Oculus has reached the first draft stage today - I have finished writing the last remaining chapter! The book is a shade under 90,000 words, spread over 42 chapters. I have been editing all along, but now it really needs professional editing. If it can reach the 1000 pre-order target in 24 days, then that will happen courtesy of Inkshares. If not, then I'll be looking at other options.
Remember, if you refer a friend via a post on Facebook or Twitter, you will get $15 in Inkshares credits, which you can use for whatever books you fancy.
Any pre-order royalties I receive (which will only happen if the target is met) will go to Amnesty International and Refuge UK.
After years of avoiding it, I finally got an Instagram account. I'm mostly posting photos I took myself, with short quotations from Oculus. I'm oculusnovel on Instagram. Take a look, there's plenty of images that you won't have seen before!
Andrew - ha! Believe it or not: I've never read Harry Potter so I don't know - but my profile symbol is actually a dingbat I created for the book to separate scenes!
I've uploaded three chapters. With a brief stop in the late 20th century, we're now definitely in the 21st century. It's not quite the same as the world we know... there's something quite different... something to do with someone we met back in 1635. There's a few other little differences, notably the existence of our antagonist, Alexander Reynold. He's not only an egotistical megalomaniac, but he knows something about Ilaria. And he has very ambitious plans involving interstellar space travel and life extension.
I want to thank everyone who has pre-ordered so far. If you like what you read, please get your friends to pre-order. Should Inkshares publish Oculus, all pre-order royalties I receive will go to Amnesty International and Refuge. See the project page for more details.
I had a great weekend, out demonstrating with my family in London in the hope of persuading the UK government to allow in more refugees fleeing war in Syria and across the world. A big part of Oculus is about celebrating selfless acts of compassion, particularly those of women, so I would like to take the opportunity to highlight the work of a real-world hero - Gabriela Andreevska - a young Macedonian who is helping thousands of refugees. Please support her efforts, and put pressure on your leaders to help these people - not by dropping bombs on them, not by letting them drown in the sea, but providing them with safe passage and somewhere to live.
I noticed today that I have the square-root of the number of pre-orders that I need to get published. 31 x 31 = 961 , which is not enough, but 32 x 32 = 1024 which will get Oculus published. So, for each book that's been pre-ordered, I "just" need you guys to find me 32 more pre-orders.
Everyone who is new to Inkshares gets a $5 credit just for joining, so the most pre-ordering costs is $5. Which in London is less than a beer in most pubs! Also, if they pre-order from the share on Facebook which you are hopefully all creating for me, they get $15 Inkshares credits, which they can use for other books, or even more copies of Oculus if they have friends they might want to gift a copy to.
This isn't going to make me rich. So far the total royalties paid out by Inkshares to *all* the authors they've published wouldn't pay more than a couple of weeks wages of a below-average premier-league football player. But... I would love to see Oculus in print. I would love for it to be read, by people other than me!
So given that, I want to counter the egotistical, maybe pretentious and definitely needy act of writing a novel in the hope that others may read it and like it... by donating anything I make from these pre-orders to those two organisations I supported with my cycle ride last year: Amnesty International and Refuge. This can only happen if I hit the pre-order target (750 for e-book, 1000 for print + e-book).
And to celebrate passing the square root of the pre -order target (31.6227766 pre-orders to be precise!), later I'll be uploading another chapter, which is the last of the chapters set in 1635 - next stop is 1984!
Chapter Five: A Letter from Rome: uploaded. This is one of my favourites. There's quite a lot going on: the letter in question is from Father David, and introduces a certain philosopher to the world of Oculus. There's also a very special conversation between Ilaria and Johannes where we begin to get an idea of the effect they are having on each other. A little revelation about Ilaria's origin. Finally, another trip into the future, with Angela and Sofia coming along too - but for once not the bleak future that Johannes has been showing Pietro so far.
There's only one chapter left set in 1635, and then we'll be in the twentieth century.
OK, Chapter Four: The Farm has been uploaded! In this chapter we finally meet some female characters. Given that about 52% of Oculus is told from the (first person) perspective of female characters, it's about time we met some! This chapter introduces the first of two characters named Ilaria. The next one isn't born until 2019! It also has a mention of the Second Defenestration of Prague, which was the event that triggered the Battle of White Mountain, one of the first major battles of the Thirty Years' War.
Hello everyone! I've updated the trailer a bit, but it's still not perfect. Soon I will be uploading Chapter Four, when Johannes and Pietro arrive at the farm and Johannes finally meets Ilaria.
To celebrate making double digit pre-orders, I've uploaded Chapter Three: The Races. After the intensity of the first two chapters, Pietro and Johannes relax a little as they make their way south.
Oculus has reached the first draft stage today - I have finished writing the last remaining chapter! The book is a shade under 90,000 words, spread over 42 chapters. I have been editing all along, but now it really needs professional editing. If it can reach the 1000 pre-order target in 24 days, then that will happen courtesy of Inkshares. If not, then I'll be looking at other options.
Remember, if you refer a friend via a post on Facebook or Twitter, you will get $15 in Inkshares credits, which you can use for whatever books you fancy.
Any pre-order royalties I receive (which will only happen if the target is met) will go to Amnesty International and Refuge UK.
Thanks to everyone for your support!
After years of avoiding it, I finally got an Instagram account. I'm mostly posting photos I took myself, with short quotations from Oculus. I'm oculusnovel on Instagram. Take a look, there's plenty of images that you won't have seen before!
Andrew - ha! Believe it or not: I've never read Harry Potter so I don't know - but my profile symbol is actually a dingbat I created for the book to separate scenes!
Hello!
I've uploaded three chapters. With a brief stop in the late 20th century, we're now definitely in the 21st century. It's not quite the same as the world we know... there's something quite different... something to do with someone we met back in 1635. There's a few other little differences, notably the existence of our antagonist, Alexander Reynold. He's not only an egotistical megalomaniac, but he knows something about Ilaria. And he has very ambitious plans involving interstellar space travel and life extension.
I want to thank everyone who has pre-ordered so far. If you like what you read, please get your friends to pre-order. Should Inkshares publish Oculus, all pre-order royalties I receive will go to Amnesty International and Refuge. See the project page for more details.
I had a great weekend, out demonstrating with my family in London in the hope of persuading the UK government to allow in more refugees fleeing war in Syria and across the world. A big part of Oculus is about celebrating selfless acts of compassion, particularly those of women, so I would like to take the opportunity to highlight the work of a real-world hero - Gabriela Andreevska - a young Macedonian who is helping thousands of refugees. Please support her efforts, and put pressure on your leaders to help these people - not by dropping bombs on them, not by letting them drown in the sea, but providing them with safe passage and somewhere to live.
https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera/videos/10153715497418690/?pnref=story
Thanks,
Aitor
I noticed today that I have the square-root of the number of pre-orders that I need to get published. 31 x 31 = 961 , which is not enough, but 32 x 32 = 1024 which will get Oculus published. So, for each book that's been pre-ordered, I "just" need you guys to find me 32 more pre-orders.
Everyone who is new to Inkshares gets a $5 credit just for joining, so the most pre-ordering costs is $5. Which in London is less than a beer in most pubs! Also, if they pre-order from the share on Facebook which you are hopefully all creating for me, they get $15 Inkshares credits, which they can use for other books, or even more copies of Oculus if they have friends they might want to gift a copy to.
This isn't going to make me rich. So far the total royalties paid out by Inkshares to *all* the authors they've published wouldn't pay more than a couple of weeks wages of a below-average premier-league football player. But... I would love to see Oculus in print. I would love for it to be read, by people other than me!
So given that, I want to counter the egotistical, maybe pretentious and definitely needy act of writing a novel in the hope that others may read it and like it... by donating anything I make from these pre-orders to those two organisations I supported with my cycle ride last year: Amnesty International and Refuge. This can only happen if I hit the pre-order target (750 for e-book, 1000 for print + e-book).
And to celebrate passing the square root of the pre -order target (31.6227766 pre-orders to be precise!), later I'll be uploading another chapter, which is the last of the chapters set in 1635 - next stop is 1984!
Thanks,
Aitor
OK, Chapter Four: The Farm has been uploaded! In this chapter we finally meet some female characters. Given that about 52% of Oculus is told from the (first person) perspective of female characters, it's about time we met some! This chapter introduces the first of two characters named Ilaria. The next one isn't born until 2019! It also has a mention of the Second Defenestration of Prague, which was the event that triggered the Battle of White Mountain, one of the first major battles of the Thirty Years' War.