Greetings! Time for an update! Wizard World 2016 Wrap up!

Last weekend I had my first booth at Wizard World in Chicago, and I’d like to give a thanks to everyone who was a part of that. Particularly BaconMooseComics for allowing me to share half our corner booth. 

If you want to see all our pictures of the amazing cosplay we found and our booth set up, go ahead and click :Here: go ahead and hit "like" on that page if you want. 

In other news, Inkshares has been hard at work figuring out the best date to release the book, and that means things got changed. 

The book’s official release date is now 1/17/17. If there were 17 months in a year, I really would of tried to get it there.. 

Either way, this extra time allows me to conjure up some more conventions, articles, and start writing the sequel, Dystopia. 

Until next week!

Hello to all my lovely readers and followers.

Just a quick note about the preview text on the Traakenholt project page.

I have tidied up the chapter structure a bit. It is now in the order it shall appear in the book. Chapter 2 is missing. This is intentional for the moment. Most of the text has remained the same except for a few typos and grammar hiccups that have now been fixed. Exceptions are:

Chapter 1 (previously know as prologue). I have introduced a section about the birth of Trivian and Wallic.

Chapter 3 (previously chapter 1) I have put a bit more content into the first boat trip to the island.

Otherwise, I have made the decision to remove the chapter titles. I may reverse this at a later date but for now they are only going to be number. 

I am always open to feedback so do, please, give me your thoughts.

Next Friday I will be heading off to university where I hope to pick up a decent amount of preorders. I may have started this campaign at the wrong time when I was unable to do much, but I hope to pick up the pace substantially once I arrive. I hope to get at least a few preorders before then, but i have not given up hope of getting my book published. So please any help you can give would be invaluable.

Hello Machiners! And a happy Saturday to all of you!

So have you seen it yet?? 

You must have. After all it’s been up on the Inkshares homepage for The Last Machine for more than a week.... And I know each of you must be checking in over at Inkshares.com almost daily as you eagerly anticipate any updates on when Jonathan, the last machine, will finally arrive on your doorstep (as a book, not a 9 foot tall robot)!

It’s going to be a bit longer, Inkshares has decided April 2017 is more conducive to a successful publication date than February. So Spring 2017 it is!! And back we all go to our thumb twiddling...

And now, without further ado, for those of you who don’t frequent Inkshares as often as you should, the final high resolution cover art!!!

Awesome, isn’t it?! Many thanks to artist Dan Stiles for this tremendous result. It’s going to absolutely POP on the bookstore shelves!

Lastly, Jonathan and Nikolai are officially back in action, together, billions of years earlier in a new short story called "The Creator and The Machine" to be published in the Nerdist contest winning video games anthology Too Many Controllers!!! I may have BURIED the LEAD here. Go check it out and grab a copy of this epic book full of work by exciting Inkshares authors!

And believe me, there are a ton of great books funding right now on Inkshares that deserve your attention; in particular there is a Geek & Sundry sponsored FANTASY contest going on right now. Lots of cool potential books to peruse! 

Have a great weekend!

  Register for #DragonAwards here: http://tiny.cc/pd3zdy 

I know. I know! You heard me the first time. And the second.

But!

Register for #DragonAwards here: http://tiny.cc/pd3zdy 

I have no way of knowing how many people will vote for this thing - the 2016 Hugo for Best Fantasy Novel had 2903 voters - but that required membership (money) and, shall we say, there were some other factors in play there. This contest could have WAY more. Or WAY less. No one knows! But if all 614 of you voted - that seems like it could move the needle.

Vote for me. And THE LIFE ENGINEERED and AN UNATTRACTIVE VAMPIRE if you want to share the love with the rest of the Sword & Laser shelf.

And ...exhale. 

There, this’ll be my last salvo on this! The window to register closes this weekend - so it’ll all be over soon and I can focus on what really matters at DragonCon: consuming alcohol responsibly and talking about Ravenloft.

What a delicious Friday, Space Crew. 

I’ve got pre-orders slowly rolling in, and the sun is shining. I’ve made a new rule that I can’t be stressed on Friday, so it’s a pretty good day for a newsletter. 

What’s Been Happening
Still en route to 300. 12 orders to go for that theme song! In case you don’t like scrolling to the bottoms of things, I’m going to put the pre-order link right here. And right here. Look, this text is a link too. 

Time is running out fast. I have a few tricks left up my sleeve, but no magic button to press. So please keep promoting this book to people’s faces. 

What’s Coming
First, I’m very excited to be attending Can-Con in a couple weeks. It’s a mega literary conference where I hope to learn a lot about what’s happening in the world of fantasy and sci-fi, and get better at this promo stuff. Networking opportunities are going to be good too. If you’re attending please hit me up on Twitter and we can grab a beer. 

The Dragon Awards, for which voting is open to the public, are closing soon. I’m not nominated since my book has yet to be published, and because I’m not that cool, but a few Inkshares writers are, and some of my NaNoWriMo e-friends too. I’ll avoid plugging names here, but if you want to know which books and authors I think are excellent, hit me up.

Weird and Dumb Things I Do Without Reasons
I put up a new idea on Inkshares this week (???!!). It’s barely a thing yet, but if you’re into the horror genre, and like the vibes of 90s mystery slashers with supernatural undertones, this might be your thing. 
 

It’s called Rattle Creek Road, and it’s about a community off an old wooded road that starts dropping like flies. As is customary in such communities, rumours spread quicker than fear, leading to all kinds of mass-hysteria. 

Check out the intro on the book page if you’re into it. I would highly recommend reading it with a deep southern accent. 

Your doodle of the day is me being cool as a cucumber. 

Your Calm and Collected Space Cucumber,
-AC

Time is running out!

We have until the 28th of August to get as many votes for The Life Engineered for the Dragon Awards (along with fellow nominees Asteroid Made of Dragons and Unattractive Vampire).

What am I talking about? The Life Engineered was nominated in the Science Fiction Literature category for the Dragon Awards at Dragon Con this year. Also in that category: Kim Stanley Robinson and Ann Leckie.

I know what you’re thinking, surely this is a sign of the End Times or at the very least a weakening of the barriers separating reality from my fantasies. Well, if we’re all doomed anyways, might as well see if we can win an award.

Click here to sign up to vote. Enter your information. You’ll get an mail to confirm your registration. Afterwards it’ll take a few days but you’ll get a ballot survey to fill out. Vote for whatever you feel should win, but seriously, vote for The Life Engineered (and Asteroid Made of Dragons and Unattractive Vampire).

This is some potentially life-changing level stuff going on. It won’t cost you a dime and you’ll be making history. My history, but it sounds selfish when I say it like that.

Cheers,

JF