Greetings Bards and Druids!

It has been a few weeks since my last communication with all of you wonderful people. As you know, The Lore of the Aos Sí did not reach its funding goal of 250 Orders by January 1st. Even though this was hard to swallow, I am not discouraged. Why? Because even though the book did not fund, my story and characters managed to wiggle their way inside the hearts and minds of many of you over the past year. That I take as a splendid sign that my work is promising and will eventually lead to a published product for many readers in the future. 

I want to thank each and every one of you who Pre-Ordered, spread the word, and aided me in my quest to publish this book through the Inkshares platform. It was a wonderful experience and I met and became friends with a great many talented and kind authors here. Although I will probably not be publishing the Lore of the Aos Sí here on Inkshares.com. I will still use the hub to communicate my progress on the book and the next stages. 

I have taken a few weeks off from writing to collect my thoughts and determine what will be the best way to proceed in the future. 

Once again I am deeply humbled by the support all of you have lent me over the past year. I hope that one day soon I can give you this story in its entirety. I am currently pursuing other avenues of publication and will keep all of my readers here posted. 

I wish everyone here a happy new year and I look forward to bringing you more content in the future. 

Blessed Be, 

Christopher Lee

Dear friends

How’s 2017 treating you so far? For me, the last couple of months have been an interesting time of struggle and opportunity. I won’t bore you with details of my up and downs, but I do want to share the lesson I learned.

Pouring your entire soul into what you love is essential to achieve your dreams, but also essential is to be kind to yourself. At some point in the last two years, in between attempting to write three novels, holding a full-time job and trying to launch a writing career, I stopped listening to my body. As a result, my physical and mental health declined to a point in which I was not able to do any of the things I love. I couldn’t run the New York City Marathon, and I didn’t finish writing Bad Medicine: Slay it Queen!

Fear not, this is not a sad update. This update is about discovery and opportunity. I’m not the kind of guy who makes New Year resolutions, but this year I made one: I will be kind and patient with myself and with others. I will tune out the negative noise that surrounds us and walk the road that leads to my dreams with no rush.

I have many projects and ideas that I’m excited about. Worlds Walker is done, and Bad Medicine will be a scary and hysterical ride. My hope is to deliver the manuscript to the patience folks at Inkshares sometime in the spring. I also have a stack of short stories that I will be releasing for free on Amazon Kindle starting in March.

I’ve been reminded through this struggle that my goal was never to become a famous writer. That my goal was not for The Catcher’s Trap to be turned into a movie or sell a million copies. My goal is to share the stories swirling in my brain. My dream is for those stories to find people who connect with them and enjoy them. Many of you have reached out to me to tell me how much you enjoyed The Catcher’s Trap, for me, that’s winning.

So here’s to a great year ahead of us. A year of creativity, magical thinking and kindness.

As always, let’s end this update with wisdom from my favorite hero

Double update CAMPERS!

So sorry for the confusion. Inkshares just informed me that there is a slight error on the site. Official pub day is August 15, 2017. 

Mark your calendars and keep spreading the word!

Kyle T. Cowan

Hey it’s that anniversary update I was talking about!

It’s now a year (more or less) since Ghosts of War successfully finished it’s funding campaign. Now I know you’re all probably wondering the same thing...

’Dude...it’s been a year....where’s the book?’

A valid question. No doubt. But the last year has been good to Ghosts. It’s a rather different book to where it was at this time last year. For one: it’s finished. At just over 106,000 words, 32 chapters and maybe north of 400 pages, it’s boiled itself down to a story that I’m really rather proud of. Now I say that as it’s author, and the only one who knows how it ends, but I’m quietly confident you’ll like it too (please like it...O_O).

’Yeah, no but for reals...how much longer?’

Not long. I’ve come to realise you can only revise things so much, and at some point you just have to leave it be. As such, I’m currently going through the final polish and tidy up on the current draft and that will be done by the end of January. At that point, I will hand it off to a few beta readers to get their thoughts and then it will be onto the final, final edits.

From there I’ll hand it over to Inkshares (tentatively by the start of March), and it’s generally then around 16 weeks until Pub Day. So, all going well, it should be in your hands by the middle of the year.

’Got anything for us now though?’

I do actually. If you head over here ---->;;;;;;;;;;; CLICK ME

But wait...there’s more...

Chapter 2 has been updated too! Nowhere near as extensively though, I think I only added about 30 words. Most of it was just grammar/punctuation fixes. But it’s still new...kinda.

Chapters 3-8 will be updated over the next week too, so keep an eye out.

Now it wouldn’t be a Ghosts update if I didn’t close with a gif. So...

Until next time.

Weeks ago I made a promise. I told you that I would explain what hitting 250 pre-orders meant. I never intended for so much time to lapse between then and now. Thank you for being so patient. Most of all, thank you for not punishing me by taking your book order back. You may laugh, or groan, but that particular fear has denied me many hours of sleep, I swear. 

It’s high time that I make good on my promise. Now that I’ve obtained that magic number of pre-orders, Inkshares will publish Where the Sun Sets as part of their Quill Imprint. Books belonging to this collection receive light editing, limited distribution (including physical and digital on Amazon), and fulfillment of copies to backers. In short, hitting 250 was like flicking a switch. At that moment what went from “You might get this book,” transformed into, “You will get this book.”  

Since that day something else more marvellous has come to pass. My big dream has grown a bit bigger. It has grown to include the dreams of another. I’m over-the-moon-so-freakin’-happy to be sharing with you that Maria Laguna-Valenzuela, the artist responsible for the whimsical and wonderful seeding bloom that graces the cover of Where the Sun Sets, has agreed to partner with me as an illustrator! Over the next three months Maria will bring to life the enduring love and magic of the Gibbons’ world in ways I never expected. Furthermore, Maria is just as excited as I am to be creating with the goal to support other creators. What an outcome! I couldn’t be any happier. 

This partnership means that it will take three months longer for the book to get into production. Production won’t begin until April at the earliest. This prolonged timeframe means that I have another opportunity to try and gain enough pre-orders to receive full publishing services from Inkshares. But most of all, this partnership means that when you do finally get your copy of Where the Sun Sets, it will be that much richer in content and imagination. 

You’ve given me the opportunity. Now it’s up to me to not squander it. I’m tickled pink (and honoured as all hell) that Maria has chosen to help me make this story that much more special by throwing her creative weight behind it too. (I’ve elaborated more on this and other things here on my blog.)

Finally, when I kicked this whole thing off I had it in my head that publishing under two names was a good idea that would ultimately benefit future philanthropic initiatives. I’ve since realized that the distinction is arbitrary, and will be publishing all titles under Donna Litt. Rest assured, all author proceeds resulting from the publication of Where the Sun Sets are still dedicated to supporting creators in the Kitchener-Waterloo community.

I think that’s it! Please hit me back with any questions. Thank you Maria, and thank you all for your generous and kind support.

Donna
PS - Happy 2017 from the desk of Bill Watterson, comic available here.

Happy New Year everyone!

If you haven’t had a chance to read it, here is a really great post by Inkshares’ CEO that really resonated with me: 

http://blog.inkshares.com/post/155632230065/the-coal-car

When I started working on "To Live and Die in Avalon", it was a spur of the moment decision so I could get into the Nerdist space opera contest. I had one chapter, a rough outline and not much else. Although I managed to hover around 20th place in the contest out of about 100 submissions, I really had a hard time marketing a book that was not done, that was barely realized. When the campaign ended I stepped away from everything having to do with the novel so that I could refocus and come back with fresh eyes and a fresher mind toward finishing and refining a novel worth reading. It has been nearly a year since I entered the space opera contest and the book is miles away from where it was. First of all, it’s a more or less finished novel of nearly 100k words with a lot of big ideas, some personal themes that transcend the sci-fi setting, more fully defined protagonists and villains and the framework to create more stories in a world I’ve spent a lot of time building, breaking down and rebuilding. 

I want my story to be told and the chance to write more stories. I realize now, through this entire experience with Inkshares that this is what I most want to do. I have always believed that the story comes first and my name on the book or even my picture in the back a far distant second. I want people to read this crazy sci-fi story and get something out of it, some thrills, some laughs, maybe some tears and then be ready to see these characters and their world progress into new and exciting directions.  That’s why, no matter what happens, whether I relaunch a successful campaign on Inkshares or not, this story will be told and I will find the tools, the feedback and the support I need to make sure it is the best version of the story possible. Because I’m not in a rush to have a book out there just so I can brag about the fact that I wrote a book. Anybody can write a book, but I want to tell stories, and I’m happy to be among a plethora of authors who want the same.

Thank you,

J

P.S. The current draft has been sent to beta readers for feedback, I will let you know how that goes in a future update!