It’s been almost a month since my last update on Human Resources, and I’m pleased to report that month has been productive. I have now completed the second draft of the novel and handed it over to Inkshares for editing.

Thanks to the support of my wife, I was able to take January off to focus on this process. There was a lot of work required to complete the second draft — every existing scene was re-written and thirty-one new scenes added, rounding out the story. The manuscript grew from approximately 58k words, to 70.3k words, then settled back to just under 70k.

This is a critical milestone. From here, the formal editing process begins. There are three stages of editing with Inkshares; developmental, copy, then proof-reading. 

The developmental edit is structural: 

• Is the pacing right? 
• Are there any plot holes? 
• Does this character make sense? 
• Does this sub-plot go anywhere interesting? 
  

The developmental edit should take about three months.

The copy edit is technical. It focuses primarily on grammar and spelling, helping make the writing as clean as possible. This edit takes about one month.

Proof reading is the final step, fresh eyes are given the completed manuscript to read cover to cover and provide feedback. When working on the previous two editing stages, you can lose perspective by spending so much time working on specific details. This stage helps make sure the novel "works." This stage takes about one month.

In parallel to the editing, the publisher will have designers working on cover designs etc. I’ve been told who will be working on Human Resources and I’m excited about it. I’m waiting for confirmation as to whether it is something I can announce — stay tuned...

If you would like more details about the publishing process with Inkshares, and what will happen at each stage, the company recently released a post about it here.

New Excerpts

The novel page on Inkshares has several excerpts available to read from the first part of the book. Their platform enables readers to highlight sections they like, and add comments to discuss with other readers and the author. Up until now, I’ve left these excerpts alone as much as possible. I’ve received some great engagement from the community, with a lot of comments and interactions on the excerpts. However, with the second draft finished, I needed to update these excerpts with newer versions. This is now done, so don’t be thrown if all the comments have disappeared. Hopefully, you’ll all agree the new versions are an improvement.

Mailing List

I’ve started an author mailing list and will be sending out a monthly newsletter to people who subscribe. There will be some overlap with my Human Resources updates, but the newsletter will be broader; it will include some of my short stories, blog articles on writing, and information on other projects I become involved in. You can sign up here (and obviously unsubscribe any time if you find it isn’t for you).

Other Projects

I wanted to take an opportunity to highlight some other interesting projects currently funding on Inkshares:  

• Arcadia, Andre Brun: Peter Pan meets The King in Yellow. Ten strangers must band together and find a way to defeat Suelitta before they lose what is left of their sanity (Horror).
• The Walls are Closing In, Jacqui Castle: Decades after The Seclusion, during which America constructed massive border walls and sealed itself off from the outside world, thirty-one year old Patricia Evans lives within the panoptic nightmare of a total surveillance state (Dystopian).
• How to Kiss Like a Movie Star, Leslie Nipkow: What happens when a real-size girl decides to become a movie star? How to Kiss Like a Movie Star is a love story: tragic, funny, unrequited, and occasionally illegal, about death, acting, boxing, breast cancer, secrets, and soap opera (Memoire).
• King’s Daughter, Julia Bobkoff: King’s Daughter brings to life the 10th century saga of the spirited Danish warrior princess Thyra Haraldsdatter and the man she loved and lost, Norway’s legendary maverick King Olaf Tryggvason—a tale of love, war, betrayal, and redemption (Historical Fiction).
• The Phantom Forest, Liz Kerin: In a war-torn tribal city inhabited by mystical spirits, a young woman named Seicha is ritually sacrificed to a demon and must navigate the dangers of the Underworld to protect the family she left behind from beyond the grave (Fantasy).

Hey Everyone!

I just wanted to let you in on the Facebook poll for the new cover. As I mentioned before, as much as I love the illustration, from the comments I received it wasn’t sending the message that I would like. So, I’m experimenting with a photo-manipulated cover, which is pretty much the standard for a lot of covers these days.

Hello everybody,

I hope everyone had a great holiday period and are off to a good start for 2017. It’s been a couple of months since the last update on The Battle Within, so here’s the latest information.

Timeline

We’re still on track for a book launch of 27 Jun 2017. At this moment the manuscript is about to enter the proofread stage and while that’s happening, advance reader copies are going out for endorsement. I’m happy to say that initial feedback has been very positive. We’re already starting to make plans for the book launch party, so if you’re going to be in Ottawa during the last week of June, please include that in your plans!

Upcoming Developments

Being new to the publication process, this experience has been great in learning everything that goes into marketing a book. One of those aspects is getting the book into brick and mortar stores (or their electronic equivalents). Believe it or not, but there’s great opportunity for an author to get involved here and one thing I’ll be working on over the next few months is engaging the regional distributors in the United States who provide books to the Army Air Force Exchange Services (AAFES – or the PX for a more familiar term).

Also, The Battle Within is featured on Goodreads at  https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/31922135-the-battle-within?from_search=true#other_reviews. If you have a minute, please click on the link and add the book to one of your shelves!

Other Projects

The big news on this front is that I’ll be finished the second draft of my next novel, Jihadi Bride, by the end of this coming week. After that comes the search for beta readers and then I’ll start the editing process in earnest. Still a lot of work to accomplish, but I’m very happy with how this novel is taking shape.

That’s it for this update, but as always, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with me if you have any questions. Thanks again for your support and patience, and all the best in 2017,

Alastair Luft

A HUGE THANK YOU FROM KILL CREEK...

With 4 days left in the campaign, I’ve reached my goal of 250 pre-orders (253 at the moment)!!!  I can’t tell you how much your support means to me.  I wrote the first draft of Kill Creek several years ago, so to know that it will finally be in print is a dream come true.

I’ll continue to update you about the process to get this thing into your hands, but for now, just know how much I appreciate your help!  I couldn’t have done it without you!

Best,

Scott Thomas

Hello everyone!

I want to apologize for being MIA for the last two months. Things have been rather crazy in life, with the holidays. But, I was also offered a new job as the lead graphic designer for 117-year-old engineering firm. I’m going to be heading up (starting up, really) the department. So, I’ve been spending the last few weeks getting all the loose ends tied up at my current job. On top of that, my fiance and I are looking at wedding venues and preparing to move in three months. Needless to say, I’ve been a bit out of sorts.

I can officially say we are getting published because now we have a brand spanking new layout in Inkshares and it is no longer the funding page! That is so exciting! I’ve got to take down the incentives and get those out to everyone. Fancy mugs are in for those spectacular backers who bought 10 copies. I’m ordering the bookmarks and posters to send out to the other backers tomorrow, so I’ll be contacting you for your address so that I can send you your incentives! 

Inkshares contacted me, but I have no real deadline for when the book will be published. Right now, they are working through a backlog, so it may be some time. The book is finished and it is almost completely edited after passing the first round of beta readers. As soon as I finish these edits I will be passing it off to the second round of beta readers. (If you’ve contacted me about beta reading, again, I haven’t forgotten)

I’ll be contacting those that I owe covers very shortly (today, hopefully) to discuss jumping back in to work on those. I’m looking forward to helping you guys out with them, and I apologize for the delay. 

For quicker updates, go like my Facebook Page! You’ll find lots of links to other books that I’ve done covers for, you’ll get up-to-date news about the book, the editing process, and sneak peaks!  https://www.facebook.com/KaytalinPlattAuthor/  Also, follow me on Twitter. https://twitter.com/KaytalinPlatt

That’s the end of the updates, so I’m going to move on to the sentimental, mushy, oversharing stuff that isn’t necessarily important to your interests, but still something I’d like to say. Rather, I’d like to share with you so that, if you are like me, you might not feel so alone in the weird need to disbelieve in the achievements you’ve made.

I suffer from imposter syndrome and have for pretty much a majority of my life and in everything that I do. If you don’t know what imposter syndrome is, it is where, no matter how well you do or what you achieve, you always feel like a fraud and that, eventually, everyone will realize how really crappy you are. Someone with imposter syndrome spends their life achieving things and expecting "the other shoe to drop". 

So, I’ve got an amazing fiance, I’m gaining a wonderful family, a company actually thinks I’m good enough to start a graphics department and gave me a job out of the blue, and a book that I’ve dreamed about for the last 10+ years is going to be published. All of this culminating in the last six months or so, really kicked the imposter syndrome into overdrive.

I’ve wanted to write to tell you how much being published means to me, but I’ve been afraid to acknowledge it is really happening. It’s even harder to look people in the eye when they congratulate me in person. It’s not that I’m not grateful, just genuinely afraid that I don’t deserve it or that what I’ve loved and created is unworthy. It is definitely something I need to work on, and I am. 

So, in moving past the imposter syndrome, let me tell you how incredibly happy I am. Let me acknowledge that happiness, let me announce it to you and to the world, and not be afraid. Nothing is ever perfect, least of all books. But, when you’ve worked so hard for something, when you’ve dreamed and fought and spent every spare second you had working on it, even people with imposter syndrome deserve to celebrate those accomplishments. I’ve day-dreamed half my life about sharing stories with the world, and you all made it possible.

Thank you. From the bottom of the heart, forever and always, thank you.  

Hello drag enthusiasts and beautiful people in general

I wanted to give you a quick update on the state of Bad Medicine: Slay it, Queen. I am furiously writing the story and I’m very excited about it. It has been harder than I anticipated to keep the balance between campy and scary, but I can tell you the result is a hell of a ride.

My original plan was to deliver a finished manuscript to Inkshares mid-January. Unfortunately, life got a tad complicated, and I was not able to meet that deadline. The folks at Inkshares were very understanding and encouraged me to take my time so I can produce the best manuscript I can write. I’m planning on finishing writing Bad Medicine in the spring.

If you supported my efforts to publish The Catcher’s Trap, then you know that the publishing process is very long; you should probably expect to get your copy of Bad Medicine some time in 2018. The reason for the long production schedule is very simple: making a great book takes time. Trust me; you don’t want to read a poorly edited and designed book. On my end, I want Inkshares to dedicate as much of their resources as possible to promote my book, and for that, we need to be strategic about the release date.

In the meantime, I encourage you to browse the hallways of Inkshares and look at the many books that they have published so far and that you can enjoy right away.

Finally, I have many side projects happening this year. One I’m excited about is the monthly release of short stories through Amazon Kindle starting in March. The stories will range on genre and style. Some will be connected to my Inkshares projects; some will not. I’ll let you know when the first one is out.

That’s it, for now, friends!

Have a great rest of your week and don’t forget, keep it fierce and keep it cute.