Dear friends and followers,

As of this writing, we are at 246 pre-orders. That means we are just 4 orders away from Quill! 4 orders from certainty! And 4 orders away from the beginning of the Chez Doris donation drive....

Getting to Quill means certainty of publication (unless I throw a hissy fit and decline the Quill package) so let’s have a look at some of the characters you’ll be meeting within these pages, starting with the club president, Oscar Mainwaring:

In other news, it turns out that there actually did exist a Veterans’ Club in London back in 1924, though it changed its name in 1936 to the Victory Services Club. Well, that’s lovely. I certainly don’t want anyone mistaking the club in this book for that real-life one, so it looks as though I might have to change its name ... which means I might also have to change the title of the book. Anyone have any ideas?

All right. Let’s get on to what’s what on the bookshelves this week.

1) "Seven Days Dead", by Christopher Johnson. Apparently, the focus will be on the interaction of different faiths and cultures in this particular zombie apocalypse, which I’m not sure I’ve seen done before. Also, the action takes place in the Middle East, and Johnson seems to be putting a bit of effort into verisimilitude with place names and geography.

2) "The Battle Within", by Alastair Luft. This one is an exploration of PTSD and its effects on one veteran soldier’s personal life, and if it’s filed as "thriller and suspense", it’s because dealing with life when you’re in that headspace is bound to be a rollercoaster ride of questionable reality. Also, it’s Canadian.

3) "Mission 51", by Ferd Crotte. The captain of a spacefaring craft crashlands on his destination planet ... from the excerpts I’ve seen, it looks like our hero is one of the Roswell aliens, and the destination planet is Earth. It’s an interesting setup, and I wonder where Crotte is going with it.

And that’s it for now. See you next week, folks, when we shall hopefully be discussing the joys of being on the qualified side of Quill.

Hi all!

Just wanted to send a shout out to all the Mother’s out there! You rock! Here’s a picture of my Mother and myself doing the Chicken Dance at my wedding.

 She’s amazing! 

She would love it if you pre-ordered Cape’s Side today:) 

Enjoy your Sunday,

James

https://www.inkshares.com/books/cape-s-side-bay

Happy Mother’s Day, readers!

Now that Devil’s Call is in funding mode, I’m rewriting and editing, which means the 44-page excerpt that has been up since the project was still a Draft has undergone some changes, and is now a 4-page excerpt.

After two days live, we’re already 5% of the way to Quill. I’m working out kinks in geographic accuracy (thanks to @steve-visel for pointing out a few) and, as an incentive for all of us, I’ll be posting the next chapter when I’ve sold 25 preorders.

Big big thanks to everyone who has expressed excitement and support for this project over the last several months. Here’s to keeping this train rolling!

- J.

Hello, Superspies!

This week’s issue of the Avalon Chronicler has been delayed unfortunately due to real life commitments, but we shall resume our regular schedule of world building next week with TWO new issues (and two new pieces of microfiction)! 

Now, I’m sitting on 60 or so days left in the campaign and we are still quite a ways away from Quill. I ask all of you who have already taken the leap of faith on my retro sci-fi spy story to get the word out and help bring in more readers! There’s an audience out there that wants this book and together we’ll find them! And again, thank you from the bottom of my heart to you who have already pre-ordered, it’s because of you that I soldier on in hopes of expanding the Avalon Fanbase (yes, I’m making that a thing, right here, right now). 

Have a great weekend and for all the mothers, enjoy your special day! 

Jason

@atomicboywonder

So Geek N Sundry is running a contest related to Hard Science, and there is one week left in this contest. While everyone knows I’m a rabid occult fan, I grew up wanted to be a Dinosaur Scientist! (That’s the technical term I used btw). There is a book in the contest called "We Clocked The T-Rex." by Ronald D Valle. It’s about using CRISPR gene editing to engage in the first DE-Extinction event to save the world from climate change. It involves a T-Rex. 

If you want to add to the stress levels of every author in the contest. Go here and check out his book: https://www.inkshares.com/books/we-clocked-the-t-rex?referral_code=ea707ed3

He’s currently in 4th place, and the top 3 win. I like seeing these contests have some momentum behind them and competition is a good thing. 

Speaking of saving the world... but using Magic.

The Seventh Age was inspired from many sources, and truth is pretty damn strange. If you don’t know about Jack Parsons from the Jet Propulsion Lab, he was a known practitioner of Thelma and a fan of the Ordo Templi Orientus by Aleister Crowley. While Jack Parsons would become an integral figure to the future of space exploration, there are many accounts of occult parties and rituals conducted at his home to bring supernatural entities into this world. 

In real life. 

My setting of the Seventh Age uses true stories and occult organizations like this. In my updates, I’m going to start revealing the awesome and occult organizations that exist in the real world that inspired me. In honor of the Hard Science contest... Jack Parsons is a dedicated scientist with both feet firmly in the occult. Neat!

In other fun news. 

This is Jameson Stone (Author of Runes of the Apprentice), Alexander Barnes (Co-Author of The Amaranth Chronicles, Myself representing "The Metal", and Joseph Asphahani (Author of The Animal in Man). We met up last night at The Bottom Lounge in Chicago when people were in town. We did what authors do: We drank. It was fun. More people should meet up. 

Now, I’m off to join Team Iron Man and actually go see this Civil War movie :). I know this update is more of a blog post, but I haven’t done one like this before and if you kinda like it, let me know!

PM Me, Email Me: CrankyBolt@gmail.com, Twitter: @CrankyBolt, Facebook: /CrankyBolt. Any game server out there: CrankyBolt. 

Notice the theme?