Dear readers,

I'm amazed at how enthusiasm for Blood Dawn keeps growing. Thank you, thank you, thank you to those who have stepped up to become super backers for Blood Dawn, and thank you to the many others who have jumped on board, either through buying a copy of just following. I'm thrilled that soon we will be crossing the 100 pre-order mark. (At the rate this has been going, we might be there by the end of the day!)

I'm also thrilled with how the launch of World Builders has been going. I had more than 60 visitors to C. Brennecke's post! (If you missed it, here's a link.)

Today, I want to share with you all my second guest, our own Rick Heinz, author of Seventh Age: Dawn. Rick's book (last I checked) was second place in the Nerdist Collection Contest, and is doing just amazing. Aside from sharing some of Rick's great answers to my questions on world building, I'm excited to share Seventh Age: Dawn with you all and highly recommend you check it out and consider backing what I expect will be a great book. I know I can't wait for my copy!

Here's the link to Rick's post:

https://epicfantasywriter.wordpress.com/2015/08/28/world-builders-rick-heinz/

And here is Rick's book cover, which I think is spectacular! Click on it to check out his Inkshares project page and find out more about it:

How am I holding on to the Top 10?

A huge thank you to everyone who pre-ordered today!  The Defeated now has fifty-two readers and has pre-sold seventy-one copies!  I've been hearing only good things from my first test reading group, I've finished the final edits and tweaks (for my part) on the manuscript, and I'm prepared to send that to another sample group of test readers.  Thanks again to everyone who pre-ordered today, and to everyone who pre-ordered prior.  Keep spreading the word to support the project, and bask in the glow of my immeasurable gratitude!

I’ve got exiting news! Like, super-duper exiting news. In one day we met the 25 pre-order requirement to get up chapter two, and we exceeded that amount more than I had expected. 31 copies and counting! Shout out to Staton Elisabet (who is the author of The Librarian’s Curse, you should go check her out right now, her story is amazing) who was the 25 order that will be putting out the second chapter of Seven Devils. I’m currently revising it and it will be posted Monday morning for your reading pleasure, so stay tuned!

I promise I won’t be sending out these updates every day; only when there’s some information that needs to be shared, and this is a milestone that I’m pretty psyched about. It’s one more step forward to putting this novel into print, and I cannot wait for you guys to see the finished product.

Another note for those of you who haven’t pre-ordered because of the price, I’ve got some more good news! By simply making an account on Inkshares, you earn a $5 to use toward the book. That’s right. Free money is always a good thing, right? And you can earn even more credits by following/recommending Seven Devils to your friends and family by sharing me out on social media sites like Twitter and Facebook. For every person that you recruit into pre-ordering, you will earn $15 in credits. So not only will you get sneak peaks at Seven Devils, you’ll also have funds to support other authors on Inshares too. Pretty cool, huh?

For the time being, I’ll be signing off to polish chapter two so that you’ll be able to start off your weeks right with some Ezra and some new characters you’ll be seeing as we go along.

Have an awesome weekend everyone, and as always, your continued support rocks my socks off. 

Guys, I realized something: I just hit 70 readers. (!!!)

Tomorrow is my birthday. I'm turning... 30.

I need 30 followers to hit 100.

I need (about) 30 readers to get into the top 5.

WE'RE DOING A CONTEST, BABY!

I would like 30 new readers for my 30th birthday, and I need YOU to help me find them. Starting NOW, RIGHT NOW, I'll put every new reader into a little hat, a digital hat, and if I hit 100 by the end of the day tomorrow I'll pick a name out of a REAL hat and that reader will receive a super-exclusive prize:

An original illustration from the book. That's right. Art. Mailed to you. On your wall. And you'll get to pick which one.

"But wait, Cara, I already pre-ordered!"

Yeah, I know, I'm not a jerk! I'll also pull a name from my current followers, and one of you will receive an illustration, too. If half of you know one person who'd be willing be give my book a chance, you would get me to my goal and give me a nice birthday present while also maybe getting some cool art out of the deal. So think of that one person, that one person who might want to pre-order, and ask them to check out my page!

You'll be able to show prospective readers a new episode tomorrow, and maybe that will convince some of them. The team's gotta get together! Begrudging allies! Stricken realizations!

Thanks, everyone! I'm super excited for my birthday now.

:) Cara

 As always, thank you for the support.  I've been building this world in my head for the better part of twelve years, and I'd love to see it fully come to life.  What started as a bold epic of clear heroes and villains became, over time and like it's author, jaded and cynical, but it never lost its heart.  It simply traded self-righteousness for biting wit.  The characters I wrote as a teenager and young adult, the world in which they live, have transformed into something new and fresh and cruel and ugly, and in my opinion, so very much better.  Characters aren't fully humanized without their flaws. 

As I turn in for the night, flipping through my pages to make last minute edits, I am down in this competition but not out. The response has been staggering.  Not only from friends, family, and strangers who enjoy my sample enough to place $6 dollars of faith in me, but also from fellow authors and erstwhile "competitors" in this contest.

I'll come once more to you with hat in hand, pleading to keep sharing my project with others in the hopes of publication, but I will also ask that you give a look to A.C. Weston's She Is The End and John Robin's Blood Dawn.  There are other worthy authors who have pre-ordered The Defeated , and I encourage you to find them on my readers list and check them out as well.

Thank you for your support.  Like I keep saying, whatever happens with this competition, I will get this damned thing published, and I'll make sure to contact each and every one of you if that's the way things turn out. I am currently losing, but I don't have to be.  Keep sharing.