How do I add a non binary file to a publish deployment?

Question: How do I add a non executable file to the deploy package?

The most common way to add a file is to load it into the assembly as part of the project space.  But I can not use this method.

Here's the problem:

When I do a release compile, in the post build step, it calls another program called, "ReleaseNotesGenerator"  This program grabs the version number of the file I just created, and allows you to enter release notes into a .dat file in the same directory as the executable.

By this point the executable is finalized and I can't modify the binary contents and re-embed the ReleaseNotes.Dat.  I also can not call "ReleaseNotesGenerator" prebuild because the build number does not change until the build begins.  (I'm using 1.0.* in the assembly info)

Once this program is done executing, the publish releases all the files.

I want to include that generated ReleaseNotes.Dat file from the post build step.