Dear Machiners! 

 I only have time for a very quick update today because the Sword & Laser is in full sprint to the finish mode and I feel like a politician out amongst the people shaking hands on election day. 

This is my only campaign. Almost guaranteed I will not run another crowdfunding campaign, at least one like this, which leverages my extended network to such a great extent. So failure is not an option, especially at this late stage when we have tasted so much success. 

As we know though, nothing is won until the contest is officially over. So I must implore you, if you follow this project and have not yet pre-ordered, please do so. 

At the moment, we may or may not still be in 2nd place. This amazing story has held 2nd place for the last four and a half weeks! To be quite honest, I am a little too competitive to feel very good if we slipped to third at the end. I know getting published is getting published and I will certainly do a dance and feel amazing. But for a moment, I’ll be disappointed about the way the campaign lost steam at the end and was overtaken. 

So let’s not let that happen! 

This is a 2nd place campaign, and it has felt that way for several weeks. The Animal in Man has dominated the competition and my congratulations to the fantastic Joe Asphahani! Craig Munro also has a wonderful project, and I enjoyed learning more about it last night on the Sword & Laser podcast with Tom and Veronica. If you haven't watched the interview yet, you can check it out right here:

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BT-qJERU_s 

Oh, and if you are a fellow Inkshares author following along but haven't pre-ordered, I almost invariably order back. Always happy to swap pre-orders to support my fellow authors! 

On to the finish!

Tuesday update time!  Except its Wednesday because I forgot until late last night that yesterday was Tuesday...  The hecticness has done a number on my ability to remember days apparently.

Only 9 days left to get Exile, Magus into Quill and your hands!  We have continued to make progress with daily sales in the low numbers as well as daily follower gains, but ultimately the sales are not coming in as quickly as they need to be considering the short time remaining.  I'm continuing to push hard, but if we're going to get Exile, Magus out with this campaign then I really need all of you who have followed but haven't ordered yet to please order now.  We're currently at 84 sold between 76 readers, and with 280 followers that means if the 204 of you who haven't ordered were to order then we would be at 288 preorders which is well above the Quill goal.  Help me get this book published and into your hands!

Hey!  Happy Hump Day everybody!  With much needed snow blanketing the Sierras lately my thoughts turn to skiing, and while I plot a trip to the mountains, maybe you'd enjoy a little bit of plot about skiing from "Women Like Us"!  About 90 pre-orders to go by Mid-February so if you are following and haven't ordered, why not jump in?  If you're a fellow inkshares author, I'll reciprocate with a pre-order if you jump in now too.  

So on to a small passage about skiing from the mind of Edith Vale as she drives her grandson and his friend up north. This passage includes a tip about how to de-stress Edith Style.  You might want to try it!

Ski Excerpt

Of course the place was gone. All the good things went away, thought Edith Vale, as her old turbodiesel chugged north and passed the spot on Interstate 5 where, for years, there was that funky little diner they’d stop at when she, Frank and Andrew drove from Pasadena to Tahoe for their annual winter vacation. Now some massive gas station and truck stop had taken its place, vulgar and ugly like everything else new. She always looked forward to the diner, which had a giant neon sign in the Googie style that shot up into the sky like a starburst and could be seen like a beacon from miles away, the halfway point of the journey. There they’d fortify themselves with warm white toast slathered in good sweet butter and slipped into wax bags, along with cups of steamy hot chocolate, which they’d take back to the big Pontiac wagon Edie drove in those days and nibble on and sip after hitting the road again, as Frank never wanted to lose any time on the slopes by actually sitting down inside the diner for the snack. The trip to Tahoe was always the longer of the ski trips they’d make through the winter. Smaller ones were made to local mountains – Big Bear or even better, Waterman, in the San Gabriels and barely an hour north of Pasadena, albeit on a road full of frighteningly treacherous curves. Sometimes Edie would go on those day trips with Andrew and Frank, but sometimes she’d let the boys go alone and stay home so she could catch up on her magazines. She loved that quiet time, made even better with a warm bubble bath, a daiquiri and a couple of Miltowns. Indeed those days were like mini-vacations, the house so peaceful, and she didn’t need to sit down and make plans and lists or even pack a thing.

Gah I was mentioned on the Sword & Laser podcast!  Deus Hex Machina is officially FAMOUS! If you haven't watched the latest episode, they interview the current top three Inkshares finalists, and then mention my book at the end.  Very exciting stuff.  I loved Craig's story about his wife and how he started writing.

We are currently at 94 orders, and the incomparable A.C. Weston has graciously decided to run a little contest in support of DHM. If we get ten more people ordering, up to 104, then she will raffle off an original inked panel she's creating from the DHM graphic novel to one of those ten people.  So awesome, I cannot handle it!  Check out just one of the awesome panels here:

She's just so good, isn't she? I was so honored when she said she wanted to try her hand at a page from the old script. This sort of makes me want to update the script with the changes from the novel and get the whole thing drawn...but novel first! Focus Mandie!

Anyway, if you want a chance be one of the next ten people to order the DHM!  

Lastly, we are halfway to my next novel giveaway raffle, and only 65 orders away from 5th place. I know it seems like a long way to go, but we have a lot of followers so maybe these two contests will pull some lurkers out of the woodwork. I would love nothing more than to end this contest in 5th and maybe even 4th place. I think it's important to have a woman in the top five, don't you?

Alright, I hope I get the chance to do a raffle drawing today, so I'll say see ya later rather than goodbye.  Cheers!