I promise I am still here and still working. News to come soon.

Just finished a really really really ugly two mile run. For those of you following my injury status I’m still not fully operational.

Issue is it has been four months since I ran, since I truly worked out and that doesn’t make for a happy me and even worse than that it makes writing really difficult.

But one of my favorite quotes from a movie(bonus points of you guess it) “life is pain and anyone who tells you otherwise is selling something.”

So, sometimes you just have to push through the pain.

Live your life well enough you aren’t afraid of death.

 

Alibaba is pushing competitive video gaming, or eSports, to the next level. It struck a partnership with the Olympic Council of Asia to get eSports included as a medal sport when the Asian Games are held in Hangzhou in 2022. The e-commerce giant is headquartered there and it seems keen to make its mark on…

via Competitive video gaming is going to the 2022 Asian Games, but it’s been a medal sport for a decade — Quartz

Tim Smith, a fellow writer and friend, once told me on a nice summer run that all runners are running toward something or away from it.

I’ve been trying to use 2017 to make some self improvements, and with that has come a lot of reflection on myself, my actions, and my choices throughout my 20s. (My 30s loom near)

Toward the end of 2016 I took a leap and moved away from my home area to a job that doesn’t pay much, but I enjoy. I found the job and moved in less than a week.

I questioned then if I was running toward my career or away from my home world. I think the answer then was running away. Now, I believe I am finally running toward. I don’t have enough time to feel sorry for myself because my time is focused on doing the best job I can at work, working out every day, writing at least a 1000 words a day, and overall just taking care of me.

It feels nice to be running toward.

Sorry folks. I’ve been a ghost.

https://www.amazon.com/Strays-Primal-Age-Chronicles-Book/dp/161775501X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1480551109&sr=8-1&keywords=justin+kassab

 

https://www.amazon.com/First-Book-James-Stories-Primal-ebook/dp/B01IWU2PM0/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1480551109&sr=8-3&keywords=justin+kassab

 

In case you missed it Book 2: Strays is out, as is a novella called The First Book of James.

So with The Primal Age Chronicles: Strays about to release let me tell you a little story. My middle sister has a penchant for saving animals. When I was a kid she brought home a cat that my Dad gave her two weeks to get rid of and he ended up keeping for nearly 20 years. January 2015 she pulled a similar stunt on me. She rescued the above dog(Ironically named Gem) from a kill shelter 7 minutes before she was to be terminated. She turned up at my house with a 40 pound dog(now plump at 90) with pneumonia, kennel cough, and a number of other things. I was asked to watch said dog for a few days until there was room at Speranza Animal Rescue where she volunteers.

A few days turned into a few weeks, which turned into months, which now has me coming up on two years with my writing assistant.

Though she can sometimes be a pain in the ass(I will let you decide if I am talking about my sister or my dog) I would like to do something nice for her.

I don’t have much past what I can do with words, which is why I decided to use them to try to do some good.

I have put a novella up called The First Book of James which is the first installment in my short stories collection that take place in the Primal Age but away from the events that follow in the books.

This flagship release for Stories from the Primal Age follows the character Jem and what happens to him during the timeline of Foamers, and sets up much of his motivation in Strays.

I set it up for a preorder and it will become available on August 7th(plenty of time to read it before Strays releases)

Now this is the part where you probably want me to get to the point.

I will donate all preorder profit to Speranza to help them save other mutts like Gem.

Would you rather donate straight to Speranza? Click here.

Want to buy a story and give some money to the cause? Click here.

 

 

So the correct date for release on The Primal Age Chronicles: Strays is August 16th 2016. Any currently purchased Ebooks of Foamers will have a teaser of Strays inside. On top of that nice little easter egg any of those of you who bought this version of Foamers:

Are now holding the collectible edition as this cover is no longer available for purchase(less you know a guy). The new cover will be the one going forward. And just in case you haven’t seen it yet.

Get your orders in. Strays or Foamers just click.

Stay Tuned…