Just a quick update on where things stand. In the next 24 hours we should be done with developmental editing and sending the manuscript over to copy editing. The manuscript is in really good shape. There are still some typos to fix and a few scenes that we’re working on, but I’m anticipating we’ll knock those out tonight/tomorrow morning.

Copy editing should take about a couple of weeks, meaning we should have a final version of the manuscript going into formatting on the last week of the month. This will enable Inkshares to print "galleys" (promotional versions of the book) by the end of the month, which is very exciting.

In the mean time, I need to do my "author picture" for the inside sleeve of the book. I have something cool in mind, but as I’m not very photogenic, it may not work out. Still, I’ve enlisted the services of my friend and photographer Lai Long whom I believe will endeavor to make photographic miracles happen.

I’m told everything is all set for the book launch at San Diego Comic Con in July. I’m not really sure exactly what it is that we’ll be doing there to promote the book. Maybe I’ll just do a little interpretive teleportation dance while wearing a futuristic LED suit. Probably not that.

So excited you guys. Jazz hands!

Tal

Friends!

I apologize for the lack of updates. My nose has been pressed against the old grindstone, and in spite of a slew of interruptions and several "I’M THE WORST WRITER IN THE WORLD I F*****G QUIT WHY DIDN’T I GO TO MEDICAL SCHOOL" text messages and the holiday season sucking the dregs of my soul out of my withered retail worker body, I will be handing what I’ve managed to cough up to the copy editor on Tuesday. As in, less than a week from Tuesday.

This time last year I barely had 75 pages of what would ultimately become the one-act novella that started everything. As of right now, Devil’s Call has 151 pages and I still have about 20,000 words to write before it’s "finished," but it will be a quick 20,000 words. I’m not sure at which point things will shift from "Surreal" to "My Life Now," but I have an agent and a promotional schedule and Devil’s Call has a cover, which if you haven’t seen it yet

I’ve ganked it from Target.com’s website for your viewing pleasure.

According to the schedule the lovely Avalon Radys put together for me, I’m going to start being way more vocal about the novel’s progress starting in March, so enjoy the silence while it lasts.

-J.

 There’s a long list of things I didn’t think would ever happen when I first decided that writing fiction was going to be ’my thing’. Obviously, getting one of my books optioned and meeting an academy award screenwriter weren’t on this list because I hadn’t even conceived of that possibility at the time. 

That being said, I’ve always wanted an audiobook of one of my projects. What would that sound like? How would my characters feel coming out of someone else’s mouth? And an audiobook felt out of reach but still within the realm of possibility. Something to hope for without ever planning for it to happen. 

Well, today is the launch of the Audiobook for The Life Engineered. Produced by Blackstone Audio, featuring the amazing voice of actress Amy Landon and available on Amazon, Audible and probably several other places where audiobooks are usually purchased. 

It feels weird guys. I’ve listened to the sample on Amazon but I haven’t taken the plunge yet. I’m nervous. I’m 100% confident in the work that Amy did on the book (she is a veteran of over 200 audiobooks) but this is a milestone. Do I listen to this casually in the car? Do I set aside some time and enjoy the over six hours of audio in the dark with my eyes close? Just drinking in every detail, good and bad? 

If you’re looking for a way to experience The Life Engineered anew, maybe learn how to pronounce some of those complex names I picked for the characters, then hop over to your favourite purveyor of audio literature and get yourself a copy. If you’ve never been on Audible, there are countless ways of getting your first book for free and frankly, that might not be a bad one to start with.

If you want to learn more about the audiobook making process, Paul Inman and I had Amy as a guest in our latest episode of WriteBrain and it was fantastic having her on.

As always, thanks for your support. None of this would have happened without you. 

JF

NOTE: I should really update the header with the new cover image...

Dear readers, it has been a while since our last update. A lot goes on in the life of young author in a big family and whose co-author (dad) is also a pretty busy guy. That being said, our work continues, and we still plan to have "A Friend for Otter" completed and shipped in the first half of 2017. 

One of the challenges we have been working through over the last several months was to commission cover art. In case you haven’t seen it, that art is complete, and it now adorns our Inkshares and social-media pages. Sylvia and I are extremely happy with it, and we hope you will also appreciate the inspired work of Natassia Scoresby, our illustrator.

Beyond that, Sylvia and I remain really enthusiastic about telling you Otter’s story, and we are grateful for the outpouring of support we’ve received from our reader community. So please accept our gratitude as we redouble our efforts in 2017 to deliver a compelling and meaningful story to all of you. We couldn’t do it without you.

Thanks!

Sylvia and Jesse

Dear friends and followers,

It is now three weeks since we won the Full Publication deal with The List. The manuscript for "Murder at the Veterans’ Club" was submitted two weeks ago, and now it is a matter of waiting for an editor to be assigned to me. This could take a while; here’s the article about the publishing timeline, in case you missed the last update: I know there are a couple of new faces among you since then.

So, what lies ahead?

Well, I am currently halfway through working on a story-game project for Choice Of Games. I expect to see it come out some time in the latter half of this year. (I encourage everyone to check them out. I’ve enjoyed their stuff over the past few years, and I’m excited at the possibility of seeing myself in their lineup.)

There is also the matter of what to do with the Peterkin franchise. With the publishing timeline being somewhat longer than I expected, and with the additional time required to properly fund a campaign ... plus the sheer chutzpah it would require for me to begin asking for orders on a second book before the first book is even in anyone’s hands.... If I plan on getting the Full Publication deal on something, I should probably start the funding campaign after the launch of this current book, which means it could be two years or more in between books. That seems ... likely to result in an overall loss of interest.

So, I’m toying with a couple of ideas.

One: start a new campaign anyway, for the short story collection "Peterkin Investigates the Anthology"--but aim only for the 250 orders required for the Quill imprint. It won’t get all the services of the Full Publication deal, but then it isn’t a sequel and it isn’t a full-length novel, and it will be out there and available within a year after "Murder at the Veterans’ Club".

Two: take that collection apart and publish the stories individually via Kindle Direct; say, one every two months.

I haven’t quite researched these options yet, nor have I decided on a course of action. It seems the adventure is only just beginning....

Hello everyone!

It has been a while since my last update, but today marks a special anniversary for me – exactly one year ago, The Bones of the Past won a publishing contract. This is going to be a long update, so bear with me!

There has been far more work involved in getting the book into shape for publishing than I ever expected – I’m just now working on my review of the last proofread – but it has been an amazing experience and the book has evolved into something I am extremely proud of.

I just wanted to take this opportunity to thank all of you once again for your continued support and interest. I would never have made it this far without you!

Now, I do believe I owe you some news about the book including when and where you’ll finally be able to get your hands on it!

First of all, you’ll see in the attached picture that we have the back cover and spine of the book finalised and we’re just missing the “placeholder attributions”. These mini reviews are from authors who read the book in a raw form (still full of typos) and who had some positive things to say about it!

I’m very proud to say that I received some “cover blurbs” from three really amazing authors and I am truly humbled that people as talented as they are would have such positive things to say about my book.

Joseph Asphahani’s excellent SciFi/Fantasy novel - The Animal in Man - secured publishing through the same contest that I was in. His book isn’t out yet, but I’ve had the privilege of reading an early copy of it and I can’t recommend it highly enough. So, keep an eye out for it!

Rick Heinz’s The Seventh Age: Dawn is an incredibly exciting take on urban fantasy vampires and demons. It kept me up late on more than one occasion and is a book that anyone with even a passing interest in the genre should run out and buy right now!

Alan Campbell is the author of a number of bestselling novels. Most notable is his Deepgate Codex series. He does fantasy differently than any other author I’ve read and the result is something you won’t soon forget. I’ve been reading his books for at least ten years, so having him read mine (and like it!) is more than a little surreal. The Deepgate Codex is a trilogy that’s available in its entirety right now and should be on any fantasy fan’s ‘to read’ list.

So… what did they have to say about The Bones of the Past? I’ll share that closer to publication date or let you read the blurbs on the book for yourselves!

And so, we come to the publication date. The process is still on track for a May 30, 2017 publication. That means that you should get your copies a little bit before that if you ordered through Inkshares. If you haven’t or if you’d like to pick up a hardcopy, please go ahead and pre-order it through your local bookstore! That will make one store that’s more likely to keep my book in stock and on its shelves! All the major chains have it listed already, and most independent bookstores can get their hands on it easily enough :)

Book sales, and more specifically launches, are all about creating buzz. So more pre-orders and more attendees to the launch event go a long way toward making a book stand out and succeed (second only to reviews!).  The launch event will be held in Ottawa at a date somewhere around May 30th. Work has already started on nailing down exactly where and when. I’ll let you know as soon as I have something solid.

Thank you all yet again!!!

It’s Alive!!!! The Walls are Closing In pre-order campaign is here! You can now read chapter two and three and pre-order your copy today!

I am overwhelmed by the reception that I have received for this book so far. I guess that many of us, myself included, are feeling the drive to support artistic reactions to the political turbulence that is spreading the globe. I began this book over a year ago (when the reality we are currently experiencing didn’t yet seem probable), and it started as a clearly fictional story exploring an alternative history. As the election cycle wore on, the plot continued to shift. Now, it’s poignancy becomes more apparent each day, and it is with bitter sweetness that I fine tune the words. This book simply represents my imagination’s answer to some of the many "what ifs."

Only about ten percent of my followers so far are people that I know out in the real world, and the rest are strangers who have not hesitated to provide support with open arms. This, in itself, has solidified my decision to use the reader-driven publisher, Inkshares, to get this book off the ground. The sense of community is unrivaled in the publishing world and the ability to garner feedback by those who resonate with the story is priceless. In the coming weeks, the book will be highlighted on various YouTube shows and blogs. I will be sharing those links as they become live.

The goal is to presell 750 copies before April 13th, which will get The Walls are Closing In full publishing and marketing rights, ensuring that it will appear in bookstores, receive full developmental and line editing, undergo professional book cover design, and be represented for television and movie rights. Ebooks are $10, and print copies are $20. Keep in mind that this is a campaign for a publishing contract, and the book will still need to go through the full publishing process, which you can read more about here.

I will be offering a few milestone perks as the campaign wears on! Below are the first three:

100 - Be one of the first 100 unique readers to order The Walls are Closing In, and you will be entered for the chance to have a minor character named after you! Or, alternately you can select the name of the character. Two winners will be chosen!

200- I will upload Chapter 3.

300 - I will share a new novel trailer, complete with mild teasers.

Thank you again for your incredible support. It is appreciated more than you know.

If, by chance, you want to do more to help, read on...

For those that are willing, there are numerous ways to help me reach my pre-order goal. Every little bit helps a great deal!

1) The greatest way to help, the method that has been shown to produce the best results, would be to select five to ten people that you know who would like this book (I think we all know those who would, and would not, like this book), and personally tell them about the book via email. Invite them to read the material that is up, and personally invite them to offer their support if they like what they read.

2) Share the information for my novel on any of your social networks (there are share buttons on my book’s page), tagging those who you think would be interested. Share updates, reviews the book has received, the link to my novel trailer, and/or share interviews and youtube links as they become available.

3) Become a backer for the book (pre-order 3 or more print copies, and receive your name in the back of the book).

4) Leave a recommendation on Inkshares if you notice that the novel has slipped off the front page of the site. Providing a recommendation places The Walls are Closing In under the "Recommended by Inkshares Readers" section on the front page of the website, thereby increasing exposure.

5) Nominate The Walls are Closing In if you happen to be a member of an Inkshares Syndicate. Syndicates members all pool together to support one book a month.

6)Send me any and all ideas that you have for getting this book 750 preorders!