Hi you beautiful beings!

Two weeks after the release of The Bone Wars, it is thriving! Look at all the times its been seen out and about all over the world

The Natural History Museum London  (thank you Ben and Jess!)

 NHM

Here is one of Jess next to Mary Anning’s "Swimming Dragon" This is mentioned in the book! In fact, this whole museum is :-)

Here it is at my parent’s local bookstore. If you’ve read the acknowledgments (also the dedication), you know that my father was an important Dev editor to the many drafts of TBWs. 

My step mom Kris with a member of Book Passage’s wonderful staff. Such great people!  

Here it is at Book Inc in Mountain View (thank you Kristy!)

as well as at Stanford!

If you have pics, send them my way!! Or let me know and I’ll go a hunting!

Thank you again for all your support. I’m just so thrilled the book is finally out there and people are enjoying the story. In addition to pictures, I’ve been getting very nice emails, not only from close friends and family, but also from people I haven’t had a chance to connect with in a while, telling me how much they enjoyed the book. I can’t tell you how much that means to me. 

Two things quickly! 

One, THE BOOK IS ON AUDIBLE! As I mentioned last update, I spoke to the actors last year and was just so please with how they interpreted the story. Their pronunciations also deserve some major kudos! Parasaurolophus isn’t easy to say! You can buy it now, so if you’d rather hear the book instead of reading, definitely go check it out: 

https://www.audible.com/pd/The-Bone-Wars-Audiobook/B0C1T5TVXM?qid=1683242675&sr=1-1&ref=a_search_c3_lProduct_1_1&pf_rd_p=83218cca-c308-412f-bfcf-90198b687a2f&pf_rd_r=BMEY9B4JJBK284HJ5H53&pageLoadId=MklzD1CXYmLcEA6M&creativeId=0d6f6720-f41c-457e-a42b-8c8dceb62f2c

And two, please review! Every author I know hates this part, but it’s critical in today’s saturated book climate. If you liked the book, review it on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, wherever you want. The more people review, the more the algorithms/AI gods bring the book to the attention of others that might enjoy it.

Thank you again for your support after all these years. I truly appreciate it!

Best,

Erin Evan

Hi all you fantastic supporters!

Wait, you’re probably like, new number, who this?

Well, it’s me, dear friends, Erin S. Evan. That book writer you pre-ordered from all those years ago. Let me refresh your memory....

The Spring of 2016. My son Jack wasn’t even a year old, the sky was blue, the earth was filled with fossils, and you preordered a book called The Pirates of Montana. 

So much has happened then, amirite? Moving (for me, a total of three times), new babies (my daughter Sara says hi), new jobs, a global pandemic. I’m sure you all have new updates and stories to tell. I hope they are all wonderful and bring you joy! Except for that pandemic. That can go to hell.

But the most important part of this update- THE BOOK COMES OUT ON APRIL 11! 

A HUGE thank you for your patience all these years. For those that preordered a copy years ago, you’ll get it sent to you around April 11. For those that didn’t, check out Amazon or, better yet, ask your local bookstore to order a copy.

In fact, for those that preordered, you should have gotten an email from Inkshares asking for your updated address, if needed. Definitely fill that out! I wouldn’t want the book going to an old address you haven’t lived in for years (I’ve updated mine)

Now, the hard question- why did it take so long? Because Inkshares is a small publishing house, I had to wait in line. Plus I needed to become a better writer. I went into this never writing fiction before. I’ve always made up stories, often spinning my yarns to my kiddos during their bedtimes, but I’d never put anything on paper.

Now I kinda claim I’m not too bad at it. What is that saying? You need 10,000 to master a skill? Well, I’m probably about a third of that way along. Not kidding- I’ve got lots of drafts of this book on my hard drive, plus tons of notes, treatments, summaries, etc.  Over the years, Inkshares set me up with several amazing editors who challenged me to become a better writer. For that, I’ll forever be thankful.

When you read the book, check out the acknowledgements- there are many individuals that have impacted this book and your name might be in there. 

And, just when we finally were about to publish, Covid hit. The closures of bookstores was brutal for the industry, to say the least. E-books did okay, but Inkshares, like many indie publishing houses, makes money through the sale of physical books. So we decided to wait till people could go back into stores.

So we waited.

And waited...

And waited….

Until now!

Now the fun stuff. 

I’ve changed the title, as you probably noticed. It’s now called The Bone Wars. This is a nod to the greatest paleontological race in American history, the rivalry of O.C. Marsh and E.D. Cope. You’ll learn more about it when you read the book (along with a ton of other cool paleontologists). However, the book is now apart of a series called The Pirates of Montana. So keep your eyes peeled for more info in the future on that.

While the book is now defined as a Young Adult book, I’ve written it so that adults will enjoy it too (think Hunger Games).

Booklist, one of the literary trade publications, has reviewed the book and given it a fantastic review. To quote: it "is a remarkable combination of incredible scientific detail and convincing fabrication." What does that mean? Well, you’ll have to read the book to find out (muahhahaha).

Professor Charles Marshall, Director of the University of California Museum of Paleontology, wrote a really awesome blurb for the book. It’s on the back cover. I’m really proud of his review. I haven’t been in "the game" for a while now, and to have a professional paleontologist read my book and not find any glaring errors was a fantastic feeling. His email was so nice, just a suggestion or two (which I incorporated). Additionally, he really enjoyed it! 

Another science fiction author, Tal Klein, also wrote a nice blurb for the book. For those that have been on Inkshares for a while, you’ll definitely remember his book, The Punch Escrow. If you haven’t read that one, stop reading this update and go order it. It’s fantastic. 

The Bone Wars will be on Audible! I met with the voice actors last year, and they are amazing. More on that to come!

Finally, the book was also selected by the Junior Library Guild as one of their Gold Standard Books, which is also very cool. The Guild helps Libraries choose books for their students. Fun fact: First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt was on its editorial board for decades! I’m incredibly honored to have been selected.

We’re at the finish line. Thank you all for the support and encouragement over the years. It took longer than I would have liked, but thankfully it meant a stronger, more fun book with an awesome cover (by the fantastic M.S. Corley! Check out his work at www.corleyms.com!) 

Best, 

Erin S. Evan

    That’s fine, you want to polish your novel to the best of your ability and I understand. True, I joined like a month ago, but I’m really liking it here. If you check my novel, I would really appreciate that. All the help I can get in accomplishing my dream is very much needed. I will be forever grateful to all my readers!

thank you! I’m an unusual case- it usually doesn’t take this long, but its my own fault haha. i also wish you the best of luck! Inkshares is a great company to work with and they make amazing products! I’m going to check out your novel right now :-)

Oh, sounds good! I wish you the best of luck. I’m interested in learning more about the process, because right now I am also trying to fund for my novel, "In Warm Blood."

Not yet! I’m still in the drafting stage (on the 5th draft :-)) I’ve been working closely with Inkshares on the story, taking novel writing classes, etc (I’m a non-fiction writer by trade so this is all new to me!) But I’m submitting the most recent version in about 2 weeks so fingers crossed its the best version yet and we can move to copy editing :-) Thanks for your interest! It will be very soon I hope!

  Has your novel still not been published yet?

What’s up Pirates!!

First and foremost, a meme because today marks the last Wednesday of 2016:

It’s been a long time since my last update! To be honest, the last few months have been a whirlwind of working on the manuscript, various supporting documents, etc, to get this book into production. Every time I started to write an update, something amazing happened that made me think, "I’ll finish this later so I can tell them more." As a new novel writer, it’s something I’ve never experienced before, but I’m very thankful for the Inkshares team’s support and encouragement. The Pirates of Montana is going to be amazing, and I’m really excited for you to read it!

I submitted my second rewrite just a few days ago, and I’ll be working over next 6 to 8 weeks to really tighten the manuscript. It’s already much stronger than what I originally worked on last May, and I’m very excited for where its going. I’ll be posting my new 1st and 2nd chapters very soon, so stay tuned!

As it stood on Christmas Eve, when I emailed this monster to Inkshares (their request, they are a hardworking bunch!), this is what I submitted:

88,796 total words and (although you can’t see it on the above graphic) 23 total chapters. That means that when printed, I guesstimate the book will be around ~350 pages long. Writing this document was a mixture of stress, joy, and excitement. I’m happy that the next big step has been taken! So is my family, who got really used to tiptoeing around me after 7 pm when I’d finally have time to work.

As it stands, the book will be published by September 2017. Yay! I’ve been proofing my back copy and bio, and we should have those finished in early January.  

Inkshares wrote a wonderful blog post about crowdfunding books. Please read it, as it explains the writing/editing/publishing process, including their timelines for authors (a.k.a ’Why is it taking a year to get my book?’): 

http://blog.inkshares.com/post/154475375840/a-note-on-pub-dates-from-the-inkshares-production

2016 wasn’t easy for a lot of people, myself included, but I KNOW that 2017 will be AMAZING, and it’s all thanks to you: your support, your encouragement, and your indefatigable tolerance of my dinosaur memes. 

Cheers to a wonderful 2017!

Erin