A little early concept art of what the ending of chapter 19 might look like:



So we’ve released 19 chapters as of today. So far you’ve met our entire principal cast and so far they’ve been leading very different lives seemingly very far apart from each other. We’ve done this so that you, as the story experiencer, really get a sense of how large our universe is and just how each character lives before we throw them together and all hell breaks loose.

One of the things we wanted to target with this rewrite was the development of the characters earlier on in this story. Two unanimous points of feedback we received with the original version of The amaranth was that the characters need just a tiny bit more fleshing out so that we could feel how different and disparate their lives were and how amazing and heart pounding our 3rd act was. We’re not touching the second half of this story nearly as much as we have the first part.

A few of you have been so kind as to shoot us your feedback and we are so grateful!

Just a few things before I go…

 

Chapter Two is live!  I’m so happy to introduce you to Dax and his crew. I can’t wait to here what you think.

Hello Champions!

I thought I’d share some inspirational images I’ve been collecting as reference for CHAMPIONS OF THE THIRD PLANET.

I’m always collecting reference images for myself to use as a director. Sometimes I’m looking for something specific, sometimes I just stumble across an image I like and tuck it away.

For the opening image of the book, I loved the idea of the clash of a perfect black sphere sitting in a natural organic environment. Something about it feels wrong, a little off-putting. So I thought I’d share some of the pictures I’ve grabbed that tap into that idea -- none of them are an exact match but all of them ring that bell for me.

This artist is Simon Stalenhag and he’s brilliant, I just ordered his book. The size of this sphere seems about right and I love seeing it with the human scale.

...which made me think of an eclipse. The light behind the moon here makes the Orb looks blacker than space, which I thought was a cool idea.

Hello everyone! This competition is incredibly close, and I am honored to be a part of it. I am incredibly thankful for all of your support...I am humbled to be in the top ten, let alone the top 3! There’s still just under a month to go, so anything could happen...I still need any support you’re willing to give, either by spreading the word or by pre-ordering your own copy if you haven’t yet! 

Hello, Traveller’s Cup Supporters!

I’ve got a lot of exciting updates to share with you. 

First, we’re still in the top 10! Barely hanging in, but we’re there. I want to be completely transparent with you. If you haven’t checked out the actual contest standings, we have 37 pre-orders. That’s it. This contest is spread-out and close. To give you a comparison, the current second-place holder is sitting at 72. This is an extremely tight race, and every single pre-order counts. If you’ve held back thinking it won’t make a difference, I assure you it will. 

Second piece of news: the latest chapter preview. If you didn’t notice it in your inbox yesterday, we continued to follow Damaus after his name was called for the Cup. I decided to keep going sequentially for this one because there’s a lot of detail and worldbuilding that I think is important to the later story. If you did or didn’t like the piece, please let me know on Twitter at @ac_baldwin. You guys are my backers, which means we’re partners in this. Your feedback is important to me. 

Third piece of news: This Friday, February 19, from 8:30am to 10:30am EST (UTC-5), I’ll be taking questions about my book and writing on Twitter using the hashtag #TheTravellersCup. Everyone who asks a question will be entered into a draw to name a space dragon!

I’ve got a lot of ideas bubbling up in my head to get more people engaged in this book, like sketching out characters and places, and maybe another contest or two, but I want to hear from you guys. What great ideas do you have to get the word out? Or if you’re someone who hasn’t ordered, what can I do to convince you The Traveller’s Cup is worth your pre-order?

Your tireless space-writer,
-AC

Hey, everyone! Just wanted to give you all an update real fast as to what’s going on with the book. Artum has fallen out of the top ten at this point, which means that now is crunch time to get it not only back in the top ten, but to the top of the top ten. If you’re following the novel but haven’t pre-ordered, please consider doing so. Share it, recommend it, tell friends/family/random strangers about it. Get the word out!

I’m doing my best to get the word spread as far as I can out here. I’ve made handouts, and I might be on the local news to talk about not only my book, but also how Inkshares helps authors out getting their books published, and is a great alternate platform from traditional publishing. 

There are lots of exciting things going on apart from the book as well. We’ve just moved, so while I’m typing this update I’m surrounded by boxes and out-of-place furniture, and having to do all of that sadly impedes work towards getting Artum out there. But I shall return in full to the work shortly. And then, it’s full speed ahead towards winning this thing! Also recently I’ve been reading some classic cyberpunk novels, and I think it’s doing great things for my writing of Artum, stylistically. I’d forgotten some of the reasons I fell in love with that specific genre in the first place, and why I chose it as an influence for my book in the first place. Next up for reading I’ve got some classic space opera novels, to hopefully grab some more style to inject into Artum.

Thank you all so much for your support. I hope that together we are able to see Artum win this thing, and get this book which I know you’ll love into your hands. 

-Micah

Computer issue update—

I turned in my laptop today, and the anecdotal "in dealings with Apple in the past typically information won’t be recovered" leaves me unhopeful to get my old files back. Now I’m thankful that I began posting chapters online; at least this way I have my story part back. The rewriting of the notes has already begun, and shouldn’t pose much of an issue; it’s all in my head, anyway.

I could make an incredibly long life lesson post out of this. However, that would be boring, so I’ll simply say 1) always back up your important files, and 2) though I look forward to working through ever minute of it, the road ahead will be a tough journey, a /hard drive/ if you will... ha ha get it?

Until next time,

—Jason C.