Guess what?
 

Yes, I am absolutely the kind of person who’d use his birthday to guilt people into ordering his book. At this point, that shouldn’t surprise anyone.

If you’d like to send some birthday cheer my way, please consider pre-ordering Tantalus Depths, and get some friends and family to do the same!

Let’s Get It Started in Here

In the next few weeks, you are going to see some major heat coming off The Astronaut Instruction Manual. Legendary and Penguin Random House are uniting with Inkshares for a round of publicity surrounding the tv series and the upcoming audiobook release.

That said, I want to reach out to my 300+ followers and remind everyone of you all of this:

“If you really want to help, you write reviews on Amazon, Goodreads, B&N.” It’s a tweet from my friend, author Malka Older, whose Tor-released hit title Infomocracy has only five more reviews than Inkshares-released The Astronaut Instruction Manual. (Malka’s so good I actually wish she was on Inkshares...and who knows what the future holds?…Infomocracy is a great read and great writing and there will be a follow-up.) And she’s right. Your Amazon review really helps now.

Here’s the Amazon review link for The Astronaut Instruction Manual. Sign-in, click Write a Customer Review, share your opinion, and hit submit. Each review makes the book more likely to pop up on some young reader’s (or parent, teacher, or guardian’s) radar.

Imagine writing a review of The AIM and its having a role in pointing out a future of possibility and hope to the next young Neil Armstrong, Sally Ride, or Mae Jemison.

Goodness, what are you waiting for? Write, my friends, write!

Mike
PS And then go and listen to Chapter 1 of Darcy Conroy’s The War of Wind and Moon. Consider it a treat and my way of saying ’thank you’. You are awesome, review writers, and so is she. Listen for yourself.

Story Update:
The mission to Tantalus 13 is, first and foremost, a mining expedition. Though SCARAB has done most of the work for them, Mary and the crew of The Diamelen still came prepared for some heavy work. What arsenal of mining equipment would be complete without some serious explosive ordinance?
 

The crew has come to Tantalus 13 prepared to literally move mountains if they must. But when danger strikes their mission, will this devastating firepower help them or endanger them? Find out in the pages of Tantalus Depths!

Dear Readers,

Or should I say...Listeners? For behold, thanks to the magic of Inkshares and Drew Campbell’s British accent...

An Unattractive Vampire is on Audible!!! 

Thank you to everyone at Inkshares, Audible, and Mr. Campbell for making this happen. 

So I know you’re all thinking: "Jim, I need this for my sound holes, but money has decided (literally) to see other people right now." Well, here’s a thing: Audible sponsors just about every podcast in existence. They offer so many deals and promos, it’s kind of ridiculous. For example: Lore podcast, Hardcore History, and Blurry Photos all offer trial codes. So yes, listen to awesome inspiring podcasts and when you’re done, listen to my book as well.

Also, just a reminder that the Dragon Awards are quickly approaching, so time is running out to VOTE for Inkshares/Sword and Laser books including The Life Engineered, Asteroid Made of Dragons, and, of course, An Unattractive Vampire which also all happen to be available in e-book for the special low-low price of 99 cents until the end of the month. (Completely coincidental, I assure you. *WINK*) So please, vote for An Unattractive Vampire because what could be better than mixing vampires and dragons?

Beautiful Readers,

I have good news, and I have... regular news.

For those of you just tuning in, Devil’s Call began its life as a novella, meaning it clocked in at fewer than 40,000 words and the ending was ambiguous and the antagonist, George Dalton, barely appeared in the story at all.

After some behind the scenes occurrences which I’m not at liberty to discuss yet, I decided to expand the story, flesh out the Dalton character, and make it a full-length novel, meaning its word count would double and I would have to, you know, actually do work.

The good news is, after a month or so of bitching and gnashing my teeth and Adam Gomolin yelling at me to not quit on him, I have finished a scene outline and a synopsis of what the completed novel will look like, so it has a proper ending and character arcs and themes and so on and so forth.

The regular news is, I now have to rewrite the hundred-something pages I’d already decided were the entirety of the original novella, and then actually write the rest of the draft, which won’t be as difficult as I’m making it sound. I made my bed today. I can do anything.

Within the next few weeks, y’all can expect a rewritten first chapter, which I’m about 90% sure will be about 30% different from the one that’s up now, and if I really throttle my keyboard I will have a completed draft by the end of September.

(And I shall throttle my keyboard. One thing this process has solidified for me is the fact that I produce pages, pardon my French, like a fucking maniac.)

That’s it. That’s the news. Expect the new Chapter 1 by the end of this upcoming week.

Smoke ’em if you got ’em,
J.

Hello lovely readers! I hope you’re having a relaxing weekend, or at least a productive one :) 

I want to thank you all for pre-ordering, following, recommending and reviewing The War of Wind and Moon, Season One - your support means the world! A special thank you to Mike Mongo, author of The Astronaut Instruction Manual, for his boundless enthusiasm, advice and support as I try to work out how to be on the funding side of crowd funding (and for tweets like this one which left me speechless!)

 If you followed Wind and Moon before four or five days ago, I’d like to invite you to re-visit the project page to read the slightly re-jigged logline and blurb, thanks to several comments and private messages I received. While all the comments were very supportive of the concept of turning abused children into superheroes, I realized that I’d presented Wind and Moon as a ‘worthy’ concept rather than as a rollicking good story - which it is! The new logline and blurb focus on my protagonist, Mia, and her story, instead. If you were intrigued enough to follow but not pre-order then perhaps this could tempt you to take that next step! 

Later next week, I’ll be putting up chapter 10, in which we will see how Mia, Tak and the Kazemotos will deal with Mia’s collapse and spontaneous attainment of super-vigilance. Chapter 8 & 9 were Mia’s ‘radioactive spider-bite’ scenes - the origin story (for Season One is exactly that: a super-hero origin story) moves into the next phase, now! 

Enjoy the rest of your weekend, I look forward to updating you again soon!

Wishing you courage and creativity, 

 Darcy.

Pre-Order The War of Wind & Moon here!

Visit Darcy’s Website: www.narrativedisorder.com