From the Desk of J.M. Poole

Hello everyone!

It’s with great pride that I announce the release of the third and final chapter of the Bakkian Chronicles!

Amulet of Aria was uploaded to Amazon a little bit ago and it just went live!  I’ll upload to Smashwords tomorrow since they require a whole different set of formatting.  Keep checking back to see which stores Amulet of Aria has appeared in.  Trust me, I’ll be on top of it!!

UPDATE:  Have submitted book III to Smashwords!  Awaiting Premium Catalog inclusion!

Stores available:

Amazon   Amazon UK   Apple’s iBooks    Barnes and Noble    Diesel    Kobo     Sony Ereader

The finish line is in sight. My wife has returned the last chapter to me and I’m plugging holes left and right. She’ll get the completed manuscript, from cover to cover, this weekend and she assures me she’ll be done by Sunday night. Then it’s off to my beta readers. They’ll have a week to go through it and suggest changes. Then it’s off to the editor, and if things go my way, I’ll be able to release Amulet of Aria by the end of the month.

I thought it’d be a cool way to follow progress by indicating what steps are left below and then showing which stage its at. So, without further ado, here are the remaining steps:

1. Finish the darn book.   Done!
2. Give the last chapter to my wife.   Done!
3. Last chapter returned, changes implemented.    Done!
4. Give completed manuscript to wife. Have her read from cover to cover.    Done!
5. Implement any changes from final perusal.     Done!
6. In the hands of the beta readers.   Done!
7. Implement any necessary changes suggested by beta readers.   Done!
8. Given to editor and is now being edited.     Done!
9. Follow editor’s advice and make changes.    Done!
10. Submit to Amazon & Smashwords and get the sucker released!     Done!
11. Finalize print edition and order proof copy!      Done!

In preparation of the impending release of Amulet of Aria, here’s what the cover is going to look like. Once again Rachel and her husband Richard have done an outstanding job on the cover. For those of you that didn’t know, Rachel is the artist that did the other two covers and Richard handled all the title graphics.

Cover for Amulet of Aria

Just got the high-res image that will be the cover for Amulet of Aria. Looks fantastic! Rachel did a fantastic job once again! Her husband has taken over and is now working on the title graphics. You guys are gonna love the finished cover!

My Beta Readers are standing by. My editor is standing by. Cover is practically done. Hmmm, what are we waiting on? *sigh* Oh, yeah. That’d be me. Well, in my defense, I’m almost done. 🙂

For those of you on Facebook, I have (reluctantly) been dragged into social networking, so if you’d like to add me as a friend, I’d appreciate it!

Thanks to the folks at CafePress, one of those websites that will let you design a line of products using your own graphics, the Lentarian Gift Shoppe has been born!

You’ll find journals, mugs, water bottles, mouse pads, hats, keychains, iPhone cases, and even iPad sleeves. I’m working on a couple of t-shirts right now. I was thinking of having a shirt that said “Honorary Citizen of Lentari” on it. 🙂

The gift shop is hosted at CafePress, and can be found here. I’ve added a widget to the blog here on this website which will pull up the same products. Click on the Gift Shop link running along the top or else click here to take a look!

J

I was recently interviewed by fellow author Mia Darien for her popular “Ten Questions…” series on her blog. She asked me five questions about myself and five about my writing and was then kind enough to post the answers. Click here to check it out!

Many thanks goes to Raphyel Jordan for illustrating the guur for me! Turned out great, didn’t it? I love the texturing he did to it. Wouldn’t want to see one of these creepy suckers coming out of the shadows, would you? 🙂

You’ll find this image and quite a few others I’ve used in the Art page.

Hello everyone! The Lyndsey Roughton Anthology has been released, officially titled “Sweet Dreams“.

There are a total of 17 short stories, including one of my own, entitled Bakkian Chronicles – The Disneyland Debacle. It takes place right between books II and III, so if you’d like to experience Steve and Sarah’s first trip to Disneyland with everyone (Mikal, Annie, and Tristan), then be sure to pick up a copy. You’ll find some wonderful stories by some very gifted authors! I’ve picked up my copy and I encourage you to pick one up, too. All proceeds will go to benefit Lyndsey Roughton and hopefully send her on her dream vacation.

Once more, here’s the link to Sweet Dreams. Thanks for helping us out!

I was contacted by JHSked,, a friend of mine who is the author of Wolfsong (Tales from the Crescent), about possibly donating a story to help out a woman by the name of Lyndsey Roughton.

Lyndsey, sadly, is dying of brain cancer. The doctors have not given her much longer to live, so what JH is doing is collecting short stories from authors willing to donate them for an anthology to be sold in the Amazon Kindle store, with all proceeds going towards helping Lyndsey go on the vacation of her dreams before it’s too late.

So, when approached, I thought to myself, I haven’t ever written a short story before, but I sure as hell will give it a try. Therefore, Bakkian Chronicles – The Disneyland Debacle was born. It’s checks in at just under 5,000 words and takes place right between book II and book III. Let’s just say that it’s the first time everyone visits Disneyland in southern California together.

Take one fire thrower, one introverted ex-Lentarian soldier and one rambunctious kid. Picture a high-speed roller coaster, one reluctant rider and two willing accomplices. Did you know Disneyland has its own fire department? 🙂

The collection of stories should be under the name “Sweet Dreams” and we’re hoping to have it in the Amazon store at the end of June.

Here are a list of authors who have so far contributed to the collection:

Chris Fraser
Edward Larel
Mia Darien
Joseph Garrety
Jason McKinney
Naomi Clark
Jana Hill
Nicholas Ordinans
Leanne Fitzpatrick
B. Throwsnaill
J.H.Sked
Renee Hall
Sky Corbelli
Jeffrey Poole
Joe Occhipinti

For more on Lyndsey and her story, click here. Stay tuned for further updates. As soon as the anthology is released I’ll post links to it in here. I hope you’ll be interested in picking up a copy.

J.

It only took a few days to create, and a few more days to make a couple of minor changes to the text that I had noticed a while ago, but my first book has been officially rereleased from CreateSpace using the gorgeous new cover that Rachel created for it. For those of you that don’t know, she’s the very gifted artist who created the cover for Book II. Her husband, Richard, once again did the title graphics so that it’d be a wonderfully matching set. I put the two books side by side, and trust me, it blows that f-ugly gray thing that PublishAmerica created right out of the water.

So to celebrate, I put a copy of the first book (third edition!) up on a Goodreads giveaway, open to residents of the USA, Canada, Great Britain, Ireland, and Australia. If you’d like a chance to win a signed copy, stop by the Goodreads giveaway and enter! If you’re not a member of Goodreads, that’s ok. Membership is free!

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Bakkian Chronicles, Book I – The Prophecy

by Jeffrey Poole

Giveaway ends June 30, 2012.

See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.

Enter to win

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Bakkian Chronicles, Book II – Insurrection

by Jeffrey Poole

Giveaway ends June 30, 2012.

See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.

Enter to win

Good luck to all who enter!