Machiners!
Can you believe we flew past the one month mark since publication? Crazy times! This will be a quick update with some goodies to report.
First, The Last Machine AUDIOBOOK is coming! You read that correctly, this is going to be epic! And I don’t expect it to take very long to produce. After a highly competitive audition process - 60 narrators submitted recordings to read Jonathan’s story - I’ve selected the voice to read our story! Look for an update in the next month or so about a release date. Shooting for around July 1.
Super important: Have you read the story? Have you not left a review on Amazon?
Then I need your help. It doesn’t have to be anything elaborate. I liked the Last Machine for x and y reason, etc. One or two sentences will do the trick. Want to write a longer response to the story? Please do - Reviews come in all shapes and sizes! We need to get to 100 on Amazon, and at the moment, we have 16. Many thanks in advance!
Amazon page for reviews: https://www.amazon.com/Last-Machine-Solar-System-ebook/dp/B06XRSS26Y/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_bdcrb_top?ie=UTF8
Goodreads page for reviews: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30221887-the-last-machine-in-the-solar-system
Lastly, pics! From the book launch at Book Passage in the San Francisco Ferry Building. Oh, and the book in Huntington, NY at Book Revue next to some guy named George R.R. Martin.... I told you these were crazy times :-)
This is the final countdown!
Only 26 orders to go. The champagne is in the fridge beckoning me to open it. If you have not ordered yet and would like to be a backer for The Walls are Closing In, now would be a fabulous time to jump in. If you would like your name in the back of the book, this is your final chance to buy a "Super Reader" package before that ship sails.
Once The Walls are Closing In hits 750, a few exciting things will happen:
1) The book will officially switch from "Funding" to "In Production," and I’ll await word from Inkshares on when to turn in my manuscript for the first round of developmental editing.
2) I will announce the winner of the $250 Airbnb gift card. 
3) I will send out the limited edition bookmarks. Please send me your address if you would like one. Either DM through Inkshares, or to jacquicastle@gmail.com
Stay tuned! -Jacqui
Things are DEFINITELY starting to look better.
Originally we were all pretty sure I wasn’t going to make it. I had a cough for almost a year and they found cancer in my throat and lungs. There was a lesion in my left lung the size of a silver dollar (probably caused by second-hand smoke).
That lesion is down to the size of a nickel now. A NICKEL. I can’t believe it. I hit my assumed "expiration date" 9 days ago. The doctors are optimistic I’ll pull through. :)
I’m still sad about some of the things that I had to put down while I worked towards recovery, though. (I won’t lie-- every part of this process is horrible and I hate it.) I had to basically stop working on my campaign as I got sicker and weaker, which I think is the main reason why I didn’t push up to a higher spot in the G&S contest I’d entered (I think I ended at... 4th place in that HUGE fantasy contest). I really think I could have hit full publication if I had tried harder. I also know that I’d been nominated for several syndicates right before the end of my campaign, but because we all thought I was going to die I decided not to extend and lost those possible pre-orders. I really thought that I had lost all chance of ever seeing this book become real.
But now, thanks to the wonderful and understanding people at Inkshares, The Last Faoii might be out as early as August or September, and it looks like I’ll be alive to see it on my bookshelf at home! I do have 2 major hospital visits between here and there, though, so of course I’m still a little worried. But overall, I think that I’m going to make it. I feel alive and ready to go back to war for this book. I feel like a faoii. ;)
Thank you so much for your concern. I hope that my story and my faoii updates help to inspire other people and their campaigns. It’s a tough road, but it’s worth it. :)
(Oh-- and if anyone is reading this and is angry at me for jumping queue and probably setting your own production back, I am SO SO SORRY. I absolutely did not mean to make anyone’s campaigns harder than they already are. Really.)