Joseph R. Jackson · Shoeless Works · Est. 2005

Five novels.
Imagination that created new worlds.

Dark fiction, theological thrillers, post-collapse horror. Written by someone who needed to say true things and found that fiction was the only container large enough to hold them.

Scroll to browse ↓
⭑

Reviews are the single most important thing you can do for an independent author. Leave a 5-star review on Amazon, send a screenshot to shoelessworks@yahoo.com — you're entered to win a signed, numbered first edition hardcover when they're printed. One winner per book.

Books 1 · 2 · 3 of 4
My Arm Cries in Blood Part I My Arm Cries in Blood Part II My Arm Cries in Blood Part III
Trilogy · Dark Fiction · Southern Gothic · Noir

My Arm Cries
in Blood

"The story of a man trying to become real, at enormous cost, over the course of years."

Jacob Stone is twenty-two when this story begins — holding a diploma and no idea who he is. Set across the American South in the early 2000s, this trilogy follows a man who falls into an orbit of violence, loyalty, and people who become his gravity. Violent. Sexual. Tender. Uncomfortably funny. It does not apologize for any of it. Neither will you, when you're done.

PartsI · II · III
GenreSouthern Gothic · Noir
PublisherShoeless Works
AdvisoryMature · 17+
Part I Part II Part III
⭑ Save $2.90 — complete trilogy bundle
My Arm Cries in Blood — All Three Parts
One purchase. The full arc of Jacob Stone — from first confession to final reckoning.
$14.95 — Digital Bundle
Book 4 of 5
Un-Collectible
Standalone Novel · Theological Thriller

Un-Collectible

"What happens when the final ledger comes due?"

Devereux died a century old. He was born in 1927, forged in war, and spent the next hundred years building an empire — the man behind every deal, the invisible hand in every room. Then he woke somewhere else. A City of violet towers and stone ledgers. A guide who is not what she appears. A path he should not take. Dante's Inferno meets The Shawshank Redemption — a dark theological thriller about the prisons we inherit, the ones we build, and the Grace that was never for sale.

ISBN979-8-90271-387-6
EditionFirst · 2026
AdvisoryMature · 17+
Book 5 of 5
The Republic of Reanimation
Standalone Novel · Post-Collapse · Dark Fiction

The Republic of
Reanimation

"Pay attention to the chapter headings."

The outbreak started as a Classified. It ended as a world nobody recognized. A man, dogs, and a compound he built himself — somewhere in what used to be Charlotte. The novel moves between two timelines and arrives in a shuffled deck format. The chapters are deliberately out of order. You track them. You piece it together. Miss a detail and you lose the thread. This one demands a reader.

FormatShuffled Deck
StatusAvailable Now
AdvisoryMature · 17+
⭑ Coming down the road
First Edition Hardcovers
Each title will be released as a signed, numbered first edition hardcover — limited to 100 copies per book. Hand-signed and specifically numbered 1–100 by the author. These will not be reprinted.
$50.00 each · Limited to 100 copies
Joseph R. Jackson
NameJoseph R. Jackson
Based inFort Mill, SC
GenresDark Fiction · Thriller
AlsoPhotographer · Filmmaker
Books5 published · more coming

A visual storyteller who writes

Joseph R. Jackson has spent over two decades telling stories through photography and film — weddings, portraits, the quiet and chaotic moments in between. Along the way, he discovered that some stories live between the frames, in the spaces a camera can't reach.

That's where the writing began. Not as a departure from the visual work, but as an extension of it. The same instinct that finds the right angle finds the right word. The same patience that waits for the light waits for the sentence.

The writing started in 1995, a year after losing his father. It has not stopped. My Arm Cries in Blood was written between 2008 and 2010. Un-Collectible was written for everyone who has stood at three in the morning and felt the weight of their own ledger. The Republic of Reanimation was written because some ideas demand a format nobody has tried before.

Children's books are next. Joseph writes across every age and every dark corner of the human story. This is only the beginning.