Greetings, adventurers! 

 We’re at the home stretch, folks. The last few days. The final countdown, if you will. 

 With less than 25 preorders to go at time of writing, I’m starting to feel excited and hopeful! I still have work to do, though, to get to that number. Look at this beautiful bar:

So close!

 Thanks (again!) to local radio hosts Scotty and Tony of XL96 for blogging about Mushroom and Anchovy (again!). These two have been supportive of my work for years. Thanks again, guys! 

 By the way, this coming Thursday, I’m going to be starting a new initiative over on my Facebook page called Au-Thursday. I’m going to be featuring up-and-coming and indie authors, and their books. The first people to be featured will be supporters of MushAnch! Give my Facebook page a follow to see the authors I’ll be featuring. If you want a feature, hit me with a DM! 

 Final reminder about the draw! As I’ve mentioned before, you get an entry for preordering, but additional entries for sharing the pinned post on my Facebook page, and more. Details are all right here on that post! You can win a $50 Amazon gift card. I’ll be throwing in 2 ebook copies of my first book, Hub City Survival, if I hit the goal before 11:59 PM my time on Sunday. If I get the goal before the end of today, I’ll throw in a print copy. Let’s do this! 

Thank you so much for this, guys, really. At this rate, it’s looking like it might just happen. And if, by some chance, it doesn’t, I’m so grateful for everyone who’s been following the campaign and contributing in any way. I’ve learned a lot from this experience and have managed to discover so many interesting up-and-coming books through this. 

 May your adventures be fraught with wonder and just enough peril to keep them interesting, 

 K. M. Cooper

Greetings, adventurers!

WHAAAT? It’s not Friday! Though that may be true, I do feel compelled to write to you today because we’ve reached the critical timeframe: there is just one week left to make the preorder goal, as of today. We have just 70 preorders to go, which is a very small number, and also very doable! If you haven’t preordered yet, I really hope you’ll consider doing so shortly.

To try and get that last push for orders, I’ve created a Facebook event. If you would join the event and spread the word, I’d be very appreciative!

Mushroom and Anchovy has also been chosen as the Syndicate Pick for the Quill Brotherhood Syndicate this month, I am very pleased to say! That makes our second Syndicate Pick, and I’m very grateful. Thank you so much for choosing me!

Don’t forget about the contest, which could win you an Amazon gift card! If I hit 250 preorders before the 10th, I’ll also throw in a copy of my first book, Hub City Survival, and maybe an ebook as well!

All right, folks... this is it. Please help me push this book! I’ve been working very hard and want to bring this book to you in its best form. 70 is such a small number. At this point one month ago, the book didn’t even have 70 preorders yet, so I know we can hit this goal!

If there’s anything I can do to convince you to preorder, please let me know. I’d be more than happy to discuss any aspect of this campaign with you one-on-one!

May your adventures be fraught with wonder and just enough peril to keep them interesting,

K. M. Cooper

Sorry for the second e-mail, folks, but I needed to follow up quickly to let you know that I was wrong about the referrals and they are no longer a function of the Inkshares program.

You WILL, however, get my undying, eternal gratitude for referring a friend. And that’s priceless, right?

Sorry for the error, folks! Talk to you next week!

Greetings, adventurers! 

 A bit of a slower week compared with last week, but still a good one. We’re getting closer and closer to the end, with just a bit over a week to go and 93 preorders to go at time of writing. It’ll be very close but I think we’ll be able to sneak right in, just in time. 

 A quick note: please double check your orders to make sure you’ll get your book! If you’ve had any problems with your orders, please make sure to reach out to hello@inkshares.com. 

 This is a big reminder about the contest! You can win a $50 Amazon gift card! You get one entry just for preordering, then an extra one for every preorder, extra entries for Facebook shares of the post, and more. All the details are in the pinned post over on my Facebook page.  

Could I ask a favour of all of you this week? Could you please message a friend or family member that might enjoy this book and tell them a bit about it? When you do, please make sure to click “share” on the book’s page to generate your personal referral code for Inkshares credits! Make sure you’re logged in to Inkshares and click “Share” on Mushroom and Anchovy’s page to share your referral link. 

The reason for this is that one-on-one conversations have been, in my experience, the best way to get results in the campaign. 

 At this time, we have to turn all this pressure into diamonds. And like the treasure hunters in this book, we’ve gotta hunt those diamonds down and claim them as our own! Or... something like that. 

 Thanks for everything, adventurers. I’m really grateful to have so many of you joining me on this, and I’m really floored by the amount of people who have been preordering so far. Thank you! 

 May your adventures be fraught with wonder and just enough peril to keep them interesting, 

 K. M. Cooper

Greetings, adventurers! 

 Some bittersweet news: we are no longer in the running for the Launchpad contest, as we did not make the top 75. A HUGE congratulations to those who did make the cut! Now I get the opportunity to follow several more exciting up-and-coming books. All in all, it was a good experience. Thanks to Launchpad and Inkshares for the opportunity!

 So now, to the good news! It’s been another HUGE week, so I have lots to share. 

 This was another exciting week for the campaign, and another huge milestone! In fact… we hit TWO milestones. Firstly, on Sunday, we hit the 100 preorders mark. Considering we were barely over 50 preorders at the beginning of the month, this was a pretty exciting number to hit. Then, yesterday, we hit the halfway point of the campaign! 

 So, we’re now over 125 preorders, and we have less than that many to go with a little less than three weeks left. It’ll be tight, but I think we’ll be able to squeeze in the full 250. Thank you to everyone who has been preordering and spreading the word—there are a lot of you! 

 This week, I was featured on the front page of ThisWeek (see what I did there?), an arts-focused paper distributed weekly to my area. The multi-talented Margaret Eaton came by my house and interviewed me about my creative work, with a focus on Mushroom and Anchovy. Her article was very in-depth and I really couldn’t be happier. Thank you, Margaret! 

 On the same day Margaret came by, I recorded a little video to try and convince a few other people to preorder. It’s right here if you want to see me yelling about my book (because you haven’t seen that enough already).  

 I had a couple other points to make, friends, but this e-mail is long enough. I’m just happy I can present this much information for you, because it’s really exciting to me! I am 52% of the way to reaching my biggest goal for this year. Thanks for reading this far and joining me along the way. 

May your adventures be fraught with wonder and just enough peril to keep them interesting, 

 K. M. Cooper

Greetings, adventurers! 

WHAT. A. WEEK. Wow. Since last update, we’ve seen a giant leap in orders. We’ve had over thirty preorders in the past week, we’ve been selected for the SnarkyDarkSy syndicate, and we’ve leapt up to 4th place in the Inkshares contest! We’re about 25 unique preorders away from getting to 3rd place, which, if you recall, will get us published as well, if we retain. 

I’m thrilled about the direction the campaign has taken, and I have nowhere to look but to the recipients of this e-mail for thanks. All of you have given me so much hope for a positive result. Thank you, thank you! 24 days remain in the campaign, and, with the forward movement we’ve seen this past week, I am confident we can make this happen.

A little bad news: due to unforeseen circumstances, Wednesday’s live reading had to be cancelled. The good news, however, is that it has been rescheduled to NEXT Wednesday! So, join me at 9 PM AST on my Facebook page next Wednesday the 23rd, and I’ll be reading from chapter 4 live for your enjoyment! 

But wait, there’s more! My talented friend (I have a lot of those) Laura Blackbeard drew some gift art of our protagonists! Without further ado, I present to you Patricia "Anchovy" Finnigan...

...and Vladimir "Mushroom" Kalkov!

Laura, thank you so much for feeling inspired enough to draw my characters. I really love these drawings and it’s been hard for me to keep quiet about them until Friday. I mean, everything I’ve discussed today has been hard to keep quiet about until Friday! What a week. If you like Laura’s work, check out her blog. She is also available for commissions.

Thank you for everything, adventurers, and a special thanks to all of you who have been sharing on social media! A reminder that if you’ve already backed the book, you should definitely enter the contest I’m doing on my Facebook page to win a $50 Amazon gift card. Check the pinned post for more details. If you’re going to be sharing on social media, after all, you’d might as well get rewarded for it!

May all your adventures be fraught with wonder and just enough peril to keep them interesting, 

 K. M. Cooper

Greetings, adventurers! 

 The past few weeks have been incredibly hectic for me, with traveling, visits from and with family and friends, my husband being on vacation, tying up loose ends, and much more. Now that the book is officially just one month today from the campaign’s end, it’s time for me to get serious about reaching out to others. Some have you may have heard from me already, but I’m going to be reaching out to individuals over the next little while. If you’ve already preordered, though, you won’t hear from me, so no worries there! An added note that the Canadian dollar is strong right now, so this is a great time to order! 

 An exciting note: Mushroom and Anchovy is currently being considered for entry into the SnarkyDarkSy syndicate! This alone is very exciting. The official selection hasn’t been made yet, but the fact that Mushroom and Anchovy is on the table at all is an excellent sign. 

 Since I’ve gotten several new preorders since the last update—thank you, by the way!—I feel this is a pertinent time to mention that I have a Facebook giveaway going on for ALL backers of the book. It’s the pinned post over on my page: K. M. Cooper, Writer and Freelancer. Check it out and, if you’ve ordered the book, PLEASE enter! All instructions are on the pinned post. Also, over at that link, I’ll be reading chapter 4 live next Wednesday, August 16th, at 9 PM AST! I hope to see some of you there! 

Lastly… surprise! Chapter 5 will be in your inboxes shortly. I hope this one makes you laugh, because it contains quite possibly one of the most ridiculous and immature scenes in the entire story. It also happens to be one of my favourites. 

 May all your adventures be fraught with wonder and just enough peril to keep them interesting, 

K. M. Cooper  

Greetings, adventurers!

A very quick--and early--update this week, since I’m going away tomorrow to visit family. I have some good news, and some bad news. Maybe not bad, but... let’s call it "deferred good news".

The good news is that we hit a big milestone! At 50 preorders, we’re now sitting at 20% of the way to our 250 goal. This is amazing and very exciting. We still have a little over a month to go, which should be lots of time to get 200 more preorders. I feel it! Shout out to Peter C., who got the 50th preorder. Thanks so much to everyone who has preordered so far.

The not-so-good/deferred good news is that I won’t be able to post up chapter 4 as early as I’d hoped. As I looked it over today, I noticed it needs a bit more work before I can send it out. I would be happy to spend the next several days reworking, but I’m going to be out of town and cannot make it a priority. I hope to have it taken care of by early next week, so please look forward to that! This week has been absolutely insane and I’ve been trying so hard to keep up, so I apologize if I’m not keeping up as well as I have been. 

A little note to my Canadian readers who have been biding their time: the dollar is pretty strong right now, so this is a great time to preorder!... just sayin’.

You’ll be hearing from me early next week, folks. In the meantime, may all your adventures be fraught with wonder and just enough peril to keep them interesting,

K. M. Cooper

Greetings, adventurers! 

We had our live reading on Wednesday night! It went really well, and you can review it here. I promise it’s much shorter than the other ones! If you want a reasonably dramatic reading of the first three chapters so far, you can view them all on my Facebook page.

I’m hoping to be able to do live a reading of chapter 4 in the coming weeks. I’m just waiting to hit that 50 preorders milestone! We’ve been at a standstill for a bit, but I do believe we still have time to make magic happen.   

We’re getting close to crunch time. At just a little over a month to go before the end of the campaign, it’s time to ramp it up a little bit. So, if you’re following along here and haven’t preordered yet, you will probably hear from me personally over the next few weeks. 

Thank you so much to those of you who have preordered so far, and thanks to all of you who are following along in the journey. A reminder that backers can enter a contest to win a $50 Amazon gift card on my Facebook page, so please enter if you haven’t already! And if you want a stab at winning that gift card, all you need to do is preorder, then like and share the post.

May all your adventures be fraught with wonder and just enough peril to keep them interesting, 

 K. M. Cooper