Essential URLs
daybydayarmageddon.com
twitter.com/jlbourne
tacticalunderground.us
Day by Day Armageddon on Amazon.com
The Official Day by Day Armageddon Message Board
The Zombie Survival Bookstore
About the Day by Day Armageddon Project:
Welcome to the official J.L. Bourne myspace page! Accept no substitutes. Let’s get right to what you came for…
The Day by Day Armageddon project began in 2002.
I started the project on a simple paper journal and from there constructed the universe where the worldwide devastation took place. I wanted the original work to appear as if a regular man had written it on paper… -Very raw and realistic. In 2003 I started the website that is now known as tacticalunderground.us and began uploading my work piece by piece to the Internet as a serial described as journal entries.
I wanted to avoid the format of the “livejournal” and other free blog services that were prevalent (see: viral) from 2000-2005. The online journal had to immerse the reader into the world that was Day by Day Armageddon. My vision of one man, on the run from billions of undead and surviving against all odds.
After a year long period of posting regular updates on the story on my website I began the laborious task of writing the novel version of the underground online phenomenon. Suspecting that a traditional publisher would rearrange my work and take away the raw feel of the journal outlining the fall of humanity, I decided to publish the book myself. I wanted to get my story out there for everyone to enjoy. I wanted it untouched, as a real journal would be. There are no publishers or editors in the apocalypse.
The first edition of the novel was done entirely as a one-man operation. I wrote it, devised the layout and created the cover illustration. It was literally a solo operation and it showed. I was very surprised when I sold my first thousand novels, as I never thought the story would catch on like it did. Then a strange thing happened… -I sold two thousand.
The book kept selling. Eventually I was contacted by a few publishers before finally being approached by Permuted Press. The Permuted team inquired as to what it would take to sign me on for the re-release of DBDA through Permuted as well as the chance to publish the sequel. Permuted and I quickly came to an agreement (I love the small press) and the first edition was re-mastered to what I thought it should have been in the first place.
The old cover illustration was scrapped and reborn like a phoenix by Christian Dovel into something fresh and exciting. Working closely with Travis Adkins, we overhauled the interior (but not the content) to more closely resemble the spirit of a journal kept during the apocalypse. Numerous handwritten notes, underlines, scribbles, random thoughts and other unique markings give it a rather realistic (or is it surrealistic?) feel. My hats off to Travis for not going completely mad over all the scanned handwritten thoughts and ideas I sent him as feedback and inputs to the layout.
By August of 2007 we had the 99% solution to the re-release (nothing is ever 100%). The novel went online and active at the very end of October 2007 and we have never looked back. It has done very well. I am proud of what was born of imagination and determination in 2002.
The sequel is currently being written (356 pages complete at 250 words per page at courier font with double spacing) and I can honestly tell you that if you enjoyed Day by Day Armageddon you will love the sequel.
As of 4/11/09, my personal goal is to have the manuscript to the publisher by 6/30/09.
Feel free to check out the official website to see what all the hype is about.
-Keep your doors locked.
J.L. Bourne
