Greetings from 2 o'clock in the morning,
WE DID IT! After a month and a half of listening to me beg and plead in person and on Facebook, after four years of drafts, submissions, rejections, and rewrites, after a third thing that must exist, because of the rule of three, An Unattractive Vampire is finally going to be published! Thank you to everyone who helped me. If you bought a book thank you. If posted on Facebook or talked to friends, thank you. If you said, "No, seriously Jim, you should enter that contest," thank you. And for those of you who don't actually know me, but saw the title or read a sample chapter and said, "Huh, I kind of want to read that," thank you.
So, where do we go from here? Well, first of all, I'm going to go to bed. At noon tomorrow (or 2 for me), the Sword and Laser will announce which book will be the debut novel in the their collection. After that...I don't rightly know, but I'll find out. And when I do, I'll let you know.
But for now, sleep.
Thanks one and everyone.
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ.
Good morning everybody,
It's the final day of the Sword and Laser contest. At midnight PST, all of this comes to an end and whether or not this book is published will finally be decided. I expect a bumpy ride to the finish line: a day full of jumps from all the books as we make last minute pleas and pushes.
Again, if you have not preordered yet. Do it now! Seriously, right now. I'll wait...
If you have bought a book, you are a wonderful person. Also, tell a friend to buy a book. Or recommend it, using the recommend button. Or like a passage. Did I mention how cool and attractive you are?
In case you need some incentive, here are some things that await you if this novel of mine (which, just to be clear, is long since finished) is published: more fun with the Puritans, the perils of modern New Amsterdam (or whatever they’re calling it these days), a vampire club, a werewolf bar, an Irish trickster shade, redundant terms like Irish trickster, a resurrected coma patient, corrections on what to call soda (pop), Proper Vampirism™ Revised Edition 7, the lost city of Akkad, a Chinese hopping vampire, a West African plague vampire, a Spanish Inquisitor, the Aztec god of night and magic, and much, much more...
So if you want to learn what any of that means, you know what to do: Preorder! Recommend! Like!
And as always...thank you all.
Now if you'll excuse me, I have to obsessively update the Top Ten page every 30 seconds until 2 AM CST.
Happy Friday Everyone,
Hope everyone's having a good Memorial Day. Sorry to interrupt it, but...
...Update, update, everyone's got an update...
It's the last week for the Sword and Laser Contest. By this time next week, we will know which books get published and which do not. In our favor, we broke 300 preorders! Hooray! I honestly did not think any of the books (beyond Cinnabar, that rapscallion) would go above 300, but here we are. Thank you one and all (especially all, you'll ALL-ways be my favorite) for ordering my book and making this happen.
That said, other books have made huge jumps in preorders over this last week which means An Unattractive Vampire is now perched precariously in the 5th spot. If we can hang on here, we get published, but we could very easily get bumped down, so we need to do what we can to get more orders. If you have a few extra credits from already buying a book, throw them into a second copy for a friend. Or just spread the word. Tell people about An Unattractive Vampire. Post the link on Facebook or Twitter. Force people you're blackmailing into buying a copy. That last one I can't LEGALLY condone, but hey, I don't have to know.
Some groups that have shown An Unattractive Vampire some love this last week:
The Blurry Photos Podcast: A great podcast for monsters and mysteries, they cover everything from Baba Yaga and Spring-Heeled Jack to Tiwanaku and The Hinterkaifeck Murders. I steal so much inspiration from these guys and will continue to do so, unapologetically. You can find them on iTunes or at http://www.blurryphotos.org/
Four Humors Theater: A critically acclaimed Minneapolis comedy theater. If you are in or visiting the Twin Cities and you have the opportunity, go see a show. I cannot recommend them highly enough. You can find them (and possibly pictures of me with actual hair) at www.fourhumorstheater.com
And of course there's my comrades over at Our Fair City, without whom, I would not have been consistently writing for the past six years. If you listen to just one post-apocalyptic audio drama featuring molepeople, mad science, and bureaucratic corporate overlords, make it Our Fair City. Available on iTunes and at www.ourfaircity.com.
I will post more updates and excerpts soon. Until then, go out there and LEGALLY get people to buy my book. In LEGAL ways. That are totally LEGAL. *WINK*
Now that I've actually gotten some sleep, it's time for another update.
First of all, congratulations to fellow winners G. Derek Adams and J.F. Dubeau, whose books were chosen as the debut novels for the Sword and Laser Collection. Way to go guys.
Second, more good news came to me on Monday. Not only did I learn this book o' mine was going to be published, but I was accepted to DePaul University's Master of Writing and Publishing program. Huzzah! I'm going to be a Master Writer. (I swear, the idea of being able to say I'm a "Master of Writing" is not the reason I applied. Well, not the ONLY reason I applied.) Anyway, I better work on my triple lindy, because I'm going back to school.
Third there are a few more people who I need to thank for giving me their support:
1) Dottore Balordo of Blastropodcast: The man of SCIENCE! himself gave me a ringing endorsement in the final day of the competition. Well, at least, I think that's what it was. His actual words were, "I hardly endorphin this navel about umpires." I'm sure that will make much more sense if you just listen to Blastropodcast, available on iTunes or at www.blastropodcast.com.
2) Thank you to WildClaw Theatre for giving me a push on Facebook. WildClaw is Chicago's premiere horror theatre and their new anthology show Motel 666 actually opens this week. So if you're in Chicago, you should check them out at www.wildclawtheatre.com.
3) Thank you to The Sword and Laser for giving me this opportunity. The Sword and Laser is one of my favorite podcasts to listen to, featuring Sci-Fi and Fantasy books and news, as well as author interviews, which I have taken a considerable amount of encouragement from over the years. Without them, this book would be doomed to languish in a folder on my hardrive until one of its brothers or sisters found success. Now, it gets its chance to shine.
4) And Inkshares, thank you for not only the opportunity, but the enthusiasm and excitment you have already given this project and that you will provide going forward. I look forward to working with you to sell the &$%# out of this book. Pardon my grawlix. (Grawlix (n): a series of typographical symbols used in cartoons or cartoons to represent swearing. The More You Know...)
5) Thank you everyone who bought a book. "Look what you did. I can't believe what you did." ~ Henry Jones Sr.
I promise I will update you all as things progress. (For example, I'll have to get myself a fancypants website now.) So stay tuned...