Hi Wolf followers! 

Closing two weeks with no updates (my laptop found a good time to get broken!) & a month of campaigning!! A lot of exciting things have happened since you last heard from me:

First, we have reached 174 preorders (which is 70% from being published and 23% from a full Inkshares contract)

Second, we had orders from Inkshares’ thriller queen Kris Calvin & newly Quill author, the inspiring Caroline Reber - please check out their books by clicking on their names. 

Finally, Chapter 4 has been edited by me roughly 700 times, and is now all set to be released to the public (I initially thought that it reveals too much of the plot-line so skipped straight to 5, but I soften a bit since... age does its thing i guess). It will be released when we hit the milestone of 200 pre-orders. I do need a couple of volunteers to proofread... email me at ydital@gmail.com if you are interested.

Also - may i please ask that each of you with spare 5 minutes, instead of going to Ynet, Twitter/Face Book or shopping on Next (UK parents will relate) - will find ONE person to preorder my book? just one person. In return, I would personally buy you and this person coffee and will engage in a 40 minutes conversation with you/him/her about any subject of your choice* (is this a prize or punishment you ponder...)

Thanks (US) / Toda (ILS) / Cheers (UK) 

JD

* show tunes and musicals excluded.

Dear Readers,

There’s good news and bad news (always, right?). The good news: I have figured out a brilliant way to fix the middle of Lucky. Currently, the middle of the novel says this exactly: "[...stuff happens...]" And then moves on to the next scene. My editor doesn’t like this, so I’ve cooked up a fantastic way of fixing it.

The bad news is that I cooked it up at 3:30 this morning, woke up, scribbled it down on the back of an envelope, then went back to sleep. Now, in the light of day, I have no idea what I wrote.

However, we shall persevere and we shall get this thing done. This afternoon will be dedicated to deciphering the hieroglyphics I wrote last night in my sleep, and tomorrow will be editing Chapter Nine. 

What’s that? You want to read Chapter Nine? Then share this novel with everyone you know so we can hit 500 orders!

Happy Saturday!

- Webster

Hi everyone,

Firstly, apologies for the long time between updates, I’d lost track of how long it had been. 

Unfortunately, things have been slow to non-existent for the last month or so when it comes to progress. It’s disappointing, for me and for you guys too, but I’ve been getting over some exhaustion issues and writing has often been the furthest thing from my mind.

That said, it’s April, and Camp NaNoWriMo has just opened up, and I’m forcing myself to participate. So I’ve spent the last week or so getting myself reacquainted with the story and the outlines for the unwritten parts (have I mentioned I really like my ending?...because I do) and I will be forging ahead to get this first draft knocked out. 

I’ve also got an extended chunk of Ghosts in the hands of a few readers, so over the next month or so I should be getting some feedback that I can use to start shaping the next drafts.

Updates should be a little more regular while NaNo is going on, so keep an eye out for them.

Until next time.

I was pawing through my blog archives for an old April Fool’s bit  - and I actually stumbled onto something I don’t remember writing. (All too common.) It’s from 3 years ago, after I finished my first book. It’s strange and sort of wonderful to look back and feel like maybe I’ve gotten a little closer to the things I talk about here -- and it’s all because of you.

I Want - 4/25-2013

Like Heinlein said, I want the Roc’s Egg.

I want the leather of my sword-grip to creak as my knuckles go white. I want the lightning to crackle between my fingertips like Egg Shen. I want the Flux Capacitor to ignite as I travel through time.

I want the power, I want the fairy tale.

I want to run down the secret hallway, and slam my rainbow colored key into the console of the Black Lion.  I want to save the universe with Rock and Roll, my electric guitar made of steel and griffon-talon. I want to wake up in the middle of the night to the sound of Holmes and Watson clattering by in a horse-drawn carriage.

I want the legend, I want the world of doors.

I want the Master Sword dreaming in the glade, and Excalibur in the Lady’s hand, and Cloud picking up Zach’s sword — his mind all wind and shadow.

I want all the promises that the world is not as it seems. I want Mulder and Scully in a Ford Taurus arguing with the night. I want all the possibilities, the promise of wonder. I want Seven Dragonballs, even if I never get to make a wish.

I want the doors. The endless, endless doors.

I want this world to be not as it is. Or, at the very least, I want the walls of this world to get a little thinner. Thin enough to hear the music from the Universe One Over.

I want to tell my story and I want my mom to get better and I want there to be enough money and I want Emerson back. I want my Beloved to never know pain or doubt, and I want my friends to never know want or despair.

I want to break the rules. I want to undo and shine and defeat and cheat death, cheat life, mashing in the codes on my controller and rolling back the cruel grip of time.

I want to snatch the lost from death’s grip.

I want to not be afraid. Of the Unmaker and its thousand, thousand shadows.

I want there to be more magic in this world, because there is so little — just a tiny, tiny drop.

Such a little thing to shine in the darkness. The secret flame we clutch in weary hands through the wind and rain.

I want the thousand heroes, I want the doors open wide.

Most of all, I want you to help me pry them open.

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No reminders or promo-flogging today. Just wanted to share this and say thank you again - for helping a stranger tip-toe down an uncertain path. And I use ’stranger’ here in the way you would ’baker’ or ’potter’ - something I make, not that you don’t know my social media profile.