All, thank you for the support. Things have been progressing well...

In fact, I’ve spent the weekend doing what I do best with manuscripts. I’ve been reading through The Professional Corpse and realizing little things, opportunities throwaway lines and jokes that will pay off later in the book and later in the series. Finding ways to hid little Easter eggs in the text which themselves contain other Easter eggs within them which in turn serve as tiny little clues to future plot twists. Why? Because I like to amuse myself. Also because a couple of them are good for character development.

I’ve also been combing through Creative Commons and public domain images and putting together promotional images for this book that’s caught our attention. I’ll be actually doing timed releases of them to keep some sort of momentum going, but here’s a link for you to see them early. Little hook blurbs for the main five characters. I’ll probably do another set of five in a month or so, each with a quotation from a different character. We’ll see.

On top of promotional images, I teased a fun little meta surprise for anyone interested in the last update. Well, now I’ve got pictures. For those of you who’ve read chapter two, you may recall a certain unfortunately designed business card shared over a bottle of wine. I’ve made about sixty of ’em this morning. If anyone would like one, let me know and I’ll gladly throw it in the mail for you as a way of saying thanks for getting in early. The phone number on them is even functional! (though now I need to add a passage about hastily setting up his voicemail to make it clear the character is awkward with technology and the rambling was a deliberate choice on the writer’s part).

Anyway, if you’d like to get your hands one of these business cards, send me a message, or more amusingly still, call the number (443.648.DEAD) and leave Jamie a voicemail and he’ll get that out for you ;)

Every time I click Update Readers, it always comes pre-loaded with a default message starter. Maybe it’s just me, but I kinda want to start using that to start EVERY. SINGLE. UPDATE. 

But that’s not what this update is about. I’m working on some promotional stuff. Pictures and meta stuff to help spread the word. Marketing is my weakness, so I’m really cracking down trying to come up with ways to catch people’s eye and draw them to the project. A lot of it feels gimmicky, but I don’t know what to do that doesn’t feel gimmicky without stopping people on the streets and saying, "READ MY BOOK!"

But that leads to police, and that’s no good for anyone.

From a development front, I’ve found a couple of artists I’m about to approach for cover art, but I need a couple more logistical things in place before that can get moving. and have made a checklist for things to do in case I don’t suddenly become a marketing genius in the 77 days left in this campaign and don’t get the 243 preorders needed for Inkshares to make this happen. Because this book is happening, one way or another. The only question is when and how.

But gimmicky things. I’ve got some promotional images I’m putting together. Some playlists, since music is a big thing for both of the protagonists. And... a special something nice for anyone who wants a little surprise happy. Why? Because I like taking things from my stories and giving it some way to interact with the real world. For my novel New Tricks, the book came with sheet music for the drinking song the characters sing, so the reader can sing along.

For this one, I’d like to send a little something to anyone who wants it. Don’t worry. It’s not an assassin. Just a fun little prop from the book. If you’re an interested follower, send me a direct message with a place where you can get physical mail  and I’ll drop a thank you letter and a little promotional surprise in the mail for you. Because I also am secretly in love with the United States Postal Service and love sending stuff in the mail.

In the mean time, keep your eyes peeled. I’ll keep posting updates and pushing out fun little things like this promotional image::

And if there’s anything you’d like to see more of or anything you think might help get the word out, or just thoughts about the book in general (or if I need to put out more chapters. I don’t know how that’s typically done here), let me know! I’m always happy to hear from you!