First, a big thank you to those of you who pre-ordered years ago. Your patience will be rewarded soon.

Second, see "press release" below. I'll be sending it out to "Cape & Islands" and Boston newspapers and radio stations-- or rather, my wife will, as she has a lot of contacts from her work at the library. Feel free to mock the release in the comments.

Third, please help us spread the word. We could use the dough, you see. (Buy using check in the mail or paypal.) I myself need it desperately. How desperately? You don't want to know.  Please, please, please pass along this info to your friends and neighbors and everyone you meet, including (but not limited to) people in the grocery store aisles and checkout lines, people on the subway trains ("tube" in London,"tram" in Switzerland, "Sardine can that moves rapidly on twin metal chopsticks" in Japan, etc.), old college friends including people that you may have even come close to marrying but thank God you didn't, your doctors, dentists and podiatrists, fellow members of your garden club, fierce rivals at the office, fellow patrons in public rest rooms, policemen directing traffic at accident sites, estranged family members, your congressional representatives and senators, Barack Obama, Lindsay Lohan and everybody who has ever had their picture in People Magazine, members of your church, ex-members of your church, and your favorite Store Associate at The Home Depot.

Please digg it, submit it to boing-boing, slashdot, metafilter, every place else you can think of. Front page it here. Do it for me. Or, if you don't like me, do it for Cheeseburger. Or, if you don't like Cheeseburger or me, do it for Kellnerin. Everybody likes Kellnerin.

Here is the press release. Thanks.

For immediate release

Contact: John R. Sundman III
Tel: 508-693-5339
Email: john[remove@remove]wetmachine.com
Web: http://www.wetmachine.com/ThePains/index.html

Vineyard Haven Author Pens Third Novel

Dystopian narrative evokes shock and dread of Orwell's classic "1984"

VINEYARD HAVEN -- John R. Sundman III, a longtime resident of Martha's Vineyard, has published his third novel. The author is popular among readers of the science fiction genre known as "techno punk," which grapples with issues such as the role of technology as a destructive force, the devolution of modern civilization, and the threats posed by socio-religious cults in a 21st-century global culture linked by the Internet.

Sundman's new novel, "The Pains," is a story of faith in a world that appears to be falling apart. It tells the story of Norman Lux, a 24-year-old novitiate in a religious order, who becomes afflicted with something akin to stigmata.

"I wanted to recapture the sense of shock and dread that George Orwell's ‘1984’ inspired when it was published back in the 20th century," Sundman said. “Orwell’s masterpiece has become so familiar that its basic message no longer shocks and disturbs us. Time and familiarity have diluted its power. I'm hoping that "The Pains" will rekindle some of the visceral excitement that readers experienced when reading ‘1984’ for the first time. That being said, it's not to everybody's taste -- some people might find it too shocking or too disturbing."

Adding to the dark aura of the book are a dozen stunning illustrations by Canadian writer and illustrator Cheeseburger Brown. Brown’s artwork has garnered several awards on both sides of the border. His short film "Space Attack!" was awarded a Stanley from the California cable broadcasters' community in 2007. He won the 2002 Lightwave Animation Award and the 2003 Hewlett-Packard Juried Digital Art Competition in 2003.

Sundman's first novel, "Acts of the Apostles," was published in 1999. It was well received by "geeks" worldwide. Slashdot gave it an excellent review, saying it was "what Tom Clancy would write if he were smart." Rusty Foster of Kuro5hin said it "may well be the ultimate hacker book." Salon.com also published a highly positive review of "Acts of the Apostles," which won Writer's Digest Magazine's "National Self-Published Book Award" competition in 2000. Sundman's novel was judged first in a field of 325 other books.

His second book, "Cheap Complex Devices," was published in 2002. Although purportedly about the "Hofstadter Prize for Machine-Written Narrative," the book is a meditation on self-awareness (human, machine, or other), and a satire of academic artificial intelligence in the spirit of Vladimir Nabokov's "Pale Fire."

For a limited time, "The Pains" will be available for download at no cost. For additional details, please visit http://www.wetmachine.com/ThePains/index.html

In addition to writing fiction, Sundman has done reporting for Salon.com and other magazines. He is a volunteer at Island Food Pantry and the Serving Hands pantry, and a member of the Tisbury Volunteer Fire Department.

For more information, please contact the author directly by telephone at 508-693-5339 or via email at john@wetmachine.com

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