Halloween Update! Today’s lore is going to be about Vampires... because... well..

So... onto The Staking of Vampires

Vampires have undergone significant evolution since their initial debuts in legend. The book, Vampire Evolution from Myth to Modern Day, covers their transformation in great detail. From old tales depicting vampires as reanimated corpses, wraiths dressed in tattered burial shrouds, or even Japanese folklore. But commonly today, the stake through the heart is seen as a metaphorical silver bullet to the vampire. From catatonic immobilization to instant destruction—the current legend is flashier than its origin.

The belief was that corpses, were crawling out of their coffins, and feasting on their relatives. So burial practices simply advised nailing the corpse to the bottom of the coffin. It didn’t need to be wood or even through the heart. A steel stake or a rock, driven through the rib cage would suffice—almost like pitching a tent. Which, ultimately, seems a lot smarter than trying to stake a vampire who is currently active and wields powers of the undead. A bit of pre-emptive action and safety measures regarding the undead never hurt anyone. 

Next week I’ll cover Trick-Or-Treating or the Witchfinder General. I’m saving some Seventh Age news for later and closer to launch date. So for now..

Copy edits are done, and we have a cover!

Thank you all for your comments and feedback! I am really grateful to everyone who took the time to voice their opinion. This final version has been tweaked to make it a little lighter, and I think will be really eye-catching both on store shelves and as an online thumbnail!

Next step is trying to secure cover blurbs from prominent authors or reviewers, then final proofreads, spine and back cover design, and final interior layout for both the ebook and hardcopy versions! It’s all coming together!

Thank you all yet again!

Friends, Readers, and Sorcerers All --

Amazing news. As of this morning, SORCERY FOR BEGINNERS is in the TOP TEN of the Geek and Sundry Contest! We’ve only been in the contest for three weeks, but because of you guys, we’ve already blown past 390 other entries.

So yeah, this is me right now:

20 more readers, and we’ll be at number 7. 200 more readers, and we’ll be in the TOP THREE. There are only 8 days left in the contest, but I’m feeling insanely optimistic. I know we can do it! 

Your support means the world to me. Keep sharing, tell a friend, and please, if you haven’t done so, pick up a pre-order. THANK YOU ALL!

mh

ENHANCED’s website is taking shape. We’re not ready to go public yet, but we’d like to share this artwork. It’s how we imagine the refugees’ last night on Earth.

 

"Shards of green light blasted incoming missiles into fireworks while a thousand chosen citizens of United North America jostled past wiry, 21-year-old Harry, into the transport. Shading his face with a scrawny arm, he watched the wrath of eleven billion militant religious crazies attack UNA, his pacifist homeland, the last Democracy on Earth."

Nearly a year ago I signed on to Inkshares, embracing the idea with the sort of excited enthusiasm that bypasses reasonable thought. I was like the kid who wants to try the high diving board at his first swimming lesson. I immediately launched "Darwin’s Next Dance" as a project and opened it up to pre-orders. I didn’t worry about not yet knowing all the nuanced ins and outs of an Inkshares campaign, figuring I’d pick it up along the way. I threw a dozen chapters on my page in an afternoon, and waited for the followers to come find me.

So that went about as well as you’d expect. The clock ticked down to the end of the pre-sale window and it all just fizzled out.

So I took my time, ordered a few books, learned from those that knew what they were doing. And now it’s time to devote some continued effort to actually doing it right this time.

I’m going to post things regularly, start some conversations, get some dialogue going, and get to know as many people as I can in the Inkshares-verse. (We can call it that, can’t we? I’m going to.)

While many of us are here with the intention of selling our books, in the end we are a community and success here comes from community support. So I’m going to venture out into this community and meet some people, make some friends, and maybe later I’ll sell some books. But not yet.

tga

Friends, Readers, and Sorcerers All --

We just cracked 100 readers! That’s ONE HUNDRED unique, amazing people supporting this book!! 133 copies sold!!! Exclamation points all around!!!!

Seven more readers, and we’ll be in the TOP TEN of this contest.  200 more readers by Nov 1, and SORCERY FOR BEGINNERS will get a FULL PUBLISHING and MARKETING deal! It’s a tall order you guys, but we can do it. I know we entered late, and the Internet got hacked today, but let’s show the cyber-terrorists they can’t keep us down.

Let’s keep this train rolling! As an added incentive -- anyone who purchases a pre-order in the next 36 hours will get a PERSONALIZED HAIKU written by me. Even if that’s more of a deterrant than incentive, the time to act is NOW. We have 10 days left in this contest. That’s 20 new readers a day. We’ve done it before, and we can do it again. The link is here:

https://www.inkshares.com/books/sorcery-for-beginners

I can’t thank you all enough. Onward!
 

Hello Friends