Happy Monday!!!

Today is the last day of the Geek & Sundry Fantasy Contest. It is currently sitting at 9th. I’d really like to stay in the Top 10, but I desperately need your help to do it. If you haven’t already, please consider supporting the book by placing a pre-order. It would mean the world to me. This is a very important moment in my life and I’d greatly appreciate you support in making it a complete success. 

The Living God has crossed the Quill Goal, but if it stays in the Top 10 it could be featured in any contest publicity, which will greatly help with marketing it. Not to mention, it would be wonderful to say that it was Top 10 among 300+ contest entries!  

If you have a spare $10 bucks and want to make an author’s day, please consider throwing your support behind The Living God! 

Much love!
~ Kaytalin

Happy Monday morning beautiful people (or evening depending where on the earth you reside!)

Thank you for joining me so early on this journey with Loretta of the Lamp, it has blown my mind how quickly you’ve all jumped on board and given me support so loyally and selflessly. To those who have told your friends and family and passed on the message of what’s coming; thanks too!

There will be more updates coming as things progress, but first and foremost I want to make sure you get connected with me. For those of you who know me personally you’ll know I’m a fairly relational human being and the only reason I write and do what I do is because I believe we all have different gifts and talents that are waiting to be utilised, and we all have the ability to do some pretty amazing things in a world where people are looking for others like them, for people who understand them.

If you follow me on social media you may know that I’m inspired by a vast collection of quotes that I collect a little obsessively and pin to my wall (I have black sticky notes with a white pen; muahaha), and one of my favourite thoughts is from Abraham Lincoln, who famously said "He who writes the nation’s songs, shapes the nation’s souls."

I’m not a song writer, but I do tell stories, and I’m on a quest to tell stories that will be read by the ’nation’ and like so many writers before me, will inspire us to dream, to hope, to imagine, and to take action with the skills we have.

There’s my cheesy inspirational moment for the week, done and dusted! ^_^

Actions for you to take now; connect with me on facebook, instagram, twitter or wordpress if you haven’t already (go for which ever platform you use more), and let me know that you are connecting as a reader of Loretta’s story so I know who you are. I’m not looking for bumping up my numbers in social media, I’m looking to make sure I have the connection with you to keep you in the loop.

If we are connected already, don’t worry, I know who you are (insert scary laugh here).

Facebook.com/jrmanawa | Twitter @jrmanawa | Instagram @jrmanawa | Wordpress www.thissideofdarkness.com

With love from this side of darkness, J R Manawa (You can call me Jo, by the way).

Hello Readers,

Wanted to drop you a quick line as to the production progress of I Am Waltz. The manuscript will be in the hands of the copy editors within the next few weeks (depending on when they finish their current work). 

I have been working furiously on the developmental edit since the funding was successful and am nearly complete. 

Once the manuscript begins copy-editing we will be well on our way to getting those books in your hands or on your devices. 

Again thank you all for your support. As promised, once the book is out, all those who have pre-ordered will have early access to drafts of book two and three. 

In gratitude,

Matthew D. Dho

THE FIRST DRAFT IS COMPLETE!!!

Thank you all for your patience. This has been a long time in the making with many restarts and do-overs, but the story is finalized from beginning to end. It is a readable piece of work now...kind of. 

Does this mean you finally get your book? 

Next year, yes. You will get your book. It’s come to my attention that there is some confusion regarding when everyone would be getting their copy after supporting me in the contest. Getting this book published was a crowdfunding venture, and even if I had submitted the manuscript back when I won the contest on March 15th, the book would not have been in your hands yet. It takes a lot of editing, developing, design, and marketing to get a book from manuscript to published. I know of someone who did submit their manuscript in March, and their projected release date is January. So there’s that. 

I am sorry that it will take so long to get to you, but I am honestly working to make this the best book it can be, not the fastest. This is my chance to build up my reputation as an author, and I don’t intend on sullying that reputation by hurrying. I have 67,000 words of condensed and scrutinized story down on paper, and now I’ve turned it over to my frontline editors. One of them is already reading away. 

I hope they are brutal. It will only make the book better. 

In order to give you a timeline of when things most likely will happen, I completed the first draft before my personal deadline of November 1st. Now that I’ve turned it over to my editors, both they and I will be working to fix all the little errors and bugs and enormous plot holes in order to bring this story up to a good second draft. I’m hoping to have that done by mid-December. I’m using NaNoWriMo as a motivator to edit the heck out of this thing. I will submit the second draft.

Once I turn in my manuscript, it’s all in Inkshares’ hands as far as timelines are concerned. It seems that the average turnaround time is about ten months to a year after submitting the manuscript. Therefore, we are looking at an autumn 2017 release date. 

I know that seems like a long time from now. It is. And I beg your patience. Trust me, no one is more anxious for that publication date to come along than I am. 

But I plan on getting a lot accomplished between now and then. I plan on having a great, interactive website up, and I’m working on a lot more surprises for next year. 

Plus, there’s the release party to plan...

Also worth noting is that I took down my other books from Inkshares so I can focus solely on Butler. I promise not to bug you to buy anything else. That was a mistake on my part, but thanks to all of you who sent your support for these other projects. Your support means more than you know.

My eyes are on the prize, now. Butler will be a reality, just not this year. 

But when you get it, it will be amazing.

Hang in there, and I love you all.

-Michael

P.S.- The preorder sales figures directly contribute toward production costs, so if you haven’t ordered yet and would like to contribute to keeping my book out of the red, I would appreciate any and all help. The prices are lower than they were during the contest. and it’s going to be an amazing little book! Thanks for your consideration. 

Hello, everyone!

As the week wraps up, I wanted to send out a quick update.

First and most important: THANK YOU so much to everyone who has pre-ordered and is following “Shadow King.” Your support means so much to me!

I’m beyond excited to be part of the Launchpad Competiton’s Top 50, and I can hardly believe that there’s only about a week left. I’d really love to get as many pre-orders as possible before time runs out to boost my standing on the leaderboard. So, if you have not yet pre-ordered a copy, I’d love to add your name to my reader list. And if you know anyone who might be interested, please share my page – your recommendations and referrals would be so appreciated!

I can’t say enough about the quality of the other books that I’ve been seeing on Inkshares, and it is a privilege to be among them. To my fellow authors, thank you also for your support – and I will return the favor – this is an incredible community to be part of.

Have a wonderful weekend – and thank you again for your support!

All the best,

Susan

Happy Friday!!

Friends, Readers, and Sorcerers All,

Good morning! (At least, it’s morning here in Los Angeles. The sun is just peeking over the backyard fence and the kiddos are stirring. This may have to be quick.) 

We here at the Codex Arcanum had a nice surprise last night -- Daniel Hashimoto, one of our first readers and creator of YouTube’s amazing Action Movie Kid -- posted a shout-out video for SORCERY FOR BEGINNERS on his channel! Check it out:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjXq49iHNMs&feature=em-subs_digest

It already inspired someone from halfway across the world to pick up a pre-order. If you squint you can even see a couple shots of Yours Truly trying to look like a film director.

Huge thanks to Hashi, Mandy, and their kids for taking time out of their busy schedules to help promote SORCERY FOR BEGINNERS. Take a look at the video, share it with friends on social media, and let’s keep racking up those pre-orders! Once we hit 200, I’m going to post a new chapter, and it’s maybe my favorite in the whole book. Stay tuned for that here:

https://www.inkshares.com/books/sorcery-for-beginners

Also, check out Action Movie Kid if you haven’t already! They have tons of great videos. One of my favorites is a recent one they made about the Tooth Fairy: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8-U4aigvsw

Only FIVE MORE DAYS left in the Geek and Sundry contest. Let’s do this!

mh