Dear readers,

Today I want to tell you about a very special new book that’s funding here on Inkshares: my husband’s space opera novel, Infinity Mind -- a novel about a telepathic assassin on a future Mars colony who must break his conditioning before he murders his wife.

Here’s a video we did together to introduce his book and how you can help him reach his funding goal. (And also at long last: the secret of the science fiction book case in my office is revealed!)

Click the picture to be taken to Pat’s page where you can view the video (and pre-order a copy while you’re there):

Pat’s been watching me work hard on connecting to an audience for Blood Dawn here on Inkshares and he’s been lurking in the community for some time, but with the launch of the Nerdist space opera contest we both saw this as a great time for him to make his debut with Infinity Mind. That, and the fact that we both finished our manuscripts last December, so he’s now got his sights on publication.

It would mean so much to me if you could support him by pre-ordering a copy of his book. This book, originally called "Rebirth" when we met, was actually one thing that first brought us together. It was a stormy weekend in May back in 2011 (that weekend when the world was predicted to end) and we both trekked our way across Winnipeg to the Radisson hotel for the annual Keycon writing convention to learn about how to get our respective books published (at the time, I was writing a fantasy trilogy called "The Blood, The Sword, and the Shadow", my second novel). Neither of us found fame, but we found each other and soon we were critiquing each other’s work.

Eventually, we both shelved our work, deciding it wasn’t ripe yet, and we moved on to other things. But Pat always did intend to go back to his novel about Mars colony, its corrupt dictator and her power-hungry right-hand-man, and the mystery hiding far beneath the Martian soil -- and I was eager to find out more about where he was going with the big reveal at the end (no spoilers!). Finally,  last year, after seeing how beneficial the Author Accelerator program was for me, Pat decided to use it to rewrite "Rebirth". The result: Infinity Mind.

Again, the link to where you can view the video and pre-order a copy of his book: https://www.inkshares.com/books/infinity-mind

Thanks so much for all your support!

(And fans of Blood Dawn, boy have I got something cooking here for the final push -- reveal is coming sooooon!)

Its Sunday, but I’m going to have to admit that I will not be able to get my recommendations in this week since I’ve had nowhere near the time I need to do my pre-recommendation reading/reviewing.  Its the busy season where I work which has meant that for the past two weeks my work days have been 11 hours long when you factor in drive time, and I’ve only had Sundays off.  This has pretty much only left me time to eat, sleep, work, and be exhausted.

As a result I’ve also been slowed down in my plans to find artists to see if I can afford both the new cover and interior art that I really want, not to mention prints of said art for a reason to be announced and probably easily enough guessed at.  That means currently I’ve only got a couple of names on my list to email, and I’d really prefer more so feel free to message me with suggestions for affordable artists if you know of any.  I plan to send messages today to those I have found, and also spend time looking for other artists.

I’ll still be on long hours next week, but unless something changes I’ll have both Saturday and Sunday off.  As long as that doesn’t change I’ll be posting up recommendations in a week’s time.

Ladies and gentlemen; or, if I might be so bold: dear friends....

Things appear to be going swimmingly. I count 98 of you, and I welcome you all. I hope you all enjoy a good mystery, and I hope "Murder at the Veterans’ Club" lives up to expectations.

We have run into a slight issue with our project dashboard. As far as I can tell, this might affect up to five of you; or perhaps it might not affect you at all. This ought to be sorted out soon, and time will tell if the momentary blip will have any further repercussions.

In real life, I am working on an outline for a story game at choiceofgames.com. I do encourage everyone to have a look at what they’ve got going there. These interactive stories are all excellent diversions, and I have enjoyed a good number of them.

This is not to say that "Murder at the Veterans’ Club" is being backburnered! I’m hoping to get some artwork done--perhaps a new cover--over the next week, and editing continues apace. Some of you might have noticed the drastically reduced prologue, which I think serves the purpose of appetiser a lot better than a lengthier segment of prose. The current plan (subject to developments at Choiceof Games) is to go into pre-orders at Easter, though if things move quickly enough I might move the pre-order date somewhat earlier.

Do check out Faith A.’s "A Cup for the Dead", which is another excellent detective story in the "golden age" tradition.

Monthly Update time! Short and simple. As the next Nerdist contest fires up into it’s first weekend, I can peel back the veil of what happens as your book enters production. Here are some dates I have:

2/5 – Editorial letter with comments due to AU

2/15 – Author revisions due to dev editor

3/5 – Line edited MS due to author

3/12 – Author revisions due to dev editor

3/15 – Clean dev edit due

4/19 – CEMS due for author review

5/3 – Author review of CEMS due

5/10 – Clean CEMS due to Proofer

5/26 – Proofread due

6/7 – Author review of Proof due

7/12 – Format proof due

7/19 – Format proof review due

7/22 – Interior digital proof due

7/29 – Interior digital proof approved

8/11 – Mechanicals (final files to printer)

8/25 – Ebook files due for review

8/31 – Ebook changed due from AU

1/10/2017 – Pub date

See that Pub Date?! It feels so far away, but that’s a lot of neat stuff I get to do leading up to it. Now, this is just on the side of the written word. Here are some more dates that go into this: 

3/7 – R1 cover concepts due

3/21 – R1 feedback due

4/4 – R2 covers due

4/18 – R2 feedback due

5/2 – R3 covers due

5/16 – Final front cover approved

5/23 – Spine and back cover R1 due

6/14 – Spine and back cover approved

7/27 – Final cover layout approved

8/5 – Digital proof due

8/9 – Digital proof approved

8/11 – Mechanicals (final files to printer)

AND even after this, there is a marketing schedule as well! But I don’t have any dates for that stuff yet. Just a plan. In the middle of all of this, I’ll start writing the sequel: The Rise of Dystopia. 

The next update I’ll try videos, pictures, and music to show some of the themes I used when writing the book. You can find me on Twitter @CrankyBolt and on Facebook /CrankyBolt as well. Reach out to me if you have any questions about this entire process. As always, if you are a backer, and would like a copy of the manuscript early, email me: CrankyBolt@gmail.com and I’ll send you whatever current revision I’m on.