This guy’s great at the Patience Game!

Why hello everyone!  I would like to apprise you of a few minor updates.  First and foremost, the book is (and has been) in cue to begin the formal publishing process (line-editing, second readthrough by a professional third party, sizing and formatting, cold readthrough, sending to the printing press, discussing marketing and an ideal release date, etc).  It has been for a little while and is, well, progressing.  Yay for the game of Hurry Up and Wait!

In the meantime, InkShares has rolled out a general policy wherein, if enough interest is generated at a later date,  more good things roll out for the project.  Yay!  I have also updated the quick blurb at the top of the "Funded" page to better describe the book.  If you, dear followers, haven’t checked out the new landing page, I would be honored if this effort was made.  The link is here.  

If you would prefer not to click on the link, the updated text is as follows:  

Surviving abuse leaves no soul unscathed, and this is especially true of Ptielieren, an elite elvish bodyguard involuntarily integrated into an aversive-heavy culture.  Strength can exist absent a ringing victory and weakness does not signify defeat.

The word count available for this introductory blurb is truncated but I think it gives a better overview of the content.  As always, I love emails and direct messages and am always happy to reply to messages on Facebook.  I wish a wonderful day and, to those who celebrate Yom Kippur, may your fast be an easy one.

It’s the final countdown...

Hello dear readers,

A lot has been going on and that’s kind of why I’ve been rather discreet in my communications. Also, I bet with three contests currently vying for attention, you get enough emails already. So what could possibly have taken up so much of my time?

Let’s start with how I had to do revisions to the manuscript for A God in the Shed. I had already handed it in but after a meeting at WeedRoad Pictures in L.A. a few weeks ago, several ideas to further improve the story demanded to be put to the page.

WeedRoad Pictures? What the hell is that? Well, that’s the second bit of paralyzing news. A God in the Shed has been optioned by Skydance Productions through the help of Akiva Goldsman from WeedRoad (props to Greg Lessans and Alexandra Neil for their part. Amazing people). I can’t do this news justice but you can read the article by The Tracking Board if you want to know more.

 So what does this mean? The short answer? I don’t know! It doesn’t mean that A God in the Shed is going to be a television show but rather that there are efforts behind making that happen. Needless to say that the book is in the hands of some incredibly talented and hard working people. I’m still reeling from the news and gathering the details myself, but as far as excuses for my silence, I think that’s the best I can do right now.

What’s next?

• I think it’s obvious that this has delayed my plans and promises for Arch-Android (Give it a follow why don’t you?), the sequel to The Life Engineered. I’m still a few chapters short of a full draft but that should be taken care of before the end of November. I’m giving myself some room to work with this time so I can keep that prediction.
  

• I’m also finishing another manuscript for The Ed Greenwood Group.

• Obviously, the sequel to A God in the Shed, currently titled ‘CoudFire’ is going to be the first thing I work on after I’ve cleared these other projects. CloudFire is half written already, but it’s going to undergo some serious changes. Let’s just say that I’ve got a good skeleton to work on but I have to tear away the flesh and start that part anew.

• I have some more good news coming up. Other cool opportunities and some new projects I want to toss out into the world.
  

Let me finish this with a heartfelt ‘thank you’ to Adam Gomolin and Brooklyn Weaver who worked like tireless maniacs to make this happen, along with the rest of the Inkshares crew for their support and of course, you guys, the readers, without whom none of this would be possible.

On to the next step!

JF

Happy Friday!

There are a few exciting things as far as news goes! We are 56 orders away from making Quill!! We did drop to 6th in the contest, but that’ isn’t so bad. 6th out of 366? I’ll take it. Unfortunately, my network has gone a bit dry. Aside from the stragglers I know who want to make pre-orders but are waiting until an opportune time, I don’t have many left. Well, at least not enough to shoot up to the 3rd place. Those authors knocked this contest out of the park! There is still a month left and miracles can happen, right? 

That being said, we are 56 orders away from making Quill and going into small publishing on Amazon and print-on-demand.  

I was Geekadelphia’s Geek of the Week! Isn’t that cool? Check out the article and you can find out more information about me and the book. 

Cover Art promotion is still going strong. I’m working hard on them. I’ve got a few things in life right now that have slowed down the process, but those of you I’m working with know that I’m still on top of those projects. I volunteer with the Young Friends of Independence National Historical Park as a committee member and every October we do a huge fund raiser to benefit something in Independence National Historical Park (where the liberty bell is). I’m the one in charge of setting up the information booklet for the big party that we throw. On top of that, I offered to donate a painting to be raffled off so.... I’m doing a lot of things right now. 

It is all for a good cause. We’re raising money to preserve a quilt from 1761 and ensuring George Washington’s chest doesn’t crack open again this winter. Seriously, his wooden statue splits like a CGI fault line in a bad disaster movie. We gotta help a Founding Father out. If you’re local to Philadelphia and want to support the project, you can place half-page ads in our event book or attend the Darkside of Philadelphia party on the 14th at 6:00PM. Booze, food, tarot card reader, and some ghostly historical figures. Going to be a fun night. 

There isn’t a character profile today, but I am attaching a link to the story that was created at the Collingswood Book Festival using the Story by Sentence game. I’ll be honest, it is... different. Check it out! 

It’s Friday time!

So, here’s how the week went: 

It’s snazzy, and a little slim on the words unfortunately. Things were a little all over the place schedule wise this last week, but next week is looking calmer so ’writing time’ has actually been given allotted hours.

But it’s not all bad, I was able to finish Chapter 30 and get a nice chunk of Chapter 31 done and I went over the 95k threshold. So yes, good progress was made, not much, but it was good. I should be able to finish off 31 this week and maybe 32 as well, they are shorter chapters after all.

Then it’s on to finishing off 23 & 26, which will be a bit more work, 26 might be the longest (and most important) one in the book.

And then it’s on to tidying things up for beta reading time...

See you next week.

Hello, all! It seems like just yesterday I was writing to you, to share with you some character concept art from my book, Witherfist. (Oh, right, that’s because it was yesterday.)

I’ve unexpectedly got some more art to share with you. This is drawn in a different style and is another image of Witherfist herself, Irusai. This is a different Irusai to the one you can read about in the first chapter of Witherfist. A much more composed, calm woman, in her days as a respected provincial governor - before she tattooed the true name of an ancient spirit onto her arm and became the notorious fugitive she is today. 

Two weeks left! Thirty-seven orders to go! We can do this! 

As a special bonus, I’ve decided that beyond signing each book bought in this funding period I will also number each book in Esperanto. I’ll only ever number them like this for preorders. (Esperanto is a constructed language, meant to break down linguistic borders.) Order now and help me get this book published!

(E-books are great too, they help us reach toward 750 all the same.)

Onward!

Greetings, Faoii.

We have just enough time for one more raffle before the end of the Geek and Sundry Contest. And, I’ll be honest, this is the raffle I’m most excited about. Hopefully you’ll feel the same.