May 24, 2015

Good evening, Squires and Wild Mages - backers new and old. Here's a picture of me dressed as a wizard.

I'm trying very, very hard to not panic. There's only a week left in the Sword and Laser Contest and thanks to YOU [FINGER POINT] we're doing very, very well. I should be calm, I should play it cool. But I can't! 

We've come so far - farther than I ever really expected, especially for a book about dragons, saxophones, friendship, magic, cruise liners, automaton mage-hounds, witches, and minotaur tea parties. I honestly think the most amazing part of all this is the feeling that I'm writing for someone -for you guys specifically. My other books I sort of type away in the wilderness, mutter drunkenly about them to my patient friends in gutters and gazebos, then they go out into the great unknown. But now, I love the feeling of owing you something. I love the feeling of a sold-out crowd for opening night of my little Muppet Show. (Don't worry - it's also intimidating enough to give my anxiety-demons all sorts of ammunition.)

I just shared another chapter from a little further in the book - here's a link if you didn't spot it in your email:

Chapter Three : Half-Ghost Sea

...But of late, he had started to see a shift, something change in his companion. The laughter - the way she seemed to revel in her power, it made the squire worry. There wasn’t one thing he could really put his finger on, but it seemed that Rime’s magic was perhaps beginning to get out of control.

“I’m going to blow their ship up too!” Rime said with exultation, weaving her lightning into a large ball above her head...

I love that I can write a chapter, and just send it to you! I mean, it's raggedy and needs some editing TLC, but  bah! There it is, fresh off the dome and put up on your internet refrigerator with a heart-shaped magnet. Comments and feedback are very much appreciated.

This is what it will be like if we win - me sending you these little updates and napkins smeared with lipstick. IT WILL BE WEIRD. But it will also be kind of wonderful.

So, rainbows can wait - back to stress-bombs. 7 days! I want to win for myself, obviously, but I'm also really feeling the responsibility of all the time and energy you guys have put in - we have got to finish this thing monster strong.

THINGS I'M DOING

• Updating all current backers and making them feel weird.
  
• Going one by one through every contact I have ever had and anyone that hasn't already backed me, just getting on my knees and groveling. It ain't pretty, but it has to be done!
• Keep up social media barrage on FB, Twitter, Tumbler, etc.
• BACKER REWARDS: I'm dead set on commissioning some custom artwork for you guys - whether it takes the form of a downloadable wallpaper, bookmark, postcard, etc. I want to get you guys a present, dang it.
• AUDIO BOOK: [???] This is something I can also make for you guys. It would be professional-quality recording of  me reading. I can absolutely promise you recordings of my first two books, Spell/Sword and The Riddle Box - if we get published, I'm a little fuzzy on whether I can give that away on AMOD as part of the publishing deal. PUT A PIN IN THAT. Any interest in this?

THINGS YOU CAN DO TO HELP

• Convince your friends to back the book.  There are three chapters up now for them to take a bite, and even more of my stuff for free on spell-sword.com.
  
• Leave comments, excerpts, likes, and reviews on Inkshares itself - it really helps when new people come check out the book to read backer reviews -- and so far we are pretty thin in this respect.
• Share the campaign page around, really press that May 31st is the deadline - if we can hang on to a slot in the top 5 through then we win! Pre-orders after that are awesome! But if we don't make it into the Fabulous Five it's going to be a really difficulty task to make it to 1000 pre-orders.

Thank you all so much for everything you've done so far, and dealing with me coming completely unraveled over the next week. Here's an even MORE unflattering picture of me. As the annoyance builds this week, just look at this picture and feel your rage pass like a summer breeze.