Exciting news, everyone! The Fairy Stepmother, Inc. has been submitted to Inkshares! As can be imagined, their production schedule is quite busy, so I don’t know when they’ll start work on it or how long it will take. I’ll keep you updated as soon as I know more, as well as share exciting things like cover design as they come along.

Not a single bit of this would be possible without your support, and I’m very, very grateful. I can’t wait to share my story with you. While you wait, of course, this is a good time to make sure Inkshares has your correct mailing address (if you ordered a print copy).

And if there’s anyone lurking out there who didn’t pre-order, this is a great time to go for it! 

Best,

Maggie

Hi, everybody!

Time for another update.

A couple of weeks ago, word came down from The Powers That Be that Matt Harry, the suave and debonair head of story development for Inkshares, would at last be turning his attention to the three books that won the Nerdist Sci-Fi Contest.

In a month or two I can expect to receive a document from Matt full of suggestions on how to make my story even better than it already is. In the meantime, I’ve swapped manuscripts with the other contest winners — Katherine Forrister, author of CURIO CITIZEN, and Ferd Crôtte, author of MISSION 51 — and over the next several months, these talented writers and I will be working with Matt to make sure our final manuscripts are the best they can possibly be.

Once developmental editing is done, whenever that may be, the book will presumably move on to copy editing, cover design, and production design.

I will, of course, keep you updated along the way.

As always, thank you so, so much for your continued patience and support. I can’t wait for you all to read AFTER DEATH. I promise the wait will be worth it!

Welcome to the final frontier, Space Crew. We’ve reached the edge of the galaxy, and there’s no turning back. 

News #1: Content is Complete

I’ve been through a couple rounds of edits with the Inkshares team since the last update, and this week I sent off the final doc for one last look-over before it hits the printers. The deal is sealed; I can no longer touch this book (which I have very good and very anxious feelings about). 

News #2: We Have a Cover

I’ve admittedly been holding onto this for awhile, but I wanted to do a BIG UPDATE with all the BIG THINGS. This was created by the good folks at Cover Kitchen, and they knocked it out of the park in my biased opinion:

News #4: Backer Goodies are Being Prepped As We Speak

The Companion Guide is getting its finishing touches before I send it off to print. Pendants have been shipped by the amazing Esanany, and they’re looking fantastic. Take a look:

No doodle today, because these images are worth more of your data. 

And in case you missed it, you’ll have your books by May 1! Don’t forget to make sure your address is up to date on Inkshares. 

Your somewhat sedulous Space Captain,
-AC

Hi, wonderful readers!

Good news! The Fairy Stepmother, Inc. is almost ready to send to Inkshares! I intend to send everything off within a week or so. Of course, there’s more to be done to get the book ready for print, and Inkshares has a busy schedule, so I don’t know how long it will take to get the book out. As soon as I have a publication date, I’ll let you know right away! If you ordered a print copy, here’s a reminder to make sure Inkshares has your correct address on file.

If you ordered 3 or more copies, first of all, thank you!!! Second, you get to have your name in the book among the list of super backers. You should have received an email from me a while ago asking how you want your name listed. I’ve heard from many of you (thanks!), but not all. If you haven’t already, please let me know how you’d like you or your family represented. You’re not required to have your name in the book, of course, so if you’d like me to keep your name off the list, just let me know. If you think you should have received an email and didn’t, it’s very possible I missed a name as I went down the list, so sorry about that! Drop me an email and I’ll make sure you get on the list.

Thank you so much to all of you for your support. I’m really excited for you to read The Fairy Stepmother, Inc. If you have questions or concerns, please let me know!

Best,

Maggie

THANK YOU, Inkshares Staff Syndicate!
The Inkshares Staff Syndicate selected Rock of Ages to support and now there’s a fancy badge on the book page and we’re up to 503 orders! I was so excited last night that I was running and jumping around the house! Thank you, thank you!!

53 days left and 247 orders to go. That’s 4.6 orders a day. We’re going to do this! Now is the time to join the list of Super Readers or supporters! 

I’VE UPDATED THE PAGE WITH A NEW COVER AND TITLE!

A favor and some exciting news...

First the favor: the more reviews I get on Amazon, the more Amazon sees traffic going to my page, and the more they work their Amazon magic for my book. Getting past the 100 review mark would be huge.  So PLEASE go to the link below and WRITE A QUICK REVIEW.  It doesn’t have to be much, just a sentence or two saying what you thought of KILL CREEK (hopefully good things).   Just click the link below, go down to Customer Reviews and click "write a customer review."  It only takes a few minutes.  I’ll wait while you did it:

https://www.amazon.com/Kill-Creek-Scott-Thomas/dp/1942645821/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1518405122&sr=1-1&keywords=kill+creek

Sweet!  Thanks for the review!  Now on to the exciting news.  KILL CREEK has been officially nominated for a Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a First Novel!  The Stoker Awards are one of the most prestigious and well known awards in horror literature, honoring fiction, nonfiction, short stories, poetry and screenplays.  This year’s ballot includes huge names like Stephen King, Owen King, Joe Hill, M. Night Shyamalan, Guillermo Del Toro, David Lynch, and Jordan Peele, among many, many others.  Past recipients include Stephen King, Thomas Harris, Dan Simmons, Joyce Carol Oates, Neil Gaiman, Peter Straub--you get the point.  This is HUGE, and I know it’s a cliche, but it truly is an honor to be nominated.  The awards will be announced at a banquet in Providence, RI, (home of H.P. Lovecraft) on March 3, so I’d appreciate it if you’d cross any available fingers for me.

The book continues to gain momentum with over 5,000 copies sold and a steady stream of very cool responses on Instagram and Twitter, including an amazing tweet from Joyce Carol Oates, who called KILL CREEK an "intensely realized & beautifully orchestrated psychological Gothic/horror first novel set in once-Bloody Kansas."  I’m thrilled and humbled to hear people from all over the world saying how much they enjoyed my book.  I couldn’t have done it without the support of all of you.  Thank you for believing in this novel and for helping me make this lifelong dream a reality.

Hope 2018 is treating you all well.  I’ll be back soon with more updates.

Oh, and if you didn’t stop to write that review while I waited earlier, why not do it now?  It’ll give you a few more minutes of "staring at your phone" time, and who doesn’t want that?

Best,

Scott Thomas

THE MANUSCRIPT IS IN!!!

After two months of rewriting and revising, with the help of my friends Peter Ryan and Cari Dubiel, and. of course, my wife, I’ve turned in a fine tuned 76,900-word manuscript after the first round of developmental editing. That’s nearly 10,000 darlings killed. It was probably closer to 15,000 of the original words that suffered their terrible fate, but I changed a couple of scenes and added about 5,000 words back in. It was all for the better, and I’m proud of what this book has become. 

I know I promised mid-January for turning in this manuscript, but I’m going to play the sympathy card, because I was hospitalized in January for acute abdominal pain and had my gallbladder removed and subsequently stolen. They wouldn’t bronze it and let me keep it, the jerks, they just took it God only knows where. But, I’m glad it’s out. The good news is that I got my author bio picture in the process: 

That’ll sell a lot of books on its own. Might even make it the cover of the book. Not sure my publisher would go for that, though. 

Speaking about the cover, design will start happening in a few months, but I already know one thing will be remarkably different when it’s done: the title. 

Yup, I am almost sure I’m changing the title. The book is in two parts now, and I’ve named part one "The Madness of Mr. Butler," while part two is "The Courage of Mr. Butler." As much as I love the title as it has been, it doesn’t really sound like a science fiction book, which it mostly is. I’m changing the title of the book to "The Man Who Stole the World," which, for those of you who are in need of improving your musical tastes, is a play on the title of a David Bowie song. (And David Bowie might have a cameo in the story, but I’m not at liberty to say at this point).

wink

So, what’s next? 

Right now, we wait. Matt Harry, my editor, already got back to me that he’s currently working on a few manuscripts and plans on starting on mine in a few weeks. So, it’s probably going to be a while before I can report on further progress. But, this means that this year will begin the next levels of edits on a manuscript that is actively in production. I feel great about it all. I’ve had a wonderful experience with Inkshares. 

Thank you all for your support. Your investment in me is something I think about and appreciate daily. I’m working my tail off to get you the best version of the book. Thank you for the opportunity. This is all because of you. I hug you.

In the meantime, if you wanna interact outside of email, you can find me on Twitter and Facebook, and fairly soon I’m getting my blog back up after some reconstruction. 

Hang in there, it’s all coming together!

Love always, 

-Michael