Hello to my favorite book backers- 

This week we hit 800 copies sold!

Sales usually go pretty quiet once pre-order campaign closes, but we’ve garnered a few orders in recent weeks as we ramp up to our official release of ’My Place Among Men’ August 6. All books ordered through July 20 will be signed by me before they ship to you. I may have to tape a pen to my fingers for the signature marathon. Happy to do that. 

A few of you are asking about address changes so here’s the how-to for all of you. If you’ve moved since you ordered ’My Place Among Men’ please update your address by July 20.
Login in to your Inkshares account
Click your icon in the top right corner
Choose ’Profile’
Click ’Account’
Choose ’Address’
Click ’Change Address’

We have a few more publishing steps during final design phase then we hit the presses. Thanks for your patience and your support through this whole book ordeal. 

Your wordsmith,
Kris Millgate
Tight Line Media

We are in “sit tight” mode, patiently waiting for the Inkshares editorial managers to pore over GOING, GOING, GONE! as if it’s a World Series roster, and emerge with editorial suggestions, and a publication schedule. I’ll soon be reaching out with personal emails to each of you who bought three or more books (If you’ve bought less than three, you can always buy more.). And please mention GOING, GOING, GONE! to every baseball fan you meet. Again, thanks so much for buying GOING, GOING, GONE! Hopefully we will have a lot of book-marketing fun in the aftermath of its publication.

Always feel free to email me: SteveHermanos@yahoo.com

www.SteveHermanos.com

Hey everyone,

You may have noticed that Beyond the Red Circle is now The Last Beacon. As I’m nearing the end of my first draft, it became clear to me that the latter was a more fitting title for this novel, and when you read the entire thing I hope you’ll see why. Not only does it evoke the lighthouse that is featured so prominently in the opening chapters, but it holds a deeper meaning for several of the characters.

I also wanted to let you know that I’ve completed 19 out of 22 chapters, and have recently uploaded revised versions of the sample chapters already available on Inkshares. The pre-order campaign should launch sometime this summer, so as always I humbly ask if you have a few moments could you please read what I have so far, leave a review on the site, and click the Share button to send to your Twitter and Facebook followers? Thanks so much in advance, and I can’t wait for you to dive deeper into The Last Beacon!

Sincerely,
Matt Farley

Greetings, from Hell,

A dreadfully quiet few months, I’ve been working on other projects. One, a short story which I am happy to say is being included in an upcoming anthology, more on that later.

Many things, personal and otherwise have left the bloodstained halls of Abaddon Temple unattended.

No more. The work has resumed. I’ve got some more for you. Very soon.

Meaner, with teeth, and an insatiable love for suffering.

Welcome to the end.

She’s waiting.

We did it. 751 copies. Expect a more thoughtful update when I’m lucid, but I just wanted to say Thank you! You made me a published author. You rule so hard. Hit me up about that coffee I owe you.

As I alluded to in the last update, there was a bit more work required on the outline after reviewing it with the publisher. After a couple more weeks of staring at the screen, frowning and jotting down notes, I was able to break out of outline jail. Getting back to the writing has been a joy. Nonetheless, the time spent on the outline helped me to really get to know the characters.

It’s still the same 1950s noir murder mystery with detective Jack Waters investigating the death of a scientist at Blakely Labs. However, there’s a stronger historical component this time around. There’s a new character Jordan Waters, Jack’s twin brother and partner in the detective agency. There are also some important new scenes that show the brothers back in Germany, 1945 at the liberation of the underground Mittelwerk factory. This is a pivotal scene that explains much about the characters and Waters’ connection to the dead scientist.

The outline has 70 scenes, some of which are explained in a paragraph, some are a half page or longer. Although revising the outline was difficult, it has made the writing process quite a bit easier. So far, there has only been one minor deviation from the outline and that was to delay one scene until after a couple of others. Generally speaking, unless I’m waiting for feedback, I’m writing 7 days a week. Sometimes it’s on an airplane, sometimes it’s late at night, but there are no days off. On a good day I can clock between 2,000 and 3,000 words. 

Currently, I’m about 42,000 words (roughly 150 pages double-spaced) into the new draft, or 42% of the way through the outline. At this rate, this draft should be complete by the end of June. The publisher asked me to do a check-in before getting too far, so I’ve submitted the completed portion of the manuscript. However the writing starts up again tomorrow morning. The next batch of scenes resume in 1950 at the site of the murder as Jack Waters learns more about what the scientists at Blakely Lab have been up to. As to be expected, it’s pretty dangerous stuff. And weird.  

Meanwhile I’m passing along a book for other aspiring writers called “Into the Woods: A Five-Act Journey Into Story” which I heard of on the British Podcast  “The Bestseller Experiment.”  This is a very well written analysis of story structure by BBC TV producer and script editor John Yorke. Unlike a lot of books on screenwriting, this is not a how-to formula. Instead he explains why certain structures are used and their impact on the story. 

Thank you everyone who has supported this project. I’ll keep you posted on progress in the coming months. Let me know if you have questions about the story or the process. 
—Zack   

For anyone seeking a bit of inspiration in their own writing, BXP is the best podcast I’ve found on writing: informative, entertaining and motivational. What more could you ask for? It’s the ongoing story of two middle-aged blokes in their quest to write and and publish a bestselling novel called “Back To Reality.” They’ve done some great interviews with a number of authors I admire, including Ian Rankin, Joe Hill, Michael Connelly, Taylor Jenkin-Reid and more.

Hello to all of our backers,

**Breaking News**

We have an exciting update for supporters of The Wildlife Confessional - this week Inkshares notified us that they have assigned us a copy editor and the first round of editing is underway. That means we should be getting a production schedule and a formal publication date for the anthology in the next few weeks. 

Right now, we are looking at a tentative late August / early September publication date, well in time for the holidays!

Thank you *all* for your patience and support seeing this project through to fruition. We will continue to update you as the project falls into place, and look forward to putting a book in your hands this fall.

Today Showtime hit another big milestone: 300 copies pre-ordered! I was hoping to reach 300 by this upcoming Friday, so a couple days earlier than hoped for is an unexpected (but welcome) surprise. Thanks to everyone who has ordered over the past couple weeks to get it there. I’m a little behind in my thank-yous so if you haven’t received a personal note, e-mail, or message from me, stay tuned! Your support and generosity has not gone unnoticed, I promise.

In other news, Inkshares has also agreed to another 30 day extension. The new end date is now June 21st. Depending on how the upcoming month goes in terms of sales, this may be the final time I ask for extra time. If pre-orders continue to come in, I could see the benefit of extending; however, if orders start to dry up, I’ll know it has come to its natural end date.

So now more than ever, would you consider ordering another copy—or persuading someone you know to order? Order one for your cousin Jimmy, your great-aunt Hilda, or the ghost in your attic. Maybe even the stray dog that’s been digging through your trash (they deserve books, too). Order one in honor of my squeaky clean, no-cavity dentist visit this morning. Or the series finale of The Big Bang Theory tomorrow night. Or maybe you’re prone to sleep-buying things. That’d be cool, too.

Like I said before, 750 orders is the goal but it’s not the requirement. Shout out to Leo Valiquette who, fifteen days ago, received a publication contact for his novel, Bane of All Things with 438 pre-orders. Leo’s campaign is proof that publication is possible with a sizeable amount of pre-orders, the support of enthusiastic readers, and a polished, ready-to-go manuscript. Looking back, Inkshares has also published books that hit: 277 orders, 183 orders, 251 orders, 278 orders, 339 orders, and others with less than 750. So for anyone seeing my progress bar half-full and thinking, What’s the point of ordering now?—it’s still possible!

Thanks again to everyone who has continued to support and order, read and share, and for sticking around just a liiiiiiitle while longer.

Ricky

P.S. For fun, here’s some Showtime stats (because when are stats not fun?):

Copies ordered: 300
Followers: 245
Ranking of reviewed "funding" books: #1
Days left: 37
People bothered: 7,004

Hey, y’all. Quick update. I got another proof back, but it was full of formatting errors for the quotation marks on certain bits of dialogue. I am going through, quote by quote, and marking them for correction. I hope to turn it around, today. Amazingly, this sort of fine-tooth combing seems to take as much, if not more, time than writing a book. Excelsior.