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. 

Hello everyone!

The re-writes and fixes are moving along nicely and I’m definitely on track to hand the manuscript over to Inkshares in May… Then the work of turning it into a real physical book really kicks off!

In the meantime, I wrote a piece for John Robin’s World Builder series that will give you a little bit more insight into the setting I’ve created. The map is still a work in progress, but a more polished version of it will likely find its way into the book. Go take a look!

Inkshares is running a series contests with Nerdist and Geek and Sundry over the coming months - first up is Space Operas! Lots of great books to check out both in the contest and out. 

A couple of contest books that already caught my eye are Christopher Leone’s Champions of the Third Planet and Jake MacMillan’s Dangerous Thoughts; As different from each other as they could be and still be in the same genre, but both well worth a look and a pre-order!

And let’s not forget all the other great books that are still funding on the site! A couple that I’d like to recommend in particular:

-For the epic fantasy fans, John Robin’s Blood Dawn is a must.

-For anyone looking for a good laugh (and I mean is seriously funny!), Billy O’Keefe’s These are my Friends on Politics is for you!

More updates as stuff happens! Likely every month or so :)

Hello readers!

I’m emerging from my writing cave ever so briefly to present you with something very fun! Last month, I was contacted by a Mr. Devon Oakander, a talented acting school graduate who took a liking to the adventures of Dax Harrison. Devon asked if there were any plans for an audiobook version of Dax, and if so, could he submit a recording to audition as narrator?

Needless to say, I was completely humbled. I would LOVE to hear Dax narrated in all his ridiculous glory. As I have been focusing on completing and publishing the print manuscript, I have yet to research the ins and outs of audiobook publishing. If it ends up being feasible, then yes, there will be news on this front at an undetermined point down the road.

In the meantime, you can CLICK HERE to listen to Devon’s terrific reading of the book’s prologue! I believe he matched the over-the-top opening scene quite well with an old Hollywood radio quality in his voice. But don’t take my word for it. Go give it a listen!

....Okay, did you listen? Good stuff, right? He even managed to pronounce "Carteagan" in a much fancier fashion than I originally meant. Haha. Feel free to share the link around and get some more readers on the Dax bandwagon!

As always, my thanks again to each and everyone of you. I hope you find my humble little adventure book to be worth the wait. The writing continues. I even decided to use a bunch of vacation time off work through the second half of February. I want to be laser focused with as little distractions as possible. Wish me luck!

-Tony