Physical copies have begun to ship! You’ll get a notification in your email - so check it obsessively. 

  "An unlikely band of heroes—some of whom are trying to kill one another—must gather together in order to save their world from the return of an ancient menace in an excellent, irreverent mix of sword-and-sorcery fantasy and SF. Adams’s flippant tone recalls Terry Pratchett, taking the skewering of tropes down a very dark path as he establishes a fantasy world built from the ashes of a technological one." -- Publisher’s Weekly  

This will be my last Sunday recommendations/reviews for a while. I’m finally forcing myself to admit that with the large amount of mandatory overtime I will not be able to keep up a regular schedule to continue these posts. With that said after today I’ll be moving to a far more rational method: review a project when I first read it if I like it, and use the handy recommend button on the project page to recommend any book I think is worth your attention(I too often forget about that button). As such if you are interested in continuing to get recommendations from me, then you should go ahead and follow my author page here as well if you haven’t done so already. With that its time to get to the reviews of 3 books I’m really excited about.  Remember:  bold letters = links to click.

“The Life Interstellar” by Zack Jordan: Too often aliens in science fiction end up seeming like humans in funny costumes. This is not the case with Zack Jordan’s opening excerpt ’Heart to Heart’, where an alien perspective juxtaposes with human emotion and makes both far more powerful as a result. In both this excerpt and the two others currently posted he effortlessly breathes life into both his characters and the setting making it easy for us to accept his world as reality, while also planting the story’s hooks into us so that we don’t want to know where it will all end up, we MUST know where it all will end up. I only wish the book was in my hands now so that I can submerge myself fully into it.

As an added note, I just have to say that Mr. Jordan has the best reader updates I’ve seen in all my time on Inkshares. They come in the form of short fiction pieces, typically in world advertisements/messages and so on, which further serve to give you a view of this of the wider galaxy of his world. They’re a joy to read, so if you’re not already following this book then you should and you should read every update when it arrives.

“Lucky” by RH Webster: With a clear vision of a future we can easily see growing out of our own world’s present, Ms. Webster quickly engages my mind in thoughts of where we are heading. Add to this her excellent characterization which makes us truly empathize with her characters, and I for one cannot help but feel I live in this future alongside of the characters. These two elements bring with the promise of truly great science ficion, and make me eagerly anticipate the full book.

“A God In the Shed” by JF Dubeau: The opening scene instantly transported me back to my own childhood spent playing in the wooded hills and hollers, and the nostalgia it provided only deepened the sense of dread which was soon to follow. As the story progresses Mr. Dubeau expertly uses dialogue and narration to add to this and in doing so creates a sense of true horror, be it that of death most savage, supernatural terror, or worst of all the darkness in the heart of mankind. As we follow the trail to the heart of the mystery of the events which have been transpiring in town, we are brought fully into events through excellent description and characterization. I certainly can’t wait to see where its all heading.

The book. It is out. It is out officially and should, as of this writing, be in the hands of almost everyone who’s ordered it.

The launch party was small but fun. I’m thrilled by who managed to be there and sad about those who wanted to attend but were unable. It was a learning experience and I’m glad I got to try this out in a safe environment surrounded by familiar and supportive faces. Anyone who knows me is aware that I’m not exactly comfortable with some of the required self-promotion activities surrounding the publication of a novel. Amongst others, there’s reading from your own book which is helluva intimidating to me. However, it’s part and parcel of what I want to do and if it’s something readers want, I’ll do it.

First public reading: Done. The ice is broken. It wasn’t so bad. I think I’ll be fine doing it in the future.

For those who might have missed it; I was on Sword & Laser on the day of release of The Life Engineered and it was awesome. I really enjoy chatting with Tom and Veronica. I got to answer some questions from readers and I swear Veronica’s eyes lit up when I mentioned that sex between Capeks wasn’t impossible. Let me know if I hallucinated.

Speaking of Tom Merritt. I was a guest on his other podcast, Current Geek, hosted by Scott Johnson. Current Geek is the kind of podcast that sounds fun to be a guest on and it’s been on my bucket list of appearances for a while. Good news: Even more of a blast than anticipated. Give it a listen. Hell, go subscribe; it’s a hell of a good podcast.

That’s it for now. I want to thank everyone who was at the party, including fellow Inkshares writers A.C. Baldwin, André Brun and Christopher Huang. Check out their books. Now! I also want to highlight the efforts of Cara Weston who put together a Google Hangout so a few others could attend virtually. Check out her book too.

So what’s next?

• Hopefully more media
  
• Finishing the manuscript for the sequel to The Life Engineered
• Maybe another short story in that universe to bridge the two books
• Pushing really hard to get A God in the Shed to 750 pre-orders. Expect me to enlist your help very soon.

As always; thank you my fellow sentients. It’s a fascinating ride and I think there’s some really awesome stuff on the horizon for The Life Engineered. Never forget that you’re the ones who made it happen.

Cheers

JF

I’m so EXCITED!

Check out the fan video for Blood Dawn that just went live this morning:

Cara ("A.C.") Weston, author of She Is the End, offered to put together a fan video trailer for Blood Dawn, and HERE IT IS!

Listen to several Inkshares authors talk about what’s GREAT about Blood Dawn and why they can’t wait to read it. In addition to Cara, these authors are:

• Joseph Asphahani (The Animal in Man)
• C. Brennecke (Seven Shards: The Colors of Wine)
• Matthew Isaac Sobin (The Last Machine in the Solar System)
• Craig Munroe (The Bones of the Past)
• Michael Sebby (The Inhabitants: An Unremembered Life)
• Paul Inman (Ageless) 

Thank you so much for doing this! Thanks also to one of my beta readers, Tyler Sparrow, who recently read the first draft in its entirety, and added his praise in this video. And THANK YOU to Alex Weston (The "A" in "A.C. Weston") for his expertise putting this video together. This is an EPIC piece to add to the finish of this funding campaign.  

I got shivers watching this. What a way to end the week! (Translation: Cara, you are the BEST!)

:=)

Books, books everywhere, but not a drop to drink!

The books are finally arriving. Again, I’d like to thank everyone who bought a copy for their support. What you are holding/will hold in your hands would not exist without your help. I hope you enjoy it.

Still, even with the release of physical books to backers, there’s still plenty to do. The actual release date is March 15th (no Caesars were stabbed during the making of this novel.) And naturally, we need as many people as possible to be aware of An Unattractive Vampire by then. So, if you like the book, tell a friend or two or seventy. Rate and review it on Goodreads. Amazon won’t let you review it until the actual publishing date, but prepare a review for them too. Seriously, reviews on Amazon are apparently super important for sales of a book as they determine how visible your book is on their website. 

(Oh and if you don’t like the book, tell someone you don’t like very much to read the book. Ruin their day. I’m not picky.)

On March 15th (release day), I will be interviewed on the podcast that started it all, The Sword and Laser. Kind of a dream come true for me. I’ll try to keep it together. Anyway, I only mention it because they are currently taking questions on Goodreads, so if you’re one of the 20,000 or so members of the Sword and Laser and you’d like to ask me a question regardings writing, monsters, audio drama, places to dispose of bodies, etc, head over there and ask it. Otherwise, people will just spend thirty minutes of me squeeing.

Also for anyone who is in or around Chicago remember that March 18th, we will be having a launch party at Bucket O’ Blood Books and Records (appropriate, no?) at 7 PM. Come say hi on your way to green beer. 

Anyway, before I let you go, I thought I should remind everyone that the Nerdist Space Opera contest is still going on. There are plenty of good books still in the running to be published including:

The Madness of Mr. Butler by Michael Haase: a tale of a crazy old man desperately trying to prove to everyone that their world is round.

Lucky by RH Webster: the story of a space trucker who finds herself caught in middle of an interstellar conspiracy.

The Life Interstellar by Zach Jordan: a novel the most dangerous and terrifying creature of all time: the galaxies last human.  

Space Tripping by Patrick Edwards: a Hitchhiker’s Guide like story of outer space hijinks as human and alien delivery men try to avoid being killed by marauders and space criminals on the way to their next drink.