Well, friends, the campaign has ended and we didn’t meet our goals. If you pre-ordered a copy you should be receiving a refund shortly.
It is with a heavy heart that I write this update, but I am proud of what has been accomplished since this started way back in February.
I’ve written short stories, poetry and songs for nearly as long as I could write and even before I knew how to play an instrument. I have always wanted to write novels, but wasn’t sure I could pull it off and was always afraid of failing. I finally put aside that fear earlier this year and decided to try and take one of the plethora of the novel ideas bouncing around in my skull and make it into a reality. I attribute a lot of that courage from my incredibly supportive spouse and a couple of mentors in the English department at school who pushed me to reach for something more. What I began working on was a fantasy novel, but I quickly switched gears when the Nerdist Space Opera contest began. I took a character I had made up when I was in high school and was enamored with Emma Peel, James Bond and retro-science fiction serials and put her center stage.
When the contest began I had a rough idea of the story and all of its beats, but barely enough to make a full novel. I asked one of my best friends, a professional graphic designer, if she could create a cover for me and I began the truthfully draining process of trying to promote a book I hadn’t really finished yet. This was always the part I dreaded, the self-promotion part, but despite my social anxiety issues I went door-to-door pushing my novel, went to comic book stores and coffee shops, messaged every single person on my Facebook friend’s list, began building up a Twitter following, did interviews for podcasts and local news and networked with a lot of brilliant authors throughout Inkshares and Goodreads. The solidarity with my fellow authors is what helped me push forward the most and it is something I’m going to continue cultivating. It really helps to know you’re not alone in this endeavor and that authors of all levels of success and experience are willing to lend a hand or ear when it’s needed.
I lingered around 19th place in the contest, pretty respectable considering there were nearly a hundred submissions. When it was over, I put the aggressive marketing on hold and worked hard on completing a more polished draft. By the time I had asked for my first extension I had finished the second draft clocking in at about 75,000 words. I can tell you now, that all of the work I’ve put into this book has not been done in vain and despite the outcome of the campaign, I’m still going to continue to polish this book until it is the best it can be.
I’m not going to sit here and tell you what I think I did wrong or what wasn’t enough. That’s self-defeating and I call this a near-success, not a failure. Ending with 119 pre-orders out of 250 is not bad at all. What I will tell you is that while I continue to fine tune my novel (and the aforementioned fantasy novel) my role on Inkshares and Goodreads is going to be more cheerleader rather than self-promoter. There are still a lot of great authors out there trying to meet their goals and I encourage you to give them a look and help them get where I couldn’t. This is not the end for me or To Live and Die in Avalon by a long shot. My only plan right now is to finish the best version of the book possible before I decide what to do with it next.
I’d now like to acknowledge some of the Inkshares authors who showed their support for me and I encourage you to look them up, follow what they’re doing and help them reach their goals. Or at the very least, be the cheerleader for them that they’ve been for me:
Michael Haase
Tony Valdez
RH Webster
Billy O’Keefe
Eric H. Heisner
Stephen Carignan
Joseph Asphahani
Thomas J. Arnold
Nell Walton
Mike Donald
Tal M. Klein
Tabi Card
Matthew Poat
James Rasile
RF Martin
Bekki Leber
Seriously, the list goes on and on and if I didn’t mention you by name, trust me, every single person on my follow list for both me as an author or the book itself is important to me. Thank you. You’re all wonderful people for even just caring to see where this book could go.
A special thanks to Jeremy and the Inkshares peeps, I love you guys. Thanks for providing a platform for fledgling writers like myself to take a chance and put it out there. You’ve opened huge doors for me and I’m eternally grateful for that.
The story is not over yet. This is not goodbye, just see you later.
Thank you!
Jason
THIS IS THE LAST DAY TO PRE-ORDER!
ONLY 3 DAYS LEFT!
THIS IS IT EVERYONE!
TO: Avalon Council Members
RE: “Welcome-bot” implementation
Why Welcome-bots? Because the Proxies are terrifying. Allow me to elaborate.
When the human race was spared and brought to Avalon they were greeted by the silver-skinned, glowing blue androids that represented the Aetherians. The Aetherians had designed Avalon, but rather than meet humanity in person, they used these strikingly beautiful machines as their proxies. The Proxies are nice enough, they are certainly programmed to be cordial, but there are also quite terrifying in a way. They come and go as they please, disappearing into the shadows of God-knows-where only to reemerge when help is needed, like synthetic nightmare genies.
Alright, perhaps that was a bit over the top, but my point still stands. The Welcome-bots are designed by humans with the compassion born naturally out of human beings. The Proxies (and I’m guessing, I didn’t make the bloody things) seem to be made to be as compassionate as some other race thinks will be acceptable to humans. We already have enough people disturbed by Avalon’s entire setup that they are leaving to live on other planets, we can’t welcome new arrivals with the strangely polite wraiths that first welcomed us.
But, I know what you’re saying. Welcome-bots are still going to be machines and if you are so concerned about showing off human compassion then why not meet the new arrivals with actual human beings and not a glorified calculator with manners. Worry not, because that is exactly what we are going to do. After the initial meeting with customs officials, the Welcome-bots will be able to completely brief new arrivals and answer the myriad of questions they will undoubtedly have. They’ll get them up to speed on our customs, regulations and laws. We’ll call it “orientation”.
There’s no avoiding the Proxies, to be sure, but I’d rather they not be the face of Avalon. All who end leaving Avalon inevitably complain about the Proxies and the Aetherians and whatever dark motivations they must have for the human race. Whatever your feelings on the matter, you must agree that it is in our best interest first and foremost to present a different, friendlier, more human face. A human face on a flying monitor, yes, but a little whimsy never hurt, did it?
Which brings us to Jeb Nolan’s design for the Welcome-bots and the concerns about that design. Yes Jeb is an eccentric, yes he writes poetry about cats and yes, he is a “one shower a week” type of person. But, there is no denying that his design work on the prototype Welcome-bots has been sound. I think the "flying television" set design has a certain nostalgic sensibility to it. After we’ve used this particular model for a extended trial run, we can revisit other proposed designs, although I must veto the “Hug-o-matic” droids that we proposed last week. I’ve been told that some alien species may take a sudden embrace as an act of aggression.
If we are all in agreement, we can begin rolling out the Welcome-bot prototypes to all major government processing centers, including the Avalon Intelligence Service headquarters. Let us propose a trial run of no more than a year?
I look forward to getting your feedback on the matter.
Sincerely,
Professor Philip Thorne
Avalon Council
Earth Historical Preservation Society
(There’s only 12 DAYS LEFT to pre-order and make this book a reality, please consider pre-ordering TODAY and see the world of Avalon and its influence on the entire system come to life!
The second draft is finished and I’m rounding up beta readers NOW!)
