Friends, family, and Inkshares followers,

I am beyond thrilled to share that AFTER DEATH has won First Place in the Nerdist Sci-Fi Contest! After two years of struggling to find representation for a novel I began writing in 2009, this is a very welcome win.

As I await further instructions from Inkshares, I want to thank, from the bottom of my heart, everyone who pre-ordered a copy, everyone who shared the link with friends, everyone who talked the book up at campouts and birthday parties and lunches.

I want to thank all my closest friends and family, all my extended family, all my old high school and college friends who came through (some after years of not having spoken), all my current and past coworkers, and all the strangers who connected via Instagram, Twitter, and the AFTER DEATH Facebook page.

I want to thank Alex Dow, my buddy at Facebook, and Dan Wyatt, proprietor of the Kiggins Theatre in Vancouver, WA, for their help getting word of my book out beyond my own circles of friends.

I want to thank my wonderful friend and favorite actress Anna Campbell for performing the voice of Cara in my book trailer, and for recording Mariel Higuera and Betsy Currie, who performed the voices of Icara and Meryem. I want to also thank the great Michael Wynne, the brilliant graphics artist who made the cards for the trailer.

I want to thank Sina Grace for providing the quote on which I leaned so heavily.

I want to thank Katherine Forrister for giving me a run for my money. I could totally have lived with finishing second to her.

I want to thank my boys, for their incredible excitement at my gradual rise up the leaderboard and eventual win.

And most of all I want to thank my amazing wife Kelly, who has not only been unbelievably supportive during an exhausting few weeks of campaigning, but who rose to the challenge herself and hustled just as much as I - if not moreso - to sell this book. Easily half the pre-orders were directly due to her. I literally could not have won without her. And believe me... with her, I really won.

So thank you all so, so much. I am truly, deeply humbled and moved by the staggering show of support I’ve received.

I’m not entirely sure what happens next, but rest assured you will be updated as things progress toward the publication of AFTER DEATH!

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Katherine Forrister sent an update for Curio Citizen

Hello my dear friends! We have come so far during the past few weeks, and I couldn’t have done it without you. Today is the LAST DAY of the contest. It ends at 11:59pm Pacific Time. Every author is going to be making a big, final push for pre-orders today, so we’ve got to keep up! Please help spread the word by personally asking a spouse, family member, friend, coworker, or anybody else you can think of to pre-order a copy. An ebook is just $10, and being published could truly change my life! I would love to support my daughter all on my own, and this contest could help launch a career that could help me do just that! It really means the world to me. Thank you again so much for all of your help!

Click HERE to pre-order Curio Citizen.

Please direct friends and family to https://www.inkshares.com/books/curio-citizen

Here’s today’s LAST look into the world of Curio Citizen. I leave you with the mysterious Northwaarans...

Northwaar:

Northwaar is a mysterious planet within the same solar system as Paz. People don’t talk about the aliens who live there, or if they do, it is in furtive, terrified whispers of an ancient war. It is because of the haunting prospect of another such disaster that the government of Paz has insisted on a state of planet-wide isolationism.

But what are these Northwaarans? Are they still a threat? Could the simple fear of their presence entangle Carmen’s chances for acceptance on Paz? You’ll have to read Curio Citizen to find out!

“There are other species than paz that display such characteristics, Citizen Reúnen,” said a pudgy man with small eyes, “and they are not citizens.”

“They do not live on Paz, Counselor Juzgan,” Inquieto argued. “They never will. Carmen cannot be compared with them.”

A great level of disgust was shared by the expressions on the Council members’ faces at the topic of other intelligent species. I was only curious.

“Perhaps Carmen should be shipped to them,” inserted an angular woman. “The Northwaarans might take her.”

“She is nothing like the Northwaarans,” Inquieto countered. His fingers clenched tighter to my chair in my periphery. I tensed with him.

“Their planet is too foreign. They do not possess the natural nutrients her body requires, and their lifestyle and technology are utterly different and unsuited to any person of pazoid body type.”

I shuddered at his vague descriptions, wondering what these Northwaarans could possibly be and suddenly terrified I might be sent to another foreign planet. My heart began to beat so rapidly, I thought it might be audible to the Council.

---

Remember, this is the LAST DAY of the contest. The countdown to 11:59pm Pacific time has begun. I am completely out of people who I can personally ask to pre-order, so please, I am counting on each of you to help get one other person to pre-order by sending private messages, face-to-face conversations, or phone calls. "Shares" on social media are super sweet, but they usually do not work, unfortunately. Asking someone personally is the only way for you to help me in these final hours.

I can’t express how much I am grateful for all of your orders, and all the additional help you can give. You have truly touched my heart; whether we win or lose, I will always be grateful for that!

Thank you.

-Katherine

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Katherine Forrister sent an update for Curio Citizen

Hi everyone! Curio Citizen is still in 1st at 221 orders, so thank you SO much to everyone who has ordered today. HOWEVER, 2nd place is coming up fast! They are now at 212, and they have been steadily gaining orders for days. PLEASE, personally ask one person to pre-order in a private message, in person, or even an old school phone call. That is the best (and sometimes only) way to get someone to actually place a pre-order. I’m not asking you to make yourself or anyone feel uncomfortable, of course--you know your friends and family best--but I have found that many people I would have never expected to order gladly do when personally asked. I NEED help at this point. 4th place is also gaining orders fast, and though we have a good lead, that could change if I stop getting pre-orders today and tomorrow. I hate to ask more of you who have already done so much, but all of our hard work for weeks will be for nothing if I don’t stay in the top 3.

Thank you again. I truly cannot thank you all enough.

The deadline is TOMORROW at midnight Pacific Time (that means 3am for all my east coast peeps). June 27th is the LAST DAY.

Click HERE to pre-order Curio Citizen.

Please direct friends to https://www.inkshares.com/books/curio-citizen

Here’s today’s look into Curio Citizen:

Prístina and Aliado Reúnen

Prístina Reúnen is Inquieto’s older sister, and her husband is Aliado Reúnen. Prístina is a teacher of young children, and has the compassionate and patient demeanor ideal for the profession. Aliado works for the water treatment plant beneath the Capitol, a career that doesn’t seem to fit his shrewd wit and skills for diplomacy.

----

“Prístina,” Oyente said, clasping her forearm, and then the man’s at her side. “Welcome, Aliado. It is wonderful to see you both.”

“Thank you for having us, Oyente,” replied the similarly dressed man, but his glance couldn’t stay away from me for long. “This is the alien? Carmen, is it?”

I noticed a visible shift of discomfort from Oyente. Cálido stifled a laugh.

“The Talking Curio,” Cálido smirked. I did my best to stomach the comment.

“Carmen, it is so exciting to meet you,” said Prístina, sweeping forward. “When Inquieto told us your story, I was heartbroken! What a terrible misunderstanding!”

I took a shaky breath. “Yes,” I said. No more words made it past the knot in my throat.

“Carmen, this is my older sister by five years, Prístina,” Inquieto said, with a gesture to the young woman. She possessed the same high cheekbones as her two brothers’, but they were dissimilarly part of her full, heart-shaped face. Her cheeks were a soft, enlivening blue, and I suspected she was wearing makeup.

“And her husband,” Inquieto continued, “Aliado.”

Aliado was taller than anyone present, with a square jaw and dimpled chin, a solid frame, and sharp eyes that had not yet left me.

-----

Thank you! We have less than two days! Please help!!!

-Katherine

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Katherine Forrister sent an update for Curio Citizen

Hello all!

Curio Citizen is still in 1st place! It has been a slow weekend for the contest as a whole, it seems, but there are two days left in the competition. I would love to secure my place in the top 3, but I still really need your help to pull it off! If each one of you is able to get one other person to pre-order, that would increase my chances immensely. Curio Citizen has a good lead, but we can’t rest yet. Please help me succeed in getting this book published! I can’t wait for you all to read it, and I have to be in the top 3 for you to be able to do that. Thank you so much for everything you all have done. The deadline is this Tuesday, June 27th. The contest is open all day on Tuesday, so we can still get some last minute pre-orders in that day--because the competition certainly might!

Please click HERE to pre-order Curio Citizen.

Please direct your friends to https://www.inkshares.com/books/curio-citizen

Here’s today’s look into the world of Curio Citizen:

The Capitol

The largest city on Paz is also the seat of the planet-wide government, and is simply referred to as the Captiol. It holds millions of inhabitants, and includes the biggest and most eclectic curio museums, an enormous quadrisphere stadium, and numerous government buildings. One of these buildings houses the High and Low Councils, and many of the lesser courts. It is called the Egalitarian.

The architecture of the city is diverse, but typically consists of pale colors and various gleaming metals, sparkling crystals, and sleek pearl facades.

The Capitol is centered around a large, paz-made lake, which seems to anchor the beautiful city, and extends its pure waters into countless ponds and fountains throughout the courtyards, plazas, streets, and home and public gardens. It is hard to be anywhere in the Capitol where a background splash of water isn’t heard.

--

"The elevator lifted. The movement was so smooth, I hardly felt it, but the view out of the two-way mirror doors made our height clear.

It was breathtaking. The city was a broach of pearl and opal in a setting of white gold. Glints of emerald trees and open lawns intermixed with sapphire ponds, and the expansive lake was the crown jewel.

’This is our largest city,’ Inquieto informed me. ’The Capitol of Paz.’

’Paz is your planet,’ I said, unable to take my eyes off the glittering spectacle. ’Your planet has a capitol?’

’Of course,’ he said. He may have intended to say more, but the elevator stopped itself, and our conversation."

--

Thank you again for all of your support!

-Katherine

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Katherine Forrister is an author and narrative designer with a love of science fiction, fantasy, and...

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Katherine Forrister sent an update for Curio Citizen

Hello all!

Curio Citizen is still in 1st place AND we are just ONE order away from 200 readers! If you know anyone at all who might be interested in ordering, please direct them to the site and let them know the deadline is THIS TUESDAY, June 27th. We are in the home stretch and have a real chance of winning this thing and getting Curio Citizen published. You all are so amazing to have helped me come so far. Thank you!

Please click HERE to pre-order your copy if you have not yet done so.

Please direct friends to https://www.inkshares.com/books/curio-citizen

Here is today’s look into the world of Curio Citizen:

Cálido Reúnen is Inquieto’s younger brother and is the Earth equivalent of 19 years old. He has an insatiable sense of humor, which is his way of lightening tension and keeping peace in social interactions. He is an expert at walking the line between jests in good humor and insults, and so it is extremely rare he actually offends any paz with his lighthearted jibes. His skills are put to the test when he meets Carmen, however.

In addition to his wit, Cálido is a genius when it comes to engineering and programming, and he "tinkers" with machines in the basement workshop of his parents’ home. He can be quite handy in a tricky situation--if he can be convinced to participate.

-----
Inquieto smiled down at me, and I stepped back from the door as I heard footsteps on the other side.

“Weeeell, look who cleans up nice.” Inquieto made an annoyed clicking sound.

“Cálido,” he said, “really?”

Cálido smirked, and then eyed me up and down. I looked at him with an expression that echoed Inquieto’s word.

He was shorter than Inquieto and looked a few years younger, but there was a definite resemblance. They both had high cheekbones and nicely-shaped lips with just the right fullness. He was dressed in similar black fabric, but had draped a salmon sash across his chest, trimmed with fine threads of gold. He wore the same pin on his chest that I did.

“Well, it—she does,” he said. “Though that scowl is the same.”

“Maybe, if you—”

“Carmen,” Inquieto interrupted the insult he no doubt sensed was forming on my tongue and placed his hand on my shoulder. “This is my brother, Cálido. Cálido, this is Carmen. And yes, she is in much better condition than when you saw her last, now that she is recognized as a person.”

Fantastic. His brother had seen me before. One of my many visitors at the Museum. I swallowed my outrage and flush of humiliation and gave a short nod.

“It’s nice to meet you, Cálido,” I said as clearly as I could.

He laughed. “Ah, this is great,” he said. “She can talk.” He turned around and waved us inside. “Father’s making tilt-sticks; he’s around back,” he informed us over his shoulder as he walked off.

I sent Inquieto a wide-eyed glare.

“Don’t worry about Cálido,” he said. “He’s easily amused. Mother and father will be less...”

“Rude?” I offered.

“This is a new situation,” he corrected. “Try to be understanding.”

-----

Whether Inquieto had specifically invited him for my benefit or not, I was glad for the company. Teasing as it was, Cálido’s sense of humor was bold compared to most paz, different from Inquieto’s gentle sarcasm laced with worried affection. I could relate to Cálido on a more human level, even if he did share the pervasive paz outlook that everyone was innocent and never intended any harm to one another. If anything, his jokes were his way of keeping peace, of laughing off any potential, awkward situations to make people smile. He lived up to his name, Warm. He was vivacious as fire and as kind and comforting as a mug of hot chocolate.

--

Thank you again for all of your help!

-Katherine

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Katherine Forrister sent an update for Curio Citizen

Hello again!

Guess what? We only need 10 more orders to hit the 200 readers mark! That would be an amazing accomplishment. It would also help Curio Citizen keep hold of 1st place! You all have done so much for me already, and I am so grateful. I hate to ask more of you, but there are 4 days left in the contest, so please help me make the final push towards finishing in the top 3 by asking another family member or friend to pre-order a copy. Only $10 could change my life forever! I also have more followers than I do pre-orders, so please consider pre-ordering if you haven’t already. It would mean so much to me! Remember, the deadline for pre-orders has been changed to this Tuesday, June 27th!

Click HERE to pre-order Curio Citizen.

And here’s today’s look into the world of Curio Citizen:

Marea Reúnen is Inquieto’s aristocratic mother. She came from a wealthy family and succeeded in her schooling and career well enough to maintain some semblance of the wealth she once enjoyed. Because of this and her high intelligence, even by paz standards, she has a slightly superior attitude towards others. She tempers that attitude most of the time, but it comes out full force when Carmen becomes involved in her son’s life.

Marea is a high-up employee of the Understand, the planet’s most vital scientific research center. On a planet where the dominant species values intelligence above all other traits (aside from peace), paz as intelligent as Marea are granted a level of respect and wealth that appropriately corresponds to the great mental aptitude and time it takes to perform such vigorous research.

Marea does indeed spend a good deal of her time at the Understand. She is working on something secret, something big, which she can’t discuss with anyone--not even her own family.

--------

“Ah, everyone’s here,” she said pleasantly in a smooth voice. She, too, was dressed in black, but a lustrous amber sash covered most of her clothing, along with a mesh of amber swathing her bald head, which she lowered as she scanned the gathering.

“Marea,” Oyente said. “Excellent timing. Dinner is set to be ready in a few minutes.”

“Yes,” Marea said in acknowledgement, but her attention was focused on me. I stood, getting the distinct impression she did not want me dirtying her furniture.

---------

“Tell us a little about your planet,” Aliado requested.

I noticed both Oyente and Marea tense a little at his words. They exchanged a look of disapproval tinged with nerves.

“It’s surprisingly similar to Paz,” I said, truthfully. “The soil, the trees, the blue sky, the yellow sun. The people.” I looked straight at Marea at the last.

“So similar,” said Aliado. “That’s odd, isn’t it?”

I turned my eyes to him. “Yes,” I said, meeting his pointed intrigue with my own. “It is.”

“And,” Marea spoke, light and thin, “how are humans like paz?”

I took a quiet breath and floated my gaze across the table. Her heavy black eyes studied me while her hand lightly clutched a delicate glass, her full lips curled in an aristocratic smile.

“Can you not see?” I asked. Her eyes brightened, but their light was not internal, only a reflection of the dying sun.

-------

Thank you so much for your continued support. You have all done so much for me already, and I am incredibly grateful. 4 more days and hopefully we’ll see this book published! The deadline is Tuesday, June 27th.

-Katherine

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Katherine Forrister liked an update for Mushroom and Anchovy

Greetings, adventurers!

It was unfortunately a pretty quiet week, but thankfully, I was prepared—I saw this coming due to the end of the Nerdist Sci-Fi competition. A lot of focus has been on that particular contest as it reaches its completion. I don’t know how, but we’re still managing to hold onto 5th place in the Launchpad contest. As soon as the Nerdist contest is over on the 27th, though, focus should return to the Launchpad one. A couple of preorders to secure our fifth place position and work up the ladder would be extremely helpful at this point.

Here’s an update on our current numbers: we’re 14% of the way to the light goal (250 preorders) and 4% of the way to the full goal (750). There’s lots of time, still—the campaign is going until early September—so please keep sharing the link! This is a marathon, not a sprint.

Next week, I’m going to be doing a live reading of chapter 2 on Wednesday night at 8:30 PM AST over on my Facebook Page, as well as answer any of your questions, should you have any. Plus, there will be a special announcement about the backer-exclusive contest on Wednesday night!

Lastly, I did promise I’d be giving you a bit of information on the lore and world of Mushroom and Anchovy, so here’s a bit for you to enjoy.

THE CITY OF BURDON

Burdon is Particia “Anchovy” Finnigan’s hometown, where she resides in a modest flat at the time of the first book. It boasts a population of approximately 800,000, and is the world’s largest manufacturer of steamcars. It also happens to be where the Panzerotti Group’s main headquarters is located.

Exports include steamcars and locomotives—to which there is a massive station just on the outskirts of town—travel, and clockwork mechanics. People come from all over to have their vehicles and machines repaired by the industry’s top professionals. It is considered to be somewhat of a hub, where people go to travel, or stay on their way someplace else. It is central to a lot of cities and countries, including the neighbouring city, Merconia. a city of schools and universities.

That’s it for this week, folks! I’m hoping I’ll have more to report next week, and I hope to see some of you on Wednesday night!

May all your adventures be fraught with wonder and just enough peril to keep them interesting,

K. M. Cooper

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