I am very excited to present a new book cover for Mission 51! Here is how it happened:

Dear friends and followers,

I delivered the first cheque to Chez Doris on Wednesday, for $74. I was given a quick tour of the place. They do some good work there, providing meals and legal services to women who need it. $74 isn’t a lot, I’m embarrassed to say, but every dollar counts.

Things have been getting steadily crazier without my realising it. To everyone who has contacted me recently about anything, I apologise. I’ll make time somehow.

On the writing front: well, "Murder at the Veterans’ Club" is complete but for some minor editing, and I can set it aside to concentrate on other business. I’d have liked to move on to "Best Man for Murder", the sequel, but--some good news, actually--I’m working on something for Choice Of Games, and that’s taking up a good portion of my creative writing energy. And also some of my logic-coding energy. Don’t worry, though: a first draft for "Best Man for Murder" has in fact been completed, and what I should be working on there will actually be a complete rewrite--changing names, key plot elements, and maybe even whodunnit. What’s the point of a second draft if you don’t rethink everything, right?

(Those of you who’ve read the second chapter of "Murder at the Veterans’ Club", did you know that in the original first draft, the thing Benson had stashed away in his safe deposit box was a Gutenberg Bible? Fascinating little Macguffin, but it ended up making no sense.)

Also on the writing front, I am involved in this: "Too Many Controllers", a submission for the current Nerdist contest.

Now, what could a guy whose writing is mostly set in a video-free era possibly have to offer in anthology of video game stories, you must be wondering. Well ... all will be revealed in time. At the very least, follow the book to keep tabs on the news. Or better yet, pre-order a copy. It could be worth noting that this book will almost certainly see daylight before "Murder at the Veterans’ Club"; and short stories can so easily be thought of as little appetisers before the main course.

Until next week: have fun, and keep reading. (Seriously, crazy as things are, I wish I had time to read more.)

Squids In has been getting a lot of attention and recommendations this weekend. The octopus thinks I’m doing such a good job that he’s decided to leave me to it and is off to play the PS3 for the rest of the day...

  Yo, readers!

  Welcome to our 5th Detective Sunday. I hope the weather has been bearable for you guys; for me it has been hectic. It has been raining non-stop, and not even letting up on the weekends. However, there’s a plus to this weather. I can just lock myself up in the house and write, or play games with friends. So, it’s not all that bad haha. For this update, I’ll just touch base with you guys on the future, and even show off some work of the artist I may be working with.

  I’ll show some of her art first.

  Her style of drawing has always been on the anime-ish side, but I’ve seen her also do a more mature drawing that had great detail. She also excels at making colorful symbols with nice patterns in the background. Also, these examples are just the covers of my fantasy series that we collabed on.

  Besides the art, I wanted to talk about the next step, which is pre-ordering. We got past Draft Fest, and during that event, I went around and read books and was blown away by many of them. I recommended my top three during the event, and they are well-deserved. However, in the end, I couldn’t get to everyone. Still, I enjoyed the event and got a few followers/likes myself. 

  I want to start pre-ordering before next Friday, or possibly after Friday. I’ll put out an update the day I start, and we may change up the update schedule depending on what extra I may have planned. Of course, Detective Sunday will stay as is. I see this as the main update that everyone will more than likely read on a Sunday morning or late in the afternoon.

  Well, that’s all for now. Have a good morning/afternoon wherever you are, and remember, be safe.

  Until next time, Sixth.  

Hey Guys. OK so Squids In has dropped down to 7th place in the Nerdist competition, but we are only 6 unique readers from taking 3rd place so please can you do me a solid and place a pre-order? If you already have, any chance you can tell someone you know about this wacky book and get them interested enough to pre-order it?

To try and incentivize you to pre-order, I created a list of "Ten Awesome Octopus Items on Etsy" over on Buzzfeed - https://www.buzzfeed.com/matthewp4d317e6ea/ten-awesome-octopus-items-on-etsy-2dqod

Please place a pre-order. The octopus has already replaced his launch day bottle of prosecco with a bottle of Kraken Rum and i’m worried about what will happen to him if Squids In drops out of the top ten.

You can pre-order Squids In by following this link - https://www.inkshares.com/books/squids-in

Matthew

Readers and followers of The Seventh Age! I bring you:

                                                    ART!

Check out how the cover is coming along. This is a higher resolution image than I’ve usually been sharing. The final artwork for this and the back cover should be done before the end of June. 

After the cover, the first character sketch has come in from my prior request looking for art commissions. The talented artist Lizzy Perez has read the Seventh Age and deemed the character Akira her favorite one. She nailed it! Stay tuned for future updates as Lizzy also has some more artwork and scenes coming in as well. 

The final part of this quick update is: I’m 38 readers / copies away from clearing the major benchmark of 1000. If you know anyone who is interested in urban fantasy, conspiracy, and street-tacos, send them over. I’ll be holding a series of 7 raffles after I hit 1000 for all readers on my dashboard. From reader #1 all the way to the final order. Everyone will be eligible. So if you want to be in: you’ve got 38 spots left. 

Prizes will range from artwork, tarot-decks, occult books, and some other Seventh-Age themed works. More info on that stuff as we get closer to 1k!

38 more! We can do this. 

Fantastic news! Tantalus Depths has received the tremendous honor of being backed by a syndicate!
Tantalus Depths has been made the official June pick by the GREAT SCIFI for the 21st CENTURY and BEYOND SYNDICATE. I can’t begin to express how honored I am to have Tantalus Depths earn this great syndicate’s support. We are now only 29 pre-orders away from Quill!

Thank you, thank you, thank you to Matthew Isaac Sobin and all the members of this syndicate for this gesture.

We’re getting really close, everyone. I can feel it! Keep sharing and promoting Tantalus Depths whenever and wherever you can! 

Hello Cape’s Side Bayers!

Hope you’re all doing well! It’s the weekend. Finally!

Few exciting things have happened. First, it’s been two weeks since we crossed the Quill mark of 250 and are now at 46% of our full-publishing mark! That’s a total of 347 orders! Amazing! Thank you all so much.

Now for the awesome part of this update. This morning when I woke up I had several e-mails in my inbox, typical. The one that stood out, however, was the one informing me that Cape’s Side Bay had been selected into the THRILLER NIGHT SYNDICATE! Unbelievable. I cannot thank them enough for selecting this book into their club. It is truly an honour to be acknowledge by your peers. Now the Cape’s Side page has a Eid Mar Roman Coin hovering around!

I’m flattered, honoured, and humbled at the selection.

Now, the long long road to 750 and full-publishing continues. I thank you ALL for your continued support for this book. I really enjoy it and believe you will too!

Please keep sharing, recommending, and pre-ordering (y’know, if you haven’t).

Enjoy your weekend!

James

THERE’S A BOOK TRAILER FOR THE TEST!!!

You can watch it from the link below OR view it on the book page.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4YIk8XHwk8