Greetings.

This morning Facebook reminded me that it is 1 year today since Ghosts of War successfully finished it’s funding campaign. This is actually mildly awkward because I thought it was the 13th...not the 11th...

So, while I don’t have anything for you today, on Friday (the 13th....oooOOOooo...spoopy) I will have a nice, proper, full of info update. 

So yes, today may be the anniversary, but the party is on Friday.

Dear Sweethearts,

Happy Wednesday! 365 short days ago, I stared at my Inkshares project page. It was full of the first chapter of the book I had written , why I wanted for this book to become a reality support, and an ask. I asked you all, many of you perfect strangers, to take the worst thing that had ever happened to me, and to help me make it into something beautiful, into something helpful.  I exhaled deeply, I closed my eyes and then clicked submit.

Now, here we are 1 year later. And because of your support, kindness, and willingness to share this story we have sold over 3,400 copies of "How to Get Run Over by a Truck"!!! That has happened in the 3 short months since it has been published! It is being sold online, and in bookstores across the country!!  Not only helped me to break Inkshares sale records, but to help others laugh in the face of tragedy, to feel less alone - you have made my dream come true! 

Isn’t it amazing that you did that! You, beautiful, stunning, generous human being! I hope that you feel proud of creating a miracle - because I am VERY proud of you! 

In the last year, your support has changed my life dramatically.  For the first time I felt like I was actually a good writer, that my story had worth, and that it was a sotry that others might be interested in it. I had the confidence to use my experience and my voice to help others - which is the greatest gift I have ever been given.

I have been invited to speak at colleges, medical schools, financial firms, hospitals, elementary schools, high schools bookstores and bars!  I have been overwhelmed by the response that I have gotten from strangers after these talks. I have been approached by men and women weeping for their own traumas, strangers grabbing my hands telling me that my little story has given them hope, doctors with 20 years of medical experience letting me know that I have changed the way that they see their patients. It has given me more clarity around what I would like to do with my life, a purpose,  and for that I am forever grateful. 

Your support of this effort has been so meaningful to me, and to all of the people who have read this book. I wish that I could send you all of the emails, tweets, posts and whispered thank you’s that I have heard over the last three months (but that would be a lot, and you guys are busy people!) So, instead, I just wanted to reiterate to you that your love and support has had a serious impact on my life, and on the lives of others! 

I have been blown away by the fact that more people need this story than I had ever imagined. I spoke at New York University Hospital’s Grand Rounds a few weeks ago, and I was so moved by their feedback, and how grateful they were for a patients take on how small kindnesses can change their interactions with their patients. I am going to St. Barnubus Hospital in a few weeks to speak to all of the doctors, nurses and EMT’s in their trauma center, to give them insight into their patients experience, so that they can empathize more deeply with the people who come into their care. I have LOVED giving these talks.  Incredibly, the connections to these hospitals have been made by all of you! You saw worth in this book, and shared it with the medical professionals in your life! I cannot tell you how meaningful that has been to me, and I hope that you will keep sharing! 

I have another book event coming up at one of my favorite bookstores, Northshire Bookstore in Manchester VT! It is going to be on January 20, at 7:00. If you are in the area I would love to see you there and give you a BIG hug! If you’re able to join us, please RSVP here! Bonus: my amazing parents, Art and Margo will be there, and they are even better in person than they are on paper :) 

Also, you all have been SO amazing about leaving Amazon reviews! We are at 77 reviews as of this morning, and apparently, if the book get to 100 reviews it shifts the way that Amazon markets the book online! We are only 23 reviews away from that goal! So, if you have 5 minutes and haven’t reviewed it yet, I would be so grateful for your feedback

Finally, I wanted to offer up something special to you all - recently, some friends who have chosen How to Get Run Over by a Truck as their book club pick, have invited me to join a portion of their book club meeting to answer questions, or to chat about the book, or to just allow me to step into a small beautiful sliver of their worlds as they talk about their own challenges and trauma’s. If that is something that you would be interested in having me Skype, or FaceTime into - please feel free to contact me via Inkshares or the Facebook page for How to Get Run Over by a Truck! 

I sincerely cannot thank you enough for your love, kindness, and support of this book over this last year. I am unsure of what I did to deserve so much love, but I promise that I will keep doing it.  Thank you for everything that you have done for me in the last 365 days, it has meant more to me than you know! 

Sending you love, hope and gratitude on this rainy Brooklyn morning! 

Heart,

Katie 

Hello fellow undead friends...

So, we enter winter finally. The time with the longest night of the year. It’s also the time that you’ve all finally gotten your books after all this time. So, before I start sacrificing small chickens to get reviews from people... let’s get you reading. Here is what you need to know!

The Digital Ebook... Mobi, PDF, Kindle versions will be available for all you backers THIS FRIDAY! Early! When the time comes, you’ll be able to download them from your Inkshares bookshelf by clicking HERE and signing in with the same email or facebook login you used to order the book. Simply click on your picture to the right, and download your style. I’m sure that there will be an email sent out from inkshares about it. 

The physical book should be shipping soon, or very soon. Check your email, check your spam folders and make sure that you got a confirmation email of shipping address. Hopefully, you all get them in time for this:

Feel free to bring your books to the event and I’ll gladly sign them! 

I’ll also be at Midwinter Gaming Convention in 7 days and Emerald City Comic Con in early March. 

For now, I just want to issue a massive thank you from the bottom of my heart to all those who helped me out in the contest over a year ago to bring things to where they are now. Now it’s time for you guys to finally enjoy some apocalyptic fiction and me to keep writing!

Thank you so much everyone!

~Rick Heinz

Hey! Long time no update. But happy new year to all, and I thought I’d give thanks one more time to everybody who helped make a scene like this happen (this was at Vroman’s Bookstore in Pasadena shortly after the book was published. Pasadena is largely where the novel is set, so pretty appropriate, huh?)

The book often sells nicely when it’s promoted on one or another book-buying site (especially eBooks) and I’m so grateful to be able to hold it in my hands. That feeling never seems to wear off. If you have read the book -- whether you liked it or not but preferably you liked it! -- please leave an Amazon review. The more reviews there are, the more the book gets promoted on Amazon. Here’s a link to the page. Just scroll down to Write a Customer Review.  It can be as brief as a sentence.

https://www.amazon.com/Women-Like-Us-Jason-Pomerance-ebook/dp/B01IOZUBEW/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8

Also in 2016 my novella Falconer was published in four parts on Nikki Finke’s Hollywood Dementia, with amazing artwork by John Donald Carlucci.  In case you missed it, here’s a link. Nikki recently made a deal with HBO to develop properties that were published on the site, so keep fingers crossed!

http://hollywooddementia.com/nikki-finke-fiction-falconer-part-one-by-jason-pomerance/

But it’s a new year and on to the new. Two things to report on the book front. I’m in the process of finishing up edits and revisions on Celia at 39, a new novel, one that falls more into the Chick-Lit category. Here’s a little blurb about it: 

Celia Bernhart thought she had her life all figured out. She should, right, because she’s turning 39 in a week. She’s a success in her career. She’s about to marry her longtime boyfriend Barry. But then a package gets mis-delivered to the house she and Barry share -- Actually, it’s the right address, but it’s nearly forty years late! Celia becomes determined to deliver the package to its rightful owner, but when she does it turns her very well-ordered life completely upside down. 

We’ll most likely be trying to go down the more traditional publishing route on this book since it falls more neatly into a genre. Stay tuned for more -- hopefully good news -- about this. 

But if you’re interested in supporting another Inkshares book, read on. Many of you know that we have not one but two beagles, George and Derric. George was adopted as a puppy from some folks who couldn’t handle him, but Derric’s adoption story is very, very different and, frankly, a little more disturbing. We came to Derric from a wonderful organization called the Beagle Freedom Project, which negotiates to get animals being subjected to laboratory tests freed.  Until we had stumbled on the Beagle Freedom Project, we did not know that thousands of beagles were spending their lives in cages in labs all over the world.  There are some who think these animals can’t make the transition from lab life to freedom, but Derric has a different story to tell, and that’s what this book is about. In fact he’s helping me write it.  Click the link below to read more about this new book, and please follow its progress. Even better pick up a pre-order if you can.

https://www.inkshares.com/books/love-derric-my-journey-from-laboratory-experiment-to-freagle-who

So that’s it for now.  Thanks again, and I hope everybody has a happy and healthy 2017.

Top of the New Year, Space Crew!

This is your Captain speaking, and I have a couple months’ worth of news and updates to share with you, so bear with me. 

What was going on with this book again?
I’ve had some questions regarding the book’s funding status even now, so I want to remind you of some great news: we got the greenlight for publication via Inkshares! We officially reached Quill sometime before the funding period ended, so don’t fret; this book will be coming out and you will have it in your hands (or on your reader). 

I mean, that’s cool, but, like, when?
I want to show you a piece of a timeline today. But the thing is, publishing requires a lot of steps. A lot of back and forth. There’s writing to tie up, editing to impel, beta-reading to endeavour on, and after all of that: getting slotted in the ever-expanding Inkshares printing and release schedule. 

So though this is the question I’ve had the most, I cannot realistically give you an official release date. And rather than risk disappointment now or later, I’m going to focus on what I do know. 

About the manuscript
There’s a huge (huge, HUGE, HUUUUGE!) difference between a draft and a polished, publishable manuscript I’d be willing to share with betas, let alone the world. You’ve gotten some sneak peeks of the writing in my updates, but you may have noticed they’re of variable quality. That some excerpts grip you more than others. But I want to give you a joyride of a book from cover to cover, so that’s just not going to cut it. 

Also, sometime after the first draft was completed, I realized I had to rewrite about 1/3 of it to deliver a way cooler ending. I mean, I guess I could give you the boring version, but it’s significantly less fun, and I’m all about having an evil plan. So please be patient as I rework the story and weed out any inconsistencies. 

Wow, this is taking longer than I thought, Cap
Well, yes. Some of that is writing. And some of that is the fact that this is my first publication, and I had a lot of life things to take care of so that I could put more focus into this. 

I spent a great deal of time last year in promo, and it nearly wiped me out, to be honest. It isn’t my strong suit. I love making these newsletters and sending you silly doodles, but campaigning and begging you all to buy copies was far too salesy for my usual taste. 

As a result of spending so much time on book promo, some other hobbies and professional goals started to suffer. And while in theory "full time writer" sounds great, this is my first publication, so I don’t have that luxury. 

I guess I understand...
Thanks. I’m glad you do. And for your understanding and compassion I will make sure you get a book that is filled with fun, fear, and adventure. 

So what can you tell me about the timeline?
All right. Doodle time. 

Here’s the manuscript alone. I have no reason to believe it won’t be done in February. 

Now, I know you want the big picture. Especially you writer types who are giggling at the idea that a finished manuscript is actually ever finished. I can only approximate here, so the idea is to show you the steps involved and tell you why they’re so important.

The actual writing will be wrapped up soon, but then we have crucial items to address to make sure you’re getting a quality product. 

•  Editing Round 1: This is a full edit. I’m looking at story structure, content, consistencies, spelling, grammar, etc. It usually means I print out the whole thing and go at it with several coloured highlighters. 

• Beta Read: At this point I’ll have convinced myself the book is in as good a state I can procure. I’ll be wrong, and I’ll need the help of others to show me that. I typically use two trusted beta readers to give their honest feedback about the story. They also tend to catch typos I’ve missed. 

• Editing Round 2: I sulk a little before admitting my betas are right, and then hack and slash the manuscript a little more. 

• Rest Period!!! This is a period of intentional slacking. But it’s so much more than that. This is the proverbial "throw it in a drawer" so that I can get enough separation to read it one more time with fresh eyes. I tend to come back able to see issues with tone of voice, flow of story, and more grammatical errors, or at least cringey uses of language.  

• Proofreading: I fix the aforementioned issues discovered in the Rest Period. I go through the whole manuscript, but I’m no longer looking at the story. It’s all about voice, flow, and individual words. I tacked "May" onto this, timeline-wise. I almost said April. It might be April. But I don’t want to just give you the best-case scenario, so let’s assume it’s May. 

• Processing and Printing: This I can’t yet give any info on. I haven’t done it before, and while I’ve heard from others about their experiences, I know that each author will have their own publishing experience. I am publishing under Quill, so I won’t have as much back and forth as the fully-funded folks, who get most of their editing and pre-printing work done in house. But it is up to them to tell me my story is good enough and to schedule its release. Also I will have other tasks that go along with that, like a final cover design, blurbs, and eventually signing many of your copies. 

So, Space Crew, this is what it’s looking like. I hope it isn’t disappointing for you. As it turns out, writers are people, and writing professionally is about a lot more than writing. I also hope you still believe in this book. Let’s make 2017 a spacetastic year. 

Your Sprightly and Srs Space Captain,

-AC

So the List ends tomorrow. I had hoped to have 2 chapters up by then, but I hadn’t counted on:

• Underestimating how much free time I’d have over Christmas
  
• having a 4 day (and counting) heatwave that would just zap all energy and motivation
• being as sad as I have been (RIP Carrie...and Debbie...and...damn it 2016...)
• forgetting how long I can take to write things sometimes....

Y’know...best laid plans and all that, but it’s not all bad news!

• I wrote just over 4,000 words in the last week and a bit, which is...a lot for me lately.
• The rest of Chapter 1 and Chapter 2 (it’s called: ’The Witness") are still coming shortly.
• I’m still up for judging (as unlikely as a win there may seem)
  
• and LandFall has had its first preorders! The first on the long road to publication.

Things will likely quiet down for a bit after New Years, though I’ll be sure to do an update once the results of the List are known, and I’ll do my best to update the page regularly.

Keep an eye on that horizon.

and onwards to 2017...

“Exciting times are incoming.” No other more obvious statement has ever been made when one considers the horror that was 2016. With this update, I want to draw your eyes to what I’m seeing in 2017, and I think you’ll have a lot to be excited for. At least three things for sure:

First: “The Animal in Man” continues to lurk in the dark recesses of my brain. I’ve already been thinking of more monuments I can build in the violent world of Herbridia. Literally, a monument of bloodletting and death, a coliseum at the heart of Crosswall, the Leoran capital city featured in the novel’s opening chapters. And more - the ideas just never stop coming. I’m utterly in love with this world, and even while I chomp at the bit to get my production timeline put together, I’m already getting edits written down. Stay tuned for further news as soon as I hear it!

Second: “Hunger.” I took a trip in 2013 to attend my graduation ceremony at Full Sail University in Florida, and during the flight I managed to craft and tighten a pretty fine piece of writing, a little 10-page short film script focused on the struggles of a father and son as they starve in a post apocalyptic world. What would you do if it meant you could eat, and survive? What part of yourself would you give up? “Hunger” has caught the attention of some film-makers based in Sydney, Australia, and WITH YOUR SUPPORT my beautiful little screenplay can be professionally produced and shown on the silver screen! Please visit the project’s Pozible page (a.k.a. The Aussie Kickstarter) and pledge what you can.

Third: “The White Shadow.” My thesis as part of Full Sail’s Masters program was a full-length video game design document, a project I very lovingly pitch as Cyberpunk Soul Reaver, blending traversal through the realm of spirits with a futuristic cyberpunk Japanese setting, a world dominated by omnipotent Megacorporations, pervasive fear, and destructive technology. I put “The White Shadow” on the back-burner while work on “Animal in Man” progressed, but I couldn’t help myself from wandering back into its grimy rain-soaked streets. I decided to turn the story into a novel - MY NEXT BIG PROJECT FOR 2017! - and just finished writing the first chapter today. Please visit my portfolio page right here, and then tell me what you think! Should I turn this into a draft on Inkshares? The possibility has more than certainly crossed my mind…

2016 was tough. I’m glad to be turning my back on it. I’m excited to be turning toward 2017, and I hope you are too. We’ve got plenty of things to look forward to, my dear readers. Rest assured I will be keeping myself ridiculously busy refining old chapters of “The Animal in Man” and completing new chapters of “The White Shadow.” And, with your help, getting a real-world Screenplay-By Credit for "Hunger".

See you in the New Year, Animals. Lets have a Happier one this time.

Hey gang! Been a while...right to it then! But first, thanks for being the best! Seriously, I couldn’t do these awesome things without you.

Psst! Hey friend,

Just a reminder that phone cameras are dumb and always make my forehead look like a fivehead.

Also, MERRY CHRISTMAS! And Happy Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Festivus, etc...

Oh, and Life Day. Can’t forget the Wookiees.

7 days left until THE LIST 2016 contest comes to an end. Bought your copy of Dax Harrison yet? Good. Convinced all your friends and family to buy it too? That’d be swell.

Whatever the outcome, let’s hope the new year brings a swift publishing date for Dax and his pals.

Cheers!
Tony V.