Dear friends and followers,

Today, 12 June, is day number 85 in the campaign. The suggested timeframe for a campaign is 90 days, which means that, had I not specified my timeframe, this thing would be over this coming Friday night / Saturday morning. At present, we are at 349 pre-orders, and you know what? It would be really nice to end Friday night at the halfway point of 375. That’s doable, right? If you know anyone who might be able to help, please encourage them to do so ... and if you’re still on the fence about ordering, I encourage you to come down on this side of it. The grass is greener here.

With the writing for "Murder at the Veterans’ Club" done and simmering on the back burner, I’m focussing more on my short story for "Too Many Controllers". How does a Wodehouse-inspired tale of a VR gaming companies, ruined castles, and stuffy aristocrats strike you? Well, if not Wodehouse, then at least Westlake ... that should give an idea of where I’m thinking of going with this.

With the Nerdist contest going on, I thought we might take a look at a couple of the other books in the contest:

1) "Reb1rth", by Xavier Auger-Mailhot. I remember reading one of Auger-Mailhot’s works, once upon a time: a very rough thing hot off the NaNoWriMo press. I remember thinking to myself as I went along, "my goodness but this reads like a video game". And now he’s written something that’s actually about the fusion of reality with video games, and I know he’s pushing his strengths on this one.

2) "Squids In", by Matthew Poat. An octopus gets hold of a controller and proceeds to dominate the video game circuit. Poat has some prime comedy material invested in this, and, from what I’ve seen, it is indeed hilarious. I get the impression that this is going to be a madcap caper with wacky hijinks in abundance, and I’m looking forward to see this book happen for real.

That’s it for this update. Until next week, have fun and keep reading. Cheers! And here’s hoping to hit that 375 milestone by Friday night!

Hey, superspies!

Hey Guys and Gals. If you have watched, read or heard any news this morning it’s a pretty depressing Sunday. Not really the best day to review a funny book but I wanted to thank those of you who got a review in yesterday so the Review-A-Thon continues.

If you feel like leaving a review today, you can do it here.

My heart goes out to everyone touched by the tragedy in Orlando this morning.

Greetings...

Since everyone liked my update where I shined a light on the JPL. Here are some quick tidbits about the Vampire Legend: While vampires had been around in legend and even part of mass hysteria in eastern Europe very early on. It was the novel The Vampyre written in 1819 that got the ball rolling. Bram Stroker’s Dracula came about in 1897. 

In some legends, creating a vampire was as simple as having an animal jump over a corpse. In others, it was curse from God or Russian Witches. Still, to this day, my favorite method of destroying a vampire from legend:

Iron Nails ran through the chest followed by a Hawethorne stake through each leg. Bits of steel placed in the mouth, over the eyes, and in between the fingernails before burial. Then decapitation of the head, turn it around, fill the coffin with rosepedals and bury the damn thing. This wouldn’t actually kill the vampire mind you, only keep it trapped. As of 2006, they are still finding corpses being dug up with this treatment. 

Which in my head just means they set the vampires free right?

Oh right! Artwork! Speaking of being set free.... here is a scene painted by Lizzy Perez of The Seventh Age:

We are so close to 1000 orders guys. If you are following this campaign and haven’t jumped in yet: 27 spots left. I’m collecting more art such as what’s above for prize raffles when we hit the magic number. Hop in, follow the updates for more bite-sized facts about strange occult legends... and a kick-ass book about what happens when they all come crashing back. 

Hello Everyone!!