Hey there,

It’s been a while, hasn’t it? The reason I’ve been quiet is because I didn’t have much to say and I didn’t want to bother you. That being said, it doesn’t mean I haven’t been busy. Aside from life doing it’s thing and my full time job, I have been doing some significant amount of writing, which is what I suspect you really want to know about.

Let’s get to it.

Song of the Sandman (A God in the Shed: Part II)

The bulk of my time has been taken up by work on the sequel to A God in the Shed, titled : Son of the Sandman.

Writing, editing and rewriting this sequel has been one of the most depressing and difficult creative journey of my life. I very nearly quit writing entirely at one point, and writing is one of those things that brings me the most joy in life.

But the storm has been weathered. The book is on the verge of completion. We have a date to go to copy editing, which means a solid release date isn’t far behind. While I apologize for the delays in getting this book to you, I hope the wait will have been worth it.

I do have a little something to help tide you over until Song of the Sandman hits shelves.

Achewillow is a side project I’ve been working on with my friend Amy Frost (winner of the first season of America’s Next Top Podcaster). It’s a ‘cozy’ horror story that isn’t as intense as A God in the Shed, but has a much weirder background setting. I wrote the story, so you can expect some strange characters, old gods and bizarre magics. It’s also codeveloped with Amy who brings a layer of cooking and coffee to the story. Also, she narrates it, which really elevates whatever I put on the page.

Achewillow takes the shape of a storytelling podcast, the first season of which spans 15 half-hour episode. It’s essentially a free audiobook. It tells the story of Miriam DuFour, a young adult who’s life is spiralling into the gutter until she receives a strange envelope. In it, Miriam discovers that she’s inherited a coffee shop from a relative she didn’t know she had in a town she didn’t know existed: Achewillow. From there, she is drawn into a world of subtle magic, baking, demons, coffee and the occasional raccoon.

I’m really proud of Achewillow and I hope you listen and enjoy it. This is the first of a few projects I have in mind to make sure you and I, dear reader, don’t lose touch for so long again. Of course, the more successful Achewillow is, the easier it becomes for me to put things like this together. So, if you do like our little podcast, consider rating it on iTunes, or leaving a review. I can’t overstate how much impact this has on the success of such a project.

The last time I put Arch-Android, the sequel to The Life Engineered, back on the shelf, I was done with a second, mostly satisfying draft. Once Song of the Sandman is out of my hands, I’ll be doing a third draft which will be sent to beta readers. From that point on, we’ll be in good shape to get this book into your hands.

The Life Engineered has always had a special place in my heart and I’m very eager to bring you the next chapter in that story. 

That’s it for now. I apologize again for the long silence. I didn’t feel like had much to say that was worth your time, but that’s about to change.

Cheers and much gratitude,

J-F.

The winners of the Inkshares Mystery Contest have been announced, and I’m happy to say that "Cat’s Paw" is on the list! This means we will be going forward with all the editing and rewriting and nosegrinding that goes into the publication process, and, probably a year from today, the book will make it into your hands.

Onwards!

Masters and Apprentices!

So excited to announce we are approaching the two-year publication anniversary of Rune of the Apprentice! How cool! In the coming months, I will have some awesome news about RUNE’s sequel, Oath of the Apprentice, and an illustrated novella called Shadow of the Moon, which takes place between RUNE and OATH!

Before I tell you about all that, however, I am first proud to announce that my next book, a graphic novel entitled The Last Amazon, will be published this November, right on the two year anniversary of RUNE! 

The Last Amazon is set in the same universe as The Rune Chronicles and serves as a prequel to RUNE. Truth be told, I could not be happier to share this book (and exclusive Inkshares 20% discount below) with all of you!

David Granjo (the illustrator) and I have poured our heart and souls into this book and I could not be more proud of it! We’ve crafted a book par excellence, and our printer onthemark has produced an epic "making of" video of our foil covers. Click HERE to watch the video and see our press proofs comes to life!  

Better yet, to celebrate all you awesome people who supported RUNE, I am excited to offer a 20% pre-order discount on The Last Amazon. Just enter "INKSHARES" in the Apotheosis Studios checkout screen! EZPZ!  

The code will only work for a little while longer! So don’t wait! Snag your signed copy by clicking HERE now!   

Again, this book is set in the same universe as Rune of the Apprentice and sheds light on how our planet was first shaped by catastrophe, and then molded by a few brave souls into the fantastical world of Terra--which you all have come to know so well.

Filled with Artifical Intelligence, post-apocalyptic espionage, and art that will blow your mind, The Last Amazon is a photo-realistic graphic novel, the kind of which has never been seen before!

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Fellow Masters and Apprentices, this is a book you will not want to miss out on. And don’t forget to snag your 20% pre-order discount! Just enter "INKSHARES" in the Apotheosis Studios checkout screen! The code will only work for a little while longer! So don’t wait! Snag your signed copy by clicking HERE now!  

Your support--both on RUNE, and now on The Last Amazon--means the world to me! THANK YOU!

Greetings Friends. 

I’ll be reaching out to each one of you sometime in the next week to express my appreciation for your support so far, but for now I’ll simply say many, many, many thanks for getting behind this project. It means more to me than you can ever know. 

The sci-fi-horror novel BREATHLESS is now available for pre-order. 

Please consider: 

If you personally find an additional three people -- three friends or family members --  who might be interested enough to purchase this yarn, we could have this thing on its way to being published in a week. 

Here’s a bit of context regarding just how exhausting this project has been! 

I spent four years writing this thing. Four grueling, tedious years stealing brief moments in a basement closet for one hour each night after work and after getting my kid to fall asleep. The witching hour, between 10pm and midnight. That’s when all the magic happened. 

When the manuscript was finished, I crossed all fingers and toes and hurled it into the crowded thoroughfare of genre fiction. Within a month I was signed by literary agent Mark Gottlieb with Trident Media, who then spent a year trying to find a home for it. He wasn’t able turn up anything, so he handed the manuscript back and wished me luck. 

And I was dropped from our agreement. 

I then went to every genre publisher I could find who accepted non-agented, unsolicited manuscripts. I had several manuscript requests, and within two months, I was offered a contract with TCK publishing. 

Of course I signed. 

I had several phone conferences with the owner of TCK and his editors over the following month. They eventually asked if I would be willing to cut the novel in half and write an additional two sequels (because series authors sell more books than standalone authors, is what they told me). 

I wasn’t too thrilled with the idea, but if they were paying I would certainly try. 

The problem was they gave me a June 1, 2019 deadline. 

One year. 

Remember what I said earlier? About how long it took me to write this ONE novel? 

That’s right. It took about four years. 

TCK wanted me to basically write four books within a year. 

I told them that I would certainly try, but that because of how long BREATHLESS took to write -- because I have a full-time job and family to take care of -- I wasn’t confident that I could write that much so quickly. 

We had two more phone conferences after that, and then there was silence from them for a month. 

I reached out to my editor and asked if everything was going okay and if she needed anything. 

And then I was informed that my contract was made solvent. My timeframe for project submissions didn’t meet their publishing calendar. 

And I was dropped from the agreement. 

This was pretty devastating. 

I kinda lost all drive to write anything after that, and I don’t think I would have been that bothered by the project failing if I hadn’t have come that close. But I DID get that close. I got so close I could taste it. And the disappointment was almost too much to deal with. 

So I just stopped writing, for almost a year. I just felt like I was going to put another four years of my life into something that was just going to fail anyway, and that killed my drive. 

Then one day I found a book at Barnes and Noble. i paged through the first couple chapters, and it was great. I purchased it, and quickly devoured it. Finished it in about two days. 

The book was called The Punch Escrow, by Tal M Klein. 

I discovered that it was an Inkshares publication. 

I’d never heard of Inkshares before. 

I checked it out, and I what I found sounded pretty cool to me. It was a crowdfund, like kickstarter for books, except it was free to use by both backers and content creators. It was reader-driven publishing, and for my money there’s no better measuring stick for gauging the value of piece of writing. It all boils down to readers anyway. That’s the whole POINT of publishing. 

So I thought, meh, I’ll give it a shot. Why not? 

And here we are. All caught up. 

We have until November 14 to obtain 750 pre-orders. That is very intimidating. 

But I have you, dear followers, all 138 of you. My ace-cards. A WHOLE DECK OF EM. 

This is my calling-all-cars moment. My last ditch effort to see this thing through before I slush it for god knows how long. 

I have YOU. 

And, like I said, if each one of you found at least three people to place an order, we could have this thing on its way to the bookshelf in about a week, and then I can finally get off this roller coaster and move on with my life (haha). 

Again, many thanks for bringing me this far. No matter what happens, I’m very grateful for your support. Truly. Honestly, I am. If you need anything from me, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me -- shaneplindemoen@yahoo.com 

Please let me know if there are questions, and I guess I’ll see on the other side. 

--Shane Lindemoen 

I am alive! Anything you heard to the contrary is false. No, JF Dubeau did not kill me off in his upcoming sequel. I just have had a really tough couple of years and I didn’t keep up with much of what I probably should have.

In the spirit of keeping things short and sweet, pertinent updates:

I will be at Dragoncon. If you can make it by, reach out to me so I can say hi. If you have your copy and it isn’t already signed, I’ll sign it!

Fall is 50% done being edited by me. If you haven’t, you should probably get your copy pre-ordered today!

I’ve got other ideas that have been percolating, but that’s the important stuff for now.