Nancy K. Wallace!
Posted on October 8, 2016
Welcome again to Once Upon a Time with… where we interview a fellow author. Today, we welcome Nancy K. Wallace, the author of Harper Voyager’s Fantasy series, Wolves of Llisé. Nancy was signe…
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What is The Dark Lord?
Posted on October 6, 2016
Fear The Dark Lord! In less than a month, the ebook of The Dark Lord will be available (November 1st to be exact!) We are very excited, but we’ve also realized that other than the cover reveal, we hav…
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Once Upon a Time with… Liana Brooks!
Posted on September 13, 2016
Hi everyone! Today we have a special guest, Liana Brooks, author of the Time & Shadows trilogy. She’s one of our fellow Harper Voyager Impulse authors, and her third book, DECOHERENCE, was release…
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Copy Edits for The Dark Lord
Posted on September 8, 2016
The time has come. We’ve received the copy edits for The Dark Lord back from Harper and are doing the final review of the text before everything is set in stone for the November 1st ebook release. Her…
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The Dark Lord Cover is Here!
Posted on September 2, 2016
It feels like we’ve been writing and rewriting The Dark Lord forever, but finally, November 1st, ebook release day, is just around the corner. Preorders are available. This is a new series for us, but…
Read moreThe Dark Lord Comes! Cover Reveal Tomorrow.
Posted on September 1, 2016
Hi everyone, Tomorrow, we will reveal the cover for The Dark Lord, Jack Heckel’s next book. It’s the start of a new series and our version of a love letter to roleplaying and epic fantasy. The Dark Lo…
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Twice the Author Jack Heckel Used To Be
Posted on August 27, 2016
Most people know that Jack Heckel is not one person, but actually the name that John Peck and Harry Heckel use for their writing team. If you didn’t know that, you know now. 🙂 Jack Heckel was a name…
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A Post-Facto PHXCC Running Diary
Posted on June 8, 2016
In a long tradition…that I am starting now, I’ve decided to do a post-facto running diary of Jack’s crazy couple of days at the Phoenix Comic-Con. Would it have been better to have done a diary that…
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Pitchfork of Destiny in Print Today!
Posted on May 17, 2016
Check out @HarperVoyagerUS’s Tweet: https://twitter.com/HarperVoyagerUS/status/732570834146078720?s=09
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A Premature Requiem for the Novel
Posted on April 9, 2016
As Jack Heckel basks in the glow of the release of the ebook version of The Pitchfork of Destiny (Amazon US, Amazon UK, iTunes, Barnes & Noble, Kobo), all the while hoping for good reviews, we…
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The Pitchfork of Destiny Arrives!
Posted on April 4, 2016
In the immortal words of the Scarlet Scoundrel, “Aha!” On April 5th, the ebook version of The Pitchfork of Destiny finally arrives on iTunes, for the Nook at Barnes & Noble, and for the Kindle on…
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And now for something a little different…
Posted on February 29, 2016
An interview with the Harry Heckel half of Jack Heckel. Thanks, Betsy!
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Update on The Pitchfork of Destiny
Posted on February 20, 2016
This is more of an update than a true blog post, but it’s been since December, so it seemed like a good time to reconnect with the world. We’ve been diligently working on edits and revisions to Pitchf…
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Three Promises and a Book Signing
Posted on December 12, 2015
Hi everyone and happy holidays! Today, we have a guest post from one of our fellow Harper Voyager authors, Bishop O’Connell. Additionally, he’ll be doing a book signing/reading with the Harry Heckel h…
Read moreArcadia Quest – Inferno
Posted on December 8, 2015
Hi everyone! We hope everyone’s having a great holiday season. We’ve been busy with edits for Pitchfork of Destiny. We hope everyone thinks of A Fairy-tale Ending as a fantastic stocking stuffer, and…
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Clothing Your Novel: The Process of Creating Cover Art
Posted on October 4, 2015
As I always say, clothes make the man. Of course, it goes without saying that the sentiment applies to the fairer sex as well. -Prince Charming, Happily Never After Okay, I have a confession: I am on…
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Mapping the Imagination: Or How I Learned to Love The Compass Rose
Posted on October 1, 2015
Map Royaume: Harper-Collins 2015 “Writing has nothing to do with meaning. It has to do with landsurveying and cartography, including the mapping of countries yet to come.” -Gilles Deleuze In a letter…
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Published… but now what?
Posted on September 13, 2015
Jack Heckel’s quest for publication began sometime in 2008, when we first had the idea for our novels. Most of the writing was done in 2009, probably bleeding into the early part of 2010. There were b…
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We’ve achieved couplet… I mean paperback!
Posted on August 26, 2015
A quick note to everyone. Yesterday saw the ebook release of A Fairy-tale Ending, which collects Once Upon a Rhyme and Happily Never After in the same volume. It includes some edits and a new map. If…
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A Fairy-tale Ending
Posted on August 14, 2015
It’s been a long time (last November) since we’ve been able to say a new Jack Heckel book is coming out. However, a new Jack Heckel book is being released this August, only it’s actually two old Jack…
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Once Upon a Time with… W.R. Gingell
Posted on July 25, 2015
Welcome dear readers to another fairytale story-themed interview, Once Upon a Time with… where we interview a fellow author. Today, we’d like to welcome W.R. Gingell, a Tasmanian author who lives in a…
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Once Upon a Time with… A.F.E. Smith
Posted on July 1, 2015
Today, I am having a special Once Upon a Time With… interview. That’s because not only am I getting the chance to interview one of my favorite new authors, A.F.E. Smith, but it’s her RELEASE DAY fo…
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Publicity and the Writer, Pt. 1
Posted on May 29, 2015
Hello? Is there anybody in there? Just nod if you can hear me. Is there anyone at home? – Pink Floyd, Comfortably Numb Comfortably Numb is a Pink Floyd song from the album The Wall, which somehow seem…
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Once Upon a Time with… Katherine Harbour
Posted on May 23, 2015
Welcome to the story-themed interview, Once Upon a Time with… where we interview a fellow author. Today, we’d like to welcome Katherine Harbour, author of the fantasy novel Thorn Jack and the upcoming…
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RavenCon 2015
Posted on April 26, 2015
So, I (the Harry Heckel half of Jack Heckel) spent this last weekend at a wonderful sci-fi, fantasy and horror convention. For the last several weeks, I’ve been dealing with allergies and some related…
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The Quest for the Pitchfork of Destiny
Posted on March 28, 2015
Happy March! I’m pleased to announce to the world that Pitchfork of Destiny (available for pre-order on Amazon), Book 3 of the Charming Tales, has made it into the hands of our editors. We fell quiet…
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Voyager Valentines: A Matchmaking Contest
Posted on February 4, 2015
Welcome to February, the month of holidays celebrating dead presidents, groundhogs and romance. After minutes of deliberation as to which of these three worthies to celebrate in blog form, I decided t…
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Guest Blogging on Supernatural Snark
Posted on January 9, 2015
As I was taking the Christmas tree down I realized that I never had a chance to tell everyone about my guest blog on the Supernatural Snark website. Rather than give my standard spiel about the book,…
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Mission Maleficent
Posted on January 9, 2015
So, recently a reporter from the Digital Journal approached your old pal Jack and asked for my thoughts on Disney’s movie, Maleficent. I, of course, was far too busy working my fingers to the bone on…
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Once Upon a Rhyme and Happily Never After eBook sale
Posted on December 27, 2014
Hi everyone, In order to fill your e-Stockings, Harper Collins has put both Once Upon a Rhyme and Happily Never After on sale until Jan. 5th. Here’s the link below: http://wmmorrow.hc.com/voyagerdeals…
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Into The Woods
Posted on December 23, 2014
As you know, Jack is a big fan of fairytales, and he has been waiting for Disney’s big screen version of Sondheim’s Into the Woods for some time. He couldn’t wait, so has posted an article on the TOR…
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The One Person I Wish Would Read My Book (This Week)…
Posted on December 10, 2014
I was spending some time wondering about how I could get more people to know about Once Upon a Rhyme and Happily Never After. I kept thinking if only the right person would read the book and tell the…
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HAPPILY NEVER AFTER: Charming Tales Volume II
Posted on November 25, 2014
Aha! The release date of Volume II of the Charming Tales is here! Follow the link under our books page to get your copy today. And, if you didn’t get the reference to “Aha!” then you obviously haven’…
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Once Upon a Time with… Bill Bridges
Posted on November 7, 2014
Welcome to our story-themed interview, Once Upon a Time with… where we interview a fellow author. Today, we’d like to welcome Bill Bridges, co-creator of the Fading Suns RPG and developer of Werewolf:…
Read moreGuest Posting at SurLaLune Fairy Tales Blog
Posted on October 31, 2014
I’m guest posting over at SurLaLune Fairy Tales Blog today – go take a look!
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More on New York Comic Con
Posted on October 26, 2014
Although it was two weekends ago, I feel like I’m still recovering from New York Comic Con. It was fun to be Jack Heckel and get to meet so many fans of fairy tales. I had a number of great talks with…
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Jack Heckel at New York Comic Con!
Posted on October 18, 2014
Once upon a time, Jack Heckel, in his guise as Harry Heckel, was invited to New York Comic Con. After much celebration and tremendous effort, he made it there (and if he can make it there, he should b…
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New TOR Article Up
Posted on October 17, 2014
The fifth in Jack’s series of articles for TOR is up. This one is entitled: “Are All Princesses Really Waiting For Their Princes To Come?” and explores/challenges traditional views of what a fairyta…
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The Villain of Once Upon a Rhyme
Posted on October 7, 2014
A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a post about the main character of Once Upon a Rhyme. The post broke down into a heated debate between Will Pickett and Charming, and of course, an argument could be mad…
Read moreSlarom, the Backward Morals of Fairytales
Posted on October 4, 2014
There’s a new article up on Tor.com – Slarom, the Backward Morals of Fairytales.
Read moreNew York Comic-Con Appearance Upcoming
Posted on October 2, 2014
Lots of interesting things going on, but first, everyone should know that copyedits have been completed on Happily Never After. It was an intense September with lots of work on The Charming Tales but…
Read moreMeet My Main Character – A Blog Hop
Posted on September 19, 2014
Welcome to the Meet My Main Character blog hop! Thank you to Katherine Harbour for inviting me. She’s one of my fellow Harper Voyager authors and shares my love of fairy tales, inviting her readers in…
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Cover for Happily Never After
Posted on September 18, 2014
Hi everyone, We’d like to thank Katherine Harbour for linking to us on her blog hop.Tomorrow, we’ll have our version of Meet Our Main Character featuring Will Pickett from Once Upon a Rhyme. Today, we…
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A Fortnight of Activity
Posted on September 14, 2014
It only seems like yesterday that we were staring at the websites for Amazon, Amazon UK, iBooks, Barnes and Noble while coming up with more sites and wondering a singular question: Is Once Upon a Rhym…
Read moreOnce Upon a Rhyme Released Today!
Posted on August 26, 2014
Once Upon a Rhyme is released and available for download as of today. Thank you to all of our readers, and of course to Harper Voyager!http://harpervoyagerbooks.com/2014/08/26/fairytale-rewrite-once-u…
Read moreThe August 26 SF/F Line Up
Posted on August 23, 2014
John Scalzi mentioned Once Upon a Rhyme on his blog! His book, Lock In, comes out on the same day. Coincidence? Who knows, but I’ll take it! I encourage everyone to check out some of these cool titles…
Read moreFairytale’s Most Wanted
Posted on August 22, 2014
I have a new post up at Tor.com – “Fairytale’s Most Wanted: The Five Most Well-Known Character Types.” Enjoy!
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One Week to Go and a Price Drop!
Posted on August 19, 2014
Once upon a time, way back in 2009, John Peck and Harry Heckel decided to write a book about a fairytale gone wrong. In one week, that book will be published as Once Upon a Rhyme. It feels incredible,…
Read moreArticle on Tor.com
Posted on August 14, 2014
Here is an article I did that Tor published. If you have the time check it out. This is the first of a series of five on fairy tales.
Read moreHanover Book Festival This Weekend
Posted on August 8, 2014
My Harry Heckel alter-ego will be at the Hanover Book Festival tomorrow – here’s the official information: The weather forecast calls for rain tomorrow. Are you looking for a great indoor activity for…
Read moreSan Diego Comic-Con: An Interesting Question
Posted on August 7, 2014
“Forty-two!” yelled Loonquawl. “Is that all you’ve got to show for seven and a half million years’ work?” “I checked it very thoroughly,” said the computer, “and that quite definitely is the answer. I…
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San Diego Comic-Con: First Impressions from a First-Time Author
Posted on July 29, 2014
“My idea of good company is the company of clever, well-informed people who have a great deal of conversation; that is what I call good company.” -Jane Austen This last week, on Thursday, July 23rd, a…
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Free in Harper Voyager Fantasy Science Fiction Sampler!
Posted on July 23, 2014
Hi everyone! As we count down to our San Diego Comic-Con panel (in 2 days), we have some great news! A rough draft of the prologue and chapter 1 of Once Upon a Rhyme are available free in Voyager: A S…
Read moreCome See Me at San Diego Comic Con!
Posted on June 29, 2014
Big news here from the land of Charming: one of my alter-egos, John Peck, has been invited to speak on a panel at the San Diego Comic Con (SDCC) about fairy tales. He joins some really talented author…
Read moreReading The Brothers Grimm
Posted on June 27, 2014
Although fairy tales are doing quite well today, when The Charming Tales were first being drafted in 2009, the explosion of shows like Grimm, Once Upon a Time, and movies like Frozen and Maleficent (b…
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Collaboration – The Charming Way
Posted on June 15, 2014
The question that comes up when people learn that Jack Heckel is the pen name of two different people is: how do you collaborate? It does seem right for a comedic fairytale to have some collaboration….
Read moreOnce Upon a Rhyme…
Posted on June 14, 2014
Once upon a time… The Charming Tales were born about five years ago in a time before the world had gone fairytale crazy with Frozen and Maleficent (two movies that I adore) or even Tangled or Once U…
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