A Foreman With Wings…

Important Announcements, more chick lit, bones around the world, new release this week …

An announcement from TJ (Thomas John) at Focus House Publishing…

I’d like to thank all of you readers for helping us to build some wonderful momentum in the ten weeks since my staff opened this blog and asked Tim to begin populating it with his unique blend of sincerity and humor. As I believe Tim mentioned in his last couple of blogs, we had a wonderful level of book sales in the past month, and I have never personally received so many exited and even impatient emails regarding an author’s upcoming projects etc…. So, again, I hope you realize how much we at Focus House appreciate your support.

Tim writes in an astounding number of genres, and I’ve had him so busy these past few months he barely wraps up one project before I hand him another. Now I’d like to involve you fans in helping me to make the highest and best use of Tim’s time. These past few weeks, we have been examining the results of our early release of From My Cold Young Fingers. Those of you who have read it know what made it so unique is that it was released before my editors even began work on it. That novel was the final draft from Tim to the editor, but we intercepted it and published the early version while in the meantime continuing to help Tim perfect the story. Universally, however, readers loved the ARC (Advanced Reading Copy) and we heard you.

As of this moment, I have scheduled most of Tim’s projects (of which there are a surprising number) to be released in ebook ARC’s at their current stages of development. If I receive enough emails and requests, I will even consider creating special print editions of those works as well. What this means is that within the next few weeks, early versions of Ancestor, Zachary Pill The Dragon at Station End and Ripped From My Cold Young Fingers will be made available in ebook. Within the next two months, early versions of at least three more novels will become available.

Finally, I have personally asked our staff to monitor all sales, emails and other communications to determine which projects you the readers feel are most important. In short, if you are anxious for the final print release of a book, please tell your friends and we’ll make sure it is one of our top priorities. If you want the next book in a series, be sure to convince all of your friends to buy the first one and we’ll make sure it is on Tim’s long but still manageable to-do list.  

Thank you again for supporting our efforts to bring you the best storytellers. Look for Ripped From My Cold Young Fingers (Edition E-1) to be released in ebook this week.

Sincerely,

TJ Greaton, Executive Editor/Owner

Focus House Publishing

Bones in the Tree Free till 16 July2011: My Bones in the Tree novella will remain available for free at www.smashwords.com until midnight EST on July 16^th, 2011.

Thanks again for the amazing interest in that story. In less than a week it has been downloaded hundreds of times…all over the world. I have been receiving emails from far and wide, and in answer to all of them…yes, I hope to do more “chick lit” in the future J.

Fat Duck oversees a yard sale: Yesterday, we had a yard sale to help my mother-in-law eliminate so much of the clutter that she no longer has room for. Fat Duck was immediately concerned by all the commotion starting at 5am Saturday morning. By 6am, he was getting so nervous about all the activity near his cage that I had to let him go out into the yard a little earlier than usual (some foxes are still out and about a few hours after dawn).

Well, Fatty lacked only a hardhat to fully look the part of project manager. He proceeded immediately to his hay bale where he could get a good high view of all the comings and goings, and for most of the day he faced all the activity rather than looking toward the pond as he often does. He did tend to get a little excited when a few cars turned around on the grass five or ten feet from him, and one time he got so flustered that he hopped down and waddled toward the backyard. Fortunately, one of my sons realized that our sale lacked an authority figure, so he herded Fatty back and up onto his hay bale.

Of course, it’s possible my son just wanted to continue watching the angry looks on some people’s faces when the yard sale staff called out things like “Fatty, what are you doing?” or “Are you having a fun sale, Fatty?” J.

Change of blog schedule: Unfortunately, Carrie has recently asked that I start using Twitter and a number of other sites more. So to provide a little more time for that, I will blog once a week on Sunday evening instead of twice a week. The good news is it should make it easier for everyone who follows to keep up as well.  

Thanks again for making blogging such a fun and successful ingredient in my writing week J.

Thanks so much, Anonymous for your supportive review of From My Cold Young Fingers.

The review…

««««¶ (4 out of 5 stars) July 7, 2011 at Barnes and Noble

Highly recommended…

A book that absolutely needs to be on your summer reading list. A very interesting story of a nine year old boy's journey, and very quickly becomes yours as well. The author has a way of making you feel you are in the story.

In the next blog (Sunday July 17th): someone “Kicks death in the –ss,” why Patsy the Dog is going to be drive me crazy, some feedback about the upcoming advance reading novels Focus House has just slated (assuming you all provide me with some feedback J), and a humorous story from my past….

Thanks for investing your valuable time with me. I’ll always strive to make it worthwhileJ!