Dear Backers,

One year ago (almost to the day), I began the Inkshares journey. Today, March 6, 2015, I received an email with this:After two trips to the US in a four-week span, a weekend in Spain complete with a Slim and The Beast cake (thanks Adriana!), and plenty of general life things to keep me busy in between, I’m back at home and can settle into the next novel. The book tour was special. I’ll try to put into words what exactly that means.

How Humanity (Not a Book Tour) Changed My Life

Maybe the best way to describe it is “like one of those daydreams”: you’re not fully asleep; you can still hear silverware clinking; you can see what’s around you and you know what it’s supposed to mean, but all you can do is stay asleep and keep dreaming.

 “You know, you’re really lucky to be here,” a lady with a badge told me with an air of incredulity. “This is the American Booksellers Association…the Winter Institute…you should be excited! This is it!”

This was it, indeed. That’s what everyone kept telling me.

One hundred Slim and The Beasts were stacked to my left. Next to me sat a woman who’d written a book about multi-tasking and its dangers. The massive, carpeted room was filled with dozens of tables: those lining the walls for the authors, the center tables for food and drink.

During such fanciful affairs, I’m more used to serving hors d’oeuvres than being referred to as “sir”—I have catered just as long as I’ve written novels, all seven years worth. To calm the nerves, I talked to the bartender for a while about IPA beer (he said its hoppiness—what I call bad-tastiness—is due to mouldy cargo holds in creaky ships). I gave him the Wi-Fi password (apparently he wasn’t allowed to have it) and returned to my “author table” to begin greeting booksellers from across the country.  

This was the seminal moment. I was a published man with a public image. I picked up a pen, ready to sign. It exploded in my hand immediately. And then hundreds of booksellers flooded through the doors, trying to get their hands on the next big thing. Whoever was at the table next to me had a long, slithering line of signature-seekers. T.C. Boyle was out there somewhere. According to the brochure, this certainly felt like “it.”

I never had a line, but many people came up to me and almost invariably asked about the ink stain. “You know you have ink all over your hand.” “What can I say … I’m new at this.” Stripped of prestige, slightly tipsy, I met and spoke to dozens of kind booksellers for the next two hours. I made some great connections there, but these connections were necessarily fleeting: at an event like this, it’s all about eye contact and the handshake. And so this is what I remember most about the ABA Winter Institute—not so much the book signing or mention of potential screenplays, but the kind bus driver with a jolly face who now has a copy of Slim and The Beast; a beautiful dinner with Ingram Distribution representatives, one of whom announced her retirement over tapas and beer; and discussing feminism and race relations with a Floridian bookseller in a bumbling shuttle bus. I woke up at 6am to drive from Asheville, NC down to Chapel Hill, the hometown of Slim and The Beast. I saw the sun rise in the Appalachians. The Winter Institute was indeed a memorable experience.   

Although the ABA event was the “highest profile” of them all, McNally Jackson Books in New York City was equally exciting. I felt at ease reading and discussing the book in front of friends and their acquaintances, and was helped by some fantastic questions from a red-dressed lady in the audience. But what I remember most is the importance of community: I drank wine with family friends from the French village where I was born; with my twin brother and my mom; with my girlfriend from Paris; with my best friends from childhood; with a great friend from Seattle who was at the inception of Slim and The Beast; with virtually all of my college friends … the list goes on and on. The event at Molasses Books in Brooklyn also felt more like an apartment party than a “book event,” which is how it is supposed to be.

I don't feel like the book tour was about me, really. It was about an idea that began three years ago. It was about all of you, the backers, and about a celebration of community.  I am incredibly fortunate to have found Inkshares when I did, and still have trouble believing I am a “published author,” which probably has to do with the distinct feeling that I haven't done anything special. People write and publish books all the time. Hundreds of thousands of writers, many more talented than me, will never see the published page. If I have done anything special, it’s about the way I went about publishing, and therein lies the paradox: the entire point of Inkshares is that it's at least as much about community as it is about me. To that extent, I feel like all of you should be front and center. I can take the role of representative, maybe; but the thought that it was MY party, MY book tour, seems to miss the point entirely. “In an ideal world we’d all be sitting in a circle,” I should’ve said at my events. And maybe that's my hippy free love background talking, but I really do mean it: the notion that I should be elevated because I’m now published is ignorant at best, and flat-out wrong at worst. If I’m here, writing this backer update, it has to do with the backers, not “me.” There’s nothing special about writing a book, but there is in finding the book’s community.  

For too long, in my opinion, writers have been revered for the wrong reasons. When considering the writer as something almost mythical, it seems the harder to interview, the harder to read, the harder to analyze, the larger the myth. In short, the less connected the writer is with her community, the more renowned she becomes. There is a bizarre dance that occurs between writer and reader, in which the writer (and the writer’s ego) seeks to put herself higher than the rest, while the reader (and his desire to create the “writer myth”) pushes the writer away. But great writing isn’t about genius and deference, but patience and humility. More than anything else, it’s about humanity and the book’s community. So if the Inkshares model has proven (and continues to prove) anything, it’s that “having what it takes” isn’t about some misplaced sense of accomplishment or belonging to a “higher plane,” but about having faith in humanity, which in turn had faith in me. Belief in the goodness of people can also become one of its main causes; so if this entire experience has taught me anything, it is a firm belief in daring to dream.

A while ago I wrote a piece, “How Humanity (Not a Literary Agent) Changed My Life.” After reaching the1000 books mark, I can only change the title and reiterate the same feeling. Since I can now speak from “book-tour experience,” I know that the book tour isn’t “it,” at least not in the narrow sense of book sales and fame. I have a foot in the door, which is more than anything I could have imagined, but “it” isn’t about 1000 books or a 2nd print edition; “it” is about talking to my editor about my next novel; eating a breakfast burrito in a roadside diner with my fantastic colleague, Thad Woodman, and my Parisian girlfriend; sitting in a Lower East Side apartment talking about Batman, psychedelics and heart surgery; and drinking with a published, well-reviewed Columbia MFA candidate who struggles to find an audience, just like me. My life has changed for the better, but it has also remained the same: I have a few more Twitter followers, a few more dollars in my bank account, and more than a few beautiful memories that will remain with me; but I still live in my 15m2 apartment, I still do part-time work I’m not necessarily proud of, I’m working on a new, totally different novel, and I still struggle to write every day.

This is “it.” This is how it’s supposed to be. One year later, after crowdfunding, editing, choosing the book cover, learning about marketing, book sales and book tours and editing a 2nd edition, I’m back at square one, and couldn’t be happier. Whatever the future holds, Slim and The Beast has been a success, and that's only because you believed in me.

“Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.”

I’m not a British statesman and this isn’t 1942, but I couldn’t help go for the Churchill reference. Here is a journal entry from one year ago, when I was more or less unemployed (I had no teaching hours that month) and was looking at the prospect of a multi-year process to publish Slim and The Beast:

The present is most assuredly an opportunity and that’s exactly how I view 2014: an opportunity. Even not working for a month — do I view it as financial stress, or creative/existential opportunity? How I spend this month will dictate how I spend this year, I think; because how I spend each day dictates how I spend my life. That takes some time to realize, but I’m getting there and liking it. If you don’t read every day, when do you read? If you don’t write every day, when do you write? Etc. I’m approaching the beginning of the third novel, and I can’t wait. Except that I can wait, and that’s important. I’ll know when it’s time, truly, to begin.

I’m tempted to cite the age-old trope that hard work pays off; that I knew I could do it; that I never had any doubt I would publish a novel; but the truth is everything that has happened this past year is a mixture of luck, hope, and humanism. I’ve always been optimistic about writing to the extent that I know I’ll keep writing, but nothing could have prepared me for all that has happened in 2014. 232 is a number I will remember for the rest of my life. Whatever happens with the novel—whether it disappears in a dusty attic or is a marginal success—what matters is that it’s out there. And yet “it” hasn’t even started yet; this is the end of the beginning. On February 3 the “business” side of things will commence: there will be signings and discussions, interviews and reviews. But all that really matters is interested readers. I don’t expect all of you to love or even like the novel. All in can say is I’m honored it’s on your bookshelf. But if any of you have already gotten through the novel and want to chat about it—what you liked/didn’t like, whatever you’re thinking—please email me at slbfiction@gmail.com . I’d love to continue the conversation.

Maybe the most humbling experience about this whole process is that the book is now out of my hands; that this part of my life, Slim and The Beast, strangely feels in the past even though “it’s” just beginning.

The first draft took three months and was written in the spring of 2012. Three years and countless drafts later, an imperfect but complete work is ready to escape me. The feelings I had, the themes I was pursuing, all of the edits and “you are a failure, what are you doing?”s were necessary for me to better understand myself and this experience (i.e. life). But now I can move on to the next chapter, and that's exciting.

Now for the sentimental part: I want to especially thank a few people for being there for me: my twin brother Aaron and my brothercousin Mark, for being the best brothers I could ever imagine and the deep inspiration for Slim and The Beast all along; my Paris buddies, Yann Rousselot, Alex Miles (now in Chicago), Matthew Mowatt and Ian Jagel (now in Seattle) for inspiring Boys’ Nights and for being there to support me from the beginning; my NC brothers (you all know who you are) for the childhood we shared; the Vermont Boys, who’ve been there since I reached maturity; my girlfriend, Lucile, who has and continues to push me and believe in me; my godfather, Johannes, who has always been a beacon in Paris; and of course my mom and dad, who believed in me from the real beginning, who told me to pursue love and gave me the chance to dream; and of course to all of you, the 232 Stars of The Year. Without you … well who knows? I don’t dabble in counter-factual history.

I am well into the third novel but remain hesitant to share anything substantial. The project is also at the end of the beginning, and I am excited to see where the characters take me. There will be tens of thousands of words to shed, but for now I’m still imagining and creating. I have written about a third of it so far, with dozens of other pages that I need to piece and puzzle together. (By the end of 2015, I hope to have a manuscript ready, but I’m also an optimist, so we’ll see).

Before I finish, I wanted to give you a brief idea of what’s been happening with Slim and The Beast since we last spoke. I’ve sold 788 total books (109 of those post-funding stage). The book tour will be from February 2-17, and I will visit New York City and North Carolina (event locations below). There are already reviews here, under “What the Critics Are Saying.” Perhaps more importantly, there are reader reviews here on Goodreads. If any of you are willing, every review helps. Whether it’s on Goodreads, Amazon, or otherwise, reader reviews are just as important as anything the critics have to say (and Goodreads is actually a pretty fantastic side for readers in my opinion).

Finally, just this week, I saw this photo of Slim and The Beast at my favorite bookstore in the world, Shakespeare & Company in Paris.

There’s no way I can properly thank you for making my dream a reality, but I am hoping to make that poster soon (Mark, we gotta talk) so I can have all of your names on my wall.

If I can give you a hug, that’d be ideal; so check out the events below, and if you can make it to any of them, it’d be an honor to see you there and perhaps even sign your copy.

Welp, that about does it, methinks. The end of the beginning. Next time we chat, I’ll have fantastical tales about book tour experiences. Who knows what the future holds, but the present is an opportunity; and I'm eternally grateful that you all gave it to me.

EVENTS IN THE OVERSIZED APPLE

Molasses Books (Brooklyn—Bushwick), Tuesday, February 3, 8pm: https://www.facebook.com/events/1553263644959876/

McNally Jackson Books (Manhattan), Sunday, February 8, 6pm: https://www.facebook.com/events/762734913774433/

EVENTS DOWN NORTH CACKALACK WAY

The Winter Institute (American Booksellers Association) (Asheville), February 9-11, http://www.bookweb.org/wi2015#

The Regulator Bookshop (Durham), Thursday, February 12, 7pm: https://www.facebook.com/events/896272117073135/

FlyLeaf Books (Chapel Hill), Monday, February 16, 7pm: https://www.facebook.com/events/432413866914000/

Hi Everyone,

Looks our system got a little confused and sent everyone a shipping address confirmation even though the books have already been shipped!

Stay tuned though!  The official Slim and The Beast publishing date is February 3rd, and we're kicking it off with a launch party in Brooklyn!

Also, if you haven't already, show Samuél some love by rating/reviewing his book on AmazonGoodreads.

Cheers!

Thad
CPO @Inkshares

Dear Backers, 

Proof is coming. Your copy is on its way. In the next few days, you'll be able to find out who Larry is, and why he eats peanuts, and other secrets from the lives of Sgt. Dykes, Slim and The Beast. I hope one day I'll be able to write a note in each of your copies, personally thanking you for making a dream come true. 

For all of you hashtaggers, tweeters and Instagrammers, the hashtag #slimandthebeast is alive and well. I started it when the campaign first began, so it will be cool to look at the original posts and see where it goes. If you feel inspired to tweet about the book or Instagram with a glass of beer/coffee/whiskey, you'll get 5 points for taking a picture with the book as your coaster, 10 next to a burger, and 15 on a basketball court. My handle on both of those is @slbfiction. Also, if you're an Amazon reviewer or do the same on Good Reads, it'd be much appreciated—every review helps, and apparently it can provide a big boost for debut novels (for Good Reads, you won't be able to review until the official release, I believe). The sky's the limit for where Slim and The Beast can go, but I really do believe any success will be because of the communal effort, since that's where it began with humble beginnings. 

There's a beautiful quote by Georgia O'Keefe: “Whether you succeed or not is irrelevant, there is no such thing. Making your unknown known is the important thing—and keeping the unknown always beyond you.” Whatever happens from this point onwards, only the gods and fairies and elves can know. There will be reviews, critiques, people who love the book, people who hate it, but you helped me to make my unknown known, and you are the reason this book is in print. So finally, as the last update before Slim and The Beast is in your hands, and because part of writing is keeping the unknown "beyond," here is the (tentative) first paragraph of a new "unknown" I'm trying to bring into existence: 

When the sirens began the professor was sitting at the Astoria Café. There were more than a few customers reading the paper nearby. Menus stood at attention in spite of the breeze. There was a saltshaker on linen tablecloth, but no pepper to be seen. A beautiful woman sat behind the professor. She wore a burgundy scarf, thin white gloves, a red dress. With the spoon in her right hand, she brought hot soup to her mouth. Her other hand hovered below the steaming spoon, almost cupping it; the professor couldn’t help but imagine a red splotch expanding upon it. The woman blew intently with red lips—she had burnt her tongue the day before and wanted to be extra sure—and her eyes darted along the tablecloth, now fixed upon the professor. In another world she might have spoken to him, but she’d been hired to keep watch. The air was crisp that day. The rustle of trees. The professor recalled a country home in autumn, when brittle wind cracked through sanguine leaves, carrying the scent of firewood across the landscape.  

Dear Friends, Family, and Flies on the Wall,  

With the holidays coming up and transatlantic travels pending, I thought this would be a good time to give you an update.   

First and foremost, I finally have a website: www.samuelbarrantes.com. The basic premise is to curate those things that inspire me. More  than anything else, I want to create an online "portfolio" that is as much about what I find interesting as it is about me. There are quotes, music videos, essays, fiction, and various "about" sections (Who/What/Why); I also plan to start a page that displays art from friends of mine, so I can have a forum for those people and works that keep me going. 

Apart from the website, the Advanced Reader Copies ("ARCs" in the biz) are here, which means reviewers will start body-slamming my book to the ground (see the Paul Coelho (The Alchemist) quote just below for the excitement and terror of reaching this point). 
 “Oscar Wilde said: ‘Each man kills the thing he loves.’ And it’s true. The mere possibility of getting what we want fills the soul of the ordinary person with guilt. We look around at all those who have failed to get what they want and feel that we do not deserve to get what we want either. We forget about all the obstacles we overcame, all the suffering we endured, all the things we had to give up in order to get this far. I have known a lot of people who, when their personal calling was within their grasp, went on to commit a series of stupid mistakes and never reached their goal—when it was only a step away. This is the most dangerous of the obstacles because it has a kind of saintly aura about it: renouncing joy and conquest. But if you believe yourself worthy of the thing you fought so hard to get, then you become an instrument of God, you help the Soul of the World, and you understand why you are here.” Paul Coelho 

I certainly struggle with this feeling of guilt and deservedness at times, but one thing I am sure of is that you all deserve to have the book in your hands, and for that I'm deeply thankful. 

Other tidbits: Never pass up a chance to play pick-up basketball. A few years back a college friend named Pete Walsh was visiting Paris, and although I was a bit tired that day, I decided to ball. This summer, thanks to connecting with him, I got to interview Scottie Pippen and write for SLAM Magazine. Once again, Pete has come through, securing a short book review in the February Issue of SLAM Magazine, as well as a novel excerpt on the website. It just goes to show a) people are awesome and b) never say no if you don't have a good reason (being tired or scared is not one of them). 

In other news, my twin brother, Aaron, may play some background music during readings for the book tour. Readings can be stuffy and downright boring, and since Lockart plays music in his bar, well a bit of blues and jazz will only increase the ambiance. So listen to him here and check out his album, because he is an amazing artist. Of course, he also has over a dozen drawings in the book. During the book tour, I have the incredible opportunity to attend the American Bookseller Association's Winter Institute in Asheville, NC. Apparently, one of my distributor's representatives liked Slim and The Beast enough to vouch for me, so it's a head-shaking honor that I'll be attending. Finally, in March, Inkshares' fantastic marketing gal, Angela, has lined up a Book Brahmin interview with www.shelf-awareness.com, a popular website for hundreds of thousands of writers and readers alike. 

And, to conclude, I have the tip sheet now. My distributor is fine with me sharing it with whomever would be interested in handing it off to a local book store, so shoot me an email at slopezba@gmail.com if you'd like a copy. As has already been proven 232 times, every person helps. 

Without your continued support (love getting emails from you all), I would most definitely be wasting a whole lot of time querying literary agents instead of having the chance to update you all and focus on the third novel. So as more people (hopefully) become interested in S and The B, I won't soon forget who supported me when it was a dream, not reality. 

All love, 

Samuél

Dear Backers, 

First: a beautiful speech by writer Ursula K. LeGuin, whose National Book Award speech (lifetime achievement award) elicits the true value of writing far better than I can paraphrase: http://electricliterature.com/watch-ursula-k-le-guins-amazing-nba-acceptance-speech/

Second: The official date for the Slim and The Beast Launch Party is February 3, 2015 in New York City. The location is to be determined, which partly depends on how many people are interested in coming. The hope is that I can show NYC bookstore coordinators that I can bring in a crowd, so if you will be in the area, or know anyone who would like to visit, your friends are my friends, and the more the merrier.

In case the above hyperlink didn't work, here's the copy/paste link: https://www.facebook.com/events/762734913774433/?source=1

This dream is becoming a reality, and it's completely surreal. One day, somehow, there will be a Slim and The Beast Backer Blowout Party in a warehouse filled with wine, comfy floor pillows, and sultry jazz. 

It’s been a bit of time since I last wrote you, and thetimes they are a changing, indeed.  

 After two major edits, a seriously necessary but nit-picky copy-editingprocess (note to self: maintain consistent use of apostrophe direction i.e. ‘vs. ’), a two-step proofing process involving multiple readers (including thiscomment from an Inkshares intern, which is everything for me: “I have to say,I’m really enjoying this novel.”), an aesthetic conundrum of choosing the bookcover (if you check out the Inkshares page,or Amazonor Barnes& Noble, you can see the final choice), the relief of being done with Itand the subsequent terror of realizing there may still be a typo, and finally letting go, knowing that It’s out of myhands and that you’ll receive the book before Christmas, but that the officialrelease date is February 3, 2015,well [take a deep breath] I can finally return to the only thing that reallymatters: get back to writing. The third novel is underway, and it’s anotherdoozy altogether. But for now I’ll keep that under wraps, except to reveal thethree protagonists’ names: Viktor, Carl, and Elsa.

If you had said one year ago that I’d be doing a panel at Shakespeare & Company for Slim and The Beast, I would have toldyou to shut your mouth, how dare you, it’s a terrible joke, GET OUT! Butthe Shakespeare & Company panel wasa true honor, and I met some really interesting writers and drank beer withthem well into the night. Highlights include debating the future of publishingwith friends and the Shakespeare crowd,and a flustered Soviet woman who used her “question” to rant for seven minutesbecause didn’t understand why no one wants to buy her book of poetry, eventhough it’s beautiful-on-the-inside-you-just-have-to-take-a-chance-and-open-it-alright?

 In other news, I was featured in an article in Writer’s Digest (unfortunately only inprint—the November/December 2014 issue) that spoke about Inkshares as well asmy reasons for choosing them. The woman who wrote the article is a literaryagent who has been incredibly supportive/helpful as I approach the marketing,and has gone so far as to get me some great contacts in the industry.

 The BIG NEWS is I’ll be doing a book tour in February (NCand NY, watch out!). It’s surreal for now, hence my lack of words to describeit. In addition to all of this, including close collaboration with book design (mytwin brother Aaron did chapter illustrations), Inkshares has helped me start awebsite (I’m building it now), has secured a high-profile interview for me, andwithout going into specifics, will be sending dozens of reviewers and a fewestablished authors an ARC (Advanced Reader Copy) in hopes of creating a buzzbefore the February release. Needless to say, Inkshares is a legitimatepublishing house. I’m lucky to be on board.

 On a not-wholly unrelated tangent before I wrap this up, inthe publishing industry there’s this thing called a Tip Sheet (I learned whatit meant about one month ago), which is essentially a one-page document thatserves as a resumé for your novel. My distributor sends this to bookstores, andif bookstores are interested, they pre-order copies (a random bookstore inSouth Carolina did this, which is both baffling and exciting). Inkshares and Iworked on this Tip Sheet, and I’ll have a copy of it by next week. If any ofyou—wherever you may be in the world—are interested in keeping a distinctivegrass-roots twinge to Slim and The Beast,I’d be honored to send you the Tip Sheet and hear about your experience walkinginto an independent bookstore and saying, “Good morning. [Bell above doorrings] I know this is a bit strange, but I know this guy, see? And there’s thiscompany, see? It’s called Inkshares […] Would I like to sit down? Why thankyou.” It’s a bold move to just walk into a bookstore like that, but I did ithere in Paris at WH Smith and it worked. The smug Madame said, “We only workwith the biggest distributor in America, Ingram, and I doubt you are associatedwith them. Good luck with your—what was it, a short story? Bonne journee.” When I said, “Oh, no problem. Interesting youmention it, though … in fact I work directly with Ingram,” she immediatelychanged her tone and made up for it by giving me the director’s contact. Boldmoves move mountains, and you made the boldest move of all backing me whenpublishing was a far-off reality.  

 Which brings me to the most important part of this update: arenewed thank you for all of your support. Book tours, interviews,Shakespearian panels  … the onlyreason any of this is happening is because there are 232 of you. Whatever happens once the book comes out—whether itsells 5 or 5,000 copies—I’ll no longer have to dream about what it would be like to publish a novel. Success or failure willbe based on the novel’s merit or lack thereof. I’m ashamed/relieved to say it: Imay or may not be secretly terrified that in fact the novel is shit. “What wereyou thinking?” an evil voice might say. “You’re an idiot and a fraud.” But thenI’m reminded that you believe(d) in me. Whatever happens, there will be luckand marketing strategy and all the rest of it, too, but one thing is for sure: Slim and The Beast will be “out there”soon, on a dusty bookshelf in Australia, or on a Parisian coffee table, or in abookstore in Springfield, Wherever, USA, and that is only because of you.

It’s just past sunrise. The sculptor wakes to the sound of a large truck pulling into his driveway. Standing at the front door — screen door propped open with his foot, a bowl of a mug of steaming coffee in both hands — he squints at burly men with burlier beards as they remove a piece of marble from the moving truck. They ask where they can put it. He says in the garage. A man slides off the blue tarp from the nascent sculpture, says good luck and drives away.

First he stares at the block of stone, anywhere from a few seconds to a few hours. Then, with mallet in hand, he begins to lop off the chunks.

In the beginning it seems random. He’s trying to uncover what’s trapped. As the floor becomes covered in marble powder, the sculptor exchanges his hammer for tools more precise. He chisels away at an arm or a leg. A nose appears somewhere within the head. He’s already thinking about the wrinkles and the lips, but first he must tend to all the rest.

As the months pass he focuses on toenails, abdominal muscles, wrinkles on the forehead. From the ground up a body begins to emerge from what once part of a cave. Here is the most important and most delicate task. The soul of the sculpture is in the eyes, someone once said. The sculptor can envision what they look like, but the sculpture remains faceless. With metallic tools rarely seen outside the orthodontist office, he begins to chisel away.

How many months have passed, and does it matter? He stands thirty feet away, then ten feet. He stares into the eyes and clutches the head. His shoes are covered in porcelain dust. He doesn’t own a broom or a dustpan. Is the sculpture finished? Wrong question. It was finished when it first came in. Lopping the chunks off was just as essential to this process. A final flurry of marble dust falls to the floor, revealing the final eyelash.

The garage is quiet now. The tools are idle. He acknowledges his creation before pushing the sculpture into the corner with all the others.

That night he sleeps well. In the morning he wakes up to the sound of a truck.

“Where should we put it?” The deliveryman asks.

“In the garage.”

I just completed the final edit of Slim and The Beast, after cutting/editing/re-inserting/deleting close to 30,000 words over 2.5 years. This is a big day for me, arguably more than the release date, because I’m finally getting back to the purely creative part of writing. New marble to chisel away.

A lot has changed since my last update. For one, I’m starting a new job in about forty-five minutes: editor in chief is my official title, which sounds a lot fancier than it really is. I’ll be writing articles and editing, as well as a bit of translation for a company that specializes in digital marketing and Internet advertising. I don’t much about those subjects outside of the Inkshares process, but am excited for the opportunity. After three great years teaching English to French professionals, it’s time to move on.

In other news, I’m honored that Shakespeare & Company (Anglophone bookstore next to Notre Dame) wants to have me on a writer’s panel in October to discuss Slim and The Beast and the Inkshares process. They are going to be stocking my novel, and might even get me there for a reading. WH Smith (a big Anglo bookshop on Rue de Rivoli) is also affiliated with my distributor, so it looks like I may have a reading/signing/tea and crumpets over there. Finally, there are whispers of a book tour in the spring, but that is partly dependent on how big of a splash the novel makes. While I can’t share any details, know that Inkshares has been incredible throughout the process (my editor has been nothing short of amazing), and is working closely with me to make sure the release is all it can be.

2014 has been a wild year. If, one year ago, a spiritual-seeming man had walked up to me and said that Slim and The Beast would be published by December (December 19th is the projected date), and that I’d be doing book events involving signatures and drinking tea with other “writers,” I’d have looked him the eye and call him a jackass (hopefully this is the last time I’ll reflexively mention that I just used the past perfect + perfect conditional, otherwise known as the Third Conditional).

The bottom line: the only reason all of this is happening — book store events, new job, probable book tour, and of course publishing — is because of your support. Your belief in me has fueled me since the beginning, and I’ve now reached a point where I can honestly say Slim and The Beast is what I’ve always wanted it to be. It is a good novel, and I feel that it’s great; while it’s not up to me to judge it, I still love it after almost three years of head banging and editing.

I am staring at the sculpture now. I may need to add an eyelash or two. But in a few weeks Slim and The Beast will find their place in the corner, next to a dusty attempt at a novel previously known as Whistleblower.

A new sculpture is emerging, a novel that takes place in Lodz, Poland during World War Two. There are three protagonists, much like in Slim and The Beast. Viktor, a university professor who loses his job on September 1, 1939; Carl, a German policeman who is full of ambition and regret; and Elsa, a thoughtful woman whose father was killed during the Night of the Long Knives. Time to drop the chisel for the mallet once again.

PS: I’ve decided on my author name — Samuel L. Barrantes. The accent is gone, as is the Lopez for a couple of reasons. Marketing strategy: head to your local coffee shop and carry on this conversation, preferably with tea cup in hand, pinky in the air: “Well I’m waiting for the December release of Slim and The Beast. […] Samuel L. Barrantes. […] Oh? You haven’t heard of him? Why, that’s quite peculiar. You simply must check him out. Run along now, darling.”

PPS: My great friend, Yann Rousselot, has a beautiful collection of poetry currently in the funding stage on Inkshares. It's called "Dawn of the Algorithm." His deadline is mid-October. If it inspires you, jump on board before it's too late.

Howdy Folks, 

I've been editing like a fiend since I received the major edits from my editor in June. The main points were: three major plot themes that I knew needed to be changed/amended, and deleting 50 pages while also adding some key backstory and re-writing the end. 

The fruits of my labor may or may not be ripe yet, but here is a picture symbolic of the writing process: http://instagram.com/p/rXSFV1os2K/?modal=true  

Since I started this project on February 18, 2012 (according to Word anyway) coffee and whiskey have certainly helped. To give you a quick idea about Slim and The Beast's journey up until this point, it took me about two years to write a first novel (300 pages and ten drafts) to realize it was shit and move on to the second. The first draft Sim and The Beast was 300 pages (double-spaced) and 92,000 words. This latest draft, entitled "Draft #9" (in reality, including reading out loud and editing, it's probably draft #15), is 245-pages and approx. 78,000 words. A lot of the words in the latest draft didn't exist in the first, and vice versa; the hardest thing about the writing process is coming to terms with "Chapter Surgeries" and "Dead Darlings," the nagging fear that you're a failure and will never be a published writer, forever exacerbated by self-doubt and really bad sentences.

The novel isn't done yet, but it's getting close. October 1st is the projected date of reckoning for all the final edits. I've always believed that I could be a writer, but it took me four years, a shitty first novel, and a potentially decent second one to realize that. There's a great quote by Dr. J: "Being a professional is doing the things you love to do on the days you don't feel like doing them." This more or less sums up the editing process for me, but can be applied to anything. 

In any case, I just finished the latest draft and wanted to share it with you. You've been with me since the beginning of the publishing process, and you'll be hearing from me right up until the end. The poster with all your names on it will be on my wall soon enough, too. I'm talking with my cousin, an industrial designer, to make it a piece of artwork in itself so I can do justice to you, the backers. 
Samuél L. Barrantes · Author · added over 9 years ago
Howdy folks, 
Just a quick note for anyone interested in the Scottie Pippen interview: it is now available online @ http://www.slamonline.com/other-ballers/streetball/qa-scottie-pippen/
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