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*Crawls out of editing cave, hissing at the light*
I LIVVVVEEEEE!!!!!
Yes, I’m still technically alive. Haven’t fallen in a deep, dark hole or anything like that. I’ve just been a slave to the editing process and, of course, my day job.
But I’ve decided to peek my head up from the abyss to send you all an update.
First and foremost, Beyond the Code news. Editing has been going slower then I’d like but very well. Results from my wonderful beta readers have given me some ideas for rewrites of the story. These changes will give some of the characters actions more of a dramatic punch that I really think you’ll all enjoy.
In other news, I will be taking my first try at pushing my book at a convention. I will be at the Edmonton Expo on Saturday. I will be handing out bookmarks to anyone who will take them to try and get the word of Beyond the Code out. I hope to see any of you there.
I also want to take this opportunity to talk about Evan Graham’s book Tantalus Depths. It’s a really well thought out world that deserves full funding and it is very close. Please, if you have not already, take the time to check it out and consider backing this great project.
https://www.inkshares.com/books/tantalus-depths
Thank you all for continuing to support this my dream and I hope I can give you a fully realised product sooner, rather then later.
Kelsey Rae Barthel
FROM THE BLOG DIARY OF EMILY HUNTER
Entry #3: July 19, 2013
Tonight
Tossing and turning again.
Sweating, freezing.
They are calling me.
Do I listen?
Do I dream?
Do I stop swimming against the current?
Do I lose (give) myself to madness?
They don’t stop.
They won’t stop.
They can’t stop.
I can’t fight. Or can I?
I can’t sleep. Or can I?
I can’t dream. Or am I?
Maybe I’m not crazy.
Maybe I’m not dreaming.
Yes dear? What do you need?
-E.H.
Entry #4 July 23, 2013
When I was a little girl, I had an imaginary acquaintance. This is how I knew something was wrong early.
Most little girls have imaginary friends. They play together, they go on silly adventures. They make up stories. They get silly names.
Carrot was not my friend. We didn’t play or have fun. Lots of times, she was just there.
Sometimes she was scary, or mean. Sometimes she was sad. Sometimes she would smile. But we never really played. I always pictured her with a stuffed toy bunny, which might be why I came up with the name Carrot. She also never opened her eyes or spoke, which is what made my mom curious when I was a kid. She thought I was progressive and forward thinking, like I made up a blind, mute imaginary friend and wanted to include her in my life, and I would grow up to be a caring individual who took care of people less fortunate. It wasn’t that. Carrot could see, she just kept her eyes closed. When I explained that to my mom, she stopped asking about Carrot. In hindsight, it is a weird and sort of creepy detail for a kid to make up. Not the weirdest I ever heard though. I was in a group therapy session once and brought up Carrot, and one of the others had an imaginary friend named Marley who’s scalp was made of sponges. So who’s the weirdo now, mom? :)
It was comforting to know she was there. "There." Of course, she was never really there. I know that now as an adult. Dr. Harper seems to think she was just a way for my mind to visualize inner emotions or turmoil. To deal with things my mind didn’t want to deal with, or didn’t know how to deal with. Granted, this is why a lot of kids have imaginary friends. Carrot didn’t want to play with me, probably because I didn’t want to play with me. That’s either sad or ridiculous. Maybe both.
What can happen, especially with children with my diagnosis, and with me in particular, is that these imaginary people or creatures can sometime manifest themselves into full blown hallucinations, because your brain is already using these archetypes to deal with stress. It’s likely the reason I believed in Carrot for so long (embarrassingly long) is because I started really believing I could see her. Though I never heard her, even though off my medication, I would hear things every now and then. Voices, or banging sometimes. Not really banging, more like a loud thumping, like a heartbeat. That was the worst.
I’m sure it seems weird to believe in imaginary friends as long as I did. The medications I’m taking really curtail the hallucinations, but I still have vivid dreams sometimes. And sometimes she’s in them. This little girl I made up when I was barely able to talk (something that also took some time for me) and I’d still think of her. My brain would still reference her as a way to cope with stressful situations, or emotions I couldn’t handle.
My point of bringing this up is really just fascination. They say the most a human develops in any given time is between birth and 3 years old. In that time, you grow a personality and a paradigm of life, the universe and everything. (Douglas Adams reference... thank you.) These moments in this time, the lessons that you learn and things you see shape your entire life from that point on. It’s where you learn how you fit in socially. If you’re hugged a lot, you tend to be okay with touch. If you are left alone screaming in your crib, you tend to grow up cold. Child psychology (and as you can probably tell, psychology in general) is all so interesting. At least to me.
I eventually, through certain circumstances that I’m not up to sharing quite yet, decided to take control of my life. I have it good when it comes to mental disorder. I’m still very cognitively aware and high functioning. Not everyone has it this good. So rather than be a victim of the hand I was dealt, I have done what I can to be as knowledgeable about my diagnosis as possible. I didn’t go to college, and I was home schooled after 3rd grade, so I never really took any psychology courses. I had planned on taking some classes at the community conir, but then I decomped (meaning I basically lost my shit again) and couldn’t. I do however have a library card, and I read everything I could. I got a copy of the DSM IV for my birthday (weirdest birthday request ever), and when the DSM V came out, I bought it immediately. I don’t want to be in the dark about what’s happening in my brain. I did that for too long.
And like I said, I’m lucky to be able to understand what’s happening. I’ve lived with people who cannot, and it must be hell. They’d probably give anything to be able to cope how I do. Who am I to waste it?
Okay, I’m getting tired, so I’m calling it a day.
All the best!
-Emily
Hello readers,
So...sorry for accidentally maintaining a radio silence for three months. I had meant to post an update on how the Remains is going and keep the good folks here up to date on these things. But I guess being bad at keeping up with self-made promises is one of the reasons I’m slightly overweight and are writing a novel instead being a blogger. Well...I’m not gonna make any promises here that I think I will accidentally break, so let’s move on.
The Remains is chugging along at a steady pace...and I shall now unveil The Remains of Civilization V2.0!
Here’s a slightly more typo-free, 200% more humorous, and punchier chapters of the book! I promise this time the revision I made to the chapter will make rereading them be like adding sprinkles on a vanilla-flavored ice-cream on a hot, sunny day instead of a reptitive task. I would be interested in hearing your feedback on the story so far and your opinions on it. The reader’s voice is essentially the lifeblood of writers, we REALLY can’t live without ’em.
Other than that, I can now also officially announce that I will finish this draft before or during NaNoWriMo and also had finished planning and writing down the ending for the story. Funny how the ending was almost completely different from how I had finished the first draft, but that was never meant to be the real ending anyway, the ending to the first draft served as a placeholder for when I thought of a better ending and a reminder that if you don’t plan...eh things can really become a mess really quickly. At the end, the current draft is more a rewrite than an edit, really.
Well, that’s unfortunately all. I’ll probably post another update next month. Until then.
-Yicheng Liu
Greetings!
First, it’s so exciting seeing all the images people have been sending of their copies of the book or them holding the book. I’m saving all of these, of course. Be sure to get a picture of some interesting place you choose to read it for a bit. It’s been fun sharing those.
Second, you are able to review Rise on Amazon.com, BN.com, and Goodreads (and mark it as reading on that last one if you still are). The BN page is a bit dodgy with the reviews. Some people have reported it won’t accept the review while a few have managed it. I appreciate your attempting to do so. It really does help.
In other news, I’ve resumed editing Fall around my re-write of After Man. It’s fun revisiting this new adventure in the same world as Rise after taking several month off from it. I can’t say Fall will have as many edit run-throughs as Rise did but it is still getting a meticulous comb over. If you’re as eager to read this second book as I am in editing it, why not go ahead over to Inkshares and preorder your copy today.
Finally, yours truly recently was a guest on the Write Brain podcast, hosted by Inkshares veterans Paul Inman and Jean-Francois Dubeau. We had a blast discussing cake, Dragoncon, authors we like to read and don’t like to read, and, yes, even Rise. Be sure to look for it in whatever podcast app you use, episode 30 or go to http://www.jfdubeau.com/writebrain/ to listen. Additionally, in two weeks time on Oct 7, 2016 I have the privilege of appearing on a podcast on a network I’ve been a fan of since 2009, Frogpants Studios. I’ll be appearing on the Current Geek podcast hosted by Scott Johnson (of The Instance podcast fame for you WoW players) and Tom Merritt (a name that will be familiar to most of you as he’s the guy on the front cover of Rise giving that amazing blurb). I’m really excited and a bit nervous to be appearing on any show on this network but I’m sure it will be fun. If you haven’t discovered the library of shows Frogpants Studios and friends of the network are making, I highly recommend going to frogpants.com and checking them out.
Happy reading and listening!
Short update just to show I’m still alive. Writing is continuing steadily as the end draws ever closer for the final draft of The Children of the Forest. In the meantime, enjoy another preview of a possible cover for the final version. Have a great week everyone ~
P.S. Preoders are always welcome. If you’ve followed along with my little passion project but have yet to grab a copy, I’d suggest taking a look at the sample chapters provided, and if you enjoy what you see, why not grab a digital version (or 10) I’m just saying...
Polls are open!
As we get into election season, I’d like to offer a complete distraction!
A monkey on a unicycle playing a bagpipe with his... Wait, no, not that. That’s for later.
No, what I offer you is a chance to help determine the face of “Beneath White Clouds.”
But first, a little business:
We start out week 3 with 22 orders - almost 10% of the way to Quill publication. WooHoo! That’s great, but we’ve got work to do yet! Put your name on a copy, and please help spread the word.
Now for the fun stuff. When working on cover art for this book, I couldn’t stop myself at 1. I had to go an make 4 conceptual drafts for the face of Beneath White Clouds.
So, these are drafts, not finalized versions. Now I need your help to figure out which concept I should develop into a final version.
You get to vote! Follow this link to pick your favorite!
Which image grabs you? Which one looks the most like a book you’d want to pick up? Take your pick, then share the poll with your friends. Vote early, vote often, let your voice determine the face of my next book.
Feel free to leave feedback on how you think the art could be improved in the comments at the end of the poll or on Inkshares.
Happy voting!
FROM THE BLOG DIARY OF EMILY HUNTER.
Entry #1: July 10, 2013
Okay, so this is supposed to be helpful in some way. I’ll believe it when I see it, but here’s hoping...
First of all, I have to apologize. I am not a tech savvy person. I don’t have a facebook and I don’t tweet. So me starting a blog is a little strange, I’ll admit. I had an old email address that I just tried to log into for the first time in god knows how long, only to find it overrun with ads for male enhancement drugs and people from Nigeria trying to give me money. Turns out you need a google email address to start a blog on blogger, so I guess I got a new one. If anyone ever reads this, I guess you can feel free to drop me a line. Unless you’re the prince of Nigeria, in which case, fuck off.
Second of all, I might have to apologize again. One of the conditions ("rules" is more like it) of this blog, is that I’m not allowed to delete anything except typos. So if I ramble or say god knows what, it’s here for posterity for all eternity. Sorry to any readers out there. Luckily, I doubt anyone but me and one other person will read this. So no worries, imaginary readers.
So this is supposed to take the place of a diary; somewhere to collect my thoughts. I’m supposed to add something every week if I can, no matter how big or small it is. So apology number three if I bore you with an entry all about how I like sushi.
I’m also supposed to be as honest and forthcoming as I can be. But, as I’m firing these thoughts deep into the web without knowing where they’re going, we’ll probably get there slowly. I’d hate to see people at work look me up and read some of this.
Can I swear on a blog? Oh, I guess I already did.
So this is entry #1. Numero Uno. So here we go on a tour of my brain.
I guess I should start with the introduction. Hello world. My name is Emily Hunter. First time blogger. Pleasure to meet you.
Where to go from there? I work in a grocery store. It’s a little place, family owned. The owner is a pretty nice guy. I stock shelves and pretty much run the place on the third shift. It’s great for me because I’m kind of a night owl, and I like my alone time. Not many people come in, so I’m usually by myself. The owner doesn’t seem to mind leaving me on shift alone because he’s got plenty of security cameras, a police panic button, and the police station is less than a block away, and fully visible from the front entrance. Still we’ve been robbed twice, never while I was on shift, and both times they caught the robbers. Once as they left, once an hour and a half later. So it’s perfectly safe. (My mom doesn’t like me working there alone. I’d usually not worry about her finding this and reading it, but she just got her first smartphone two weeks ago and has apparently gotten really good at using it. So, just in case you’re reading this mom, there’s nothing to worry about.)
So I just got off work at 8, took the bus home and walked in my door at 9:15. I got to work on this stuff, wrote my first entry, and now I need to go to bed. Working third shift also means you miss out on the sun. I never sleep as much as I’d like. (I’m following the rules and not deleting that sentence. Just so you know.)
So signing off,
Emily