Greetings Hexers and Machina Riders:

Do we have some things to talk about!  So much has happened in the last week my head is spinning. Let’s get right to it:

Extra Life Stream this Evening

I’ll be streaming Heroes of the Storm tonight for the Extra Life charity over on my Twitch channel, starting at 6 PM CST and running until midnight. Come cheer me on as I main Sylvanas and try to figure out if I can still snipe towers behind enemy gates. It should be fun times.  

Donate to my Extra Life fund

If you watch (and even if you can’t) help me get to $100 by donating here. I have already raised $40 for kids in need, so I’m 1/3 of the way there. Woncha help out?

The List 2016 contest

This week Inkshares announced which books were selected for their end-of--the-year contest, and Deus Hex Machina is on The List!  It’s a crazy big honor to be among such amazing books and their authors which leads me to my next item on the agenda:

A ton more Deus Hex Machina stuff is coming

A new contest means a new campaign, so I’ve been working in the last few days to shape what a second campaign for DHM would look like. Astute readers among you will already notice I’ve updated the book’s Inshares page, refereshed my cover concept, and put up a couple new character bios. In addition I have uploaded the revised first chapter from the 2nd draft -- I think you’ll be happy with the changes. 

My edit is plugging right along, and won’t stop just because another contest has popped into my life. You don’t stop feeding your kids just because extended family dropped by unannounced. You pull up extra chairs and make more desserts.

And I plan on more desserts friends. I will try to keep the updates meaningful throughout this contest, but I do have a good amount of fun stuff planned, and I want to share it all with you. 

My goal for this campaign will be to get to 400 readers. It’s a huge crazy unimaginable number, but I think we can do it. If you’re following the book but haven’t purchased, I’ll be reaching out to you personally in the coming weeks to ask for your order. If you have purchased the book, I’ll be reaching out to you personally to ask for your referral. 

In exchange for your support of the book I have planned more goodies: live-edits, fan art contests, a contest for the ARG -- yes Qathren YOBIBYTE got the jump on you Sombra. You got nothin’ on a hexer from the future.

It’s gonna be a fun, weird ride, and I hope you’ll join me. I’ll see you tonight. 

May the code replicate eternal.

Greetings Hexers and Machina Riders:

Editing is in process on the second draft of Deus Hex Machina (my spreadsheet of many colors is about 60% blue now to indicate finished scenes), and although I had to push into November, I am expecting to be done soon.

But that’s not what I’m here to talk to you about. Today I will be joining forces with Extra Life and starting the first of four gaming sessions where I will stream for charity -- specifically Children’s Hospital of Alabama. My goal is to raise $100 to help kids at the hospital get the treatment they need, and I will be streaming every Sunday evening throughout the month of November over on my Twitch channel. I’ll be starting at 8PM Central, and am thinking it might be fun to let the audience help make my choices as I start a new character in Stardew Valley. If you like watching gaming, stop by and say hi, and if you like what you see, please consider donating to a good cause.

TL;DR:

WHO: Well, me, actually.

WHAT: A Charity Gaming Stream for Extra Life

WHEN: 8PM Central every Sunday evening throughout November

WHERE: http://www.twitch.tv/mandifesto

WHY: To raise a minimum of $100 for Children’s of Alabama. Donate here if you want to jump the line and just give money to kids without having to watch me make a fool of myself online. Although, I think that’s half the fun.

See you tonight!

  Today is Extra Life!  We cleared my second goal and are closing in on $1000 raised for the year.  The entire event is above $6 million for the year. We’re live and fundraising and you can watch here http://www.twitch.tv/guthron or here http://www.twitch.tv/pixel_sharks.  You can donate here.  

  Today is Extra Life!  We cleared my second goal and are closing in on $1000 raised for the year.  The entire event is above $6 million for the year. We’re live and fundraising and you can watch here http://www.twitch.tv/guthron or here http://www.twitch.tv/pixel_sharks.  You can donate here.  

Today is Extra Life!  We cleared my second goal and are closing in on $1000 raised for the year.  The entire event is above $6 million for the year. We’re live and fundraising and you can watch here http://www.twitch.tv/guthron or here http://www.twitch.tv/pixel_sharks.  You can donate here.

Hey everyone,

A quick update of where our project stands and its immediate future:

1.      Contest Over
2.     Campaign NOT Over Until 12/31/2016!
3.     Raffle Winners
4.     NANOWRIMO/Book Update

1. Contest Over

So after a brutal 3 months, the Geek & Sundry fantasy contest is over. First off, congrats to the winners and other participants that also receive these updates. Contest highlights:

• We finished tied for 12th out of 406 entries in the official results. Thanks so much for everyone’s support for a respectable showing. Not too shabby, but there’s still work to do.

• In total pre-sales, we finished in 10th place at 179 pre-sales. A very cool stat as it means most of my backers are ordering multiple copies of my book. Without you, there’s zilcho chance of being published! 

• I didn’t jump off a bridge after not finishing in the top 3. Here’s a link to the final standings for visual learners like myself. 

2. Campaign NOT Over Until 12/31/2016!

So my campaign will now run until 12/31/2016. While we are edging close to the 200 pre-order mark, 250 pre-orders is still the magic number to hit. We are 71 orders away from Kingdom of Dreams becoming a reality. Please help me flip over any rocks you can to find new backers and if you have another pre-order planned, please do so. I’ve officially fired myself as campaign manager and appointed my tenacious family members to help get this thing across the finish line. My family and friends have been amazing during this process.

3. Raffle Winners

Will be drawn this week. We’ve had a sick baby, family events and a couple of conferences to deal with, including more this week. Thank you for your patience. In fact, the next update will be dedicated to the raffle. 

4. NANOWRIMO/Book Update

National novel writing month started yesterday. Why bring this up, other than the obvious? One fascinating thing I’ve learned in working on the illustrations for this book is they have unintentionally changed the tone of the original novel. (And for the better, I have some exciting new spices to add!) I was fine for the most part with the happenings in the story, but the tone itself no longer matched up with the illustrations. So other than Dromon the Recurring Nightmare’s chapters, I’m going to rework the other chapters and use NANOWRIMO as my fuel this month. I’ll be posting some chapters and excerpts as I go along. 

So to recap: I appreciate the contest and the activity it allowed to happen. But I’m thankful it’s over and now we can focus full-time on getting published! 

Pleasant dreams,

Kevin

Only 6 days left in the campaign, and only one more update after this one (not counting a post campaign update).  So if you’ve been holding off on preordering don’t delay much longer or you’ll miss your chance.  Thanks goes out to everyone who has supported me this far, and here’s hoping we can manage to get at least 187 more orders in 6 days.

I was going to continue sharing bits of background on my world and its peoples/creatures with this update, but a few days ago one of my fellow contributors to the Too Many Controllers anthology, Brian Guthrie brought up something more important.  There has already been an update sent out from the TMC page, but in the off chance that any of you reading this Exile, Magus update don’t also follow TMC I want to share it here as well.

Just an update for you about an event some of the Inkvengers will participate in this Fall.

BLUF: Support the Inkvengers as we raise money for the hospital that saved the lives of people close to us. Go to Extra Life to find out more.

This weekend, gamers around the world will come together for 24 (25 with the time change) hours of gaming raising money for children. The event is Extra Life and all the money the gamers raise goes to support Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals across the US. The event has raised $22 million up to this point, over $8 million last year alone.

This event is particularly close to the Inkvengers’ hearts.  We all know people who have been in a children’s hospital, many in our own family.  Brian Guthrie’s niece was born into Providence of Alaska at 26 weeks. They helped keep her in the womb as long as possible, safely delivered her, and saved her life during her 72 day stay in the NICU. She’s now a happy, bubbling kid full of life thanks to that hospital. All of the funds he raises go to Providence of Alaska.  To give you an idea of the need, the bed his niece lived in for those 72 days costs almost $10,000 to replace.  In 5 years, Brian has only managed to raise $4300.  The need is great.

Many, many more gamers have similar stories about the hospitals they support. In fact, the entire event was inspired by Victoria Enmon, a little girl diagnosed with cancer that wanted to do something for the other kids around her that were more sick. You can learn more about her story in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHSZ_82wiJg . Warning: tissues should be nearby.

So, what can you do? Well, you can join in and support a hospital. Learn more at Extra Life. But, if you’d rather just support a gamer, you can go to that site and find someone also doing this.  Some of the Inkvengers will be participating during the main event this Saturday, others on another day.  You can find Brian and Amanda Orneck by searching for their names on the event page or you can support their team.  They are on a team called the Pixel Sharks, which is spread out across the world, mostly current or former military service-members wanting to help others.  And don’t worry if you can’t donate right away.  You have until the end of the month to help.

Just an update for you about an event I participate in every Fall.

BLUF: Support me as I raise money for the hospital that saved my niece’s life.  Go here to donate.

This weekend, gamers around the world will come together for 24 (25 with the time change) hours of gaming raising money for children.  The event is Extra Life and all the money the gamers raise goes to support Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals across the US.

This event is particularly close to my heart as my niece was born into Providence of Alaska at 26 weeks.  They helped keep her in the womb as long as possible, safely delivered her, and saved her life during her 72 day stay in the NICU.  She’s now a happy, bubbling kid full of life thanks to that hospital.

All of the funds I raise go to Providence of Alaska.  Many, many more gamers have similar stories about the hospitals they support.  In fact, the entire event was inspired by Victoria Enmon, a little girl diagnosed with cancer that wanted to do something for the other kids around her that were more sick.  You can learn more about her story in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHSZ_82wiJg .  Warning: tissues should be nearby.

So, what can you do?  Well, you can join in and support a hospital.  Learn more at http://www.extra-life.org .  But, if you’d rather just support a gamer, you can go to that site and find someone also doing this.  My page is here.  I believe Jamison Stone is also participating.

Oh, and Rise is 42 copies away from 2K sold:-)  I’m still waiting on all those reviews you promised.

Just an update for you about an event I participate in every Fall.

BLUF: Support me as I raise money for the hospital that saved my niece’s life.  Go here to donate.

This weekend, gamers around the world will come together for 24 (25 with the time change) hours of gaming raising money for children.  The event is Extra Life and all the money the gamers raise goes to support Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals across the US.

This event is particularly close to my heart as my niece was born into Providence of Alaska at 26 weeks.  They helped keep her in the womb as long as possible, safely delivered her, and saved her life during her 72 day stay in the NICU.  She’s now a happy, bubbling kid full of life thanks to that hospital.

All of the funds I raise go to Providence of Alaska.  Many, many more gamers have similar stories about the hospitals they support.  In fact, the entire event was inspired by Victoria Enmon, a little girl diagnosed with cancer that wanted to do something for the other kids around her that were more sick.  You can learn more about her story in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHSZ_82wiJg .  Warning: tissues should be nearby.

So, what can you do?  Well, you can join in and support a hospital.  Learn more at http://www.extra-life.org .  But, if you’d rather just support a gamer, you can go to that site and find someone also doing this.  My page is here.  I believe Jamison Stone is also participating.

Oh, and Rise is 42 copies away from 2K sold:-)  I’m still waiting on all those reviews you promised.  And all those eager fans pre-ordering Fall :-)

Just an update for you about an event I participate in every Fall.

BLUF: Support me as I raise money for the hospital that saved my niece’s life.  Go here to donate.

This weekend, gamers around the world will come together for 24 (25 with the time change) hours of gaming raising money for children.  The event is Extra Life and all the money the gamers raise goes to support Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals across the US.

This event is particularly close to my heart as my niece was born into Providence of Alaska at 26 weeks.  They helped keep her in the womb as long as possible, safely delivered her, and saved her life during her 72 day stay in the NICU.  She’s now a happy, bubbling kid full of life thanks to that hospital.

All of the funds I raise go to Providence of Alaska.  Many, many more gamers have similar stories about the hospitals they support.  In fact, the entire event was inspired by Victoria Enmon, a little girl diagnosed with cancer that wanted to do something for the other kids around her that were more sick.  You can learn more about her story in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHSZ_82wiJg .  Warning: tissues should be nearby.

So, what can you do?  Well, you can join in and support a hospital.  Learn more at http://www.extra-life.org .  But, if you’d rather just support a gamer, you can go to that site and find someone also doing this.  My page is here.  I believe Jamison Stone is also participating.

Oh, and Rise is 42 copies away from 2K sold:-)  I’m still waiting on all those reviews you promised.