Character Update:
Ladies and gentlemen, I present you with our final character update for Tantalus Depths. You’ve met the crew of The Diamelen: Mary, Rook, Yancy, Hertz, Becky, Ramanathan and Gorrister. Now meet the non-human member of this cast of characters: the first to arrive on Tantalus 13, the trailblazer for the entire mission, the supposedly flawlessly loyal AI, SCARAB:
It’s one of the most advanced artificial intelligences ever programmed, specifically designed to meet every human imaginable. Yet...something is wrong with this one...
What did SCARAB find on Tantalus 13 in those long years before The Diamelen’s arrival? How did its discoveries change it? What secrets is SCARAB keeping from its human masters, and how far will it go to keep them?
Find out when you order Tantalus Depths.
So commences the last leg of our journey to Tantalus 13...
That’s right. We’re about to go into our last three weeks of the pre-order campaign, and Tantalus Depths is currently standing at an extremely respectable 595 pre-orders. That full publishing deal is so close, I can smell it in the water.
We also hit a personal goal of mine this weekend. As some of you know, Tantalus Depths started its pre-order campaign on Inkshares as an entrant to the Geek and Sundry Hard Sci-Fi competition, wherein we came in 5th place. Well, this weekend Tantalus Depths officially passed Tal Klein’s The Punch Escrow in current pre-orders.
That’s right. Tantalus Depths now has more pre-orders than the book that won the contest Tantalus Depths lost.
Big thanks to Tal for setting that bar so high and giving me an extra lofty goal to aspire to.
If you haven’t already purchased a copy of his book, please do so. I’d be more than happy to have that bar raised above me again.
Unless I’m mistaken, Tantalus Depths is also the #1 most pre-ordered hard sci-fi book on all of Inkshares now. Another huge honor I barely feel I deserve.
There’s no time to gloat now, though. We still need those 155 pre-orders to hit that final goal (which is, officially, the last goal I have left for this campaign). Remember: when we hit 600 pre-orders, I’m releasing chapter 2 on Inkshares with another video of me reading it. That’s only five orders away right now. Let’s get there today!
Another huge thanks to all the readers, writers, and syndicates who’ve helped get Tantalus Depths where it is right now. We’re going all the way, guys. Don’t lose sight of that prize!
Dear friends
I come to you as the bearer of good news. Very good news!
Blurbs and reviews for The Catcher’s Trap are trickling in, and I can’t be more thankful and proud. I share with you three blurbs that put a smile on my face:
"Ricardo Henriquez’s impressive use of description and storytelling weaves a most captivating introduction of macabre and beauty in his new series. Readers should clear their schedules the day they open The Catcher’s Trap. As soon as they finish chapter one... there is no stopping until the final page has been reached." Alicia Smock, Chicago Books Examiner
“With his debut novel, “The Catchers Trap,” Ricardo Henriquez sucks the reader into a vortex of suspense, sarcasm and stunning detail that is both captivating and thrilling. The novel is engaging to both horror and non-horror fans, with a read that is more than meets the eye.” Christine Bucci-Caprilozzi, Senior Editor for Horror News Network
“The Catcher’s Trap is a riveting story that kept me up reading far too late more than once. Equal parts terrifying and heroic, Andres’ descent into a nightmare existence and back is going stay with me for a long time. I hope Mr. Henriquez has a sequel in the works, because I need to know what happens next, and there’s so much more about the Catcher’s world to explore.” Dave Barret, Author of It’s All Fun and Games, and Nerdist contest winner.
As an author I want nothing more than people to enjoy my work. The fact that those who have read The Catcher’s Trap like it, encourages me to continue writing and sharing the stories I carry inside of me.
In other great news, Nerdist and Inkshares announced yesterday at Comic-Con that our anthology Too Many Controllers was picked to be part of the Nerdist collection. What does this mean? It means that Nerdist will put their marketing power behind our project to make sure it is a successful one. This is a great honor that I share with other 14 talented writers.
Finally, just a reminder that in about a month, on August 27th, I’ll be at the Connecticut Horror Fest, at The Matrix Conference Center in Danbury. If you are in the area, come and say hello. I’ll have free advance readers copies of The Catcher’s Trap and other chachkies to share.
Have a Fantastic Week.
Ricardo
Today, Seeking the Elephant ends its pre-sale campaign.
We didn’t make the 250 pre-sale goal, but I’m not worried about it. As a writer and a person who’s not particularly skilled at self-promotion, I learned real promotion skills, and how to get comfortable with public interaction. More importantly, we built up a real following.
Going forward, as Seeking the Elephant finds its footing in real-world publication, I will be reaching out to those who were good enough to support this campaign.
I want to thank some people & groups!
In the meantime, please follow Seeking the Elephant on Facebook as well as Twitter for future updates.
Have a great weekend!
Dear friends and followers,
The summer heat leaches the energy from you and leaves you panting after all the things you thought you’d be able to do now that the days are longer and you have the free time. It will be better, I think, to accept that everyone needs a break, and step away from the campaign for a bit. Well, step further away, at any rate: I’ve already taken a step away for the summer. (And yet here I am, still updating....)
For the next week, I will be focussing on writing this second Peterkin text adventure. So, here’s the deal:
The first six people to pre-order between now and next Monday will get the option to have a character in the game named after them.
(This includes the victim, the murderer, an innocent suspect, and the police detective to whom the player must voice their suspicions.)
Meanwhile, what’s happening on the shelves of Inkshares?
1) "Terminus", by Jaye Milius. Imagine if you could call up the dead with a simple scientific procedure. Milius explores some of the ... interesting developments that could arise from the existence of such a procedure. Frankly, they look intriguing as all hell.
2) "Proxy", by Rebekka S. Leber. A different take on the cycle of life and death: what if the total number of souls were finite? The writing looks crisp and confident, and the heroine full of character. This adds up to an engaging story, no matter what.
Just a short update this time. Everyone involved with "Too Many Controllers" is watching for news from the Nerdist panel with bated breath, and I have nerves I need to defray. Until next week (and that update may be a couple of days late) keep reading, and have fun.
Hi all! You may have noticed that The Game has reverted back to the draft stage earlier then originally indicated. Don’t worry, I’ve not given up. However, when I put The Game up for pre-orders as part of the Nerdist competition I was completely new to Inkshares and didn’t realise how much work the amazing authors on here put into promoting their work. I have found that I simply don’t have the time to both write the book and promote it. The promotion side of things is also something I’m just not particularly good at. So, I’ve decided to focus instead on finishing the book and then giving it another go.
Going forward I’ll be splitting my time working on this and another project I’ve put up on the website. I like to have more then one thing I’m working on as I find that working on one often helps at times where I get a bit stuck on the other. Anyway, the book will eventually be finished and at that point I’ll start pushing it again.
Finally, I just wanted to say another thank you to everyone who has supported this book but particularly the three souls brave enough to pre-order a copy!
Hello, friends!
A quick one to thank the 105 individual readers, including the three syndicates and those of you who have ordered multiple copies, who have helped the campaign go as far as it’s gone. You guys are awesome, this is more of anything than I’ve ever sold in my creative life, and I appreciate each and every one of you.
My strategy, such as it is, was to see if the project would gain traction organically. It’s been a fun experiment and a definite learning experience, but unless I sell 114 preorders in the next ten days, Devil’s Call is not going to make it to Quill.
I’m doing what I can this last week and a half, but my real hope is that after reading this you, dear reader, will go on Twitter or Facebook or whatever the kids are using these days and tell a friend or three how excited you are about this project.
It takes 30 seconds to say, "Hey, there’s a really great genre-bending novel fundraising on Inkshares, it was written by an independent author, she’s halfway to her goal but has ten days left to reach it, it’s only $10 to preorder a copy and support diversity in literature," plus then you get the satisfaction of one day telling your friends how you backed the hell out of a project that didn’t look like it was going to make it and now look at it, all grown up and selling its own copies.
-J.
I’ve got a quick update this week for everyone. First news of important dates:
Besides dates and places to meet up! What would an update of mine be without pictures?! I bring you the final cover illustration for the Front Cover!
