Hello everyone!

It’s been a while since my last update and I have lots of news!

First, the developmental edits are done. This was a massive job I’ve been tackling for the last 5 weeks that even involved me taking two weeks off work and doing nothing else for the entire time. I’m happy to say the time was well spent and the book has improved in leaps and bounds. My amazing developmental editor gave me lots of work that mostly involved adding in more of pretty much everything and making sure the story and wording were clear. Usually editors recommend cutting chapters, characters or even entire story arcs at this stage, so being asked to do the opposite was a very positive sign!

I’ve uploaded the most recent versions of the sample chapters onto my Inkshares page for anyone who’s curious about the changes. We still have copy editing to get through and then proofreading so these samples will get polished up a little more yet before going to print.

Second, the publication date has been pushed back to May 30th, 2017. There were a number of production and marketing reasons for the change. But the positive side of it is I got a couple extra weeks to work on developmental editing and a slightly more relaxed schedule for the following stages.

And finally, I should have a couple early versions of my book cover back from the cover designer around September 15th which I will be sure to send out to gauge everyone’s opinion!

Thank you all for your continued patience and support! The Bones of the Past is well on its way and it’s going to be awesome!

 Cheers!

It’s the weekend - a long weekend for US readers - and I’m happy to share that Witherfist now has 45 preorders! Thanks also to the authors of Sparked for becoming the 45th reader.

The figure puts us within sight of our first major milestone: 50 preorders. As I mentioned in a previous update, I’ll be having an art-related giveaway once we reach that magical five-oh. 

Please continue to share Witherfist with people you know. Your support has been fantastic so far, and I know that I can count on you all to continue spreading the word. 

~ Jenny

Hey you beautiful people!

We are still bouncing back and forth between 5th and 6th this week. Right now we have 94 Unique Readers and we need 23 more Unique Readers to pre-order in order to get into the Top 3. The gap is widening, but I’m not going to be disheartened by it. As much as winning this contest would open a lot of life-changing doors or as much as I think my book is worth making it into the Top 3, it is definitely a matter of how many people you know and  I’ve almost reached the end of my network. I have a lot of maybe’s on the fence, but not 23 of them. I desperately need your help.

I can’t repay you with pre-orders, because I don’t have the monetary means to do that. But I can repay you with graphic design work like cover art, bookmark design, fliers, etc (excluding illustrated work). I can also repay you with recommendations and reviews on your work. Just message me! 

Anyway! Onward to some cool things. How would you like some history about one of the main characters? 

KELEIR AHRIMAN

Keleir was born cursed with the soul of a Rauke at war with his own. A Rauke is a creature forged from the excess matter left over at the birth of a universe, and can only exist by taking a human child as a host. Like all children born with a Rauke, Keleir was surnamed Ahriman, which means darkness. From the time he was born, until he turned five, his village tortured him in the hopes that it would save him from his curse, but it ended up unleashing another, more terrible one instead. He killed his father and brought a Blood Curse upon himself, which allowed the Rauke control. He fled and was taken in by the Adrid army, where he fought for them and earned the bloody reputation: Lifesbane. For thirteen years the Rauke was in control of Keleir’s body until Saran found a way to give his consciousness the reins again. Keleir has spent the last five years atoning for his sins by helping the rebellion he almost crushed and fighting to keep the Rauke at bay. Keleir Ahriman is a Fire Mage.

Second treat: A short, old bit of writing I did a few years ago |Click Here|. 

Next week I’ll have another character profile up and another random bit of writing for you to enjoy. Have a great weekend guys! 

Witherfist has a website. It may be small, but it’s there: http://www.witherfist.co.uk/

Check it out. Add it to your bookmarks. Make it your home page, if you like. I’ll be working to add content to the site over the weekend, so expect to see artwork, lore and more available on the site. Of course, I’ll be sharing all of that same content here on Inkshares with readers, but the website will be a handy place  to aggregate content and also make it easier to point potential readers offline towards this little corner of the internet.

Speaking of readers, there are 43 of you now. 43 readers! 

Sorry for bombarding you with updates. It’s a huge day, with lots happening. We promise you won’t be getting messages from us on an hourly basis soon! Just wanted to share that SPARKED is now 10th place, in the top 10 for the Geek&Sundry fantasy contest. We are super excited by this development! Every preorder advances us in this contest. We SO appreciate the support that got us this far, and hope to keep this amazing momentum going. The book IS a contemporary fantasy. You have to read on before things start getting weird--but believe us, they do! (Hopefully that’s a good thing, depending on your taste!)