Artist Idan Carré has created another fascinating illustration for Mission 51! It goes along with the chapter called Final Approach. I get such a kick seeing these ideas come to life so vividly. She captured so many of the story’s details! Thank you, Idan! :-)

I didn’t think I would have a reader update the day after launch, and I didn’t think I would have another one so soon. The Sleeping Man already has 45 orders which is just insane. Who knew that by spending every day on Inkshares reviewing over 200 books, pre-ordering when the budget allows, and being supportive meant support would be reciprocated? Weird. I’m looking to make another Inkshares success story and we are on our way. Alright, enough, here’s the news.

Jamison Stone asked me to put together a guest post for http://apotheosisstudios.com and that will help get more pre-orders! You know Jamison, he wrote Rune of the Apprentice, the one that has 1,277 copies ordered? Anyway, I’m really excited to have that opportunity so a big thank you to him.

I mentioned this on the homepage for the book, but I’m happy to announce a partnership with the Children’s Literary Initiative, www.cli.org, where half of the profits of the pre-order campaign will be donated. I remember failing first and second grade because I was unable to read and it was my mother reading Stuart Little over and over under the words made sense. From there Redwall, A Wrinkle in Time, etc.

There are a couple things in the works, but I can’t mention them just yet because the details are being finalized. Thank you to everyone who ordered so far, it means the world. If you haven’t ordered yet, I would super appreciate it if you did.

Sweet Dreams,

Stephen

P.S. Don’t forget if you ordered on the first campaign, that order does not carry over, so please take the refund you got and reinvest in The Sleeping Man.

Good evening to all...unless you’re in another time zone then good whatever time for you. 

Things are going good ever since the campaign ended with Beyond the Code on the happy side of Quill. Set aside some quality rest time after the soul strengthening climb and now I’m back to work. I thought it would be prudent to give you guys a run down of what work I’m doing towards the book you all paid good money for. 

I don’t have any real set dates yet but I can give you a summery of my plan of attack. First of all the name of the game is EDIT EDIT EDIT!! I’m going to completely dedicate every free minute I have towards going through the book and using the advise I have received from the campaign to make this book the best I can. 

Second, and this brings me to a question of opinion for all of you, the subject of beta readers. I was thinking about selecting some volunteers to  be Beta readers for Beyond the Code. You may caught a plot hole I didn’t see or have an idea on something that would be totally awesome in the book. What is your opinion on this system. Email me at Kelsey31@hotmail.com. I’d love to hear from you. 

And third, once those things are taken care of I’m going to be giving the cover art a complete make over. I have some ideas for that but nothings concrete yet so I’ll keep them to myself until I figure out which ones are actually doable. 

That’s it for now. I’ll keep all you lovely people up to date on the happenings of Beyond the Code. A reminder to all you followers who haven’t pre-ordered yet, now that Beyond the Code is officially a thing you can get a physical copy for only $14.99. Cool beans. 

Thank you all soo much for following all this time and I will see you later. 

Kelsey Rae Barthel