Who I am
Jerrod S. Smelker is the owner/operator/writer for Last Leaf Publishing and Wicked Harvest Books.
Author of "NINA" (A Novel), “Vigilant in Today’s World” series of crime prevention books, “Wicked Harvest: Michigan Monsters & Macabre” series of spooky short stories and books along with numerous other books such as “Tales From the Beyond” HCP series, "Heaven's Heroes" and to be published soon “Orphan King”.
He grew up in Ionia, a quaint small town smack dab in the middle of Michigan between Grand Rapids and the state’s capital, Lansing.
He enjoys history, writing, reading, fine cigars and pipes, craft beers and hard ciders, bourbon and moonshine, good coffee (with French Vanilla creamer), and Michigan road trips.
He is a small town boy at heart whose soul is forever deeply rooted in the fall season and the Halloween holiday.
He currently lives in Grand Blanc Michigan with his wife Shana, kids and cats.
He can be reached at jsmelker@hotmail.com
MEMBER
Michigan Writers
Halloween Preservation Society
Goodreads
MY FAVORITE STORIES & READS
Paddle Your Own Canoe - Nick Offerman (Yes, from Parks and Rec)
Capital Gaines - Chip Gaines (Yes, that guy from HGTV "Fixer Upper")
A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow - Washington Irving
The Greatest Generation - Tom Brokaw
The Greatest Generation Speaks - Tom Brokaw
October Dreams: A Celebration of Halloween
Wicked Witches: An Anthology of New England Horror Writers
Haunted Lansing - Jenn Carpenter
Dark World - Zak Bagans (from Ghost Adventures)
The Handbook for the Recently Deceased (HA!! BeetleJuice!!)
More to come...
MY FAVORITE PODCASTS
Monsters Among Us
Hill City Paranormal
Creepy Caffeine
Hillbilly Horror Stories
Graveyard Tales
Weird Darkness
So Dead
Paranormal Mysteries
Dead Zone Drive-In
History Goes Bump
Preserve Halloween Podcast
More to come...
MY FAVORITE PRODUCTS & STUFF
Deadtime Stories: True Crime and Other Books - Bookstore, Lansing, MI
Cigars International - All things cigars! - Internet
Bones Coffee - Some of the best flavored coffee out there and cool packaging
Horrocks Coffee - Cinnamon Hazelnut, Chocolate Hazelnut, Blueberry Muffin...and on and on. Delish!
Greywick Lane - Awesome spooky candles, body butters and sprays - Etsy
Austin Rounds Gallery - Works of Artist / Illustrator Austin Rounds
Book Cover Design - Contact Bookdesign at Fiverr...she is amazing and has done several of my covers. Great to work with.
MY FAVORITE WRITING QUOTES FROM AUTHORS
I try to create sympathy for my characters, then turn the monsters loose.
– Stephen King
It’s none of their business that you have to learn to write. Let them think you were born that way.
– Ernest Hemingway
If you can tell stories, create characters, devise incidents, and have sincerity and passion, it doesn’t matter a damn how you write.
– Somerset Maugham
It is perfectly okay to write garbage—as long as you edit brilliantly.
– C. J. Cherryh
It took me fifteen years to discover I had no talent for writing, but I couldn’t give it up because by that time I was too famous.
– Robert Benchley
Any man who keeps working is not a failure. He may not be a great writer, but if he applies the old-fashioned virtues of hard, constant labor, he’ll eventually make some kind of career for himself as writer.
– Ray Bradbury
I have been successful probably because I have always realized that I knew nothing about writing and have merely tried to tell an interesting story entertainingly.
– Edgar Rice Burroughs
People on the outside think there’s something magical about writing, that you go up in the attic at midnight and cast the bones and come down in the morning with a story, but it isn’t like that. You sit in back of the typewriter and you work, and that’s all there is to it.
– Harlan Ellison
Get it down. Take chances. It may be bad, but it’s the only way you can do anything really good.
– William Faulkner
Writing is its own reward.
– Henry Miller
You learn by writing short stories. Keep writing short stories. The money’s in novels, but writing short stories keeps your writing lean and pointed.
– Larry Niven