Dear Readers,

Since my campaign for Fae Child ended, SUCCESSFULLY, I’ve been a little quiet. Part of this is the fact that my family got a cold and then I got it (and still have it) and part has been just hunkering down to type out the last bit of the book. I have it all in my head, I merely need to transcribe it. I have also nailed down the last bits of my character motivations that were bugging me, which has led me to the realization that this could be a trilogy of books. But, of course, first things first.

I have secured an editor to help me polish the manuscript! I am very excited about this, and eager to see how much better the book can become with some professional notes.

Inkshares has also made the decision that they are discontinuing the practice of offering signed books. They fulfilled this in the past by mailing all the books to the author, and then shipping them back to Inkshares HQ for fulfillment. This cost Inkshares a lot of money (not necessarily covered by preorder dollars), and I can understand why they are stopping, but that doesn’t make it any easier for me, or for backers who purchased ’signed paperbacks.’ Unfortunately this means that once Fae Child is in physical form, I will not be sent the books to sign, and when you receive your copies they will not be signed. I am very sorry that this is the case, but there isn’t anything I can do about it.

Of course for backers local to me (Pacific NW) I will certainly sign any book I am within arms length of (even if they’re not mine!), and will probably be having a signing party after the book has been published. I am looking into bookplates, which are stickers with my signature that can be fixed into the book, but of course, first things first.

Thank you all for your continuing support,
Jane-Holly

p.s. You probably have noticed that the Cover has undergone several transformations. It is certainly closer to it’s ’final form’ but it may change again!

Machiners,

My most ardent and unabashedly enthusiastic supporters! Good morning!

Uh oh, I hope none of you are malfunctioning today - do not close this email !!

Believe it or not, we are now less than two weeks away from publication of The Last Machine in the Solar System (April 11!!!). There’s been lots of exciting news lately, which I’ll mention in subsequent updates. 

Here I want to hit a few critical points relevant to YOU, benefactors of Jonathan, The Last Machine:

1. If you bought a book during the CONTEST, you should have received it. Whether that is a hard copy paperback or an eBook. Didn’t receive your book? Don’t know what I’m talking about? Email me please and let me know what’s going on: matthew.sobin@gmail.com

Let’s make sure everyone who put up money a year ago when this was just an idea gets the final product! eBooks are available for download by logging into the Inkshares website and going to the webpage for The Last Machine.

2. If you have received your book, please read it! Seems obvious, right? In theory, one of our big advantages is that this is a 60 page illustrated novelette. It can be read in 1-2 hours. And that brings me to...

3. Leave a REVIEW! This is possibly the most critical thing you can do. Read the book? Great! Please go onto the book’s Amazon page and tell others why you LOVED it :-) Authors need 100 reviews before the Amazon algorithm takes them seriously and starts suggesting the book to random Amazon visitors. Here’s our Amazon page: Last Machine on Amazon

Also important: You can copy the same review over to Goodreads. So far we’re doing really well with Goodreads reviews. Check them out here and leave your own: Last Machine on Goodreads

4. eBook holders, grab a paperback! This can make a huge difference as we push The Last Machine to a wider audience. Go to your local independent bookstore and see if they have The Last Machine in the store! They don’t? They’ll order it for you! And this may bring about a larger wholesale order from that store. They’ll say to themselves, "Hey, what’s this cool looking book that brought this person in here with such enthusiasm??" That’s the idea!

Can’t make it to the store but still want a paperback? Purchasing on Amazon helps too. Then when you leave an Amazon review, it will be shown as a "Verified Purchase" review, which further helps the Amazon algorithm. 

5. I’d love to know what you think of The Last Machine in the Solar System. You’ve now read the book, left your reviews, and have strong opinions about the story. Great! Shoot me an email. I’d love to hear your personal reactions to Nikolai and Jonathan’s journey to the ends of the solar system (and back)! 

Email me here: matthew.sobin@gmail.com

Signing your books!

And for those who haven’t seen it yet, the final front and back cover!

Stunning work by artist Dan Stiles and the design team. Also, my sincerest thanks to authors Tal M. Klein (author of The Punch Escrow - check it out on Inkshares!) and Jacques Vallee for their wonderful back cover blurbs.

Expect some more frequent updates as we hit pub day and beyond! More to come!

-Matt

Yes !!!!

750 !!!!!!!!

We made it !!!!! 

I wanted to sincerely thank each and every one of you for making it happen! Now it is going to be a real properly published book! For me, it has been an important a project of almost 5 years and it is hard to describe how happy and thankful I am! 

The book is finished, so, hopefully, it will not take too long for Inkshares’ story editors, line editors, copy editors, designers and marketers to turn it into the final real deal. I will keep you updated.

Thank you very much again ! 

Good Morning, Good Day and how the heck are ya!?!  It has been a whirlwind two weeks since I attended I-CON32, a scifi/anime/cosplay convention in Brentwood, NY.  I met awesome people!  Many of them would make McGyver look like he had 3 thumbs -- why?  Because they made their own costumes!!  One gentleman even BUILT a rolling chair with two turrets that emitted smoke!  Yes!!  It’s true.  

I will put up a post with all of the pics for you to join in the fun vicariously.  Some of you may have seen them on my Twitter timeline already as I was live tweeting! :-)  Thanks for all of the shout-outs Jane-Holly!

But the really big news is through Cynthya BrianKate, a woman I met at the con, I will be a guest on the radio show, IN GOTH WE TRUST tonight! Thursday, March 30th at 10:30 pm Eastern.  You can listen in on the web:  http://wioxradio.org/index.html!

The hosts of the show tonight will be Chelsea Goodwin and Rusty.  We will speak on many topics including the horror genre, my book Fury From Hell (of course!).  And, since this show loves all things GOTH, the conversation may venture off into topics of the occult and spirituality -- all perfectly in line with my book which has Wiccans, demons, furies and the occasional divination reading...

I will be live tweeting during the show so if you have any questions feel free to tweet them to me on: @NoteBkBlogairy.  Use the hashtag #InGothWT so everyone can see your tweets!

See you all at 10:30 pm EDT tonight!!

Hello everybody,

I hope everyone’s spring is going well, just wanted to take some time and provide an update on The Battle Within and a few other topics.

Timeline

The novel is proofread, final cover blurbs have been submitted, and the book is now in the stages of finalizing the cover, so very much on track. Media engagement has begun, with pitches of articles to various outlets, and this will become more intense as we draw nearer to the publication date. Some specific dates to mark in the calendar:

24 June 17:  Book Launch Party. This will be from 2:00 – 4:00 pm at Perfect Books, a wonderful independent bookstore located at 258 Elgin Street, Ottawa. It’s located in downtown Ottawa, close to many other sites and attractions, and it would be great to see as many people there as can make it. Check them out at www.perfectbooks.ca.

27 Jun 17: The publication date.

Developments

Very excited to say that The Battle Within is now available for pre-order at a number of sites:

Chapters / Indigo: http://bit.ly/2nBw2We

Amazon.ca: http://amzn.to/2ozYKEm

Amazon.com: http://amzn.to/2mR1nWa

Chapters / Indigo has also pre-ordered a number of books, so I can’t wait to see The Battle Within in the wild. Maybe we’ll run an Instagram contest, #TBWInTheWild!

Lastly, The Battle Within is up on Goodreads: http://bit.ly/2ni6SbG

With The Battle Within being up on all these sites, a very easy way to help promote the book is to add it to your wish list or ‘to-read’ list for each respective site; more clicks helps draw more attention.

In other news, The Battle Within has received several endorsements and I’m very grateful to the early reviewers who took the time to read the book, and of course to those who provided a blurb. I won’t include the full texts here, but if you’d like to read the blurbs, please head to the link on my webpage at: http://alastairluft.com/books/

New Projects

Progress continues on my second novel, Jihadi Bride. I finished the second draft in January and since then have received some very valuable input from beta readers, so I’m very excited to improve this story even more.

I’m also happy to announce that I was accepted into the Creative Writing – Fiction, Creative Non-Fiction, Poetry program at Humber College. This is a distance studio program that will see me partnering with a member of Humber College’s faculty for one-on-one writing mentorship on a manuscript. Needless to say, it’s a great opportunity for me to improve as a writer and I can’t wait.

That’s it for now, I look forward to sharing more updates as the launch date gets nearer.

All the best and my continued thanks for your support.

Alastair Luft

Hi all my buddies! (Can I call you my buddies? I totally feel like we’re buddies at this point) 

So, Space Tripping has officially launched! And honestly, it’s been awesome. I’ve been greatly humbled by the support I received at our first two book signings... Look at this picture!

That’s Space Tripping! On an end-cap at a Barnes and Noble! How cool is that? 

If you’re getting this email, then you helped make this happen. Words cannot do justice to how grateful I am. Thank you. 

And, hey, if you’re in the Chicago area, we have one more book signing scheduled. It is this Friday, March 31st. We’ll be at:

City Lit Books, 2523 N Kedzie Blvd, Chicago, IL 60647 - 6:30-8:00pm

If you’re in the area, I hope you’ll come say "Hi!" (And do it just like that... literally shout "Hi!" at me)

Byeeeeeeeeeee...

Friends, Readers, and Sorcerers All,

We’re coming down to the wire. I spoke with the team at Inkshares yesterday and they are aiming to have galley proofs for Sorcery for Beginners in four weeks time. "Galleys", for those who don’t know, are the final print-outs of the book’s pages before it’s sent to the printer. So we are getting close to the final version. Even as I write this, I’m reading through the manuscript and making a few last tweaks.

But for now, I want to show you what the actual Codex Arcanum looks like. This is the bookstore where Owen first meets Euphemia Whitmore and gets his copy of Sorcery for Beginners. The store has entrances at 10 different spots all over the globe, which is why it’s made up of all these different architectural styles. It serves a few other functions as well, but to learn what those are you’ll have to read the book. 

Hope everyone is well, and I’ll send out more illustrations and updates soon!

mh

n

Hello friends!

When was the last time I updated you on things? A while ago I guess. We had the new cover and I might have bragged about being done with the editing at some point. Since then, we’ve had developments, but nothing I can share right away. Soon, I hope.

In the meantime, I have a favour to ask. I didn’t think A God in the Shed would be eligible for nomination for the Dragon Awards in 2017, but it turns out that the release date slips in just under the wire. Last year, my readers managed to get The Life Engineered nominated. It was an incredible honour and it gently convinced me to go to DragonCon in Atlanta. Well, I’m doing the same deal: help get A God in the Shed nominated in the Horror Novel category and I’ll once more drag myself to Atlanta, brave the crowds, and be present as someone else wins the Dragon Award.

All you have to do is click this link, follow the instructions and fill in the information, and you’ll be part of a potentially huge change in my life.

Thank you so much for your help. I really appreciate it.

JF

P.S.: There are other great books from Inkshares that you can nominate too! Pilot X, Rise, Rune of the Apprentice and several others. Make sure you enter all of the books you can and give as many authors a chance at being recognized.