Is everyone having a lovely Friday!?

Unlike most of my recent updates, this one is just going out to the backers and followers of The Seclusion on Inkshares. I just wanted to send a brief check-in message to all of you, my original support team!

The book has now been out for two months, and a one pretty major thing happened recently that I wanted to share with everyone. The Seclusion received an official ’Starred Review’ from Kirkus Reviews! This is in addition to being named as one of the Best Sci-Fi releases back in September.  These are both wonderful benchmarks for a new book from a first-time author. It wouldn’t have happened without all of you, and we hope to have more exciting news in the coming weeks and months.

Reviews continue to climb on Amazon and Goodreads. We are at a 4.26 star average with 111 reviews on Goodreads, and a 4.9 average with 39 reviews on Amazon! If you have had a chance to read the book, and have not left a review yet, it would mean the world to me if you could take a moment to leave a review. It is absolutely vital to the continued success of the book now that the ’new release’ energy is wavering. Especially on Amazon. Once we pass 50 on Amazon (only 11 more reviews!) the book will receive a bit more recommendation love from the sites algorithms.

I hope those of you that have had a chance to read the book, have enjoyed it! I appreciate all of you, and if you ever want to reach out with any comments or questions, I would love to hear from you -  JacquiCastle@gmail.com

Hope everyone has a beautiful weekend!

-Jacqui

November 2018

Good morning, everyone.

I hope you’ve been well! We’re a little past one month since Shadow King launched and it has been quite the ride. I had two successful book signing/author events in October and hope to have more in the future. Right now, I’m planning to be at Arisia in January (in Boston). I’ll keep you posted on that.

I was also interviewed by WBZ-AM Radio’s Laurie Kirby for her Women’s Watch segment. You can listen to the interview on the WBZ website if you’re interested.

IMPORTANT:
 If you were one of my early backers and have not yet received your copy of Shadow King OR a link to download the e-book (or both), please contact Inkshares customer service at hello@inkshares.com and they will be able to help you out.

I’ve had a few people ask about their copies -- in most cases, people thought they ordered a hard copy but only ordered the e-book version. But you were all so kind as to support me early on in this adventure, I want to make sure you get your book!

Have a great weekend - and I’ll update again soon (I have two other interviews coming up and will share those links when they’re available!)

Best,
Susan

Hello readers,

To my surprise and delight, Grimalkin rose to 3rd in its first week as an entrant in the 2018 Inkshares Horror Contest, but it’s down to 4th. I’d love your help in pushing it back into the top 3. To those of you who have already pre-ordered Grimalkin, thanks so much for your support. Also, Chapter 5 is now available to read and delves into the question of what’s scarier: mean girls or bloody squirrels?

https://www.inkshares.com/books/grimalkin

https://www.inkshares.com/books/grimalkin/book_segments/chapter-5-69b581

Hi, readers!

Guess what? I have AWESOME news! The Fairy Stepmother Inc. has a release date. It’s...dun dun DUN...December 11th! That’s right, it’s really soon! And in time for the holidays!

Actually, if you ordered an ebook, it’s even sooner. Digital copies will be available on November 30th. There’s a good reason for this that really helps me. One of the best ways for my book to be seen on Amazon and other retailers is for it to get some good reviews. So if you ordered a digital copy, you’ll get it in time to read it and maybe leave me a good review on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Goodreads. If you enjoy the book (and aren’t, like, my mom or dad--sorry, Mom and Dad), I would so, so appreciate some stars and some good words. If you’ve taken a chance on a book from Amazon, you probably know how reviews help you make a decision. I’d love to be one of the books that makes it into the "Other customers liked..." section.

This also means that it’s a SUPER APPROPRIATE time to make sure your mailing address is correct. Sign in on Inkshares with the email and password you used when you bought the book, and in the upper corner of the screen there should be a little circular icon with a picture. Click on that, and the dropdown menu should have a line that says mailing address. Unfortunately, I can’t look up what address you have on file, but if you have trouble, you can email hello@inkshares.com. Their customer service is super nice and super helpful.

You can still order copies if you’d like! Just pop over to 

https://www.inkshares.com/books/the-fairy-stepmother-inc-

And while you’re there, check out our official cover art! It’s shiny and pretty!

Thanks so much for your support. You’ve all made it possible for me to say I’m an author!

Best,

Maggie

Welcome to November. The days are noticeably shorter now, and the trees are beginning to shed their red and gold. Tomorrow is Guy Fawkes Day in the UK; a week from now, Remembrance Day or Veterans Day or Armistice Day, depending on where you are. And for writers, it’s National Novel Writing Month, embraced by many as a means of getting themselves in gear to get the first drafts of their story down on the page.

I’ve stepped away from my outlining and begun putting words on paper, too. I’ve learnt a lot since "A Gentleman’s Murder", and I expect the process now to go significantly more smoothly than before. I expect to see "Cat’s Paw" published by November 2019, if this contest works out. And whether the contest works out for me depends heavily on you.

I hope you’re telling your friends about this.

For me, though, it’s back to hitting the keyboard -- sometimes literally. The important thing, after all, is the creation of the story, and the plan is to make it all definitely worth your while.

Cheers,

- Christopher Huang

Remembrance Day, 11 November, is a week away now. I believe I mentioned last week that this will mark the 100th anniversary of the WW1 armistice. I don’t know if there’s much I could say in an update that hasn’t already been said better in an editorial, so here’s a picture from my last visit to Bristol:

This was taken in May this year. And that’s how it should be. Whatever we remember on 11 November, I hope we do not forget on 12 November.

For those of you who are in the Montreal area, I will be joining five other mystery writers next Saturday, 10 November, from 10am to 6pm, at the Chapters Pointe Claire (6321 Transcanadienne) for a day of readings, signings, Q&A, and general discussions of all things fictionally criminal. Come join us: Michael Kent, Katherine Prairie, Jim Napier, Barbara Fradkin, Robin Harlick, and me.

Meanwhile, on Inkshares news, consider checking out "Ruining Boise" and "Ripe for Execution", two very strong and dedicated contenders in the Mystery & Thriller contest. The first concerns a single father who turns to burglary in a desperate bid to keep his family going; a grim situation, yet I get the idea that it’ll be thoroughly laced with black humour. The second concerns the hunt for a terrorist who demands the reinstatement of the death penalty in the UK; check out the author’s reading of the first chapter, here, for a better idea of what it’s all about.

And finally, of course, is a reminder to check out "Cat’s Paw", my second novel, which is still in its Inkshares funding campaign. Your support is always appreciated. Thank you.

Hey Fans, Followers, and Fungi,

That one’s for you, Coop. When I was a youngster, we gave everyone nicknames. I still do, so if you don’t have yours yet, just let me know and we’ll get on that.

Ruining Boise update. Haven’t spent a lot of time with it, work is out of control, but I’ve been exploring themes and using Scrivener to create character sketches, map location scenes and capture ideas. This is new to me. I use Scrivener to write—love it as a writing tool—but mostly was blank paging it. My thought is to develop this as far as I can so it becomes a repeatable process to produce an outline to guide the writing. This is the current arrangement, inspired by Mike, that we thought might connect two stubborn authors into an effective collaboration. And to avoid bloodshed. Unless that’s what you really want…I think Mike’s been taking karate…

This is what I’m doing while waiting for the MINE manuscript to come back from my personal editor before sending it back to the Inkshares editor. If anyone out there needs the services of a professional dev editor, reach out. Mine (hehe) is a superstar. The Inkshares editor ain’t no slouch neither. Two superstars for the price of one!

I’m going to start with the opener, storyboard it. I like to jump right into the action, and have an idea for that allows for a lot of showing not telling of the situation...I’ll be sending that to Mike when it’s more fleshy, but don’t want to distract him either, as he’s engaged in writing his 2nd pass on PrOOF, so it may not come for a while. The point is, I’m dabbling with this story line, sketching it around the edges, and if we don’t realize any payoff with this current promotion, we shall return.

Want to mention a few authors who’ve been supportive with a shout out.

Celso’s paranormal novel in the Horror Contest deserves a look

https://www.inkshares.com/books/the-ghost-tracks

Go watch Chip’s reading of his first chapter. I want to hire this guy to read MINE

https://www.inkshares.com/books/ripe-for-execution

Durena Burns memoir. This book deserves more attention, IMO

https://www.inkshares.com/books/we-re-the-whiteheads

Nick’s entry in the Horror Contest, who doesn’t love a snipe hunt?

https://www.inkshares.com/books/snipe-hunt-639c7f

Hope you all enjoyed a wonderfully horrifying Halloween!

Dean

This message is approved by the Dean Fearce+Mike Welch collaboration machine

https://www.inkshares.com/dean-fearce-michael-welch