Greetings my wonderful followers,
With the current state of things lately, alot of you have been forced to self isolate in order to help flatten the curve of COVID-19. Filling the long hours can be difficult but, you know what helps, entertainment. So I’m doing my part to help you all fill those hours. I am now offering the ebook of Beyond the Code for free on Amazon! Follow the links before for Amazon.ca and Amazon.com and pick up Beyond the Code for absolutely nothing. And remember in the trying times to stay calm, stay informed, and stay kind. We are all in this together.
Hello friends and Family
Just a quick update, with some new release news, and a book rec!
Refuge at Clifftop is out now – 18k of superheroes (including one supersoldier, one former sidekick, and one former villain), established-relationship m/m/m polyamory, a stormy night and a difficult mission, at least one very close call, a happy ending and comfort sex – and, of course, some pretty terrible puns!
Come pick it up at JMS Books for only $2.39 over here, or here at Amazon or here at BN for $2.99!
This one surprised me – I hadn’t entirely planned the ending, the way it turned out, but I like it! And, of course, Ryan’s parents will be thrilled to hear the news…
Come pick up a copy and find out what happens!
And my next full-length novel – 60k! – will be out from JMS Books on April 11! (So close to my birthday! Come celebrate with me!) Cadence and the Pearl is one of my favorite stories – it’s the one I’ve described as…about a lot of things, including m/m romance, merpeople, enchantment, the Northern Isles, grief and healing, attractive schoolteachers, secrets, coming home again, heroes (and not being the hero), and a sort of alternate-universe seventeenth-century setting, including theater and opera. And it will come with a bonus story in which someone’s father gets his own happy ending, because fathers need love too.
Here’s the link for Cadence – currently on pre-order sale for $3.99! I’m looking forward to sharing this fairytale world with you.
And a book rec – my very dear friend K.S. Murphy (who you might’ve seen in a book dedication or two of mine) also has a novel releasing today, also from JMS Books! It’s called Rock and Roll Chose Me, and it’s all about art and painting and music and hot guys and tattoos and falling in love, and I promise you’ll love it! So come pick that up too – here’s the JMS Books link, though you can also find it on Amazon and everywhere else!
Stay safe, take care, and – to borrow a line – be excellent to each other! ❤
Hey everyone,
I ate the cookies.
I finished the Doritos.
I am running low on chocolate.
How is it possible that two weeks of quarantine snacks only lasted a few days?
While you ponder that, I wanted to drop in with a quick note to let you all know that I recently completed and turned in re-writes for the most recent draft of Showtime. With everything (including my job) shut down due to Coronavirus concerns, I’ve been able to devote all the time I would’ve been spending at work on doing re-writes. Between having two solid weeks to work on it, as well as having less to do with it in general this time around, this draft took about half the time as the last one.
From here I’ll wait for Sarah to get back to me with another editorial letter and we’ll see what else—if anything—we need to work on to make sure the characters, plot, and the book in general is as perfect as possible when it plops out of the sky and into your gloved, sanitized hands (you know, since we’re social distancing).
Thanks again for your patience, support, and enthusiasm. Stock up on snacks and wash your hands!
Ricky
Aloha All,
I wish everyone and their families & friends safety and good health during these bizarre and uncertain times. Hopefully you all are sheltering from the microscopic storm and are not going stir-crazy. This too shall pass.
Health and safety are the top priorities now, and other than essential services everything else in the world is pretty much hitting the pause button. That of course includes my publisher Inkshares, and Lost in the Fog, like most other books scheduled for release, is now on hold. It’s a huge bummer since my long awaited new novel is so close to the finish line, but there are more important things for people to focus on now.
As soon as I get an update on the new release date I will share the info. I’m so incredibly excited to finally get Lost in the Fog into your hands and/or screens at some point in the near future.
In the meantime, if you’d like to read some of my work, I invite you follow along in the 550 mile adventure across Spain on foot I undertook last September and October. The Camino de Santiago was an incredible physical and spiritual journey, and I’ve been chronicling it with lots of photos on my blog.
You can check it out at www.getlostinthefog.com. Thank you all and be well!!
-Michael
Hi friends, family and loved ones!
I truly hope you are all in good health both physically and emotionally. These are unprecedented times and I don’t even know how to write this without sounding like the CEO of a company. “We here at Jake’s apartment just want you know we are taking every precaution and the safety and well-being being of our readers is of the utmost importance.” I mean that’s all true and I actually enjoy reading those weird emails, but they just feel impersonal and the last thing I want is to come off impersonal right now. Because this book, the campaign and your support is as personal as it gets for me. I’m thankful I have the opportunity to write and the investment of others to fuel my writing and persistence to complete this project. So here’s the update.
After working and revising based on the last round of notes, I just sent off my fourth draft to my wonderful, talented, and endlessly patient editor, Sarah. Fingers crossed this will be the last round of big edits and we’ll enter the next stage of design and HOLY SHIT CAN YOU BELIEVE IT, PUBLI-FUCKIN-CATION!
And while I would love to say that the book will arrive in time to keep you company in quarantine, let’s hope we all get out of our houses first and the book can sit on your shelf, or be deposited in one of those free library boxes affluent neighborhoods have.
If you’re antsy and think you can’t possibly wait another day, let me know. Maybe I can send you a little sampler of an unapproved selection.
THANK YOU ALL for your kindness and support. I am indebted to you and if you want to get a face time coffee, please hit me up. Wishing you the very best during these difficult times,
Jake
“Where’s my book?”
I still hear the question frequently, though less than last year, which was less than the year before. Will own the fact that I held a mistaken belief that my earlier drafts had more potential for publishing than they did. Also, I can write copious amounts but figuring that minimum 75% of that is drivel, it’s going to take a lot more copious drivel to get the job done. The good news is as an amateur writer, I can see my writing muscle getting…wait for it…stronger. Ha! what did you think I was going to say?
Saw a comment on FB from a friend, another writer, which I found interesting. We seem to have the opposite challenge about writing. I need to write everyday, obsessively, even just a little if possible, but have a demanding day job and other obligations that get in my way. I’ve been writing and rewriting this one project for close to 20 years now (along with a few others) and believe I’m finally learning how to tell the story. We’ll see how that works out for me—and for you my patient supporters—but I don’t think I’ll stop writing until I’m dead. It’s my drug.
I admit the quiet isolation of sheltering in place and social distancing is heavenly for an introverted extrovert who’s re-writing a novel for the umpteenth time. Good news is a solid draft for the 1st Act has been written and compiled. Now engaged in outlining Act 2. The end is a moving target which makes it fun. The process feels like yoga. Surrender, breath and wherever you are is where you are. I promise there will be a book at the end of this process, death be damned.
Here’s some more good news: Ozark Season 3 starts next Friday, March 27th. Stay safe and mind your manners. Coronageddon is upon us. If you’re a writer, make the most of it. Just effing write. And remember to always cough into your elbow. *hack, hack*
Some free books, and some pre-order announcements! And much love.
The new draft I mentioned in January was short-lived. Within a week, I was working on another new draft based on more feedback from the publisher. While the latest draft is not complete, the first third or more is finished and this addresses the bulk of the concerns that were raised. (Or so I hope!) I’ll be making these first 100 pages available to a couple of beta readers to get their input.
A lot has been going on this past month with the coronavirus, emergency shutdowns etc. It’s a pretty stressful time for everyone. So with that in mind, I offer a few pieces of advice for those who are so inclined:
▪ Practice gratitude. Let’s not mince words, we are in a shitty situation. Possibly the worst the world has faced in generations. Nonetheless, every day I find things for which I am grateful and I write those down. Today I am grateful that I finished revising a major scene in the book, that I’m back home in Michigan with my wife and that my father (who’s 89 and living in Florida) is in good health. Also, I had some leftover Taco Bell. To each his own, right?
▪ Get outside. No matter where you are, if you can get outside in nature for fifteen minutes, that helps. If you can exercise, so much the better.
▪ Go on a news diet. Today I skipped the NY Times, WSJ and all other news. I feel much calmer.
▪ Reach out and stay connected. You may be under a lockdown situation, so are others. So reach out to friends and family over email, phone, text, slack etc. (Hence, my excuse for sending this update.)
As always, thank you for your support of this project. If you want to drop me a line and tell me what’s going on your world, how you’re coping, what you’re reading etc, I would love to hear from you. Don’t hit reply, instead add a comment to this web page or send email to me at ZUrlocker@hotmail.com or whatever email address you have on file for me.
--Zack
PS. Here’s a picture of our dog Roxie who passed away last fall, but can still cheer us up. This was taken on the first day of spring in Michigan last year. 
