Hello my friends. We’re overdue for an update, and there is some news. Unfortunately, this time it isn’t particularly good news, and I am not happy to have to deliver it, but I have a duty to keep you all informed about the ongoing state of things, good or bad. 

I received a call from my publisher earlier last week informing me that, due to ongoing problems with the global supply chain and manpower issues, it will not be possible for our printer to print enough copies of Tantalus Depths to get our first run ready in time for our May 10th launch date. There’s nothing I or my publisher can do about that; the printer simply cannot stock their inventory with the pulp, ink, and other physical materials necessary to create books in the needed quantity by that deadline. We’ve looked into other options, and there isn’t anything else we can do that will allow us to print on time without incurring a major cost deficit. As a result of this, we had no choice but to postpone our launch date for Tantalus Depths. 

I hate having to break that news to you all. You’ve waited so patiently for years, and the absolute last thing I wanted was to have to prolong that wait even further. Thankfully, it’s only by a few months. We’ve already locked in a new publication day for September 27th, so you can still be assured that you’ll get your books this year. Going from a summer release to a fall release is not the worst possible scenario, but I still hate having to ask even more patience of you. It IS coming, though. 

Frustrating as it is, this does give some advantages. I have a lot more time to plan and strategize my launch plan to make the publication day even more impactful. My publisher and I will take advantage of every extra day to seek promotional opportunities and build my audience to ensure this book lands in as many hands as possible. I’m doing my best to turn this situation to our advantage. 

The launch event at Kent Trumbull is being postponed as well, but I’ve been assured that we’ll still be able to do it on the new launch date. I’ll give more details on that when it comes closer. 

I’ll also be sure to use this summer as productively as possible for other projects. The new short story, Empire of Salt, is still on schedule for release later this month in the FAMILY anthology, and I’ve already begun work on another short story that should come out later this year or early next year. I may even be able to use this opportunity to get a head start on my next novel, Proteus, to make sure the wait between books is nowhere near as long as the wait for Tantalus Depths had to be. So there’s a lot to look forward to. 

Updates may be spotty and inconsistent for a while (as if they ever were that consistent) as I shift gears to plan for the new release window, but I won’t keep you in the dark about anything important that comes up. Everything’s a bit chaotic right now, but it won’t be for long. 

Anyway. If you’re starved for new story content right now, there are two new lore articles up on the website to check out: The Algorithmists and the Aftothysian Movement. 

The Algorithmists are a deadly cult of insane tech-worshipping terrorists determined to build an omnipotent AI, and the Aftothysians are an idealistic network of ecoterrorists devoted to stopping extraplanetary colonization at any cost. The two groups have only one thing in common: if either succeeds in their goals, human civilization as we know it will end. 

Learn more about these two dangerous subversive factions in the Explore section of evangraham.org, and see what happens when the two come into direct conflict with each other in my short story “Reliquary” in Writing Bloc’s Passageways anthology. 

Hello, friends! We’re two months away from launch day, and I have another exciting announcement for you, so buckle up for a wild ride. 

I’m not going to waste any time getting to the big news. We officially have a launch event planned, and it’s going to be big! I’ve put too much time and effort into Tantalus Depths to let its arrival come without a bang, so we’re pulling out all the stops. 

I’m incredibly pleased to announce that my old alma mater, Kent State University’s Trumbull Campus, has graciously offered to host a launch event for us! There really could not be a more fitting place to do it. Those of you who have been following Tantalus Depths from the beginning might remember that the book’s humble origins began as a creative writing class assignment at that very same university. Kent Trumbull is where Tantalus Depths was conceived, born, and nurtured. The book simply would not exist if not for Kent Trumbull, and returning to the place it began eight years ago to celebrate its publication feels like destiny. 

If you hadn’t already marked May 10th on your calendars, do it now, and scribble “7:00 PM” and “Kent Trumbull” underneath it. We’re going to have some snacks, do a little reading, do a lot of socializing, and just generally celebrate this amazing journey together in the place it all began. I hope to see all of you there! 

 In other news, there’s another lore update on the website this week, this time highlighting the two central characters from my short story Countermeasures: Jay Serpentico and Descartes. Jay Serpentico is a deadly mercenary with no moral code and a terrifying talent for killing. Descartes is an enigmatic criminal mastermind with seemingly limitless resources and no apparent weaknesses. They’re two of the most dangerous people in the galaxy, so what happens when their interests no longer align? Find out in Countermeasures, part of Writing Bloc’s DECEPTION! anthology, and learn more about these two nefarious figures in the “Explore” section of evangraham.org    

Hello, friends! It’s update time! I have yet more exciting news for you today.

First of all, I want to reveal a surprise project I’ve been working on. I have not one, but two story launches coming up in the next two months. In addition to Tantalus Depths, I’ve spent the past year working on another short story for the Writing Bloc Collective, for their upcoming FAMILY anthology: Empire of Salt. Like Tantalus Depths and my three previous short stories, Empire of Salt is set in the Calling Void universe, but in a place and time we have not yet seen explored.

Set more than thirty years before Tantalus Depths on the toxic ocean world of Hayden, Empire of Salt tells the story of Masuyo Kosawa, formerly the wealthiest and most powerful man in history. Kosawa’s ruthless ambition helped him rise to unprecedented heights as the rest of the world reeled in the aftermath of the devastating Corsica Event. For years it seemed the Ming-Kosawa corporate monarchy could never be toppled.

That is, until Exotech Industries changed everything.

Empire of Salt is a tale of greed, sorrow, ambition, and futility, and is just one of the 21 brilliant stories you’ll be able to find in this excellent new anthology book from Writing Bloc. Look for FAMILY on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and most other retailers on April 19th, 2022.

Empire of Salt delves deeper into the rich future history of the Calling Void universe, from the perspective of a man who lived through most of it. If you’re interested in learning more about the dark universe of Tantalus Depths, you don’t need to wait until April. I’m pleased to announce the first new lore file on my website: The Home System.

We’ve already learned about Earth, but what about the rest of our solar system? When Exotech developed the superluminal drive, interplanetary colonization throughout our system went from prohibitively challenging to practically easy. The past few decades have seen a lot of growth throughout the system, and each world has a story to tell.

Learn more about the vast terraforming operations on Venus and Mars, the tragic fate of the Shangxi lunar program, the perils faced by the Argos Mining Syndicate on Io, the revolutionary discovery of life on Europa, and much more in the newest edition to the Explore gallery on evangraham.org: The Home System.

Hello my friends!

Another update so soon? You’d better believe it. Things are really building up speed now that we have an official launch date less than three months away. Finally we’re at a point in the process where I can give you rapid and substantial updates on a regular basis. Last week was the big one, and your response was so encouraging. I’m pleased to say that I have another big announcement this week, and I’m almost as proud of this one.

We have a website now! Evangraham.org is now live! I’ve been working on this baby ever since October, and it’s finally ready to be free. Here, you’ll be able to follow all my future projects in one easy place. From now on, every update I send here will also go up on the website, so you’ll always be able to check up on the most up-to-date news on all my writing projects.

The website is packed with exciting features, and more will soon be on their way. For now, though, let me run down the biggest features you can look forward to.

Homepage

On our homepage, you’ll be able to see all our latest updates, including a countdown clock to Tantalus Depths’ launch day. You’ll also find my author bio and links to my social media accounts, including the Twitter I haven’t used in years but am totally going to start up again.

The Shop

Here you’ll find links to find all my books, including the anthology collections featuring my short stories. You’ll be able to find links to any book seller that carries each paperback and ebook.

My Bio

For anyone who wants a grossly unnecessary amount of info on my boring personal life, there’s a long-winded “About the Author” page. I don’t like talking about myself, and now I have a whole page on the internet about me so I’ll never have to do it again!

The Lore Section

This is the part I am most excited about. In the “Explore” section of my website, you’ll find detailed information about the characters, planets, organizations, and science of The Calling Void universe. I’ll be adding new content to this section weekly, starting with material from my published short stories and building up to the release of Tantalus Depths with articles related to it. Check it out now to read up on Maya Prasad, the daring protagonist of Breach, the shady origins of the corporate titan Exotech Industries, the strange cataclysm of the Corsica Event, and the grim changes Earth experienced in its aftermath.

There’s a lot to see, so hop right in and explore! I can’t wait to share even more awesome news with all of you very, very soon.

Greetings friends and supporters. We’re certainly due for an update on the state of Tantalus Depths, and I am thrilled to say this update is a really good one.

About a week ago, I received my first round of copyedit notes for Tantalus Depths. They were wonderfully thorough and picked up a ton of minor punctuation and grammar errors that managed to elude my notice through more than a dozen full readthroughs. They were easily fixed, and the book feels much cleaner for it. 

You’ll remember that the development editing process took almost two years to complete, due to extensive rewrites and passing through multiple draft stages. Copyedits, I am happy to say, are much simpler and more straightforward, and mostly just involve clicking "accept" on every grammar change my copyeditor suggested. I made sure to read each sentence in context to ensure that none of the suggestions accidentally changed the meaning of the sentence, and I caught a couple that would have done so, but even with that close attention to detail, I am proud to say that it still only took me a few hours to make every single change expected of me for this stage of the process. While it took me months to get through a round of development edits, I was able to finish all my copyedit notes and send them back to my publisher in less than a week.

This very well may be the first time in our five-year development process where we’ve actually been ahead of schedule, and we are rapidly nearing the end. My copyeditor will go over the changes I’ve made, and barring one or two more potential correspondences to correct a few outstanding issues, we will soon be done with the copyediting process and be ready to move on to the proofreader. After that, Tantalus Depths will at long last be completely finalized and ready for its release.

It’s been a long road to get here, friends, but we are rapidly gaining momentum in the last stretch before the finish line. Expect some very exciting announcements in the next few months, including a cover reveal and our long-awaited official release date.

I never thought it would take this long to get this book into your hands, and I do hope future projects will move more smoothly now that I know what to expect. But I can definitely say with confidence that the book is ten times better now than it was before this process began, and I could not be more excited to see what happens when my world finally enters yours.

Stay tuned, my friends, and watch the skies.

The Void is calling...

Greetings, longsuffering friends. I have some news! It’s not THE news, but it is A news. Actually, it’s TWO news. But it’s definitely GOOD news!

The first news: my friend and fellow brilliant authorial mastermind, Kaytalin Platt, was gracious enough to interview me on her website about my most recent short story, Reliquary, which debuted in last year’s Writing Bloc anthology, Passageways. We get deep into my creative process and worldbuilding approach, not just for Reliquary, but for the entire Calling Void series as a whole. It’s a great interview, and I’m very excited to share it with all of you. Check it out here, and while you’re there, check out some of her other interviews from authors in the Passageways anthology, including her own!

And now, the second news, which I think will be even more relevant to your interests.

I can FINALLY proudly announce that Tantalus Depths is officially out of the development editing stage of production.

Those of you who have been following my updates for a long time might be having a “Wait, didn’t we already do that?” moment right now, and you’d be right. We officially finished development edits more than two years ago and were cleared to move on to the copy editing stage. BUT, what we did not expect or plan on at the time was that Adam Gomolin, the CEO of my publishing company, would take direct personal interest in my book and want to go through an additional round of development edits one-on-one with me. While it was definitely a bit frustrating to jump right back into development edits right after I thought we were done, that frustration was hugely outweighed by the opportunities that additional round of edits provided. Adam and I worked tirelessly together to transform Tantalus Depths into an absolutely brilliant book that I’ve never been prouder of, and even though the work was exhausting and the wait has been long, I think it will absolutely have been worth it.

For those of you who are not familiar with the publishing industry’s inner workings, a “development edit” is a round of edits that focuses on story-related things like plot development, character consistency, tone, pacing, and so on. Basically, the meat of a story. Development edits tend to involve significant rewrites; in my case, I’ve rewritten several chapters, added a few new ones, and reworked dialogue and narration to make the story sleeker, deeper, with a stronger core identity. The story and the characters are still absolutely true to my original vision, and the book overall is still the story I always wanted to tell. In fact, even though I’ve rewritten probably 80% of the words in the story at this point, I’m really just telling the exact same story I always have with much better words.

And so, after approximately 8 different drafts, I have finally gotten Tantalus Depths to a point that both Adam and I agree is ready to move on to the next step. The story is locked in now, and will change very little from now to publication day, but there are still a few steps to go in the process. The next big step will be the copy editing stage, which is another full round of edits that will, thankfully, take much less time. Copy editing focuses on simpler, more mechanical aspects of writing, such as grammar and word usage. This stage will not involve significant rewrites and should not require more than one or two drafts to resolve. I’m not going to throw out any time estimations, because I’m very, very bad at predicting things like that well, but where a draft of development editing could take me months, a draft of copy editing should take days.

Before we slide into copy edits, however, I have one special bonus surprise! Adam is hooking me up with an actual, honest-to God physicist to do a special “scientific accuracy pass” on the book. Tantalus Depths has always been designed with scientific accuracy in mind, but for all the hours of research I’ve put into it, I’m still just a layperson with a Bachelors’s in education. This special bonus round of edits will give us the chance to improve the accuracy of the science presented in this science-fiction book, and I couldn’t be more stoked about it.

So yeah, really big stuff is happening with Tantalus Depths! I wish I had a release date to give you all, but we aren’t quite there yet. I have been given a tenuous one, but Inkshares’ release schedule is still pretty flexible, and depending on how long the next phase of production takes, our actual release date could move forward or backwards, so I don’t want to announce anything until it’s more definite. Stay tuned, though! We are really making progress now.

Hello friends. Exciting news today! My new short story, Reliquary, is available now as part of Writing Bloc’s Passageways anthology. This exciting new collection features short stories by nine brilliant authors, each one a brand new addition to a different, expertly crafted fictional universe. These nine stories are ambassadors and tour guides, here to introduce you to vast, intricate worlds, each delicately formed with the utmost care by its author. You’ll find an excellent selection of science fiction, fantasy, and horror tales here, and I could not be prouder to have Reliquary number among them. 

What is Reliquary, you ask? Reliquary is the newest story from my own anthology series, The Calling Void. That’s right, my series has an official name, now! The Calling Void is the dark, hard sci-fi universe of my previous two short stories, Breach and Countermeasures, and my upcoming novels Tantalus Depths and Proteus. 

 Reliquary explores new locations and concepts in this universe, as we make our first visit to Showalter: the first and only planet yet discovered that can sustain human life. We are also introduced to the Aftothysian movement: a radical group of extremists who oppose interplanetary colonization of any kind, and are willing to go to grim and desperate extremes to stop humanity’s expansion into the stars. They have recently acquired their greatest and most terrifying asset yet: the Biscayne Relic. A unique piece of technology created by the near-omnipotent AI that almost destroyed the Earth during the apocalyptic Corsica Event most of a century ago, the terrible destructive potential of the Biscayne Relic cannot be underestimated. But the Aftothysians are not the only ones with an interest in the Biscayne Relic. Nor are they the greatest threat to humankind. 

You can read Reliquary right now in Passageways right here on Kindle or right here on paperback. I look forward to sharing this exciting new adventure with you, and many more very soon!

  Well folks, I am way overdue for an update, and I can’t really put off making one any longer. I was hoping the next update I’d send would be an announcement that Tantalus Depths has finally finished its edits and is moving on in its production, but unfortunately we’ve seen some delays to that end. Originally, this was supposed to be the year it was going to be released, but it shouldn’t really come as much surprise that covid-19 did a number on that idea. Releasing a major novel during a pandemic is a surefire way to make it a financial flop, considering the state of the economy, the fact that many bookstores were closed entirely for several months, and the fact that my publisher’s ability to physically print and distribute the books was crippled as well for much of this year. On top of that, I work in a hospital, so not only did quarantines, stay-at-home orders and social distancing not give me any extra time at home to work on side projects, but my stress levels have been through the roof on a constant basis since March, which is far from conducive to creative writing and editing efforts. Due to all of the above factors, development on Tantalus Depths really slowed to a crawl this year, but it is picking up again. I am on my absolute final set of development edits now (for real this time. I’ve told my publisher I have exactly one round of edits left in me, and that’s it). I’ve been getting back into a consistent writing regimen, and I’m currently on track to be 100% finished by the end of the year.
We have other things to look forward to soon for Tantalus Depths as well. I’ve been told that after we wrap up these development edits, I’ll finally be able to start working with my cover designer on Tantalus Depths’ official cover art. I’ve seen some of this artist’s work already, and it is extremely impressive professional work. In addition to that, between the end of my development edit and the beginning of my copy edit, we are planning to have a special round of edits with a professional physicist to check the scientific accuracy of Tantalus Depths, which I could not be more excited for.
I have many other things in the works right now, but most of them are still too up-in-the-air to talk about at this stage. I know the long delays between updates makes it seem like I’ve forgotten about my writing, but that’s far from the case. A lot of work has been going on behind the scenes, there just haven’t been many new exciting benchmarks in my progress worth making announcements about. I don’t like making promises I can’t keep, so I’ve been trying to avoid predicting what will happen when during this process. The world of professional publishing is still mostly unexplored for me, and everything I’m doing is a first. I certainly never thought it would take this long to publish my first book, and I’d like to think it won’t always be that way, but I am learning as I go. Thank you all for your patience during this process. I know most of you are as eager as I am to see what the end of this process looks like, and I’m really looking forward to celebrating with you all on the other side.
Because there’s still no definite release date planned for Tantalus Depths, and because I need to keep my writing skills sharp while developing my editing ones, I do have one special side project I’ve been working on since the summer that you will be able to read very soon. I’ll give a bigger update specifically for that later with more details, but for now here’s just a quick rundown of what to expect.
My new short story, "Reliquary," will be appearing in the upcoming "Passageways" anthology. This is my third published short story after "Breach" and "Countermeasures," and like them it is set in the same universe as Tantalus Depths (that universe has a name now, by the way, so look forward to a series title drop soon as well). Passageways is a special anthology that features nine short stories from different authors who each have their own literary universe of stories. Think of this anthology as a dimensional crossroads: a place where vast worlds filled with fascinating characters, complex storytelling, and carefully crafted settings can be easily accessed from one another. If you read this anthology and find a story you really like, good news! There are more stories where that came from, and you’ll like them too.
I couldn’t be more excited for people to read Reliquary, and I’m deeply honored to have it collected with the works of so many other brilliant authors who I respect so much. Check it out! It’s available for pre-order now, and will be released on December 11.