Hello, readers.

I’ve added a short excerpt to the project page for 1000 Faces, which will give you your first glimpse of the life of Kara Finch and the world of the near-future. Take a read, let me know what you think - you can even leave a review. 

In his The Story So Far round-up of the contest’s first week, Joey Angotti had this to say about 1000 Faces: 

 "1000 Faces is a horrifying and very realistic plot that really begs to ask the question: “Where are we going as a society?” Basically, the internet and all the information shared and carried online could potentially be exploited by hackers and terrorists - we’ve seen it happen before. Now take those situations and amplify by 1000(just seemed right to use this number) and there you go. Now you have a world wide(puns for days) epidemic that not only cause people to fear and back away from the internet, but also opens people’s eyes to the fact that “big brother is always watching.” It’s pretty scary and reminds me of when people were afraid that Microsoft was spying on them with the Xbox Kinect or when people put tape over the camera in their laptop to make sure no one is spying on them through that."  

Thanks, Joey ;) Yes, 1000 Faces is currently in 5th place - but the fight at the top of the contest leader board is getting more competitive every day.  

I’ll be adding more excerpts over the coming week.

~ Jenny

12 days into the contest, and we are still in the top three! It’s pretty important that we keep our momentum and stay up here on the top of the pile. More authors are entering the contest every day - in the Fantasy contest last year we had a late entry who blasted to the top of the leaderboard in a few hours, and then went on to win the whole thing with over 750 preorders. SO. If you’re thinking you want to preorder, please do it today.

And now, to the fun stuff. Here is a glimpse at one of the characters in Mutants: Uprising, and since it’s written in second person, today this is all about YOU.

You are Jane Meyers, known in League circles as Zombie. You discovered your mutant gene like many people do - the hard way. When your adrenaline surges your strength increases and your body becomes numb. You can take an obscene amount of damage and keep walking, as long as you can keep your adrenaline high. As soon as your heart rate drops, however, you fall into a coma which looks a lot like death, and you stay in that state while your body heals. You ran away from home as a teenager, and were mentored by a mutant named Deimos, who brought you with him when he became a leader in a Midwest cell of the League. After serving as his enforcer for years, Deimos recommended you to take charge of the fumbling Los Angeles cell. You’ve been there a few months, and have gathered a fairly solid group around you. Maybe being a leader isn’t so hard after all?

That’s it for now, I can’t wait to tell you about the other mutants who are in your group, but that will be another day!

Thank you for the support!
Jane-Holly
[PREORDER HERE]

Hello everybody,

So we’re finally here, one month to the pub date for The Battle Within. It’s been a long trip to get here and I thank everyone for their continued support. Some details as we head into the final stretch:

The books have been printed and advance copies have been mailed to a number of media outlets. Over the next few weeks, the books will be mailed to backers and those who’ve pre-ordered, although you may get an e-book as early as next week.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t possible to marry up with the books so I could sign them without affecting the launch date. In place of signed books, Inkshares designed and developed themed bookmarks, all of which have been personally signed and which will come with the books. As nice as the bookmarks are (and Inkshares did a great job), I recognize they’re not the same thing as a signed book, so please know I’ll make myself available for signatures as much as I can. There will clearly be some logistics to sort out, but please just get in touch with me directly and I’ll see what I can figure out. On that note:

24 June 17:  Book Launch Party, from 2:00 – 4:00 pm at Perfect Books (www.perfectbooks.ca), located at 258A Elgin Street, Ottawa. This would be a great opportunity to get a book signed and also take in downtown Ottawa as it readies for the 150th birthday celebrations the week after.

27 Jun 17: The publication date.

The last thing I’d offer is that I hope you enjoy the book. All of you made this possible and after nearly a year of production following the crowdfunding campaign, I hope you’ll find that it was worth the wait.

Thank you again and all the best,

Alastair Luft 

Friends, Readers, and Sorcerers All,

thank you! Thank you!! Thank You!!!

After one full week of the Nerdist Sci-Fi Contest, Mission 51 is sitting in First Place! That is fantastic!

I am sincerely grateful for the outpouring of support for me and Mission 51 this past week. The whole thing is a bit scary. It’s scary just putting the story out there. It’s scary asking for pre-orders. It’s even scary being in 1st place. And believe me, I’m not the scary sort. This is just way different than anything I do in my usual life.

I do feel very good about the book. It has a fun feel, with serious undertones. The historical fiction side includes plenty of real people, places, and things. My hope is that readers want to check  Wikipedia and other sources frequently while reading the book, to get a better and better feel for Mat’s world in 1954-1969. It has a lot of fun detail.

I’m proud of the "Staff Pick" and the "The Great Sci-Fi for the 21st Century and Beyond Syndicate" badges. It’s also humbling and cool to read the great recommendations Mission 51 has garnered. I’m grateful for it all!

There are still five weeks remaining in the contest, and there are now almost 70 projects participating. Twenty of them are now on the leaderboard. So I am grateful for where Mission 51 is right now, but I am still asking for your support. Many thanks to those who have already placed their pre-order. For those of you who have not, I humbly ask that you please take a moment to consider, and then another moment to go ahead and pre-order Mission 51. I would be forever grateful! :-)

Thanks again, and Peace!

Ferd  👽