News from Jon F. Merz (Boston Nocturne – Aug. 2009)

Boston Nocturne
News from Jon F. Merz
Writer ~ Producer ~ Ninja
August 2009

Hi everyone! I hope you’re all having an amazing summer! It’s been weird in the northeast – we had lots of rain and now the heat and humidity have finally caught up with us. My boys go back to school in a few weeks and the seasons will turn again shortly. Funny how fast time flies!

First and foremost: I’m doing a book giveaway out on my Facebook fan page at http://www.facebook.com/jonfmerzfans – one lucky winner will get a signed copy of my latest Rogue Angel novel: Footprints. It’s not due in stores until mid-September, but you can win a copy just by being a fan out on Facebook and commenting on the giveaway thread. In Footprints, Annja Creed hunts for the elusive Sasquatch in the Pacific Northwest and, as usual, gets herself embroiled in a ton of other danger along the way.

PARALLAX continues to sell nicely as an ebook, priced at just $1.99 on Amazon for Kindle readers or direct through me as a .pdf via my blog at http://jonfmerz.wordpress.com Interestingly enough, in the last few weeks, I’ve had interest from four producers out in Hollywood in turning the novel into a film. Nothing’s ever definite until the check clears, but I always enjoy speaking with folks in the movie biz. So we’ll see where that goes. I love the attention the book has been getting, especially since New York publishers won’t touch it (despite all the editors who have loved it) because they can’t label it as one genre or another. It would be pretty amusing to see it get picked up for a film and not even have a print deal.

I’m thinking about a new venture and would love to hear from you as to whether it would be something you’d be interested in or not. I don’t want to give away too many details yet, but if you’re interested in hearing about it, drop me a line at jonfmerz@gmail.com and ask. Your feedback is vitally important to this venture, so please don’t hesitate to contact me. The more people I bounce this off of, the better. Some of you have already been contacted about this, so no need to contact me again (unless you didn’t get back to me the first time). Confused? Yeah, me, too. Let’s move on, lol…

By the way, I’m giving away an old very short story of mine called “Rip.” You can get it as either a .pdf or .prc (Kindle) format just by emailing me at jonfmerz@gmail.com You can also check out the silly video I made on Youtube by going here: http://www.youtube.com/jonfmerz (make sure you comment and subscribe to my new channel!)

I’ll be yanking The Fixer Files ebook compilation down and will no longer sell this massive half million words compilation of all the Lawson adventures to date. Since I expect to sell the series to a new publisher soon, there’s no need to keep it up. But I will sell it a little while longer. Say, until next week. So if you want all four original novels PLUS the long-awaited 5th (the Kensei) PLUS the novella I wrote for Myspace.com (The Courier) PLUS two short stories all for a measly $9.99, then head out to my blog at http://jonfmerz.wordpress.com and grab a copy before it’s too late. No telling how long it will take NYC to get these things into print.

My website at http://www.jonfmerz.net continues to evolve nicely. Nick, my web guru is handling the work and I’m loving it so far. There’s going to be a LOT of content when we’re finished, so check by often!

Next month we’ll be getting going (finally) on THE FIXER TV series. So there’s going to be a LOT of news around that. We’ll be tweeting from the set and various other places. News will be via my Twitter feed at http://www.twitter.com/jonfmerz so make sure you swing by and join the 13,000 other folks who enjoy my various tidbits of tweetdom.

That’s all for now – thanks for reading! Have a great summer!

Best wishes,
Jon

PARALLAX: Contest Extended

After much consideration and comments (both public and private) I’ve decided to extend the Parallax contest until we sell 1,000 copies of the book. This will guarantee that someone will win a trip to the set of THE FIXER television series-so we need to sell MORE books!

Thanks to all of you who contacted me-the response was overwhelming and deeply gratifying, especially considering the rave reviews you’ve all given the book. As an author, you all mean the world to me and your feedback has been priceless. Thank you so much.

So, to reiterate the contest details: We’ve already reached the 100-copy level so someone will shortly be getting a copy of Rogue Angel:Sacrifice. And since I’ve lowered the grand prize TV set trip to the 1,000-copy level, I’ll lower the lifetime copy of Jon’s books prize to just 500 copies.

  • 100 copies: Free copy of Rogue Angel: Sacrifice written by me
  • 500 copies: Copies of every book I’ve ever written and will ever write
  • 1,000 copies: A trip to the set of THE FIXER TV series (all expenses paid from anywhere on Earth)

Okay, so get your copy of the book and then tell your friends to do the same. I want this thing to be big and get even bigger than it has been up to this point. I need your help & support to make it happen. So let’s get rockin’!

Order a copy of PARALLAX in the following formats: .pdf, .rtf, .epub, .mobi, and as zipped HTML files. You order that direct from me by clicking the button here (please specify the format you want):

You can also get it for your Kindle right out on Amazon. Click Here to Buy PARALLAX at Amazon.com

Writing Updates

It’s been a while since I posted news about what I’m working on, so here’s a brief recap:

1. I have one more Rogue Angel novel to complete and then I think that will be that. I will have written eight novels for the series and frankly, I’m a bit burned out on the character. They were fun and quick projects for me and the folks at Gold Eagle/Harlequin are awesome. They’ve been my favorite publisher to work with thus far and are lightning fast on contracts, payments, and feedback – all of which are awesome for a writer. I hope to do some other stuff with them, so we’ll see…

2. I’ve partnered with a great friend of mine to flesh out a new project that I will cryptically call “HOTW” for now. It will feature a strong female lead in a great setting that should appeal to a huge demographic. We’re pumped about it. It also doesn’t hurt that my friend works with Ridley Scott, which si complete awesomeness in and of itself. More news as it becomes available.

3. This same friend actually brought me on to help write another project with him and this one is about ready to boil. It’s already a comic series (and no, don’t ask because I don’t want to spoil the fun) with a sizeable following and is being actively pursued by several companies as an episodic cartoon series. I’ll be handling the novels and also working on the cartoon itself. It’s great stuff.

4. I’m actively working on SECOND CHANCE (working title) and enjoying getting back into it. I’ve been toying with this book for several years and it’s well past due that I finish the thing and get it out into circulation. It’s a standalone as far as I can tell (although you never know what the future holds) and mixes my usual genre frappe of fun and craziness. I’ll excerpt a few more chapters as December progresses. You can find the prologue a few posts back.

5. We’re slated to start shooting THE FIXER TV series in February. January will be devoted to much planning and finalizing of all sorts of things relating to getting fully up to speed. Needless to say, this has taken us longer than we expected, but it’s going to be a truly awesome project. We should have some more footage to release shortly, so stay tuned to the official website at http://www.thefixer.tv and don’t forget to join the Forums over there as well!

That’s it for now. I’ve got some other stuff to talk about, but will hold off doing so for the time being.