It may be hard to believe, but I’m not the most talented person in my family.
My sister has been awesome enough to create this incredible Van Gogh-inspired SCARAB poster as a limited-edition special promotion. I call it "SCARABy Night."
Or maybe not...yeah, probably won’t be calling it that again...

 

Anyway, from now until September 1, anyone who either: 
A) pre-orders a paperback or super-reader copy of Tantalus Depths
or
B) refers someone who pre-orders a paperback or super-reader copy of Tantalus Depths will get a free copy of this poster sent to you shortly after September 1. You can also buy the poster directly from her Etsy shop until that date, if you choose to.

In order to ensure that there is zero misuse of Inkshares’ referral system, I want you to confirm your referrals with me personally through private message: Just shoot me a simple private message saying who you referred, and/or who referred you.

And please, while you’re at it, take a look at my sister’s shop, just generally. She’s extremely talented and has all kinds of great crafts and artwork. It’s well worth your time.

Time to get back into the story updates! This time we’re going to highlight a crucial tool for setting up any mining survey expedition on an unexplored planet: the Dawson core sample extractor!
 

It’s meant as a simple tool to gather samples of Tantalus 13’s rock strata for Becky Traviss to analyze. But with a heavy industrial laser powerful enough to disintegrate rock in seconds, might it find itself used in a more destructive capacity? Will the Dawson prove to be a useful tool for survival on Tantalus 13, or yet another deadly threat to be survived? Find out when you pre-order Tantalus Depths!

I can’t believe I almost forgot to link this! Check out my interview with Regina McMenomy about Tantalus Depths! She was gracious enough to take time out of her schedule to show support for my campaign, so please show her and her book, Mothering: The Game some support as well. She’s made a great deal of progress and she worked her butt off during the Nerdist competition, and I’m eager to see her reach the Quill mark.
 

Please note that we recorded this last week, well before the insanity with all the invalid pre-orders in my campaign came to light. It’s only relevant insofar as the number of pre-orders I still need and the time I have left to get them aren’t accurate to what we talk about in the video.

Also, a further update on that point: Inkshares has generously increased my campaign’s extension from 30 days to 60, to ensure I have enough time to recover and finish the campaign. I don’t plan on needing 60 days, but I have them in case I do.

With all the madness that’s been happening over the past few days, I’m beyond thrilled to deliver some unreservedly good news.
Heh...thrilled....
 

Tantalus Depths has been backed by its third syndicate! Today we received the distinct honor of being chosen as the August pick for the Thriller Night Syndicate. It’s awesome to be recognized by the community yet again for Tantalus Depths’ content: this time not for theme, but for tone. Tantalus Depths is all about mystery and foreboding, peril and the struggle for survival against extremely bad odds. It’s a thriller to its core, and I sincerely hope you all find it as nail-biting and knuckle-whitening as I intended it to be!

I really enjoy sharing good news with you. When something happens in my campaign that gets me excited, like hitting a landmark number or getting a mention in some media source, I just want to gush about it to my supporters. You’re all like a family to me, and the roles you’ve all played in getting me this far will never be forgotten.
Unfortunately, not all news is good news. As much as I enjoy sharing the good news, these updates should be about transparency. You deserve to know the genuine state of things, whether the news is positive or negative. Today, the news is a mixture.
Let’s do the good news first:
 

In light of the recent setbacks to my campaign, Inkshares has granted me an at least 30-day extension. Overall they’ve been extremely understanding and reasonable, and I really want to thank Avalon, Thad, Elena, and all the rest of Inkshares staff for working so hard and diligently to handle this problem. They’ve all been very communicative, professional, and encouraging through this process, and I don’t want their hard work to go unthanked. They genuinely seem as determined as I am to see Tantalus Depths reach the levels of success it truly deserves, and I am extremely grateful for all the hard work they’ve done behind the scenes.

Now for the bad news.

Tantalus Depths lost a lot more pre-orders today. A lot. All told, it looks like almost a third of my pre-orders were illegitimate ones. That’s hard for me to stomach. It’s not just hard because I’m seeing my numbers drop and realizing just how much more work I have ahead of me, it’s hard to know that what I had thought to be all genuine community support was, in fact, largely counterfeit. Whoever’s been abusing the credit system to support my book probably thought they were doing me a favor. They probably believed that by artificially raising my pre-order count with false orders, they were helping me get to my goal. I can appreciate the intent, and I can admire the initiative, but I find the methods unconscionable.

Tantalus Depths is a fine book. I’m proud of my work, and I believe in it. I believe it to be a story worth sharing, something worthy of print on its own merits. I worked really hard to get it to the state it’s in. I’ve also worked really hard on bringing in the genuine, legitimate pre-orders that I have, and I’m proud of that hard work too. These false pre-orders, though...I’m not proud of those. I’m embarrassed to have had those in my campaign. I’m not sorry to see them gone. While it’s hard to see my pre-order count ticking backwards, I’m relieved to know that those orders I’m losing, I never really had. The ones I’ll have left at the end of the day will be the ones I worked hard for and genuinely earned. I’ve no need for manipulative tactics and exploitative methods: I have a good book to sell. When enough people have seen it, it will reach its goal, because it’s good enough to get there. I know this, my genuine supporters know this, and once this campaign is over, it’ll have been proven.

To the person or persons who have abused this system to support my book: thank you for your interest in Tantalus Depths. I hope you’ll show that interest by purchasing a pre-order with real money, and encouraging your friends to do the same. I also hope you will stop exploiting this site. Doing so harms every book you touch, and harms the company as a whole, which harms every author who’s published with it. Do not poison the well for this community for the sake of promoting a book you like. It helps no one in the end.

Meanwhile, I’m still plowing on with my campaign. I have no idea where I’m going to find all the rest of the pre-orders I need now, and I have no idea where I’m going to find the energy I’ll need to get through an extra 30-or-so days of this madness (I’d fully intended on going into a coma for about a week after my campaign ended), but I know I’m going to figure it out. This community is so supportive, and my friends and family have been just as supportive. One way or another, we will get there. I’m working on figuring out some more story updates I can send that won’t be spoilery so I can keep opening up the rich world of Tantalus Depths to you over the next few weeks of extra campaigning, and I’m hoping to come up with one or two more incentives. Since I have to climb back up to the 600 mark, I’m making that the goal we need to hit for me to release my video of me reading chapter 3. beyond that, who knows what’s ahead?

We’ll find out together. Come, let’s dive into those depths...

  I have some extremely unfortunate news about Tantalus Depths.
Apparently, there was a significant amount of abuse relating to Inkshares’ free credits system regarding Tantalus Depths. This means a large number of the pre-orders it has accumulated were likely achieved by misusing the referral system Inkshares has in place, presumably by purchasing multiple copies using credits rather than cash.
I may be responsible for this, as I’ve encouraged people to make use of the credits system in the past, however the overall number of pre-orders that have been flagged as abusing the system is significant. Inkshares has been removing pre-orders that have been flagged as abusing the system, and as of now, Tantalus Depths has dropped dramatically to 557 pre-orders, and may continue to drop lower if they find more.
Inkshares is investigating this issue, as am I.
If any of you have been making illicit use of the credits system, I appreciate your desire to help, but please do not abuse the system. It isn’t helpful, and it isn’t right.
Since only 11 days remain in my campaign and I am now back down to at least 200 pre-orders away from the full funding goal, I have asked for an extension to my campaign. Meanwhile, your legitimate support is needed more now than ever.  

Every once in a while, something will happen that reassures me Tantalus Depths is really succeeding where it matters.

Getting picked by the Break the Bechdel Syndicate was one of those, as it reassured me that Tantalus Depths was doing an effective job of representing strong female characters, which was crucial for me. Getting picked by the Great Sci Fi Syndicate was another, as it reassured me that I was effectively creating a science fiction work that embodied the best aspects of this genre I love so much. There have been many little things along the way that provide similar assurances that I’m on the right track, either in the form of reviews, recommendations, or general feedback. Today I was honored in a totally new way.

 

KSU Trumbull, the university branch responsible for almost all of my college education, did me the great honor of coming to me and holding this interview to promote my book. This is the same college where I honed my writing skills, took advanced literature classes, learned character development from theatre classes...heck, Tantalus Depths was written for classes at this school. The fact that they’d honor me by highlighting my work is a tremendous honor that I’m still processing.
Please go ahead and check out this interview.
Also! Tantalus Depths is now only 87 pre-orders away from FULL PUBLISHING. We have a bit less than 13 days to get there. We are SO close, everyone. Keep pushing!

It’s the beginning of the end...
 

Tantalus Depths is now only 100 pre-orders away from the full publishing goal. We need 50 pre-orders a week, or about seven a day, to get there.
If there is anything left you can do to help get us there, now is the time to show your hand. If there’s anyone left you haven’t talked to about it, talk to them. If you haven’t ordered a copy yet, order one. If you have ordered one, consider ordering another copy for a friend.
Anything you can do will absolutely mean the world to me.
But mark my words, Tantalus Depths will get there. If I have to pull my bloody carcass across that finish line on my own, I’ll do it. We’ve come way too far to settle for anything less than total victory.