Dear friends

How’s 2017 treating you so far? For me, the last couple of months have been an interesting time of struggle and opportunity. I won’t bore you with details of my up and downs, but I do want to share the lesson I learned.

Pouring your entire soul into what you love is essential to achieve your dreams, but also essential is to be kind to yourself. At some point in the last two years, in between attempting to write three novels, holding a full-time job and trying to launch a writing career, I stopped listening to my body. As a result, my physical and mental health declined to a point in which I was not able to do any of the things I love. I couldn’t run the New York City Marathon, and I didn’t finish writing Bad Medicine: Slay it Queen!

Fear not, this is not a sad update. This update is about discovery and opportunity. I’m not the kind of guy who makes New Year resolutions, but this year I made one: I will be kind and patient with myself and with others. I will tune out the negative noise that surrounds us and walk the road that leads to my dreams with no rush.

I have many projects and ideas that I’m excited about. Worlds Walker is done, and Bad Medicine will be a scary and hysterical ride. My hope is to deliver the manuscript to the patience folks at Inkshares sometime in the spring. I also have a stack of short stories that I will be releasing for free on Amazon Kindle starting in March.

I’ve been reminded through this struggle that my goal was never to become a famous writer. That my goal was not for The Catcher’s Trap to be turned into a movie or sell a million copies. My goal is to share the stories swirling in my brain. My dream is for those stories to find people who connect with them and enjoy them. Many of you have reached out to me to tell me how much you enjoyed The Catcher’s Trap, for me, that’s winning.

So here’s to a great year ahead of us. A year of creativity, magical thinking and kindness.

As always, let’s end this update with wisdom from my favorite hero

One more update, and then I promise I will give your inbox a break. It has been a fast moving day and a half.

The Walls are Closing In was just selected as this month’s pick for the Thriller Night Syndicate on Inkshares.

Syndicates are made up of Inkshares members that pool together to support one book a month, and this month they selected my book. I am incredibly honored and grateful for the boost that this will give my campaign.

You will now see this lovely badge underneath the title on the page for The Walls are Closing In.

43 orders in just over 24 hours! Thank you to everyone who has preordered so far!

It’s Alive!!!! The Walls are Closing In pre-order campaign is here! You can now read chapter two and three and pre-order your copy today!

I am overwhelmed by the reception that I have received for this book so far. I guess that many of us, myself included, are feeling the drive to support artistic reactions to the political turbulence that is spreading the globe. I began this book over a year ago (when the reality we are currently experiencing didn’t yet seem probable), and it started as a clearly fictional story exploring an alternative history. As the election cycle wore on, the plot continued to shift. Now, it’s poignancy becomes more apparent each day, and it is with bitter sweetness that I fine tune the words. This book simply represents my imagination’s answer to some of the many "what ifs."

Only about ten percent of my followers so far are people that I know out in the real world, and the rest are strangers who have not hesitated to provide support with open arms. This, in itself, has solidified my decision to use the reader-driven publisher, Inkshares, to get this book off the ground. The sense of community is unrivaled in the publishing world and the ability to garner feedback by those who resonate with the story is priceless. In the coming weeks, the book will be highlighted on various YouTube shows and blogs. I will be sharing those links as they become live.

The goal is to presell 750 copies before April 13th, which will get The Walls are Closing In full publishing and marketing rights, ensuring that it will appear in bookstores, receive full developmental and line editing, undergo professional book cover design, and be represented for television and movie rights. Ebooks are $10, and print copies are $20. Keep in mind that this is a campaign for a publishing contract, and the book will still need to go through the full publishing process, which you can read more about here.

I will be offering a few milestone perks as the campaign wears on! Below are the first three:

100 - Be one of the first 100 unique readers to order The Walls are Closing In, and you will be entered for the chance to have a minor character named after you! Or, alternately you can select the name of the character. Two winners will be chosen!

200- I will upload Chapter 3.

300 - I will share a new novel trailer, complete with mild teasers.

Thank you again for your incredible support. It is appreciated more than you know.

If, by chance, you want to do more to help, read on...

For those that are willing, there are numerous ways to help me reach my pre-order goal. Every little bit helps a great deal!

1) The greatest way to help, the method that has been shown to produce the best results, would be to select five to ten people that you know who would like this book (I think we all know those who would, and would not, like this book), and personally tell them about the book via email. Invite them to read the material that is up, and personally invite them to offer their support if they like what they read.

2) Share the information for my novel on any of your social networks (there are share buttons on my book’s page), tagging those who you think would be interested. Share updates, reviews the book has received, the link to my novel trailer, and/or share interviews and youtube links as they become available.

3) Become a backer for the book (pre-order 3 or more print copies, and receive your name in the back of the book).

4) Leave a recommendation on Inkshares if you notice that the novel has slipped off the front page of the site. Providing a recommendation places The Walls are Closing In under the "Recommended by Inkshares Readers" section on the front page of the website, thereby increasing exposure.

5) Nominate The Walls are Closing In if you happen to be a member of an Inkshares Syndicate. Syndicates members all pool together to support one book a month.

6)Send me any and all ideas that you have for getting this book 750 preorders!

Hang tight readers. There is an internal error that I am getting resolved, and then will send out the official launch email!

Hey it’s that anniversary update I was talking about!

It’s now a year (more or less) since Ghosts of War successfully finished it’s funding campaign. Now I know you’re all probably wondering the same thing...

’Dude...it’s been a year....where’s the book?’

A valid question. No doubt. But the last year has been good to Ghosts. It’s a rather different book to where it was at this time last year. For one: it’s finished. At just over 106,000 words, 32 chapters and maybe north of 400 pages, it’s boiled itself down to a story that I’m really rather proud of. Now I say that as it’s author, and the only one who knows how it ends, but I’m quietly confident you’ll like it too (please like it...O_O).

’Yeah, no but for reals...how much longer?’

Not long. I’ve come to realise you can only revise things so much, and at some point you just have to leave it be. As such, I’m currently going through the final polish and tidy up on the current draft and that will be done by the end of January. At that point, I will hand it off to a few beta readers to get their thoughts and then it will be onto the final, final edits.

From there I’ll hand it over to Inkshares (tentatively by the start of March), and it’s generally then around 16 weeks until Pub Day. So, all going well, it should be in your hands by the middle of the year.

’Got anything for us now though?’

I do actually. If you head over here ---->;;;;;;;;;;; CLICK ME

But wait...there’s more...

Chapter 2 has been updated too! Nowhere near as extensively though, I think I only added about 30 words. Most of it was just grammar/punctuation fixes. But it’s still new...kinda.

Chapters 3-8 will be updated over the next week too, so keep an eye out.

Now it wouldn’t be a Ghosts update if I didn’t close with a gif. So...

Until next time.

CAMPERS!

Sunshine is Forever’s Inkshares page now has a status bar so that you can follow the book on its road to publication. As you can see, the official release date for Sunshine is Forever is August 14, 2017! I can’t wait for you to hold the book in your hands!

Keep spreading the word and ask your friends to preorder as well! The final cover and final sample chapters are coming soon!

Kyle T. Cowan

Dear Fans of the Assasin, Earlier this week I signed all the pre-ordered paper copies of Tears of the Assassin. Today I shipped them back to California for distribution on the publication date of Feb. 7th.  I gotta tell ya, it was really cool to see my book in print.  To hold in my hands the cover, the words, the story, it was very gratifying.  I know I have all of you to thank for that surreal experience of book building culmination!.  With gratitude and appreciation, I thank you for your support.  I would also appreciate it if you would check out my Willian Schiele Facebook page.  Thanks

Hello, readers! 

I hope that by now, you will have had a notification in your inbox of something exciting: Witherfist has officially gone into ’production’. What does this mean? It doesn’t mean that the book will start printing and shipping immediately, but it does mean that Inkshares have committed to producing and distributing the books to you all. You can read more about the Quill imprint, which Witherfist has joined, on Inkshares blog.

So what’s happening now? Well, currently, I’m working on writing the book! In May, I’ll be giving the manuscript to my editor for evaluation. Some time after that, I’ll hand it over to Inkshares - who will, in their own time, deliver the book to you. I can’t be any more specific with when at this stage because I haven’t even begun to have that discussion with Inkshares, but I will certainly keep you updated as and when I have more to share. 

Barring any unusual happenings, I’ll send you all an update on a monthly basis. In the meanwhile, if you have any questions, please do get in touch.

~ Jenny

Greetings.

This morning Facebook reminded me that it is 1 year today since Ghosts of War successfully finished it’s funding campaign. This is actually mildly awkward because I thought it was the 13th...not the 11th...

So, while I don’t have anything for you today, on Friday (the 13th....oooOOOooo...spoopy) I will have a nice, proper, full of info update. 

So yes, today may be the anniversary, but the party is on Friday.