Hello, supporters!
Three days remain and anything is possible! Long nights, hard work, incredible support, and dedication have gotten us to this point. The process has been incredible and exhausting and as we near the end, don't let up. If you haven't pre-ordered yet, now is a great time, and for those who have, spread the word. We spent most of the month in 6th place. It is a miserable place to be and now as we sit in 2nd, let's keep it there!
I give thanks to my wife, who has supported the process and maintained me throughout, and to all the friends and family who have stepped up and contributed to spreading the word. It's cliche to say none of this would be possible without you, but it's true. Every pre-order counts and because you believed in me, we reached this point.
I'd like to share with you a number, 232. That's the number of readers that support Lost Generation, and that is incredible. At this time, we have more readers than any other book in the Sword & Laser Contest, and it makes me so happy. Each digit is a person who decided they would support this dream, I feel your support and I thank you for it.
Feedback has been a driving focus for this project, and you have delivered. Those of you who have been reading each iteration of the draft and supplied your thoughts have made the end product much better. Feedback and quality are important to me, and you have my word that I will push myself as hard as I must to ensure Lost Generation receives the dedication and polish to become a top quality product. I owe it to myself, Inkshares, and you to ensure Lost Generation is a novel we will look back on in ten years and still be proud.
If you haven't read the chapters in a while, I recommend you check out the updated chapter one (now chapters one and two,) and view how your feedback and my commitment are helping to shape a better product.
https://www.inkshares.com/projects/lost-generation/book_segments/chapter-one-1805
This address might be my last before the contest ends. Forgive any grammar mistakes I have made, I am exhausted but happy. Please keep those pre-orders strong and cheer me on until the final hour comes. I'll bow to you at the finish line, and we will all watch Lost Generation mature and finalize together.
Hey guys, I've tried to keep these updates sparse-ish so as not to annoy. I hope I've been gentle with these pushes. We're in the last week of the contest and I've sadly fallen off the Top 10 list. Not to fear! I only need 5 orders to pass the guy in 10th. 8th is not terribly far ahead, either.
Please note: Inkshares gives new readers (that's you guys) $10 of credit, which is the equivalent of 1 free book on them. So, if you've already purchased, consider using that credit to help boost my sales. Simply log back in with Facebook, Twitter, or your email to check and see if you have credit just sitting there, collecting cyber dust and intercobwebs. Thank you so much. Now, let's summon some pre-orders, get it? Anyone? No? *joke falls flat to the shaking of heads* Summon, you know, because my guy's a summoner ... I'm bad at this.
Good evening, Squires and Wild Mages - backers new and old. Here's a picture of me dressed as a wizard.
I'm trying very, very hard to not panic. There's only a week left in the Sword and Laser Contest and thanks to YOU [FINGER POINT] we're doing very, very well. I should be calm, I should play it cool. But I can't!
We've come so far - farther than I ever really expected, especially for a book about dragons, saxophones, friendship, magic, cruise liners, automaton mage-hounds, witches, and minotaur tea parties. I honestly think the most amazing part of all this is the feeling that I'm writing for someone -for you guys specifically. My other books I sort of type away in the wilderness, mutter drunkenly about them to my patient friends in gutters and gazebos, then they go out into the great unknown. But now, I love the feeling of owing you something. I love the feeling of a sold-out crowd for opening night of my little Muppet Show. (Don't worry - it's also intimidating enough to give my anxiety-demons all sorts of ammunition.)
I just shared another chapter from a little further in the book - here's a link if you didn't spot it in your email:
Chapter Three : Half-Ghost Sea
...But of late, he had started to see a shift, something change in his companion. The laughter - the way she seemed to revel in her power, it made the squire worry. There wasn’t one thing he could really put his finger on, but it seemed that Rime’s magic was perhaps beginning to get out of control.
“I’m going to blow their ship up too!” Rime said with exultation, weaving her lightning into a large ball above her head...
I love that I can write a chapter, and just send it to you! I mean, it's raggedy and needs some editing TLC, but bah! There it is, fresh off the dome and put up on your internet refrigerator with a heart-shaped magnet. Comments and feedback are very much appreciated.
This is what it will be like if we win - me sending you these little updates and napkins smeared with lipstick. IT WILL BE WEIRD. But it will also be kind of wonderful.
So, rainbows can wait - back to stress-bombs. 7 days! I want to win for myself, obviously, but I'm also really feeling the responsibility of all the time and energy you guys have put in - we have got to finish this thing monster strong.
THINGS I'M DOING
THINGS YOU CAN DO TO HELP
Thank you all so much for everything you've done so far, and dealing with me coming completely unraveled over the next week. Here's an even MORE unflattering picture of me. As the annoyance builds this week, just look at this picture and feel your rage pass like a summer breeze.
Good evening, Squires and Wild Mages - backers new and old. Here's a picture of me dressed as a wizard.
I'm trying very, very hard to not panic. There's only a week left in the Sword and Laser Contest and thanks to YOU [FINGER POINT] we're doing very, very well. I should be calm, I should play it cool. But I can't!
We've come so far - farther than I ever really expected, especially for a book about dragons, saxophones, friendship, magic, cruise liners, automaton mage-hounds, witches, and minotaur tea parties. I honestly think the most amazing part of all this is the feeling that I'm writing for someone -for you guys specifically. My other books I sort of type away in the wilderness, mutter drunkenly about them to my patient friends in gutters and gazebos, then they go out into the great unknown. But now, I love the feeling of owing you something. I love the feeling of a sold-out crowd for opening night of my little Muppet Show. (Don't worry - it's also intimidating enough to give my anxiety-demons all sorts of ammunition.)
I just shared another chapter from a little further in the book - here's a link if you didn't spot it in your email:
Chapter Three : Half-Ghost Sea
...But of late, he had started to see a shift, something change in his companion. The laughter - the way she seemed to revel in her power, it made the squire worry. There wasn’t one thing he could really put his finger on, but it seemed that Rime’s magic was perhaps beginning to get out of control.
“I’m going to blow their ship up too!” Rime said with exultation, weaving her lightning into a large ball above her head...
I love that I can write a chapter, and just send it to you! I mean, it's raggedy and needs some editing TLC, but bah! There it is, fresh off the dome and put up on your internet refrigerator with a heart-shaped magnet. Comments and feedback are very much appreciated.
This is what it will be like if we win - me sending you these little updates and napkins smeared with lipstick. IT WILL BE WEIRD. But it will also be kind of wonderful.
So, rainbows can wait - back to stress-bombs. 7 days! I want to win for myself, obviously, but I'm also really feeling the responsibility of all the time and energy you guys have put in - we have got to finish this thing monster strong.
THINGS I'M DOING
THINGS YOU CAN DO TO HELP
Thank you all so much for everything you've done so far, and dealing with me coming completely unraveled over the next week. Here's an even MORE unflattering picture of me. As the annoyance builds this week, just look at this picture and feel your rage pass like a summer breeze.
Secret #3
I don't know how to stop the asteroid.
I know how it was made, I know when it will land, I could even give you a pretty good statistical breakdown of the size and types of dragons that slumber beneath it's adamant crust -- hell, I have backstories and ridiculous dragon-names for a few like Tyrinel the Inferno, Sorrow the Sure, Bex the Assymetrically-Winged. I know the song First-Singer Teon wrote the day they cast the dragons off the planet, I know the taste of the wine that Jalyx poured for him as the Singer wept alone that night in their bedchamber.
But I don't know how to stop it from falling.
As of right now, working on the draft - looking down the long tunnel of the tale -- I just see an enticing but stubborn blank.
That's the fun, you see. I know so much about the world, about the heroes, about the Past and the Future and lightning-Now. But some things I can't see until I get there. Unlike the vast numbers of far wiser writers out there I only have the barest of outlines. Want to see it?
That's what I have. And some of it's wrong! I'm sure of it! It's just a road map, a way to keep moving forward.
I can't wait to get there though. I can't wait to get there, when that asteroid [at this point technically a meteor] starts pushing it's way through the atmosphere, and the wyrms start stirring, and and and....! I can't wait to write it and I can't wait for you all to read it.
Thank you all so much for coming on this adventure with me. Secret #3 isn't really a secret -- it's that I'm crazy and weird. But by backing this campaign I'm your crazy and weird. I crazy and weird for you.
Required Contest Update So My Anxiety Demons Will Quiet Down Briefly
Three days to go in the contest! I won't exaggerate, but we're slipping down the ranks a bit - and there's going to be a lot of movement in the next 72 hours as everyone fights to hold onto the top five slots. You've all put in your gold coins - you've all put up with my pestering -- it breaks me a little to be this mercenary, but I need your help even more this last stretch. We have to keep pushing or we're going to fall out the bottom of this contest - you know people, you know people who like books, or you know people who have 8.99. Show them the site, share the exclusive chapters with them - send them to me on twitter @gderekadams, I will patiently and shamelessly do my best to convince them. I'm still pinging everyone that's ever been on any social media/contact list I've ever had, but there's only so much time left and only so many people that I have incriminating high school poetry on file from. Take a look at the leaderboard - we are all neck and neck!
Stay with it Squires! Keep sipping lemonade Wild Mages! We can do it! AND BY ALL THAT IS HOLY LET'S JUST WIN THIS MOTHERFUCKING CONTEST SO I CAN STOP BOTHERING YOU NICE PEOPLE AND JUST WRITE YOU A STUPID BOOK ABOUT FRIENDSHIP AND DRAGONS.
[Contest ends Sunday night - May 31st - 12 PST]
Remember the sign. The circle that holds even thought it wishes to break.