Good morning everybody,

It's the final day of the Sword and Laser contest. At midnight PST, all of this comes to an end and whether or not this book is published will finally be decided. I expect a bumpy ride to the finish line; a day full of jumps from all the books as we make last minute pleas and pushes.

Again, if you have not preordered yet. Do it now! Seriously, right now. I'll wait...

If you have bought a book, you are a wonderful person. Also, tell a friend to buy a book. Or recommend it, using the recommend button. Or like a passage. Did I mention how cool and attractive you are?

In case you need some incentive, here are some things that await you  if this novel of mine (which, just to be clear, is long since finished) is published: more fun with the Puritans, the perils of modern New Amsterdam (or whatever they’re calling it these days), a vampire club, a werewolf bar, an Irish trickster shade, redundant terms like Irish trickster, a resurrected coma patient, corrections on what to call soda (pop), Proper Vampirism™ Revised Edition 7, the lost city of Akkad, a Chinese hopping vampire, a West African plague vampire, a Spanish Inquisitor, the Aztec god of night and magic, and much, much more...

So if you want to learn what any of that means, you know what to do: Preorder! Recommend! Like!

And as always...thank you all.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to obsessively update the Top Ten page every 30 seconds until 2 AM CST.

Hello followers and beautiful contributors,

I'm not saying that those of you who are still on the fence about pre-ordering The Life Engineered aren't beautiful; I know you are. However, the act of placing a pre-order means you are a supporter of the arts and that gives you a 10 to 12% bonus to good looks. It's just science. In fact, "I support independent, aspiring authors." is rated as one of the top three most effective pick-up lines in libraries. Just below "Hi, I'm Neil Gaiman."

Kidding aside, I had this awesome update prepared where I would debate my book trailer and show it off to you guys but as it happens, making a book trailer that isn't objectively terrible and makes the world just a little bit worst simply by existing is kind of hard. So instead of releasing a sub-par video I decided to hold back, rethink my approach and come up with a more palatable book trailer.

I still wanted to touch base with you and since I don't have a book trailer, I figured I could give you guys a little something extra for taking the time to keep up with me. One of the challenges in promoting The Life Engineered has always been what to say and what to keep secret to avoid spoilers. There are a lot of neat plot devices that are more fun to discover while reading the book but they would also make great hooks since they tend to set the story and world apart. Well, if you click here, you'll be able to read Chapter 1 of The World Engineered which should give you a little bit more context regarding the sample already available.

It should tide you over until I get that book trailer done and maybe convince those who are still hesitating to take the plunge and pre-order their copy(ies).

With gratitude,

JFDubeau

P.S.: Have a robot