Author Jason Hershey

Welcome — and thank you for stopping by. This is a space built for readers, dreamers, and anyone who believes that a good story has the power to change the way we see the world. Whether you stumbled here by accident or searched your way here on purpose, I'm glad you found it. Pull up a chair and stay a while.

Here you'll find two things worth your time: a look at the books I've written — including what's already out in the world and what's quietly taking shape on my desk — and a blog where I share the ideas, questions, and moments that keep me writing. There's no single theme here except curiosity and honesty, and I hope something you find resonates with you long after you've closed the tab.

And if something here moves you — a blog post, a book, a single line that sticks with you — I'd love to hear about it. Head over to my Contact page and come find me on social media, where the conversation continues beyond these pages. I show up there as a real person, not just an author, and I genuinely enjoy connecting with the people who take the time to read my work. Don't be a stranger.

Review: "To Die To Live"

To Die To Live is something more specific and more intimate than a story about a troubled teen who finds his way.

Thelonious "Theo" Mitchell is aimless, wandering without direction or desire. Tragedy pulls him from everything he knows and into a life he never chose. An unlikely friendship begins to take shape — and then another loss arrives. Will Theo fall victim to life, or will he find something in himself he didn't know was there?

This is not a book that romanticizes suffering. It acknowledges loss while holding open the possibility that something can come from it.

At 82 pages, it will stay with you much longer than a single sitting.

--- Sandra I.

Writing Changed Me

I did not start writing because of ambition. I started because I had things inside me that needed to get out — truths I had carried too long without anywhere to put them. Writing was not a choice so much as a release.

That is how To Die To Live was born in 2016 — my first published work, deeply personal. A story about a young man named Theo facing loss, displacement, and the choice between falling victim to life or rising to meet it. That book was me finding my voice and deciding whether I was brave enough to use it. A year later came The Chosen Path. I was still learning, still growing.

Then nearly a decade passed. What I didn't realize was that I wasn't standing still. I was preparing.

This May, my third book arrives: The Purpose of Life.

The craft is more refined, the story built with patience that only comes from years of living and learning. Nearly ten years separate my first book from my third. That is not lost time. It is lived time. And The Purpose of Life is the proof.

The Chosen Path Excerpt

She squeezed my fingers and just held them, and a sense of warmth rushed over my body. I was falling for this girl. "This is the first time I've felt at home in a long time."

I wanted to reach over the table and hold her, to take away all her heartache and pain, to show her that everything was going to be okay.

"I never knew my dad," I blurted out. "He left before I was born. My mother raised me."

An awkward silence hung over the table.

She finally broke it. "Where's your mother now?"

I dreaded that question. I felt a lump in my throat and a knot forming in my stomach. I looked down and stared at the table.

"She passed away a little over a year ago. I found her OD'd on her bed one day after school."

She began to cry, which in turn made me cry.

"She would be proud of the man you've become."

I put my head down and let the tears flow.