Hello everyone!

It has been a while since my last update, but today marks a special anniversary for me – exactly one year ago, The Bones of the Past won a publishing contract. This is going to be a long update, so bear with me!

There has been far more work involved in getting the book into shape for publishing than I ever expected – I’m just now working on my review of the last proofread – but it has been an amazing experience and the book has evolved into something I am extremely proud of.

I just wanted to take this opportunity to thank all of you once again for your continued support and interest. I would never have made it this far without you!

Now, I do believe I owe you some news about the book including when and where you’ll finally be able to get your hands on it!

First of all, you’ll see in the attached picture that we have the back cover and spine of the book finalised and we’re just missing the “placeholder attributions”. These mini reviews are from authors who read the book in a raw form (still full of typos) and who had some positive things to say about it!

I’m very proud to say that I received some “cover blurbs” from three really amazing authors and I am truly humbled that people as talented as they are would have such positive things to say about my book.

Joseph Asphahani’s excellent SciFi/Fantasy novel - The Animal in Man - secured publishing through the same contest that I was in. His book isn’t out yet, but I’ve had the privilege of reading an early copy of it and I can’t recommend it highly enough. So, keep an eye out for it!

Rick Heinz’s The Seventh Age: Dawn is an incredibly exciting take on urban fantasy vampires and demons. It kept me up late on more than one occasion and is a book that anyone with even a passing interest in the genre should run out and buy right now!

Alan Campbell is the author of a number of bestselling novels. Most notable is his Deepgate Codex series. He does fantasy differently than any other author I’ve read and the result is something you won’t soon forget. I’ve been reading his books for at least ten years, so having him read mine (and like it!) is more than a little surreal. The Deepgate Codex is a trilogy that’s available in its entirety right now and should be on any fantasy fan’s ‘to read’ list.

So… what did they have to say about The Bones of the Past? I’ll share that closer to publication date or let you read the blurbs on the book for yourselves!

And so, we come to the publication date. The process is still on track for a May 30, 2017 publication. That means that you should get your copies a little bit before that if you ordered through Inkshares. If you haven’t or if you’d like to pick up a hardcopy, please go ahead and pre-order it through your local bookstore! That will make one store that’s more likely to keep my book in stock and on its shelves! All the major chains have it listed already, and most independent bookstores can get their hands on it easily enough :)

Book sales, and more specifically launches, are all about creating buzz. So more pre-orders and more attendees to the launch event go a long way toward making a book stand out and succeed (second only to reviews!).  The launch event will be held in Ottawa at a date somewhere around May 30th. Work has already started on nailing down exactly where and when. I’ll let you know as soon as I have something solid.

Thank you all yet again!!!

Friends, Readers, and Sorcerers All,

Happy New Year! You may have seen this in another email, but thanks to you, WE DID IT! We made our funding goal. Because of some last-minute pre-orders, we held on to third place and won The List contest! This means that SORCERY FOR BEGINNERS will be published later this year with FULL MARKETING AND DISTRIBUTION SUPPORT. 

I’m over the moon, you guys. Four years ago, I pitched the concept for this book as a screenplay, but my agent said no one would buy it as a spec. If it was based on a book, he said it would be a slam-dunk sale. So I decided to write my first real novel, and nine drafts and several wrong turns later, here we are. In less than a year, SORCERY FOR BEGINNERS will be on the shelves of bookstores. 

And I owe it all to you. Your tweets, your shares, and most importantly, your pre-orders got us to this place. Thanks to you guys, we donated $560 to breast cancer research, we finished in the top ten of two separate contests, and SORCERY got a real publishing deal. There’s a lot of work still left to do -- I have to address notes from my editor, Juliane has to do the illustrations, plus layout and cover design and marketing one-sheets -- but for now, I simply want to say THANK YOU. Thank you to all who supported this project over last three months, and to everyone who has supported my writing in other ways over the years. I owe you all drinks. I’d also like to send a special shout-out to all the folks in the Inkshares community, especially Adam, who believed in this book. I look forward to working with you all in 2017.

For now, may you enjoy the rest of your holiday. I wish you all the best in 2017, and no matter what else happens, I hope this book will be a little bright spot in your year. It wouldn’t exist without you.

Thanks again. Onward!

mh

Friends, Readers, and Sorcerers All,

Hello everyone!

Funding for The Living God ends today. We didn’t make that Christmas Miracle, but that’s okay. We still made Quill. We are still getting published! Today is your absolute last chance to get in on the incentives if you haven’t backed the book yet. Head on over! 

To all of you, thank you so much for your support. I could not have made it this far without you. Part of me can’t truly be settled on the idea that this is happening until the end of the day, when the campaign closes, so it feels a bit premature to celebrate. However, I’m celebrating you, the contributors. You made this book possible. It’s been in my head, and in various stages of revision for nearly ten years. I’m beyond thankful and grateful that I get to share that story with you and others! 

Hopefully, I’ll be passing it off to the final round of beta readers soon. If you messaged me about beta reading, you’re definitely on the list of people it will go to! 

I’m also contemplating a different cover for marketing reasons. I got a lot of comments during the campaign where people were under the impression it was a children’s book, so the illustration may feel too juvenile. You’ll still be getting signed posters of the illustration as promised. However, I’ll be exploring other cover designs/illustrations for the finished release. 

I still owe two or three of you covers. Do not worry, I’ll be getting in touch with you in the next few weeks. If you ordered a book and have not received a cover or I haven’t spoken to you previously about it, please send me a DM or email. I don’t want anyone lost in the fray. 

I’ll be sending a sappier thank you message as soon as reality hits me, I promise! 

First of all: merry Christmas, and a happy New Year.

Second: we’ve passed 300 readers, which means I can start talking about how I’m defending my position on The List with 300, like King Leonidas at Thermopylae. Have you looked at The List’s leaderboard today, though? The contenders from the Launchpad competition have just been transferred in, at 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th. While the top three Launchpad entries are, according to the rules, probably going to be taken out again, there’s still that one contender, the fourth Launchpad entry, currently in 6th on The List, who’s just 10 readers below me and still taking orders....

In short, my position is Extremely Precarious, and I’m probably going to need a bunch of new readers within the next week to ensure my place.

In book news, the manuscript is complete and ready for submission. So is a brand new plan of the Veterans’ Club ground floor--and yes, the manuscript has been edited to take into account the new layout.

In short, we’re ready to roll. It’s just a question of what happens over the course of the next week. Now, more than ever: tell your friends, tell your enemies, tell your complete strangers. King Leonidas may have made an impressive defence of Thermopylae with his 300 Spartans, but that ultimately ended in defeat. Let’s hope the same doesn’t happen with my 300 readers.

Hello my friends,

It’s been a while hasn’t it? Thing is, when preparing a book for publication, things can get pretty damn hectic. Toss in an option from a production company and the stakes get really high, which of course means more work.

That being said, I’d be remiss in not taking a moment to thank each and every one of you for your support in 2016. There’s no way I’d be anywhere near even this modest amount of success without you. I owe it all to you guys.

So I hope you all have incredible holidays with your friends and families. That 2017 will be an awesome year for you and that you get to accomplish your dreams the same way you’ve allowed me to accomplish mine. And to kick off the next year on a good note, I’d like to unveil the final (kinda) cover for A God in the Shed:

The designer did an amazing job in creating something iconic and striking that will be a great visual signature for the story. I’m really looking forward to seeing this cover, wrapped around a book, in your hands.

Thanks again for your support and happy Kwanzhannukmas everyone!

JF