It’s Super Tuesday in the United States and I would highly encourage everyone who is able to take a long lunch break, go to your polling place, cast your vote, and then go eat a delicious cheeseburger (or your comfort food of choice). Once having eaten the cheeseburger, come back to Inkshares and let’s discuss something more fun - editing! I am setting aside Tuesday evenings to be Editing Days, in which I find a local coffee shop (with donuts), I camp out, and I work on making Lucky the best that she can be. What are your thoughts? What would make you back this project without hesitation, if you haven’t already? Feel free to reach out and connect and to share with your friends, your family, maybe even random folks on the street:

www.facebook.com/RHWebster.ScienceFiction 

Hope to hear from you!

  Every four years, you get an extra day in February. Do something good with your extra 24 hours and support LUCKY’s campaign on Inkshares. Purchase if you can, maybe leave some comments and reviews. Even feel free to message me via my author page on Facebook with any questions, concerns, comments or just to say hi!

www.facebook.com/RHWebster.ScienceFiction

www.inkshares.com/books/lucky 

Top of the Monday, Space Crew!

Today I need to get personal. This campaign has been among the most heartwarming and most stressful experiences of my life. It seems that you all hold the power to make or break my day. 

That’s something I hope to get better at pushing out of my mind as my writing career advances, but this is my first major publishing endeavour, so I’ve got a lot of jitters around the whole thing. 

I was recently asked about why I needed to publish this book in an Inkshares article. You can see my full answer there, but it comes down to this:

Science-fiction used to be a thing that brought people together. I think of Star Trek in the 1960s, and how groundbreakingly diverse it was. That was a time when we didn’t divide people into segmented nerd cultures. It was a time when grandparents and children could share an appreciation for fiction together. 

When I try to put a genre on my stories I get pretty overwhelmed. If I want to appease the "true" sci-fi crowd, then I need to go with hard sci-fi, which means pulling out the old physics textbooks and hitting up r/askscience. If I want to include magic it becomes fantasy, unless it could be explained by science. If I mention anything potentially unscientific while the rest of the story is consistently well-researched, I break suspension of disbelief. 

Now, I love science-fiction. I have a sort of reverent respect for futurologists, and well-studied fiction writers. But I couldn’t take all of these constraints and still make The Traveller’s Cup what it is today. So when I discovered the Nerdist Space Opera contest, and my eye caught the following line, I gaped for a moment: 

"We define (a space opera) as any adventure that takes place in space."

I have never felt so liberated as a storyteller. I began to dig out old notes. I tore a page out of one of my fantasy ideas and shoved it in the middle of a sci-fi project. I let my imagination run wild with all the rules I could now break! I can write fantasy set in space. My heroes can be space pirates who run into space dragons battling space wizards. The Tolkien-esque fundamentals of a classic adventure story can exist in a galaxy far, far away. 

So with reckless abandon I began breaking these rules, and found a story that was always meant to be told. A story that I think can transcend our need for niches and subgenres and just breathe. This is a book for your mom. It’s a book for your geeky brother. It’s a book for teens as much as seniors. At least that’s my hope. I wrote The Traveller’s Cup to be approachable and accessible. 

Because I think it’s time we stopped focusing on our differences and let our minds experience the unknown again. 

Your Exuberant Overlord,
-AC

Hey everyone,

I’m absolutely swamped with work today, so this update will be very short. I just wanted to send out one of my finished works, which will available to backers who purchased enough copies to qualify for "Wolf-Rider" or "Alethian" status. 

~ Silas Des’tra is the princess  of the Men’kai tribes, and one of the primary protagonists within "The Children of the Forest." Driven by her fierce loyalty to her people, and her fear of Alethia’s encroachment upon their lands, Silas turns to ancient and forbidden magic to save her world. ~

I’ve really enjoyed developing her character so far, and it’s a real treat to be able to see a finished product of the character I’ve envisioned for so long. That’s all for now, but I promise there will be a more extensive (and substantial) update on the near-horizon. Look for more chapters, additional artwork, and even a surprise or two within the next couple days! 

So something pretty cool happened last night ~ "The Children of the Forest" hit its funding goal to qualify for Inkshare’s Quill! I’ve been completely blown away by the last-minute rally of fans, and I’m floored that in less than 7 days we managed to move over 50 copies of the book! 

Looking ahead, I’m still somewhat processing the fact that the book will be made. It’s been a long road to reach this point and I couldn’t have come this far without everyone in the Inkshares community who put their time, money, and opinions to use in helping me craft what has become "The Children of the Forest." 

I just wanted to offer a quick look at what to expect in the next few weeks, regarding the schedule for the novel.

1. As mentioned in another update, I’ll be releasing a companion booklet (Free) to all backers. Men’kai will only receive this as a digital copy, while Alethian+Wolf-Riders will be given soft-cover books.
2. I’ll be updating the Inkshares page during production on the rest of the novel. I hope to have at least 2-3 more sample chapters made available, along with a refined introduction, video, and more. 
3. I also have a short-story in the works that will be made available to all backers within the next few weeks. 

Most likely there will be more, but those are the major beats for now. Again, a huge thanks to everyone who backed my novel and made it a reality! I can’t wait to have the finished version in your hands  ~