WRFH/Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM - The WRFH Interview: Jayden Jelso

Episode Date: May 16, 2025

Jayden Jelso is an aspiring author, screenwriter, and filmmaker. He started writing his debut novel, Talon, when he was only sixteen and published it at eighteen. His forthcoming novel, Magistrate, is scheduled for release soon. He posts about his current work in progress on his Instagram feed @authorjaydenjelso.He joins WRFH for a conversation. From 05/16/25.

Hello, everyone. I'm Harold Bursner on Radio Free Hillsdale, 101.7 FM. I'm here interviewing Jaden Joso, author of Talon in its upcoming sequel, Magistrate, which will be releasing soon. Hopefully by the end of the summer. Is that right? Yes. Okay. So, do you want to give a brief description of what Talon is about and maybe its sequel if you don't want to give anything away? Yeah, for sure. So the first book is about a kid who's an orphan. He's living in a futuristic New York City and someone tries to assassinate him and he doesn't know who the person is. He knows what she looks like. He knows her name, but he doesn't know who she is or why she tried to kill him. He escapes and eventually teams up with two other people his age in order to figure out why he was targeted for

assassination because he doesn't know why. And through attempting to figure that out, they uncover a big conspiracy, a big plot by the governor of New York to carry out an atrocity. And they eventually band together to attempt to stop him. And that's the first book, which can be read as a standalone. But I chose to turn it into a series because I loved these characters and I loved writing about them. So I decided to write two more books. I have the first draft of the second one. The first draft is finished, but I have to go through an edit and format, do all that stuff.

And hopefully, like you said, it'll be released by the end of the summer. But that one is, it takes place, of course, after the first book. And there's a new threat that emerges, a new mystery that is tied to a much larger sort of countrywide danger that the three main characters have to overcome. And the second book also leads into the third book. There will be a third

book. It's going to be a trilogy. But the second and third book follow the same storyline. And I guess that's really all I can say without giving too much away about the first and the second book. Can you say why it's called magistrate? Yeah, for sure. There's a character in it who is is a masked killer, and he's known only as the magistrate. Okay.

Interesting. That's why the title is magistrate. Okay. So what's your biggest inspiration for your writing? Well, I've always been, well, I mean, not always, but over the past few years, been very interested in politics, and I'm also very interested in English. and I really like sort of, I like reading for more than just entertainment. I like reading for the deeper themes that you can find in literature and sort of what they

mean and wrestling with them. I like to refer to English as philosophy through fiction. And that's what I seek to do with my writing. I seek to communicate deep ideas. I seek to write about things that are important that cause people to think and force them to come to their own conclusions. I don't want to, you know, provide an answer or tell them what's correct. I want to, you know, different perspectives through different characters about different things and have the audience decide who they agree with. Another thing, I've also just loved sci-fi ever since I was a young kid.

I've always loved Star Wars. And then in my later years, loved, you know, dystopian fiction like 19. 1984 or The Hunger Games series, stuff like that because I think that that genre in particular lends itself to some very interesting philosophy and commentary. And so that's why I choose to write primarily in that genre because I think it's a very good avenue to communicate ideas. And that's my main goal, communicating ideas. And I'd say that's also my biggest inspiration is wanting to, I have things to say.

And I find one of the most interesting ways to say them is through writing fiction. So would you say this is more like Hunger Games or more like Star Wars? I'd say it's a combination of both. Like I really like, you know, the sort of totalitarian, like, regime and interconnected politics of the Hunger Games. That's very interesting to me. But I also like the thrill of Star Wars and the, you know, the battles in Star Wars. and overcoming an evil totalitarian regime. But then also talking about things like, oh, is authoritarianism, is it always wrong?

Is it always a bad thing? And are the people always right in every scenario? And a lot of times the conclusions I come to are, you know, not necessarily. There are certain instances in which authoritarianism can bring good and in which the people are not correct in their decisions. So it's themes like that that I like to explore through, you know, entertainment and through being inspired by old, old stories that I read growing up or watched, like I said, Star Wars or Dune even.

But just sort of a blend of a lot of the different genres that I read growing up. Okay. Interesting. So you self-published this work. Do you want to describe that process a bit? Because I've heard that's a very hard process to do. Do you think that's getting easier now? Well, yes, it is a very hard process to do. I do think it is getting easier,

partly because there are more accessible ways in which to publish your own work. Before the last few years, it was very, very difficult to even self-publish. I mean, you always had to send in your manuscript to a traditional publisher, like, you know, say Harper Collins or Penguin Random House. And you had to send in a query letter with it. And they get like thousands of query letters a day. And they have to sort through them. And it's very, very, very, very unlikely that your book is even going to get looked at. It's like a needle in a haystack type thing.

So that's why people turn to self-publishing. And the reason I chose to self-publish was because I wanted full control over my work. I had a very distinct vision for it. I knew what I wanted the cover to look like. I knew what I wanted the interior to look like. And being somewhat handy in Photoshop, I was able to design a cover that I was very happy with. And such, the editing, well, the publishing process entails so much. Obviously, you write it first.

But then it's not just like, oh, format, put it into a book form and done. You have to edit. You edit yourself. I think I did seven passes of self-edits and then sent it off to a professional editor who you have to pay. And everyone always needs a professional editor. That's very important because they catch things that you don't. And it takes a long time for you to self-edit. It takes a while for the professional editor to get back to you.

And then once they do, you have to put those edits in yourself. And then after that, you have to format it. You have to make sure the page dimensions are the correct size. You have to make sure that the text isn't bleeding into the spine. You have to make sure everything looks good and so that it's readable. So with a traditional publishing company, you wouldn't have to do that. They would do that all for you. Obviously, you are the author.

So you have like, you know, final say in terms of what goes into the book. but they format for you, they design the cover, they print, they distribute, they advertise. With self-publishing, you're doing it all yourself. And that is very laborious. It's a difficult process to maintain. And obviously, the return you get from it is, you know, people buying and reading your work. But it is a lot of work to, you know, self-publish because there's, again, editing, formatting, marketing, and you're doing it all yourself. And so you're correct in that it's a very difficult

process. But it's very much worth it because you get full control. You get to write what you want to write. You get to communicate the idea is what you, that you want to communicate, and you're not necessarily bound by a company that would give you an ultimatum depending on what you want to put into your own work. Okay. So would you, if you were offered by a company, to be published, would you accept that or would you want to stay self-published so your work can stay the way you want it to be? Oh, yeah, for sure. I would accept. It would also depend on the on the constituents of it. Like I would, if they said like, hey, we'll publish your book if you do this, this, and this. If I found their requests to be reasonable, then yeah, for sure. But if I found them to be

unreasonable, then we would have a problem. And I wouldn't accept the offer. But yeah, no, I hope to be traditionally published in the future at some point. I don't know when that'll be. It might be way down the line. It might be a lot sooner. Who knows? But yeah, depending on what they would require me to do, I would I would absolutely accept. Okay. So if you could change anything about your first book, would you? Yes. I would, well, I wrote it when I was 16. I published it when I was 18.

And obviously when you're at that age, you are a, you know, you're a passionate teenager. And I really wanted to get my work out there. If I was at the maturity level that I'm at now, I definitely would have spent a lot more time working out the kinks of it. And I would have edited more, probably added a lot more, to it, made it longer, made it, uh, given it less plot holes, um, because there are definitely plot holes and inconsistencies and things. Also the editor that I chose, um, I did not utilize the extent of what she, um, offered, even though, and I didn't know I wasn't, uh, utilizing the extent of that. I, uh, again, was young. I was not experienced. Um, so I was a little confused as to how the editing

process worked. And I believe I paid $400 for editing, which is actually insanely cheap for editors. If you get a professional editor to get a good one, it's usually like upwards of $1,000, sometimes even $2,000, if you are self-publishing. But yeah, no, I would have found a better editor for sure. I would have spent a lot more time doing my own developmental edits, meaning edits for the story, like adding scenes, taking things out that didn't need to be in there, making things more consistent, making sure character voice was distinct, and stuff like that. So, no, there are definitely a lot of things that I would have done differently. But it's out there now and I can't, you know, retract it.

And I'm happy that it's out there because it's a cool sort of milestone to have out in the world and also to be able to see the journey and the progression of skill and growth and skill from the first book to the second book. Okay. So I know you have a decent presence on social media. Do you think that has helped with your book's success or that has just been or it has been some other factors? No, I definitely think that's been a really big factor. I mean, the success that I've had on social media was actually, at first it was purely by luck. I had a real go viral a couple years ago that a lot of people really that resonated with a lot of people and I gained like 10,000 followers from that one reel and ever since then my content has progressed. I talk more about politics. I talk about theory. I talk about the philosophy of literature. I also make fun, you know, sort of meme reels. I promote my book. And most reels that I have on there

are actually very successful. And I've grown my audience to, I believe, 34,000 followers now, almost 35. And just extraordinarily grateful for it. And the way I market it is I market it as a clean book, which it is. I market it as a faith-based book, which it is. I mean, it has some subtle Christian themes. So it resonates with a lot of people in that space. And yeah, absolutely. my social media presence has for sure been a defining factor in how successful the book has been. Okay, interesting. So other than the third book, do you have any future plans for these series? Or are you playing on starting something else afterwards?

I am planning on starting something else. I have a few ideas knocking around in my head for like, you know, a sort of like, blend of Roman, like Roman mythology and, you know, Roman culture and science fiction. So sort of like futuristic Roman science fiction, if the Roman Empire existed in the future as opposed to the past. I just thought that would be a really cool idea to try and work out. I don't have any idea what that story would look like. It's just sort of a concept that I had at the moment. But currently I am I'm focused on on this series. And once it's done, once it's done, we'll see. So when you started writing, where you like, this is, like, talent is the book I

really want to write. So you started writing that first or was there something else you thought of? And it was like, oh, I'm going to have talent as my sort of practice writing. Well, I didn't think of it as practice writing when I first started it. But now I do. I, my mindset about it has shifted. And this trilogy is sort of my first, you know, steps in becoming, hopefully a great writer one day. And like I said earlier, there are definitely things I would have changed about the first book. I'm sure in a year or two there, I'll look back and I'll be like, oh, there's definitely something I would have changed about the second book as well. And the third. But I do view them as practice, even though people love them. People have come to me and said,

oh, my son loves your work, my daughter loves your work, I love your work. They really enjoy it. They love the story, which I'm very grateful for it. But also in my own mind, I do think of them as practice because I know that I can be better. And sort of what I, the reason I'm writing this series right now is so I can work myself up to writing something much more grand, much more intricate and longer form. And it's really cool to do. It's really fun to write this series.

but it's also cool to look towards the future at the later things all right. Okay, neat. And do you have any writing advice or publishing advice you want to give people who are maybe getting into writing or have yet to publish their first book? Yeah, for sure. My main point of advice for writing a book would be to distill your work, to distill your story down into a thematic or philanthropic. philosophical what if question. Every single good story that's out there can be distilled down into that. For example, Inception, the movie, the Christopher Nolan movie, it can be distilled down into the question, what if dreams could be invaded or attacked. And you can take that question and wrestle

with it and think like, oh, what are the ramifications of that? What are, what's the moral implications of that? And then build the story around that what if question. There's a TV show that's really popular right now called severance, which the what if question in that show is, what if memories could be split between your work life and your personal life. And that opens the door to a lot of different, you know, discussions that people could have like, oh, what are the ramifications of this, the morality of it. But every good story, not just, not every story, but every good story can be distilled down into that question. And so that would be my best advice for writing. As for publishing, that's a little more difficult because it's more based on the person. If someone wants to be

traditionally published, then absolutely go for it. It might be a lot harder to get discovered through traditional publishing, and it might take a very long time for you to actually get picked up by a publisher. If you're going to self-publish, know that it's very laborious as well. Know that you need a professional editor. That is probably my main point of advice I could give, get a professional editor, invest in that. It will work wonders for your book. But again, self-publishing, you have full control, but if you want your book to be successful as a self-published author, you need to be all in.

So that's, I guess those are the two pieces of advice I could give. Okay. And if you're just kind of trying to like publish the book rather than make something you really want to write, would you say it's better to do what most like modern books are doing or just kind of do more what you want to do? Do you mean like public, like not publish it, you know, for the masses, just publish it for yourself? Um, yeah, I guess so. I was thinking more like if you want this book to like sell better, would you say it would be better to just like kind of do more what modern successful books are doing? Yeah. Yes. The problem with that is, is I have sort of a philosophical problem with that. I don't have, you know, anything against books that sell well. But a lot of the time what you find on the market that are like, you know, number one New York Times best. sellers are basically just copy paste of the last thing that was popular. And the example I would

always use would be like fourth wing, right? It's just completely trope-based. I read like the 60, the first 60 pages and it was, I mean, not to be harsh, but it was the worst piece of slop I've ever read in my life. And the reason why is because it's not based on a what-if question. There aren't any themes. All it is is a frail girl in a place she's not supposed to be who hates this one guy but also loves him because he's really hot and has abs and they end up doing the deed like four times and on page for like 20 pages. And it's just like explicit content that is wrapped in this little bow of, oh, it's a fantasy novel. But no, but no, it's a fantasy novel. But No, no, it's not.

It's poorly written trash that is just an excuse for people to, you know, engage with content that is not good for their soul. And the reason why it's so popular is sex sells. And that's the philosophical and moral problem I have with it. And another thing about the traditional publishing industry is that they favor books which they know will sell as opposed to books that that have artistic merit. And that's the reason why you see so many popular books nowadays that are just trash. They're terrible because they sell a lot because people don't want to have to think. They don't want to have to engage with ideas.

They just want passive entertainment that they can get off to. And I guess that's the tamest way of putting it. And I partially blame, you know, social media, short form content for, you know, shortening people's attention spans. But also, that's one of the reasons why I just do not like the mainstream traditional publishing industry nowadays. They're pushing content that is not good in terms of artistic merit. It's not good in terms of artistic merit.

And it's also not good for people to consume. So if you want your book to sell, write trash. But if you do you. truly care about your work and it's artistic merit, I would definitely recommend self-publishing and self-marketing because you can definitely find a group of people who are fed up with the mainstream traditional publishing industry. I've found 34,000 of them. So it's great because there definitely is that community and you can definitely find those people. And so if you truly care about your books artistic merit, then write, then self-publish. That would be my best advice for that.

So do you think this is a problem with all modern literature or just the specific like fourth wing stuff and I don't know, other books of that similar genre? I think it's a very widespread issue. You go to Barnes & Noble and there are entire shelves and tables. dedicated to romanticcy, spicy romanticcy, just straight up dark romance, which is, I mean, I don't know if I can say this on this podcast, but it's just like rape fantasy. And entire shelves, entire sections dedicated to this. And you go online, especially on TikTok with like the book community on TikTok, which is referred to as book talk.

Like you scroll on book talk and you see the same books over and over and over again. And it's all just the popular stuff and people talking about spice levels and how much they love the spice and how much they love smut, which is just word porn. And it's people publicly expressing these preferences, which A, is gross and B is immoral. And so I definitely think it's a very, very widespread issue in the book and writing community. It's the biggest issue. I would say it's the biggest issue. And what needs to happen is we need to turn away from that. We need to get back to artistic merit.

We need to get back to reading things that are good for our soul, make us think, make us wrestle with ideas, better us as people. And the type of stuff that's being regularly consumed is not that. And it is a very widespread issue in traditional publishing. Okay. While we're running short on time, Is there anything else you'd like to say, Jaden? Thank you all for listening.

I'm very glad that Harry invited me on, so thank you to Harry. You're welcome. And thanks to everyone for listening. Okay. This has been Radio Free Hillsdale. I am Harold Berzer, and this is Jaden Jousso. Thank you for listening, and make sure to tune in next time.