As promised, new blog post is up here. This one is a long poem telling of the downfall of the sister world to Pentaz' own world. Enjoy!
As promised, new blog post is up here. This one is a long poem telling of the downfall of the sister world to Pentaz' own world. Enjoy!
A bit later in the day than I intended, but it is still Sunday and thus time for some funding book recommendations from me. I'll keep my own thoughts on them short, and let you just check out the books' pages themselves if I've piqued your interest.
First I'll quickly cover the 3 main criteria I use to decide which books to recommend each week: 1.) I have to enjoy reading it, simple enough; (2.) it must currently be in the funding stage, with particular preference given to those who have not hit the Quill goal of 250 orders yet(there's plenty of great books that have already reached the funding goal, but I'm mainly trying to help out other authors of good books to get said books published here); (3.) the books that meet criteria 1 with the earliest end dates get chosen first, also simple enough. With that covered on to the recommendations(links embedded to both book and author pages here).
"The Defeated" by Joseph G. Calcagno: I can't wait to read more of this one really. What bit of it is already posted has the perfect mixture of grit and wit to appeal to my tastes, plus I can't help but admire a book that drops this tidbit of narcissistic wisdom right in its first paragraph, "At his most ragged he'd never been in short supply of admirers, but if you're going to kill a man, you should damn well look your best."
"Seven Devils" by E.B. Mathews: I'll admit to preferring my horror stories, whether watched or read, to have either a strong supernatural or psychological aspect to them. This book definitely fulfills the supernatural from what is seen in its opening possession/exorcism scene. Easily one of the most powerful opening scenes I've read in a long time, but not just because of the demonic aspect of it. The psychological influence that it has on the main character is obvious from the way the scene is painted, and is clearly still a defining moment for Ezra when the next scene picks up seven years later. Horror fans definitely need to check this out, and keep an eye on E.B. Mathews in general.
"Terminal Magic" by B. Riggs: The premise alone would have been enough to hook me, but my love of the diary-style dated entry technique of storytelling this employs just keeps me reading. I think I gained that particularly stylistic love in my teenage years, about the same time I was also cutting my teeth on the writings of H.P. Lovecraft. That last bit could explain my overly excited meeps of joy at the references to Lovecraftian lore. Beyond that there's so much to love about this one: the dual character narrative gained by having diary entries from two characters, the subtle social commentary woven into the narrative smoothly so as not to try to beat you over the head with it, and for me its portrayal of something closer to a real-world style of magic without sacrificing the truly supernatural elements.
Well, that's all for me. If I've done my math correctly, funding on "The Defeated" and "Seven Devils" ends 12/11, and on 12/15 for "Terminal Magics". Be sure to check them out, and hopefully you'll join me in ordering them so that we can get their numbers up enough for me to get copies of these books. Because that's what its all about really: getting me more reading material.
As promised, I've started posting up Book 2 as a draft. Going slow with it though so as not to have too many spoilers, so for now its only Section 1 of Chapter 1(though I suppose it does have at least 1 or 2 major spoilers in and of itself). Careful readers will notice the complete absence of at least 1 of Book 1's major characters, and hopefully will also be wondering what the reason for that absence is. Anyway, check out Book 2, currently titled "Exile, Hunted" and feel free to give me your thoughts, or even editing notes. I've not gone through it nearly as many times with my editing pen as I have Book 1, so I'm sure there's still far too many errors.
With my new work schedule I've been a bit short on time, which has kept me away far longer than I would have liked. After much (over)thinking, I have finally come up with an update schedule which should be workable in what little free time I have.
Tuesdays: blog posts. Hopefully setting a specific day each week will make it easier for me to maintain my oft-neglected blog. I'll post mini-updates and links here on Inkshares each time a new post goes up.
Thursdays: full Inkshares update starting with this one.
Saturdays: new chapter upload if applicable. I'm also going to start posting up chapter sections of Book 2 as a new draft on those Saturdays when the threshold is not met for new Book 1 chapters are going up. I'd debated whether or not to do so since there are some potential spoilers, but ultimately decided it would be a good thing to give people a chance to peek ahead if desired. I don't plan to post more than chapter 1 at this time, and that will be divided between that chapter's sections.
Sundays: I will recommend 2-3 other funding books in mini-updates on Inkshares that I enjoy enough to think that they also deserve your support. I'm a bit slower at typing and reading than I would like though, so that may end up shortening to 1-2 some weeks.
I've also revised the order thresholds for new chapters to also take account for the number of followers. The current goal we're shooting for is 100 orders or 250 followers in order to get Chapter 6 posted up.
Other than that there have been two big announcements Inkshares-wide: Syndicates and the Review-a-thon.
First follow the Syndicates link for full details on them. In particular I already found two I wanted to join: John Robin's Epic Fantasy Syndicate and C. Brenneke's SnarkyDarkSy. As those of you who've read all the chapters I've posted so far may have guessed, I'm a big fan of both epic and dark fantasy to the extend that I try to blend them in my own works. Ultimately for budget reasons I decided to only join John's syndicate for the time being, though if my finances improve I'm definitely joining C. Brenneke's next. This way though I can also continue to independently support 1 - 2 books of my own choosing each month. I'm considering forming my own syndicate but haven't decided yet. I tend to think on a move far too long before making it.
As for the Review-a-thon, I can't describe it any better than A.C. Weston herself, so I'll just copy and paste her words:
"On December 19th, all authors and readers are invited to leave reviews on currently funding Inkshares books using the Inkshares "leave a review" option.
Throughout the day we'll be hanging out on Twitter in the#InksharesReviews tag as we share our favorite book projects, answer author Q&As, debate the merits of astronauts with swords versus cavemen with lasers, and more!
Then, from 6 - 8pm ET, JF Dubeau and Paul Inman of the WriteBrain Podcast will be hosting a video livestream filled with author interviews, review readings, and live announcements of prize winners!
Prizes?!?!
Everyone who leaves a review on December 19th by 6pm ET will be eligible to win one of our fantastic general prizes:
Readers: Peruse the "currently funding" books on Inkshares and leave as many reviews as you want on Dec 19th. You could even start up a "must-have" list of books to order in case you win a free pre-order or the $30 in credits!
Authors: Join our review exchange to leave three reviews in exchange for two guaranteed reviews on your Inkshares project and a chance at author-exclusive prizes! Email me at cara.c.weston@gmail.com to learn more and get on the list.
(And authors, if you're in, please copy the message above and include it in your next update!)
It's gonna be fun."
Now though, its finally time for me to discuss the status of my own project. I'm still getting followers and preorders which is a good thing, but I'll be the first to admit that its at a far slower rate than it needs to be in order to reach even the lighter Quill goal of 250. Currently we're at 61 orders, so 189 more are needed in 50 days to achieve that(or 689 to achieve the full funding goal for more intensive edit/publishing of 750). That being said, we're at 240 followers according to the top of my update page, so if every follower who hasn't ordered yet were to we would be almost to the Quill goal already. Hopefully I can convince those of you currently on the fence to go ahead and place that order sometime within the next 7 weeks.
That's all I've got for this week though, just remember that if you want to get in touch with me at anytime the best ways to do so are on Twitter or on my Facebook page. Thanks for all of your support! (And don't forget to click on the horde of links I embedded in this update, good stuff.)
This is later in the week than I had intended. The off season at my day job has just recently ended, which has resulted in me having to return to my 4am wake ups to drive an hour to work and the loss of reliability in my update schedule. I apologize for that. This has been a busy week in other ways for me as well.
First off, I was on the Vitamin Geek podcast Monday, with the show being made available for your listening pleasure as of today. So if you've always wanted to know just what an overly nervous, timid voiced, 240 pound, fire-haired/bearded man sounds like as he's flubbing every pitch/synopsis/selling point he had carefully crafted and even written down before hand, then check out the episode on iTunes, Stitcher, or at their site. Seriously though, while my social awkwardness was heavily on display, I had a lot of fun being on their show and you should definitely check it out. We talked a bit about my book, literature in general, and ended with a round table on our top 3 fantasy movie picks. Also be sure to check out some (or all) of their past episodes here. Between their Vitamin Geek and House or Horrors podcasts they cover all things geek really.
Also, I was happy to see that I received a review on the project page (from Rob Gokee), and especially happy that it let me know that I pulled off with the scene in question exactly what I was going for. I would love for more of you to post reviews and/or comments, since that is the best indicator to me of where I'm succeeding or failing in my efforts.
Beyond that, with the return to work I've not had much chance to work on anything beyond Book 3 edits and continuing to pitch this first book. This has also made me realize that I'm most likely not going to be able to continue making 2 updates a week as I had been doing previously. From now on I will be posting an update on either Thursday, Friday, or Saturday of every week. Feel free to chime in on which day of the week you would prefer. Myself, I'm leaning towards Friday around noonish.
I don't really have much more to update you on. The campaign is continuing on, but isn't making quite the daily progress I would like to have. After last week's addition of the e-book only purchase option I now have until 1/22 to reach goal, so please help me with that in anyway you can, whether by recommending, sharing, or preordering.
Thanks again for all of the time and support that you've already given me, and enjoy the rest of your week as well as the impending Thanksgiving.
Bit later in the day than is typical of me, but its update time. Unfortunately I'm going to have to make a liar of myself since I did not manage to complete a good version of the Zaltruscas map yet. Unfortunately while my annual layoff ended Monday means I again have a regular paying job, it also means I have less time to work on other projects. Editing on Books 2 & 3 are my top creative priority right now, and between that and pitching I have not had the time I would have liked which is why there is no map today. Sorry about that.
Beyond that, as you all have already likely heard, there is now the option to order ebook only. In the case of my book this option is only $10.00. This change has also further extended the campaign deadline to 1/22/16.
We've continued to gain followers, to the point where now if every follower who hasn't already ordered were to preorder, then we would only be 21 off the light publishing goal(actually only 18 off thanks to one wonderful super reader).
That's all I've got for now, hopefully I can successfully use the weekend to get more work done and have a map or two for you all next Tuesday and Friday. Keep reading, reccommending, and thanks again for all of your time and support.
This week marks the beginning of my schedule truly becoming hectic, so I'm gonna try to be as brief as possible with this one.
First, you may have already noticed the new cover art. Its of a scene from Chapter 3 that I like to think of as Buscidia and Pentaz versus the Cog Monster, which is one of my favorites. It was done by a wonderful artist named Lizzy Perez, and for any other authors out there who would like to see about getting some art done by her you can contact her at morzaph@gmail.com
The orders are continuing to come in, but unfortunately it doesn't look like it will be fast enough to reach 100 by Friday. This means that Friday I'll be posting up another map instead of Chapter 6. I just hope I can get around to finishing the map by then.
Finally, unless something changes with scheduling I'm going to be on Vitamin Geek Podcast this coming Monday(11/16). In the meantime if you're not already familiar with them be sure to check out the Vitamin Geek Facebook page and/or just go straight to listening to some of their past episodes here.
Like I said, I'm trying to keep this one short, so that's all I've got for now. Keep reading, enjoy the rest of your week, and thanks for the support. I expect to see everyone back Friday afternoon.
As promised, the last half of Chapter 5 is now up. It ends on what I consider to be the books first real cliffhanger, so I'm hoping to be able to post up Chapter 6 next week. Have to reach 100 orders first though.
If we don't reach 100 orders in time to post up Chapter 6 next week, then I'll instead be posting up a map of Zaltruscas on Friday.
My Tuesday update managed to cover the major points, so I don't have much more to say with this one. As always, you all have my thanks. Keep reading and enjoy your weekend.
It was a busy weekend(always trust in Samhain to stir things up a bit) despite me being laid up feeling sick and miserable through the latter half of it, so I have quite a bit of information to pack into this Tuesday update.
First off I was originally going to be reminding everyone that there was only about two and a half weeks left to preorder, but as some of you may have noticed I got an extension on my funding deadline. We now have until the end of the year to get to at least 250 preorders (preferrably 750 though). That still leaves us a long way to go in just under 2 months though, so I still can't rest easy yet.
The second piece of news ties into that extension though. I've continued gaining followers, and am now over 200 (205 to be precise). This means that if everyone who has followed but not ordered yet were to order, then we would very nearly be to the light publishing goal of 250. Cue me begging you to buy. Seriously though, if you haven't ordered yet, I do hope you do so soon. I would be eternally grateful.
The last piece of news is that we also crossed the 50 books preordered threshold, so I will be posting up Chapter 5 this week. I'll be returning to my split chapter format, so parts 1-3 of Chapter 5 will be up this evening with parts 4-6 following on Friday. This also means that we've ticked off one mark from the chapter release by preorder schedule, leaving off us with the below remaining.
100 preorders: Chapter 6.
250 preorders: Chapter 7.
500 preorders: Chapter 8.
750 preorders: the climactic Chapter 9.
1,000 preorders: Chapter 10.
2,000 preorders: Chapter 11.
5,000 preorders: Chapter 12.
Finally, I've been been wanting to come up with some rewards I can offer you myself for preordering, but am limited by my lack of both funding and ability to come up with good rewards. Of course everyone knows that if the book gets to 750 orders then all preorders will be signed copies as part of the Inkshares incentive, but even if it only gets to 250 I feel like I should do something to give my thanks. It did give me an idea though.
If we reach 250 preorders but not 750, then once the books are being shipped out I will contact all Super Readers to make arrangements for them to send me their books to be signed and returned if desired. I will also choose 10 Readers at random to contact to make the same arrangements. I will exclude any Readers who I personally know and am within an easy travel to, since they can get a signature pretty much anytime if desired. I would love to do this for everyone, but doubt I could afford to ship everyone's books back to them, which is the only reason I'm limiting it to the 10.
I haven't been able to think of a good reward for 750 preorders, so I'm going to ask you all what you would like. If you have any suggestions, then contact me through my Facebook page(link embedded). I'll consider all feasible suggestions, and most likely let you hear them all in a future update so you can vote on your favorites.
That's all I've got for today. Thanks for your support, continue reading, and please order if you haven't already done so. Enjoy the rest of your week.
I'm a couple of days late with the update, so its just going to be folded into my Saturday post announcement. We haven't reached the next preorder or follower threshold, so today's post will be of book 2 again(Exile, Hunted). This one will be section 2 of chapter 1.