Hey! It’s exactly 1 year since the end of the first Sword & Laser contest. A year to the day from  when I realized three fundamental truths at the exact same time:

• I love you.

• I have to finish the draft of Asteroid Made of Dragons in 2-3 months. (I only had about 18-20,000 words done at that point.)
  
• This:

A year into this enterprise! Wow! WOW! (wow)

AMOD is out, and we’re starting to leave the initial ’honeymoon’ period and sales spike - what now? What now? What now? I guess I should write something else, huh?

Thank you all again - I know I’ve said it over and over, but ANNIVERSARY OF THANKS.

Don’t forget to put up yer reviews and nominate me for shiny awards.

First, let me start by saying that #Draftfest seems to be kicking along very nicely, and is a ton of fun.  If you haven’t taken part in the reading, commenting, and critiquing... well, you’re missing out.  Not only is it a great chance to find good stories and new authors, there are also lots of prizes to be had!  Here’s the link to the thread with all the info: Quit stalling and be part of this amazing event!

Now for some Clockwork Charlie updates:

I’m writing and editing daily, then editing and writing some more.  It’s going really well, and I am happily surprised pretty much every day at where the story is leading me.  I think readers will certainly enjoy it as well.  Gods and Goddesses, immortals, life consuming monsters, Robotic golems, heroes and villains galore...

I can’t wait to share it all with the world, and you early believers most of all.  Thanks for being a part in these oh so early stages of Clockwork Charlie’s life.  There are thirty-one of you as I write this, and I am amazed.  Each and every one of you is my hero today! 

The novel is nearly finished drafting (well, first-drafting I suppose) and will wind up being well over 100,000 words in it’s first-draft form.  I’m not going to start pre-orders until the first draft is totally finished, and has begun the editing (or really the hacking and slashing) stage.  Even then, I might hold off until the project has a certain number of followers.  Haven’t quite decided yet, in all honesty.

In my next update, I’ll be introducing a couple of key characters.  Until then, I encourage you to check out the Clockwork Charlie Pinterest Page to get an idea of what the world in the novel looks like. It will be updated randomly as things progress and I find images I like.

That’s it for this week. Don’t forget to take part in #Draftfest!

-Ken

BREAK UP. MAKE UP. LEVEL UP.

SideScroller is now live and ready to be pre-ordered! Seeing one of my works published would be a dream come true. 

So let’s slip our quarters into the arcade machine, press Start, and grab this video game contest by the cojones!

Cheers,

Andrew Fantasia

The video game contest is in one day! To celebrate, I’m going streaking through my hometown!

To celebrate in an even BETTER way, I present to you all the new book cover for SideScroller! (I’m computer-illiterate, so I have no idea how to post the cover into this message. But you can just visit the SideScroller page to check it out in all it’s fiery glory!)

 I can’t take any credit for the beautiful artwork, though. That’s all thanks to fellow Inksharian (is that a word? I’m making it one) and talented writer, Tabi Card. Check out Tabi’s page, particularly her book "Scribbles"! You rock, Tabi!

I’ll see you tomorrow for the launch of the contest! Thanks so much for following SideScroller. I can’t wait to show you what happens in it.

Hi everyone, just a quick update as The Battle Within closes out the campaign. 

As it stands right now, we’re at 80% as there are 599 pre-orders and 151 pre-orders to go by 6 Jun to meet the funding goal. That might seem like a lot, but it’s well within reach, so if you know anybody who’s been on the fence or just hasn’t gotten around to pre-ordering yet, please give them a nudge (maybe not an Elbowgate nudge, but that’s your business...). 

I’ll keep this short and sweet and will just close out by saying thanks again to everyone for your support; this project definitely couldn’t have come this far without you. Not much longer and I’m confident we’ll reach the goal. Thank you,

Alastair Luft