Machiners!

Can you believe we flew past the one month mark since publication? Crazy times! This will be a quick update with some goodies to report.

First, The Last Machine AUDIOBOOK is coming! You read that correctly, this is going to be epic! And I don’t expect it to take very long to produce. After a highly competitive audition process - 60 narrators submitted recordings to read Jonathan’s story - I’ve selected the voice to read our story! Look for an update in the next month or so about a release date. Shooting for around July 1.

Super important: Have you read the story? Have you not left a review on Amazon? 

Then I need your help. It doesn’t have to be anything elaborate. I liked the Last Machine for x and y reason, etc. One or two sentences will do the trick. Want to write a longer response to the story? Please do - Reviews come in all shapes and sizes! We need to get to 100 on Amazon, and at the moment, we have 16. Many thanks in advance!

Amazon page for reviews: https://www.amazon.com/Last-Machine-Solar-System-ebook/dp/B06XRSS26Y/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_bdcrb_top?ie=UTF8

Goodreads page for reviews: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30221887-the-last-machine-in-the-solar-system

Lastly, pics! From the book launch at Book Passage in the San Francisco Ferry Building. Oh, and the book in Huntington, NY at Book Revue next to some guy named George R.R. Martin.... I told you these were crazy times :-)

FREE STUFF! If you haven’t gotten around to posting your Amazon review for THE KNIGHT PROPER, now is a great time to do so as we’re giving away FREE STUFF (again) to celebrate 300 followers on Adam’s Facebook Page! Over the next week, anyone who posts their Amazon Review of the Knight Proper on his page will be entered into a drawing for a chance to win a signed copy of The Knight Proper and a signed poster for Matt’s movie Manhattan Undying, out June 6th - and we will gladly ship to you, FREE (one last time) of charge! 

My sincerest apologies, dear readers, because “The Animal in Man” hasn’t made it into your hands yet. I’ve only recently learned that its production was delayed due to the book’s length.

I’ve been chipping away at the word count as much as I possibly can, but between my familial responsibilities and my new high-school teaching gig, there’s not much time left in the day for editing. I’ve been tasked with cutting 42% of my novel, so it’s going to be some time I’m afraid. I’m slitting the throats of some characters I cared a lot for, but I’m allowing a few others to live a bit longer.

One of the main characters who will not be cut is Feyn, the white wolf. Twenty years ago, when the campaign to eradicate all the insect Thraxians came to its close, Feyn - a Leoran knight of some renown - set off for his homeland, eager to see his wife and children again. When he returned at last, he found his estate ransacked, his castle burnt to the ground, and his son butchered. And he found the butchers. They soon overpowered him, struck a fatal blow across his face, leaving a wicked scar from his mouth to his ear, and threw him into the ditch alongside his wife’s corpse. But Feyn did not die there. During the attack, Feyn’s body fell unconscious as its parasitic spirit inexplicably fled. He regained himself - his true self - down there, in the dark. Feyn became something else entirely that night. A true animal.

So Feyn stays in the story. He’s been dead once already, you see. It doesn’t suit him.

I commissioned the character sketch for Feyn from the ultra-talented Ronald Orrego. You can find more of his work here, as well as his contact info if you need him. Tell him Joe sent ya.

Stay tuned, dear readers.

Hello friends,

I apologize for the radio silence, but I’m back now with exciting news!

Despite the fact that I fell off the radar for a few weeks due to an unplanned hospitalization, the bus is pretty much driving itself at this point: Devil’s Call has gone off to the typesetter and has a lovely cover from the amazing David Drummond that includes several positive blurbs. Jerry Smith from Fangoria, James Demonaco (creator of The Purge series), and J-F. DuBeau (author of A God in the Shed) contributed lovely words about the novel. ARCs have gone out, and reviews are starting to trickle in on Goodreads.

Check out this cover!

One of the immediate impediments to my online presence is the lack of Internet at the transitional housing where I’m staying while I wait to hear back about a more permanent supportive apartment. (At risk of getting all TMI over everybody, part of the reason I was hospitalized had to do with a nosedive of a depressive episode that involved a relapse after 10 months of sobriety, so here we are.) While I am able and intend to go online using WiFi hot spots, the majority of my time is now devoted to recovery.

But! Devil’s Call still has a publication date of July 17, and I am very stoked to see where my little novel goes this summer. Will make more of an effort to keep y’all up to date from now on.

xoxo,
J.

Greetings hexers,

I got 2 pieces of cool news for you today....

Cool News #1 - The rad fellas over at The Negative One podcast had me on to guest-host their latest episode. We discuss the glittery trash pile that is David Lynch’s 1984 movie adaption of Frank Herbert’s classic sci-fi novel, Dune. Check it out:

http://neozaz.com/category/podcasts/negative-one/

Cool News #2 - The Space Tripping Audio book is available for pre-order at Audible/Amazon now! The release date is June 6th. Because your eyes shouldn’t get to have all the Space Tripping fun. It’s time to share the love with your ears. Here’s the link: 

http://www.audible.com/pd/Fiction/Space-Tripping-Audiobook/B072F52XST?source_code=AUDORWS0505179KAP

That’s all for now! 

XOXOXO,

Pat