Machiners!

Can you believe we flew past the one month mark since publication? Crazy times! This will be a quick update with some goodies to report.

First, The Last Machine AUDIOBOOK is coming! You read that correctly, this is going to be epic! And I don’t expect it to take very long to produce. After a highly competitive audition process - 60 narrators submitted recordings to read Jonathan’s story - I’ve selected the voice to read our story! Look for an update in the next month or so about a release date. Shooting for around July 1.

Super important: Have you read the story? Have you not left a review on Amazon? 

Then I need your help. It doesn’t have to be anything elaborate. I liked the Last Machine for x and y reason, etc. One or two sentences will do the trick. Want to write a longer response to the story? Please do - Reviews come in all shapes and sizes! We need to get to 100 on Amazon, and at the moment, we have 16. Many thanks in advance!

Amazon page for reviews: https://www.amazon.com/Last-Machine-Solar-System-ebook/dp/B06XRSS26Y/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_bdcrb_top?ie=UTF8

Goodreads page for reviews: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30221887-the-last-machine-in-the-solar-system

Lastly, pics! From the book launch at Book Passage in the San Francisco Ferry Building. Oh, and the book in Huntington, NY at Book Revue next to some guy named George R.R. Martin.... I told you these were crazy times :-)

My sincerest apologies, dear readers, because “The Animal in Man” hasn’t made it into your hands yet. I’ve only recently learned that its production was delayed due to the book’s length.

I’ve been chipping away at the word count as much as I possibly can, but between my familial responsibilities and my new high-school teaching gig, there’s not much time left in the day for editing. I’ve been tasked with cutting 42% of my novel, so it’s going to be some time I’m afraid. I’m slitting the throats of some characters I cared a lot for, but I’m allowing a few others to live a bit longer.

One of the main characters who will not be cut is Feyn, the white wolf. Twenty years ago, when the campaign to eradicate all the insect Thraxians came to its close, Feyn - a Leoran knight of some renown - set off for his homeland, eager to see his wife and children again. When he returned at last, he found his estate ransacked, his castle burnt to the ground, and his son butchered. And he found the butchers. They soon overpowered him, struck a fatal blow across his face, leaving a wicked scar from his mouth to his ear, and threw him into the ditch alongside his wife’s corpse. But Feyn did not die there. During the attack, Feyn’s body fell unconscious as its parasitic spirit inexplicably fled. He regained himself - his true self - down there, in the dark. Feyn became something else entirely that night. A true animal.

So Feyn stays in the story. He’s been dead once already, you see. It doesn’t suit him.

I commissioned the character sketch for Feyn from the ultra-talented Ronald Orrego. You can find more of his work here, as well as his contact info if you need him. Tell him Joe sent ya.

Stay tuned, dear readers.

Greetings hexers,