HAPPY PUBLISHING DAY!!!

 
(Yulric does not approve of my rudimentary photoshop skills.)

So at long last, the day I have worked toward for five years has arrived. Time to sit on my laurels and fall into a deep, contented sleep.

WRONG!!!

There’s still so much news and so much to do involved with this book for me and, if you’re willing, for you. 

First, tell everyone you know about the book! Word of mouth does wonders. If you have extra copies, give them to friends, neighbors, coworkers.If you don’t yet own a copy, you’re in luck! Goodreads is giving away 20 copies!  

Second, again, I implore everyone who reads the book to please, please, PLEASE go to Amazon and leave a review. It doesn’t have to be long or involved. You can simply write "Thumbs up" or "Thumbs down." However, if I get past 50 reviews my book will begin showing up in ads and algorithms so it is really important.

Third, good things...reviews! Interviews! So far things have been incredibly positive. Which is good, because I hate crying. Last night, I recorded a podcast with my fellow Inkshares writers J.F. Dubeau and Paul Inman so look for that soon over at Writebrain Podcast. And in two hours, I get to live the dream by appearing on the Sword and Laser. I’m excited. So...yay!

Fourth, lest we forget...there is going to be a party this Friday at Bucket O Blood Books and Records in Chicago. So if you happen to be in or around the city, celebrating St. Patrick’s Day (again) stop on by. 

And...finally? I don’t know. I’m too excited. I had a hundred things to say in this update and now I can’t remember them all. As one of many thank yous that you all deserve, it was suggested by J.F. that maybe I show a little of the behind the scenes work that went into the process. So here are some early markups of the An Unattractive Vampire cover:

Hahaha.

  

  

  

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.

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

CONTINUING COVERAGE OF EVENTS

Hey folks,

So, it happened. I received the final e-mail from Girl Friday, the production company that has been handling all things editorial and the final version has been sent to the printers! It’s done! We did it! (Well not quite yet. I’ll get to that.) Thank you to everyone at Girl Friday for being great and pushing me to make my book the best it could possibly be. 

So from here on out, it’s all about pushing the book for me! To that end, there are some pretty big deal happenings that you should be aware of starting with...

A LAUNCH PARTY! Yep. It’s been confirmed. An Unattractive Vampire will be coming out in style here in Chicago with an official launch party at Bucket O’ Blood Books and Records. So in the midst of your St. Patty’s Day stupor come out (please come out) and buy a book or get your book signed and say hi and then go back to green beer and vomiting on sidewalks, a Chicago tradition. For more information about Bucket O’ Blood you can visit their website or Facebook page.

Also...THE SWORD AND LASER! In very much another "crossing off a life goal" moment, I will be appearing on The Sword and Laser podcast on March 15 (PUBLISHING DAY). So you’ll be able to listen to me stumble through a haze of glee and make a fool of myself very soon. Also, if you have any questions for me (looking at you other authors) head over here and ask them. I have wisdom dammit! Let me share it!

Finally, the Nerdist space opera contest is still going strong with a just under a month to go. If you happen to like starships battles and alien wars, you might want to head over there and check it out. Here are a few suggestions:

The Madness of Mr. Butler by Michael Haase: The tale of an eccentric old man on a far away planet desperately trying to prove that his world is a sphere circling a star. Also, God talks to him through an astronauts helmet.

Aurora by Taylor Hopkins: A bounty hunter faces off against a criminal mastermind in a planet-hopping adventure. The sample chapter reads like a combination of Alien and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.

Lucky by RH Webster about a woman hitching a ride back to earth from the dusty end of space. I’ll be honest, there aren’t a lot of details about the plot for this one, but the writing is REALLY good.

Anyway, until next time everyone.

Behold! The very rare, snowy update!

Hey everyone. Sorry to be so quiet as of late. There’s been a lot going on between grad school and...well mostly grad school. But I’ve spent the last two days in the library preparing presentations (and writing a short story) so hey, let’s have some news.

An Unattractive Vampire Update:
This week I gave final notes on the e-book version of the book. So everything is on schedule for people getting their books on time. (I know because lots of you keep asking me about that.) Additionally, Inkshares is in talks to throw a launch party here in Chicago. I won’t put out too many details until things are finalized, but keep the evening of Friday March 18 free or rather, come do your St. Patrick’s Day weekend drinking with me at soon-to-be-disclosed location (well probably before and/or after soon-to-be-disclosed location. I doubt the bookstore actually serves booze.) There are also other things in the works that I probably can talk about, but hey let’s be mysterious and pretend I can’t. So yes, hush, hush, secret, secret, upcoming podcast appearances. Shhh....you read nothing.

Also I have five hundred shiny new postcards that will be finding their way into every coffee shop I can find. 

Inkshares:
There’s a new contest! The Nerdist and Geek and Sundry are holding a series of themed contests to publish more books. (Swoon.) The first one runs from now until March 15 and is all about Space Opera. Now, I’ll be honest with all the work I’ve been doing writing stories about Nikola Tesla and ghosts and reading Arthurian legends (you know, like you do in grad school) I haven’t had a chance to check out what’s out there. But I will (soon) and you should. So visit the contest page here and see what’s what.

Other News:
On February 5th, it was announced that for the second year in a row, I was a winner of the Midnight Audio Theatre Scriptwriting Competition. What does this mean? Well, it means that Midnight Audio Theatre will be producing my piece "The Fairie Wood"--a tale of an arrogant lord who learns it does not pay to run afoul of fairies--will be produced sometime this year. So yay! More good news. (For those who might be interested, I will you link you to my arctic horror piece from last year, "Last Transmission."

I feel like there’s more to tell. There probably is and I’m forgetting it (or maybe that’s my homework. AAAAAH!) Anyway, I hope you all are well and I promise you will get your books soon. This isn’t just all an elaborate scheme to steal tens of dollars from you. (Or is it? MUHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!)