I have a new landing page, congruent with having funded! To me, this is HUGE!!! Thank y’all for coming on this journey, thank y’all for being amazing and wonderful throughout, and thank y’all for just...
Wow, I’m a little misty-eyed and I can’t think of the words to say. Thank you just feels inadequate. Super thank you. OH! And the price for a hardcopy is dropped to 14.99 per each. If you were looking for that break, here it is!
*Gasp* We’re up to 60 unique readers, 76 pre-orders, and 8th place in the Geek and Sundry contest! We’re even closing in on 7th! That’s pretty impressive, so I’ve uploaded Chapter 3. Thanks so much for your support!
Mela rolled and moaned beneath the sheets of her bed, an ornate thing of old wood and corroded nails. The posts swayed with every movement of her body, constantly threatening to give way and collapse altogether. Then the moaning stopped, replaced by her heavy breaths.
Cocooned by the pitch-black of the chamber, she felt her hair lightly touching her face, like a ghost seeking warmth. The dream was fading away, pieces at a time, as she tried to hold onto the horror. She didn’t know why sh. . .
Good Morning Dreamers,
Hello, everyone!
So, as you know, this campaign ends on August 19th. We need to hit 250 pre-orders by then if we want to make Quill.
We’re not going to do it.
This isn’t me giving up—in fact, it’s the opposite. This is me changing our battle plan, because this little skirmish of trying to see The Last Faoii in the hands of the fewest number of hands required to see any sort of publication at all is not nearly as big as the war we’re about to face. It was a worthy goal, and I would have been happy with it, feeling like I had brought The Last Faoii to a noteworthy and honorable end of reaching 250 readers.
Until your sudden influx of letters and support yesterday convinced me that that’s just not good enough.
Honestly, everyone—I thought that I’d had support before. I saw the 110 pre-orders and my heart swelled with honor and humility. I didn’t think I could feel more loved. Until suddenly all of you donned your battle gear and swore we were going to bring The Last Faoii further than even I dreamed possible. Until you told me to stop aiming my sights on this little hill I’ve been trying to surmount and instead to focus on the glorious mountain that’s in the distance. The Geek and Sundry Contest. Not a Quill Goal of 250 but a full publication goal of 750. You all said yesterday that you wanted to make it. So we’re going to.
That’s right. This little skirmish just turned into a war. And I’m granting every single one of you the title of Faoii (or Faoli) as of now.
In 17 days you’re all going to get e-mails that say we didn’t reach Quill. You’re going to get your money back and The Last Faoii will stop taking pre-orders. For a lot of people, that would be heart crushing. A huge disappointment.
But we’re not regular people, are we?
Because in 18 days, this Inkshares campaign going to start back up again, but this time every single pre-order is going to go not only to a Quill goal, but to the Geek and Sundry Contest. To full publication. Every pre-order is going to make The Last Faoii that much more noticeable to the hundreds of people who are following the contestants. And each pre-order is going to bring us one step closer to the top spot.
I’m not going to lie—we’re going to arrive late to the battle. The contest started yesterday and I can’t even enter until The Last Faoii has a clean slate. That’s 20 days late to a fight that dozens of books have already entered. But those dozens of other books haven’t been advertising and spreading the word for 90 days already. Those other books aren’t going to be able to start day one with (conceivably) 110 pre-orders. Those other books don’t have an entire army of honorary Faoii fighting for it.
Those other books don’t have all of you.
So, are you ready, Faoii? Because I’m drafting you into this fight right now.
You don’t have to take the title. I’m not forcing you. If you choose, in 17 days, you can take the investment you put towards this novel and you can choose to take it back. You can take your significant other out to dinner or buy that thing you’ve had your eye on. I wouldn’t begrudge you that. I’m just honored you stood by me the first time around.
But you can also choose to put that money right back into the place you already decided once it should belong—The Last Faoii’s future. You have the next 17 days to decide. I’m planning on using that time to make our battle plan. To figure out how we’re going to spread the word about The Last Faoii and create the army that will lead us to victory. And I need your help to do it. We’ve got 17 days before the REAL campaign begins.
Faoii, let’s go to war.
A’arilon Ray looked around for signs of life, but there were none. The lonely howl of the wind ripped down the barren hillside. It caught his long, dark, green-tinged hair, whipping it about as he made his way to the top.
Few details ever changed in the rote, familiar ascent. The same bleak landscape rolled out before him. Black sky. Gray, muddy earth. The long incline that ended at the maw of an abyss. He slipped on the wet ground and made slow progress but, ahead, stood the man he cam. . .
Happy Friday!
Well, please forgive me folks as it’s been awhile since my last confession/update.
The writer/artiste and I are in full on summer "hibernation" mode, hiding out inside and basking in the cold AC, because it’s blazing hot outside in Austin, Texas. A good time to work indoors. And so we did! A portion of the trailer has been filmed. Here’s me in between takes as they couldn’t afford a proper trailer for my dressing/recovery room:
And yes, I wasn’t quite ready for this picture to be taken. (I never am.)
Even I’m excited about the other portion of the trailer that doesn’t involve me, as the writer/artiste has been talking to a professional creature artist. If they can pull off a proper rendition of Dromon the Night Terror (hint, read the prologue if you haven’t yet seen that hideous monster) it will be as the kids say, epic. And if they don’t, comedy gold!
Meanwhile, we are looking at an Autumn launch for the pre-sale of Kingdom of Dreams. Hopefully another contest or two will come along, but otherwise we do have some aces up our fur. Okay, so that sounds disgusting. At any rate, stay tuned as we button this puppy up!
Purr on,
Francis
