Here we go.

Blue Water has now reached the front of the line at Inkshares. I first want to thank you all for your patience with the lack of updates since we reached our funding goal two Novembers ago. I know that it can be frustrating not hearing any new information. Believe me, that won’t be a problem anymore. Inkshares has been in contact quite often now that it’s our turn.

Here’s a quick overview of how it’s going to go from here. Currently, the novel has gone through the preliminary copy edit. The changes have been sent to me, and I’ve gone through them all and am sending the book back with notes on the changes. After that, Blue Water’s final manuscript will be sent back to me in the first week of February. The book’s final cover for the eBooks will be done and sent to you all to check out first in March, the full cover in April.

And the big date, the day the book is available to the public: June 5, 2018. 

However, you guys are the backers. If it weren’t for each and every one of you (literally, we sold just barely over the goal to make Quill), none of this would be happening. So again, I have to thank you, not just for your patience, but for believing in a first time writer and a book you’ve never read. So, you guys won’t have to wait until the publish date, your copies will be mailed or available for download a few weeks early. The goal is that you guys all check it out first and tell your friends about it before release day. So I may have to call you you again to help spread the word again. We currently have sold 263 copies, and I’ve backed off selling during the information vacuum of 2017. My third thanks to all of you is to buy the book with no information on when you’d receive it. That is a hard sell, and you guys all came though. Now, I’m going to take the next six months and start the selling again. Luckily for you, you already bought it, so I won’t bug you (although it would make a great birthday gift for everyone you know.) 

So three thanks to you all. Thank you, thank you, thank you. We’ll be in touch.

Joseph Parcell

Faoii! I have updates!

I know I said I wasn’t going to call you back to barracks for another month, but then I got 2 exciting missives and I had to share them with you! Here we go!

First, I just got an e-mail and a 5-Star Review from the incredibly talented Jerry Oltion (Click to see his Wikipedia page). Oltion has won the Nebula Award, the Seiun Award, the Endeavor Award, has been nominated for the Hugo Award twice, and he enjoyed our story, Faoii. Look at this review he gave: 

 

Gah! Doesn’t that just make you want to lift your sword and bash a Croeli over the head with it? Let me hear your battlecry, Faoii!

Second, I’ve been asked by AMAfeed to host a Q&A session on January 26. It will run for 48 hours (starting at 6 p.m.) and I’ll be answering the questions live, but you can post anything you want ahead of time if you’re not sure you’re going to be available on those days. I’d be happy to talk about basically anything you can think of-- after all, AMA stands for Ask Me Anything! 

Here’s the link for that. I’ll remind you all again before the date, but definitely share that info with any aspiring authors you have out there. A year ago, I was right where they are. Maybe I can help them like so many of you have helped me.

That’s it for now, Faoii. Keep those shields up. I’ll talk to you again soon.

Faoii-Tahani

Readers! So many updates! We are at 90 copies sold - THANK YOU!

First, check out my new cover! My artist is sending high-res files, and then you will see the graphics everywhere. Inkshares folk get a sneak peek :-)

Second, I’ll be in my local paper this week! The article is already online. There is one detail that’s a little off - the reporter said that I was chosen by the publisher to put my book up, but I was talking about the syndicate picks. Which I am SO grateful for, by the way. (Have I mentioned how much I love you guys?)

One last thing - Inkshares has announced that Quill will be going away as of February 28. So we’ve got to make the 250 copies by then. Right now, the campaign is set to end on February 9, but I’ll extend it if I have to. I’ve got more publicity coming out and more networking to do. So we’re going to push this thing. Either I’ll be one of the last Quill authors, or I’ll extend the campaign to 750 and make it happen. My goal is to bring you a great novel, and one way or another, I’m going to do that.

Happy reading - more to come!!

Storm of Fury eBook pre-orders are finally here!

While we’re still a week away from the official publication of SoF, and access to physical copies of the book, you can now download Storm of Fury from the email you received if you pre-ordered during the funding campaign two years ago. (Wow, two years? My, the time has flown by.) 

It’s staggering to be here, only a week away, and see these emails go out. Thank you for supporting me and my book; it’s been an incredible journey and it’s only just beginning. In the next few months, as I focus on marketing SoF, I’ll be working on the finishing touches for SoF’s second novel. (Technically, this trilogy was supposed to be one book, so the next two will come out pretty quickly.)

I’ll send out another message next week to celebrate the official publication! If you did not receive an email with the eBook, email me or dm me through Inkshares and I’ll see if we can fix the issue.

Thank you so much!

-Andrew Wood

Exciting things are happening for APEX! I’ve tweaked the storyboard for my novel slightly to improve the science, and I’m very pleased with this version of the plot. I’ve also rewritten over 36,000 words, and I’m on a roll to finish up the rest of the rewrite soon, hopefully this month.

I got some numbers for you. 

Do you know what this means?!?! I FINISHED EDITING MY NOVEL!!! It was quite a slog for me. I’m not one of those writers that can easily overlook the minutiae in order to focus on the bigger picture. My editor gave me some great notes calling for some big sweeping changes and clarifications, but even still, if I saw something on the page that bothered me (and gosh was there a LOT that bothered me), I had to change it. Staring at pages like these was how I spent what little free time I had for the past four months:

Look at all those revisions!!! Just to be clear, this is not the end of the editing process. It’s back with the Editor / Head of Story at Inkshares, Matt Harry, who’ll look over the changes and make further suggestions. (Hopefully I cleared the higher hurdles the first time around the track and the next lap is easier.) From there, somebody’s gotta clean up my terrible, awful, hideous, redundant word choice… Cover design conversations with the artist… Where is this all going, you ask?! Well, it means it will still be a wait. I’m keeping my fingers crossed for a 2018 release, but I can’t say for sure.

In the meantime, I literally don’t know what to do with myself any more. If I’m not working on something, I’m getting ANTSY. While I wait for the Inkshares wheel to turn another notch in Animal in Man’s production track, I’ll be putting more words down for my next novel “The White Shadow”, which you can read the first few chapters of HERE. (I added a chapter to my website since the previous time posting about it, and I’m eleven chapters beyond that point in the writing.) I might even be putting up an Inkshares draft page for the book soon. Who knows.

To all of my supporters, all of you who’ve hung in there this long and longer: Thank you.

Hi, everyone! We are so close to 100 copies sold! Please share the link with everyone you know :-) And if you are a member of a syndicate that hasn’t already picked the book, let them know I’m looking for more readers. Actually, I’ve been thinking of starting one myself - what do you all think of a Librarian Syndicate?

I’ve got some art news - in addition to the new cover, which will be soooo much better than my lame efforts with Canva, I’ve commissioned two portraits of Miranda and Ben. Everyone who supports me at the Super Reader level will receive a print.

We may have to extend the campaign - I’m not sure if we’re going to make it to 250 by February 9 - but I’m committed to doing so. My ultimate goal is to bring you a book you will love, and I know we can make it happen together.

Thank you, thank you, thank you!! I’m off to a weekend of laundry, quiet time with the kids, and writing my new book... I need to have something for you to read next!

Happy New Year my friends!

Well, 2017 won’t be accused of being uneventful. I think it’s safe to say that it will go down as a year with many bitter memories for some. I lucked out however and, because of you, 2017 turned out to be an awesome year. I say ’you’ because you are responsible for A God in the Shed becoming a reality. You helped us get to over 5300 books sold. We’re staring down the barrel of the sequel going into production and all of it is because you took a chance on this book.

My gratitude knows no bounds.

But, I will be asking you to trust me again.

I have another book currently funding on Inkshares. It’s a science fiction novel called Arch-Android. It’s the story of our robot descendants and how they’ve lived without human interference for centuries, but now, as signs of humanity making a comeback start to appear, they have to decide how best to prepare sharing the galaxy with us once again. Check out the sample chapter and please, consider pre-ordering a copy (or more!). It’s not horror but I swear you won’t regret it.

Again, thank you so much for your continued support. Great things are coming in 2018 and I’m looking forward to sharing that journey with you.

JF