Hello Abomination people! It’s been a while since you’ve heard from me since things have been relatively quiet on the Whitta-Inkshares front, but all that is about to change.

Greetings sentiments!

Great news today, but first allow me to apologize if this post lacks the panache of my normal communiqués, I have to do this through my iPad while on the high seas.

So what’s this great news? It’s a gift to you my readers! I wrote a short story as a spoiler-free prequel to The Life Engineered! It’s published on SF Signal and you can find it here: http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2016/02/sacrifice-by-jf-dubeau-the-prequel-story-to-the-life-engineered/

(See? No hyperlink. Truly these are the dark ages.)

Do me a favor and spread this story and link far and wide. It’s a free story! How cool is that? Read it, share it, comment on it. Let’s show SF Signal we want more of this kind of content!

Thanks for your support my friends. I hope to have the opportunity to do more things like this for you in the future.

JF

BEHOLD! TECHNOLOGY!

If you are like me, that is to say, a denizen of the FUTURE, than you are capable of teleportation, have a robot butler, and read books via brain implants. For those of you hipsters who still use handheld computers for nostalgia purposes (there is nothing quite like the smell of fresh downloads), well, I have some exciting news...

 
RELEASE THE E-BOOK!

That’s right. If you ordered the e-book version of An Unattractive Vampire (or both e-book and print option) than it is on its way to you in a series of 1s and 0s via outer space satellites (uphill both ways). 

Hooray! I hope you enjoy this silly monster book I thought up almost a decade ago.

Now comes the important part: once you’ve read the entire thing (which for those of you without brain implants may take at least a day of binge reading), it would be great if you could rate and review it on Amazon and Goodreads, but especially Amazon. The more love I can get for the book on Amazon, the more Amazon’s algorithms will push my book, the more people will see my book, the more people will buy my book, the more successful the book will be, the more likely it will be that I’ll be allowed to write more books. Or...to simplify that rambling run-on, Amazon reviews = Good. 

Thanks everyone for buying a book and I hope you have fun reading it.

Jim

As a further add-on to yesterday’s update, I’d like to outline some general info about both the Pictish-Tribes and the Imartii. As those who read the last update will know, I’m offering a limited-time promotion for *2* lucky individuals - chosen at random from the pool of Alethian/Wolf-Riders backers of my novel. These two winners will be able to create a character based on one culture or the other, and have their character brought into the books!

The Picts ~

The Picts are an elusive and mysterious culture whom dwell in the marshes and swamps far to the South of Dearean. Long ago, the Picts dominated much of the larger world, but a series of terrible catastrophes all-but annihilated their vast kingdoms, reducing them to  little more than a pale-shadow of their former glory. 

Few in number, the Picts rely upon ambushes and ranged-weaponry to defeat their enemies in battle. Due to their unrivaled eye-sight and reflexes, Pictish warriors can rain death down upon their enemies from across great distances before vanishing back into the woods, only to reemerge elsewhere to begin their assault anew. 

Until now, the Picts have remained content in their isolation, defending their borders when necessary, but otherwise abstaining from open interaction with the human kingdoms to the North. However change is on the wind. Deep within the heartlands of the Pictish-Wilds, something is stirring.  More and more of the First-Peoples are congregating together. It is whispered that they are drawn to the voice of an entity known only as; The Prophet. Who this person is, or what they want, is as of now unknown.

The Imartii ~

The Imartii dwell to the mountainous West, and are people built upon the worship of personal-exploit. The Imartii are divided into various city-states, each of which operates independently from one another. Though loosely unified by a Confederacy, the various city-states are not above clashing with one another, as they so often do. 

Imartii culture is defined by the search for personal glory. Heroes and adventures often set forth from the walled-cities to venture out into the greater world, intent on finding glory through conquest. This is achieved through the slaying of great monsters, the discovery of lost treasures, or other feats of valor, strength, or guile. The culmination of these many heroic achievements are the "Games" which play out at the end of every season. Each city-state dispatches its greatest champions to compete against those representing other members of the Confederacy, with glory and riches being rewarded to whichever state achieves the largest percentage of victories. 

Throughout much of Dearean, even occasionally within the hellish lands of Alethia, it is not uncommon to encounter hero-adventurers of the Imartii, intent on searching out their next challenge. 

So there you have it folks. Two (vastly different) cultures to pick from. So go pre-order a copy if you haven’t, and look forward to 2 new chapters coming later this week as we near the end of the campaign!