Good evening everyone!

Another week of the competition is drawing to a close. The Launchpad Competition is fierce, but we are holding on to our place! There is now one month left until the crowdfunding competition closes, and I’ll be campaigning until the last second - I’ll need to, as I know the talented authors nipping at my heels won’t ease up.

Thank you again to all of you. Incredibly, Human Resources now has 231 pre-orders, from 201 separate readers! Another nineteen orders and it will qualify for Inkshares Quill publishing. That’s right - nineteen to go and the book is guaranteed to be published. We won’t stop there, but that is a huge milestone and it is in striking distance!

Why not relax at "Quill?"

If Human Resources qualifies for quill (receives at least 250 pre-orders), it will be published. However, at this level, Inkshares only provides a copy edit, the book is print-on-demand (as opposed to mass production), and it doesn’t get actively marketed to book stores. It’s still an amazing opportunity, but if we win the competition, the book will get a lot more love... 

If we win the competition (or if HR receives at least 750 pre-orders), it will also receive developmental edits (super important), tailored design, mass production, and marketing.  I will be ecstatic if we qualify for Quill publishing, but that won’t stop me from setting my sights higher (and ensuring you receive the best possible book I can give you).

I have something special planned for next week’s update, in the meantime keep being awesome :)

Goodnight!

Robert

Hello my Vexed friends!

I wanted everyone to know that this project has not been abandoned. It might even be more near and dear to my heart than The Knightmares is. I have been busy. A new job. A heck of a commute, and sometimes walking through the door 12 hours after I left. It’s been brutal and it hasn’t been very kind to my writing. 

With that said, now that The Knightmares is done and turned in, I am going to concentrate on VEXED more. This story has it all! True love! Spills! Chills! Myths! Legends!

...and a cursed girl who couldn’t be more blessed. 

Please take a read and comment. The more feedback I get, the more willing I’ll be to share (and return the favor). 

Artwork and more coming soon!

Good morning everyone! 

I have some really awesome news! The Living God was the Break the Bechdel with Strong Female Characters Syndicate’s November pick! I’m truly honored that they see Saran as a strong female lead worthy of their Syndicate. Thank you so much for believing in Saran as much as I do. 

Kaytalin Platt’s The Living God may very well be an epic in the making. The first line starts with a sense of something great and the narrative picks up right from there. Saran is witty, sharp, and compassionate--even to her own detriment. She’ll lose her magic, but I sense that won’t stop her. We can’t wait to see where this strong female lead takes us!

As a young girl, I was constantly looking for strong female characters to look up to and identify with. Later, when I was older and really developing my passion as a writer, I knew for certain that I wanted to write strong female characters. To make the Break the Bechdel syndicate’s pick really solidifies in my heart that I’ve achieved that goal. I promise I won’t let you down, and I won’t let you be disappointed! 

An update on what I’ve been doing: I’ve been knocking out a few covers for my supporters and I’ve been trying to focus on content editing. I’m toggling back and forth between the two, but I’ll be honest I took last week off to rest my brain. There was just too much rattling around in it with the election and all, and it made it hard to focus. 

In the next month or so I’ll be looking for beta readers. I’ve had a few beta readers, but I’m looking for fresh eyes to read over it after this last round of content editing that I’m doing. I’m thinking I’ll just pass it out to two, so if you are interested in being a beta reader let me know with a DM. 

Thanks guys! You are a fantastic group and I could not have done any of this without you. 

Hello everyone!! 

Hey all,

Been awhile. Sorry for the, uh, "conservative" backer updates.

I am not, for the record, lying dead in a gutter, presidential protests trampling my lifeless body, hand still clutching the rain and blood soaked pages of IN BETA. Nor am I in Tijuana, peeling off green leaves of Inkshare backer money to buy another round for the Los Locos biker gang.

I am working diligently on IN BETA, every day, and I’ve finally crossed the halfway point! As I mentioned forever ago, I originally wrote IN BETA as a feature film. I found early on, though, that the comedy and action from the script didn’t feel right for a novel. It reminded me of that novelization of Terminator 2 I read in back in fourth grade, which I didn’t enjoy even as a fourth grader, and would be embarrassed to hand over to you.

So there have been a few radical departures in the story to make it work. For instance, instead of Seattle, I moved the setting to a rural high school in the Cascade Mountains. This works better for a number of reasons, primarily because I can better draw on my own high school experience (fun times), and because a microcosm seems to help ground things and make the premise a little more believable. Gives it kind of a Truman Show-vibe. I’m watching Westworld, and yeah there are some similarities there, too (though much lighter in tone).

Thanks again for your patience everyone, and your support. This has been a lot of work, and a lot of fun, and I think you’ll get a kick out of it, once it’s ready.

TLDR; Good book. Coming along. Promise me be better re: updates.

Hello!

It is the start of a new week and I’m happy to report that "Shadow King" is up to 88 readers now and 95 copies sold! Thank you to everyone who has supported my effort so far (and welcome to the newest additions to that list); I appreciate each and every one of you. As I’ve noted before, this is terrific progress but I still have some distance to go as  I shoot for one of the top three spots on the leaderboard.

I’m confident that I can get there... but I can’t do it alone.

Readers, you’ve already been a HUGE help by pre-ordering a copy. Please continue to share the "Shadow King" link with friends and colleagues who might be intrigued by Aohdan’s story. Or, if you’ve read my sample chapters, consider leaving a review on the Inkshares site.

For those of you who are following the progress of "Shadow King," I appreciate your support and interest, too. I’d love to see you join the growing list of official readers by pre-ordering a copy of your very own -- and if there’s anything I can share that would help convince you to order (other than telling you how it ends, of course!) please send me a message. I’d love to chat and tell you a little more about the story and how it came to exist.

I will update again soon -- have an outstanding week!

All the best,

Susan