As tomorrow happens to be my birthday, and I turn the grand ol’ age of 35. I figured I would make this update about something a little more personal. 

I mentioned once before that The Seventh Age book was inspired by events in a role-playing game universe that I created years ago. Like any LARP, costumes and props play a fantastic roll. I’ve attached only a mere handful of my favorite pictures from the games that were played. 

Here are some of the pictures that inspired me to turn my imagination into an actual book:

There are some extremely talented crafters that played in our games over the years.

And AnotherAnd the final one:

The box of red buttons was one of my favorite game sessions still. If you like these kind of updates as well, or want to know more about the expanded world of The Seventh Age, follow the project page please. I’m on a quest to achieve 1000 copies as well, so if you know anybody who likes sarcastic urban fantasy... please recommend to a friend. 

Also, how does everyone feel about me using this update reader feature as sort of a weekly blog? Leave a comment, email me at CrankyBolt@gmail.com, hit up up on twitter @crankybolt and let me know!

Such a great week. First things first: 

Yesterday my son, Andrew Phoenix Haase was born! He is healthy and amazing, and I’m just using this email as another means for shouting it all from the mountaintops. Here he is: 

Also, I recently interviewed the one and only Jim McDoniel, author of "An Unattractive Vampire." He was very generous with his time and detail in his interview. You can read and enjoy that here: http://renderositymagazine.com/news.php?viewStory=539

Other than that, my latest effort, a dark comedy about fatherhood entitled "An Adventure With Dada" is doing pretty well funding thus far, and I thank any and all of you who have already pre-ordered. If you would be so kind as to stop by the page, check it out, leave a review or make a recommendation, or perhaps even pre-order a copy in honor of my son’s birthday (manipulative much, Mr. Haase?) that would be fantastic. You can check out the page here: An Adventure With Dada!

And an enormous thank you is in order to all of you who have recently purchased Mr. Butler. Keep the word of mouth going and let me know if you have any questions/need anything. The book is still progressing well, but recent birth events will put work on the book back just a little while longer. I hope you understand. Of course you do. Thank you, I appreciate that. 

As always, please keep in touch. You can direct message me on here anytime. 

Fellow authors: I’d be happy to look over any of your work and perhaps leave a review, buy a copy, make a recommendation, etc...but please reach out to me. I am far too distracted at this time to initiate anything, I hope you understand. 

Love to each and every one of you.

-Michael/Dada

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.