Hi there friends,

Tony here. I know you haven’t heard from me in a good long while. You may have even completely forgot that you helped crowdfund a book nearly 2 years ago and have yet to see it. For that, I apologize. I assure you that these long delays have been out of my control. And more importantly, NO THIS BOOK HAS NOT BEEN ABANDONED, and YES, IT IS STILL COMING.

"Why the long silence, Tony?"

Well, frankly, I grew a bit tired and embarrassed of sending updates with no real news to speak of. I’m sure you may have grown tired of it as well, so I figured I’d lay low until I could come back with something real for you.

"Why the delays?"

Inkshares is a small publishing team with limited resources, and business decisions resulted in my book being put on the back burner for a very long time. It’s been unfortunate and frustrating, but there it is. The plus side is that I’ve had plenty of time to edit and revise. So the book you’ll be receiving is better than the book that would have been published a year ago.

"So what’s going on with the book now?"

As of a few weeks ago, I was assured by the Inkshares team that they should be able to get my book published and into your hands "by the end of summer". I have submitted the updated version of my manuscript to them and am currently waiting to hear back on the next steps of production. The book has been polished with the aid of beta readers, a professional dev editor, and my own neurotic nitpicking. I even added  a bonus prequel short story while I waited. Inkshares will assist with copy editing (sentence structure, punctuation, making sure things make sense, etc), formatting, slapping on the cover art, and it’s off to the printers. Again, hopefully, in an expedited fashion from here on.

"So when exactly is the book coming?"

I wish I had an official date to give you rather than "by the end of summer", but that’s all I got for now. I will let you know as soon as I have more.

"How about that cover art?"

Not that anyone asked, but I am excited to say the final book artwork is in progress. And if the concepts I’ve seen are any indication, it’s going to be something special. So whether or not you enjoy my writing, you will at least have a very pretty book to display on your shelf. ;)

All right gang, that’s all for now. Thanks again for your patience. I hope to have an official date and/or some art to show next update. See ya!

-Tony V.

120 followers and still the odd new one added now and again. Well isn’t that interesting because...

After creating "Blue Poppy Publishing" and launching this book last summer, the sequel launch is imminent. 

"Women of the Wise Oak" follows the continued adventures of the Deru-Weidi mostly through the eyes of Gwenn and Epona. This book passes the Bechdel test in spades.

It is available to pre-order on Amazon Kindle for five bucks, but you should probably read the first book first.
https://www.amazon.com/Women-Wise-Oak-Oliver-Tooley-ebook/dp/B072R2H97V/

Blue Poppy are also about to launch "And the Wolf Shall Dwell" by Joni Dital which was originally supposed to have been published by Inkshares but there were some issues which were not resolved and Joni ended up bringing his M/S to me. 
It is an explosive book, in two distinct metaphorical senses, especially for Brits like me  for whom the subject matter has been brought painfully close to home in recent months. 
Joni handles the sensitive subject of Jihadi terrorism and political intrigue extraordinarily well in this spy thriller. 

It is still possible to pre-order "And the Wolf Shall Dwell" here https://jondbooks.com/shop/