Patient, patient backers,

I’m in the final phase of writing IN BETA. This is the part where I connect rogue story threads, thumb through my Thesaurus, and cut the boring stuff.

Before I turn chapters over to be edited, I’d appreciate your eyes. If you have time, please be my ‘beta’ readers (heh). Take a look at what I’ve posted so far. It’s under the ‘read’ tab on my IN BETA page. Let me know what drags and what doesn’t make sense. Sneak a peek at the last 1.75 years of my life, before it turns into a paperback.

This last phase is moving swiftly, so I’ll be posting chapters as I finish them. Expect a new one every two days or so. Once everything is posted and I’ve received you notes, I’ll hand the manuscript over to Inkshares. The rest is in someone’s—possibly God’s—hands.

Thank you again for your patience. I look forward to your thoughts and feedback. 

Prescott

Friends, Readers, and Sorcerers All,

First off, an apology. A few readers had issues with the Kindle files that went out last week. The Inkshares team quickly fixed the problem, and new e-files will be sent to everyone later today. 

Secondly, books are being printed! There was a slight snafu with the covers so physical copies will be shipping the week of October 17. This has been a tricky book to format and finish, so again, our apologies for the delay. I think you’ll be happy with the finished product, though. 

To thank you for your patience, we’ve put together a special treat that will be included with your physical book when it ships. (Extra thanks to our illustrator Juliane, who did all the work.) Here it is:

Once you read the book, you’ll get the full significance of this bookmark. For now, I’ll just say there’s a secret code on it that’s key to our heroes finding the Codex Arcanum bookstore.

Finally, we’ve had some more great reviews! GeekMom praised the "compelling, engaging characters" and said you should "plan on reading the book twice." Nivi really got the spirit of what we were going for, and this is my favorite review so far.

Also, Ohio.com gave us a nice shout-out, calling the illustrations "refreshing" and the story "exciting and humorous." 

Hard to believe it, but we’re one week away from our first book events! Both Juliane and I will be at the Westlake, OH Barnes & Noble on Friday, October 13 at 7 PM EST, and at Magic Tree Books in Oak Park, IL on Saturday, October 14 at 4PM CST. If you’re in the area, we’d love to see you!

Thank you all again for your support and patience. Keep posting those reviews and pics of the book on social media, it means a lot to us!

mh

See you tomorrow Albuquerque! 

Thank you to Adrian Gomez at the Albuquerque Journal for doing an article about my signing at Barnes and Noble Coronado in Albuquerque tomorrow at 2PM. I hope to see some of you there! Share the article with this link: https://www.abqjournal.com/1073668/sunshine-is-forever-a-poignant-story-about-youthful-depression.html

Thanks everyone! 

Kyle T. Cowan

To all of you who’ve already been such great supporters of my upcoming debut novel, "Skavenger’s Hunt," I’m happy to say we’re closing in on the finish line. Everything’s good-to-go for our November 14th pre-holiday-season release date, with the printer about to push the button on our very first round of books. Today’s update, though, is one I’ve been looking forward to sending your way for quite awhile now, because I get to give you the first-ever look at the last component of the book itself: Will Staehle’s flat-out amazing cover. 

You’ve seen the front cover for awhile now; which, in my opinion, was so good we could have simply placed a blank cover on the back and we would have been okay. But, no surprise, Will reached into his bag of designing talent and pulled out a SECOND image that staggered me: a silhouette time-traveling image of the story’s main character, young Henry Babbitt, tumbling through an hour-glass from present-day New York on Christmas Eve, into summer-drenched New York from long ago. July 10th, 1885, to be exact, where the lion’s share of the adventurous story takes place.

Will - I’m grateful to you for giving my first book such a fantastic look. I’m dead-honest when I say it’s one of the best book covers I’ve seen in a long, long time, and I’m beyond thankful that it’s on mine. Thanks to Adam Gomolin who had the intuition to bring Will onboard. Thanks as well to Oscar-winning producer Mark Johnson, to the Wibberleys (writers of the film "National Treasure") and to Ocean’s 13 writer Brian Koppelman (creator of Showtime’s "Billions") for their incredible blurbs in support of the project. 

To all of you, the early backers of "Skavenger’s Hunt," stay tuned as we approach that November 14th release date, because I’ll be out pushing the book every opportunity I can get. And a special thanks to Inkshares marketing wiz Angela Melamud for helping spread the word. We’ll keep everyone posted on the when-and-where of bookstore reading-and-signing events. 

Until then, hope you enjoy this look at Will’s cover, which you’ll be holding in your hands just a few weeks from now. The "Hunt" is about to begin...

Updates, Faoii! Listen up! You’re going to like these!

The Last Faoii becomes an officially launched book in just a few hours. In that moment, it will be widely available to anyone who wants to hear our tale, and you will have the opportunity to rate/review it on Amazon. Take the opportunity. We’ve already fought tooth and nail to take this hill, and I promised you a year ago that the world will know us. This is how that happens. We’ve fought too hard and come too far for The Last Faoii to be completely lost in the sea of novels already out there. Hitting those little stars is the only way to build our island in that sea. And we won’t just build an island. We will raise a mountain, Faoii, and our banner will stand at its peak. We have conquered every obstacle that’s come before. We will not stop now.

Other things are happening as well, of course. In an attempt to spread the word, I did an interview with Jessie’s Coffee Shop this evening. I will admit, my warriors, that I was nervous at first, and it shows at the very beginning of the set. Get through those first four minutes, however, and things go smoother. There’s a lot of interesting information packed away in there and I hope you find it of at least some interest.

Faoii-Kaiya, too, has been busy. She did her own interview for The Protagonist Speaks earlier tonight. Look through that as well and see what our young leader has to say about her world, her journey, and our army. Get to know the woman that started all of this.

It’s all finally happening, Faoii. I could not have done this without you. And I still can’t. More is coming. Be ready.

Shields Up.

Faoii-Tahani

Dear followers,

This is just to update you on the progress of "Everything is Normal." Last 2 months saw heavy developmental editing: the editor and I advanced the main themes and trough-lines of the book. That also included lots and lots of restructuring and writing 3 entirely new chapters.

But the most painful thing was cutting. We ended up decreasing the original manuscript by 25% or by 34,000 words. (This is more than the entire "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory".) Ouch!

Now that this stage is over, copy editing will start. Also, designers have finalized the cover for the book (below). A lot of clever marketing has gone into it. Inkshares has set the official release date for the book for March 6.

I will keep you posted. And thank you all very much again for your support.

 Regards,

 Sergey

Friends, Readers, and Sorcerers All,

Hey Campers,