Hey all,

Been awhile. Sorry for the, uh, "conservative" backer updates.

I am not, for the record, lying dead in a gutter, presidential protests trampling my lifeless body, hand still clutching the rain and blood soaked pages of IN BETA. Nor am I in Tijuana, peeling off green leaves of Inkshare backer money to buy another round for the Los Locos biker gang.

I am working diligently on IN BETA, every day, and I’ve finally crossed the halfway point! As I mentioned forever ago, I originally wrote IN BETA as a feature film. I found early on, though, that the comedy and action from the script didn’t feel right for a novel. It reminded me of that novelization of Terminator 2 I read in back in fourth grade, which I didn’t enjoy even as a fourth grader, and would be embarrassed to hand over to you.

So there have been a few radical departures in the story to make it work. For instance, instead of Seattle, I moved the setting to a rural high school in the Cascade Mountains. This works better for a number of reasons, primarily because I can better draw on my own high school experience (fun times), and because a microcosm seems to help ground things and make the premise a little more believable. Gives it kind of a Truman Show-vibe. I’m watching Westworld, and yeah there are some similarities there, too (though much lighter in tone).

Thanks again for your patience everyone, and your support. This has been a lot of work, and a lot of fun, and I think you’ll get a kick out of it, once it’s ready.

TLDR; Good book. Coming along. Promise me be better re: updates.

In Beta is gonna be the perfect book for those who’ve always wanted to drastically change their world. I can’t wait to read it.

Awesome, thanks Bryn. I’ll definitely take another crack at the intro and I’ll take a close look at those paragraphs.

hey, I think this prologue generally works, but the first two paragraphs could be a bit more interesting.  Just my thoughts, but otherwise I love this book, and once I get some spare money at the end of the month, am going to make this my 2nd ever purchase at inshares.

I’ve revised the prologue of IN BETA to align with the deeper rewrite I’ve been doing. I think it’s better, but I’d love to hear feedback. You can find it here:

https://www.inkshares.com/books/in-beta/book_segments/prologue-012c6e

I’ll continue to post content that I’m marginally happy with :)

Okay, whew. I ran out last Friday to pick up my son, and then we left for a camping trip. I didn’t get the chance to do proper thank yous, so here it goes:

A huge, huge thank you to my supporters. It was amazing on Friday at 11:30 am to have people come out of the woodwork and push me into 2nd place. I absolutely could not have done it without you all. Thanks to my wife for finding this contest and encouraging me to enter. And thanks to all the Harveys and the Clearys and the Mills who bit their nails alongside us. Thank you to Simon Winchester, Brian Baldwin, Sean Garcia, Hannah Davis, and Ryan Weilert. In the end, it was your willpower that won me 2nd place. I’m in awe of all of you.

Great work to everyone else in the competition. There was some serious talent I was competing against. Alisa King ran a fierce campaign. Congrats to Peter Ryan, who really does seem like a genuinely nice guy. I can’t wait to read Too Many Controllers. And as I’ve said before, Andrew Fantasia is a great writer. I hope his novel Sidescroller gets funded so we can all give it a read. I also want to give a shout-out to G.A. Finocchiaro and his book Knightmares. He helped me a ton, and his book looks awesome. 

So what’s next? Sweeping changes. I’ll soon be deleting the prologue that’s up on Inkshares. Years ago, I had written IN BETA as a feature film. At the start of this contest, I was simply adapting the film into novel form. The farther I went down that path, the more I realized I wasn’t excited about a book that followed the rigid formula of a Hollywood comedy. So during this contest, I made significant revisions to IN BETA’s setting and plot. The concept and the characters are the same, but I’ve moved the locale from Seattle, WA to a rural town in the Cascades. The setting works better for a number of reasons. If anyone is interested in the mechanics of "why", ask and I’ll happily distract myself from writing by geeking out over my decisions. Otherwise, just satisfy yourself with the knowledge that I’m not content to deliver a shit novel.

I’m very excited about IN BETA, and I can’t wait to share the new prologue with the world. Thanks everyone for this amazing opportunity. I’ll try to be regular with my updates, and I’ll let you know the timeline of this process once I figure that out.

Congrats, @Prescott! Super stoked to read In Beta!

Well done Prescott!

Guys! Insane support in the zero hour. 

That was an incredible finish for the number two spot. I’m bouncing off the walls right now. I could not have done it without you guys, thank you all SO SO much. I will keep you all posted on what happens next. 

But right now, I have to throw pants on, do a celebratory tequila shot, and then go pick up my son from school!

CHEERS!!!

Last call! Order IN BETA now or, uh, pick it up in bookstores later (hopefully). The Nerdist video game contest ends tomorrow, and it’s been a helluva ride. I’ll be glad to quit hustling and return to churning out the video game-themed hilarity.