Oh, man!!! Feast you eyes on Chris Pyke’s phenomenal, two-pane illustration that goes along with one of Mission 51’s earlier chapters, The Press Conference.

You can read the chapter it in its entirety here: The Press Conference.

So what do you think!?!?  :D

Hello readers and faithful followers! Things have been a little quiet here on my page, but I’m still here, still writing, still reading and discovering the work of other talented authors here on Inkshares. (If you would like for me to read your chapters and give you some inline comments/critiques, drop me a line. I’m more than happy to do it!)

School started this week, and as I homeschool my two older kids that means a bit of a schedule adjustment. I’m trying to find the quiet edges to my day where I can sit at the computer and give Fae Child the attention it deserves. It’s a work in progress.

I have great news that I’ll get to share officially in the middle of the month, but if you’re curious, check out the Rite of Passage Syndicate’s page. It’s a syndicate dedicated to supporting "Unpublished and Unknown Authors on Inkshares. Our ultimate goal is to lend our voice to underappreciated and unknown projects that have yet to receive exposure." And, if that interests you, I welcome you to join! There are only 8 members so far, but with more we could make a real difference to some of the new authors on Inkshares.

I am also going to Rose City Comic Con this Saturday - I will be wearing an eyecatching dress and handing out Fae Child bookmarks! IN THEORY, anyway, the bookmarks haven’t been delivered yet, and I was up until 3 am last night cutting out the fabric for the dress. Sewing is tonight after work! (This week has been a little... busy.)

ADDITIONALLY I have started a new blog, taking advantage of an old domain I’ve been sitting on for a few years. http://jainhollie.com I promise to update it at least twice...this year. Well, we’ll see what happens. You can also follow me on Twitter @hanejolly

Have a great week/weekend!

Jane-Holly

I want to do something a little different this week for my reader updates.
I’ve been slaving away at this campaign for five whole months now, with more than another whole month to go. It’s been exhausting, at times very discouraging, and always very stressful. I’ve been hit with huge obstacles that threatened to bring the whole campaign down, and yet in spite of all that, I’ve come really far. This campaign has grown and become something I honestly never really believed it could. We are, in spite of it all, well on our way to full funding, and I do believe we’ll get there.
I’ve worked my butt off to get here, and you’ve all been immensely supportive. That, honestly, is where the real credit goes. No matter how much time and effort I put into this campaign, it couldn’t have gone anywhere at all without the incredible support from friends and strangers alike.

But not everyone on Inkshares gets that kind of response to their projects.

An unfortunate but inevitable aspect of the Inkshares platform is that, just by nature of how crowdfunding works, it isn’t strictly a meritocracy. People who are good at campaigning stand a better chance of hitting their publication goals than people who are good at writing. I, for one, freely admit that I am terrible at campaigning. I’ve gotten this far as much from luck as anything else. But not everyone here is lucky. I’ve seen so many promising books fail to hit their goals simply because they could not find their audience.

Well...I have an audience. I’ve amassed a surprisingly decent-sized following. Obviously I still need that following to grow larger before Tantalus Depths will be able to get fully funded, but I’m getting there, and I have time. 

So this is what I’m doing this week: for this week, I’m taking a break from actively campaigning Tantalus Depths (at least as far as my reader updates go) and I’m going to spend it trying to bring projects to my supporters’ attention. Each day, until the end of the week, I’m going to highlight a different book that I think really deserves at least as much attention as mine. Please check them out, and seriously consider supporting these projects. Each of them is extremely promising and fully deserves your notice.

I’m kicking this week of recommendations off with One of the tenacious top 3 books in Geek and Sundry’s Fantasy Contest: Storm Song

(This awesome cover was made by another Fantasy Contest top-ten placeholder, Kaytalin Platt, author of The Living God. Check her out too.)

Storm Song forgoes the obvious Tolkeinesque high-fantasy route favored by so many of the fantasy contest’s less original and distinctive entrants in favor of a much simpler, yet endlessly promising premise. This is a story of adventure on the high seas: a true tale of swashbucklery.

It’s a tale of luck (good and bad), of discovery, of danger, daring, and dark magic. The book reads like an old salt’s tall tales in a seaside tavern; Allison’s writing has an effortless flow that almost makes you hear the deck boards creak beneath you, feel the roll of the waves and smell the salt in the air. Storm Song may very well have been transcribed directly from some old forgotten sea shanty and set down expertly in narrative form for our enjoyment. Reading the sample chapters is enrapturing: you’ll finish reading her excerpts before you fully realize you’ve begun.

If you’re interested in an epic tale of seaborne wonder and adventure, place a pre-order for Storm Song. You’ll never regret it.