This contest thing is hard. I must say that. Much respect to everyone involved, because I have been in contact with several people who have been involved with previous contests, and they all agree that pushing your book through a contest is extremely stressful.

And it’s true. I have had to transform myself from a guy who writes stories into a guy who also sells his stories. It’s waaay outside of my comfort zone, and I find myself apologizing every time I ask someone to buy a copy of my book. 

Typical conversation:

Me: "I’m sorry to bother you, (friend). Would you mind maybe, possibly buying my book? I’m sorry for asking."

Friend: "Oh sure! When can I have it?" 

Me: "Umm...I don’t know, really. The only way I can find out is if enough people buy it. Then I win a contest, and then I’ll get the book published, and then I might know when you get a copy...I’m sorry." 

Friend: "So...you want me to buy something that I may or may not get?"

Me: "I’m sorry. Yes, you may get a copy, or you may get your money refunded. It depends. I’m sorry." 

Friend: "Okay...is your book any good?" 

Me: "I think so...but I’m sorry for asking you to buy it before it’s ready." 

Friend: "I’ll think about it, okay?"

Me: "Okay...but I’ll have to keep bugging you about it every day because it’s in a contest...I’m sorry."

Friend: "Stop saying ’I’m sorry!’"

Me: "Okay...sorry about that." 

I hope I still have friends when this whole thing is over, no matter how it turns out.

Just my feelings for today as we’ve hit the halfway point in this thing. Good luck to everyone involved! 

And thank you to everyone for your support! As always, please feel free to contact me if you want to network, want to do a pre-order exchange, want to pitch your novel, or just want to vent about this contest. I’m here: madmrbutler@gmail.com

Have a great day, everybody! I’m off to the ER on a Monday, so wish me luck!

Love, love, love,

-Michael.

Today is an amazing day...my daughter turns two! I cannot believe how quickly that happened! If you would, just wish her a quick happy birthday out loud to yourself. I’m sure she will feel the love. Thank you for that. 

Obviously, I will be quite busy today...which is why I’ve been quite busy this morning! 

Chapter 4 is up and ready for you to read, along with the prologue and other chapters. Please feel free to critique and chat with me about the material...this is first draft work, after all! I hope you enjoy the new chapter...chapter 5 is coming soon as well.

ALSO! There is a new entry posted in The Madness of Mr. Butler’s prequel, The Diary of Mr. Butler! This time, he reflects on his short-lived adventure in the sea. 

(For you new readers, I am posting entries from Mr. Butler’s journal that he kept prior to the events in The Madness of Mr. Butler. It is meant as supplementary material, and is not necessary for understanding the book. I’m writing it to give back to all of you wonderful readers, and it will always stay open and free to read!)

And, as always, let me know directly if you have a book that you would like to pitch to me! I’ve bought a few books on here that sound amazing, and I’m more than willing to trade pre-orders! In fact, trading pre-orders has become a great source of friendship on here. I’ve interacted with a few great people because of that initial interaction. It’s not just a business transaction, it’s networking! So, let’s help each other out!

I wish everyone the best on this, one of the greatest days of my life. 

If you’ll excuse me, I must go make sure my ER nursing skills aren’t put to the test by the mini trampoline we just got our toddler...

Peace, love, and happy reading/writing!

-Michael.

Cheers, fellow readers and authors!

This is how I look now. This is the Madness of Mr. Haase. I am getting up far too early for my own good in order to finish and polish Mr. Butler, update Mr. Butler’s diary, and try to learn how to market and network (both actions bring me waaaay outside of my comfort zone). 

Why am I bugging you with another update? To say thank you. Cheers! (Just clink your coffee or other spirit-enhancing drink against your screen and cheers with me.) I am honored to be a part of such a unique and wonderful event such as this contest. I am getting up in the wee hours of the morning while my wife and daughter are still dreaming their own original tales and tapping away at my keyboard in order to update content for you...more chapters, more diary entries, and more interaction coming your way soon. I hope you enjoy it all. 

Don’t be afraid  to contact me for any reason. I love the potential inkshares provides for connecting with one another. 

And if you’re an author on here looking for another reader, give me a holler at madmrbutler@gmail.com and I’d be happy to arrange a pre-order trade. Or just pitch me your book...or just chat with me. You can also find me on twitter @sleepyheadwilly.

I hope everyone has a great day, or at least a better hair-day than me.

Love to all,

-Michael.

What a contest! Such great books! Such great authors! What a great place inkshares is! 

Thank you for all of the support, it is such an honor to be in the top five out of 77 (thus far) novels! Take some time to peruse those books that don’t get as much vision as us in the top 10. There are some great stories coming in, and everyone deserves a chance. I’d like to believe that good writing and good story will give us our three winners come March 15th. There are plenty of stories not getting as much attention on here because they are less visible. I will be making recommendations soon. 

Regarding Mr. Butler:

Chapter 3 has been uploaded! More characters, the story opens in a new direction, and action continues. I will continue to upload chapters as I think they are ready. Feel free to comment, critique, and start a conversation with me. Let me know if you have any questions. Here are the parts of the unedited story for the ease of clicking:

Prologue, Chapter 1, Chapter 2, and now...Chapter 3!

Also, there is a new entry in The Diary of Mr. Butler, which you can access and read by clicking here. For those of you who are new followers (good to meet you, and thanks for following!), thediaryofmrbutler.wordpress.com is where I am posting supplemental material for the novel. I use the blog to post entries from the journal Mr. Butler kept prior to the events chronicled in The Madness of Mr. Butler. As always, it is not necessary to read the diary in order to understand the novel; the blog is meant to be an open and free "thank you" for following my story. I hope it enhances your experience with my novel. 

Thank you for reading, and thank you for any and all feedback!

And since I don’t seem to have gotten any sort of negative feedback about it so far, if you’re an author and could use an extra pre-order, feel free to email me at madmrbutler@gmail.com and we can arrange a pre-order trade! Maybe you have some extra credits gathering dust...let me know! 

Happy reading! 

Happy writing!

Have a great day everyone!

Peace and love,

-Michael.

I have a friend (it is a friend, not some facetious version of "a friend" who is actually me) who has built up a decent amount of credits on here by pitching my book for me. She is an excellent source of support for me and my endeavors on here. It is in that spirit that she wanted me to offer a trade to any interested writers...She will buy your book if you buy a copy of The Madness of Mr. Butler. It’s kind of a scratch each other’s back sort of situation...

Once again, these are not my credits to spend, and these are her terms. So, if you are interested and need that last little boost to get closer to a goal, let me know by contacting me directly at madmrbutler@gmail.com or at my twitter handle @sleepyheadwilly.

I hope this doesn’t violate any rules or anything. If it does, then someone please let me know and I’ll take this post down. Otherwise, let’s help each other out! 

Have a great day.

-Michael.

Hello everyone! This competition is incredibly close, and I am honored to be a part of it. I am incredibly thankful for all of your support...I am humbled to be in the top ten, let alone the top 3! There’s still just under a month to go, so anything could happen...I still need any support you’re willing to give, either by spreading the word or by pre-ordering your own copy if you haven’t yet! 

Happy Valentine’s Day...it’s time to give you all some love.

A new entry has been added to Mr. Butler’s diary at thediaryofmrbutler.wordpress.com! For those of you who are new followers, I am posting in the link provided a prequel of sorts to The Madness of Mr. Butler. These are entries from Mr. Butler’s diary that he kept prior to the events chronicled in the novel. I am particularly fond of this entry. So, enjoy! Tell your friends! These entries will always be free supplemental material for anyone to read!

I have also updated the "about" section on the homepage for Mr. Butler to give everyone a little better idea of what the book is, well, about. You can check that out here.

Everything else is going quite well. This competition is fierce! This makes me quite happy, as a good, close competition will keep everyone on their best game. I am honored to be in the top 5...but it’s the top three that matters in the end, so if any of you are on the fence about pre-ordering, please let me know if you have any questions, or if I can do anything for you. Heck, it’s Valentine’s Day...if you’ve already ordered a copy or if you order a copy by the end of today, I promise to write you a short love poem. Just let me know if you’d like one by emailing me at madmrbutler@gmail.com. 

The rest of the novel’s construction is a fun and difficult task. I have holed myself up in the corner of my basement near my daughter’s toys, keeping a large roll of chart paper in front of me to keep the novel’s events in check while keeping many notebooks and scribbles to help my brain organized. The guitar and ukulele are being abused, and all of the post-it notes to the right are all of my wonderful backers. I have a board dedicated to all of you so I can keep track of things and admire those who have had such faith in the book thus far. (I hope the picture shows up; this is my first time trying to post one.)

Thank you again for all of the support, and much love to everyone this Valentine’s Day.

Love always, 

-Michael.

More information about The Madness of Mr. Butler...

Thaddeus Butler is a dreamer, a scientist, and an observer. He entered the world of Aridus the same way as everyone else: on a huge raft filled with food and no memory of anything from his past. Like everyone else on Aridus, he is taught to obey the laws of the land, for they keep God pleased and just. The three most important laws are: 1) attend God’s daily service, 2) do not go into the Great Water, and 3) do not question the written word of God.

The problem is that Mr. Butler cannot help questioning the written word of God as it exists on Aridus; not with his preternatural ability for solving mysteries about the nighttime sky. He sees distance, movement, fire, love, action, and art in the stars. Everyone else sees God (the sun) and the goddesses (the moon and stars). Lucky for Mr. Butler, he is the oldest man on Aridus, and everyone lets him be in his secluded hut to carry out his crazy experiments, assuming they will simply find him dead one day.

The Madness of Mr. Butler is the story of Thaddeus Butler’s calm, quiet existence being upended suddenly and violently.

He is visited by an old friend seeking shelter because she is on the run from the King...

He sees a star split in two with half landing on Aridus, and feels compelled to seek the fallen body...

He finds a strange helmet with a voice claiming to be God’s inside, and manages to get it stuck on his head...

He is pursued night and day by his self-appointed apostles as well as the king’s personal assassins...

In a matter of two weeks, he has his life threatened multiple times, is thrown in jail, is mistaken for a prophet, and is offered sexual favors in exchange for his healing powers...

The only thing that is stable and predictable for Mr. Butler at the start of this novel is his descent into insanity.

But perhaps, in the end, everything happened just as it was meant to be...

The Madness of Mr. Butler is a comedic drama/space opera in a rather unconventional sense. It is written in multiple short chapters with action switching back and forth between several character perspectives. The pace is quick and every chapter will leave you wanting to read "just one more" until the entire novel is suddenly finished.

And once you are finished reading The Madness of Mr. Butler, you will realize it is a book about beauty, loneliness, discovery, love, friendship, God, the pursuit of happiness, laughter, and how much an old man can take before he goes completely and utterly mad...

Pre-order your copy today! I guarantee there is no other space opera like The Madness of Mr. Butler!

Thank you to everyone who has already ordered! If anyone else is on the fence still, please let me know if you have any questions. And if any and all of you can spread the word about my novel, I would greatly appreciate it! Just copy and paste this message into an email, send it to a friend or fifty, and I will be eternally grateful. 

Thank you for your time, and I hope everyone has a remarkable day!

To order The Madness of Mr. Butler: www.inkshares.com/books/the-madness-of-mr-butler

To read Mr. Butler’s diary for free: thediaryofmrbutler.wordpress.com

Love to all,

-Michael.