Dear friends and followers,

I don’t like to send these out more than once a week. However, I do have an announcement, which I would rather not keep for the weekend:

The third Peterkin Investigates game is out! In "Labour’s Letters Lost", a packet of letters--highly sensitive information, apparently, and potential for scandal--has been lifted from a private safe during a dinner party. Eric Peterkin is called in by his club’s secretary, Jacob Bradshaw, to deal with the matter as discreetly as possible, and you get to investigate the mystery in Eric’s shoes.

Enjoy!

DEAR DAX HARRISON READERS, FANS, PASSIVE FOLLOWERS, ETC...

I’m not dead yet.

Dear friends and followers, I have been getting back into the groove of active campaigning. I try to keep accurate records, in case things should happen to go wrong ... it also helps to alert me to friends who have promised an order but who may have forgotten. Do not worry: I shall hunt you down.... Er. I mean, I shall send you a gentle reminder. Yes.

(Seriously though. I really appreciate everything I’ve gotten from you guys so far. Some of you have been hugely encouraging and enormously helpful. In many ways, this will be as much your victory as mine.)

Meanwhile! I’ve finally managed (after many, many takes) to record a video for the project page. Go take a look!

What to expect from me in the near future:

1. A third Peterkin Investigates IF game.
2. A floor plan for the Veterans’ Club.
3. A gentle reminder.

Now, let’s talk about a couple of works around here that I would really like to see getting further on their campaigns.

1) "Upload", Mark Meredith. I’ve spoken about this before, but it bears repeating: this is some quality noir happening here, for all it’s classed "science fiction". The Thriller Night Syndicate seems to agree, since they’ve named it this month’s pick. It tells the story of Detective Qin (look, an Asian hero! Not that I’m biased or anything!) in a world where people habitually clone themselves to guard against unexpected death. Well, here’s Qin in a newly cloned body, and the story opens in gritty, noir fashion on a crime scene where it’s discovered that the vic is ... Qin’s previous body. Seriously, if you love mysteries (and if you’re following "Murder at the Veterans’ Club", then chances are that you do) you’re going to love this one.

2) "The Fairy Stepmother, Inc.", Maggie Hoyt. This is a very different flavour, but delicious all the same. It’s Cinderella told from the stepmother’s point of view ... though I suspect there will be a number of twists thrown in. Evelyn, the stepmother in question, is introduced as an intelligent, independent woman, who has to deal with some rather rigid societal expectations; and it’s all told with some delightfully wry humour. Check it out: I promise you the prose will just race along like a drive through the countryside.

Until next week, friends! In the meantime ... don’t forget!

Hi everyone!  Happy Fall!

Long time, no chat, huh?  It’s been about a month and a half since It’s All Fun and Games went live, and I’ve got all sorts of news to share.

The first thing is that I was fortunate enough to receive some pretty cool media attention to coincide with the release.  I had a nice sit-down with John Holyoke from the Bangor Daily News, and I was featured both in their online paper and on the front page of the Lifestyle section.  IAFAG also was in a segment on the 207, a statewide public interest show that airs nightly in Bangor and Portland.  It was fun hearing people tell me that they’d seen or read about me.  Look out Kardashians, I’m coming for you.

I’ve also been out and about for a couple public appearances.  I had my first public book signing at The Briar Patch in downtown Bangor.  If you live locally, make sure you stop on by – it’s a wonderful store filled with books, games, and other things that the little people in your life will enjoy.  And then at the end of August I was the featured presenter the Orono-Old Town Kiwanis (which, having just recently seen Calendar Girls at Penobscot Theatre Company (Season Tickets Still Available!), makes me chuckle at the role of “featured presenter”), where I talked about NANOWRIMO, Inkshares, and all the nuggets of stuff that go into making the sausage we call a novel.

I had the horrifying experience of being asked by my award winning voice actor, Cassandra Lee Morris, how to pronounce a few words and realizing that I never really thought about how those combinations of letters would actually sound.  Garbaldar is a tricky one to roll off the tongue, and don’t even ask me how to pronounce Gahrauah.  I actually just punted and told her to make something up.  Memo to me – read all future novels aloud before sending them for publishing and make sure the names are actually pronounceable.  If you’d like to read more about Cassandra, you can visit her web page here.  She’s pretty impressive, that’s for sure!

Sales have remained steady, though they have tapered off somewhat.  Word of mouth is a wonderful thing, so if you know anyone who might be interested in It’s All Fun and Games, have them swing by their Friendly Local bookstore or Amazon and pick up a copy.  Or grab it on an e-reader, or in a week or two the ebook!

Also, if you’ve read the book, please swing by Amazon, Goodreads, and (if you have an account) Barnes And Noble and leave a review.  They don’t need to be long – “I really liked it” is plenty!  I’m currently sitting at 51 reviews on Amazon, but there were 578 people who preordered the book.  It’ll take just a few moments of your time, and can make a huge difference.  We haven’t yet broken into B&N’s retail stores (which would be instantly several thousand copies sold), but a couple hundred reviews on Amazon and Goodreads would make a pretty convincing argument. 

In fact, go do it now.  I’ll wait. 

….

See?  That wasn’t so hard, was it?  And now you have a warm fuzzy cause you know you did me a solid.  Speaking of which, I’ve had a number of people tell me that they’ve let the book around their office or circle of friends.  That’s great, and I hope your friends all enjoyed the book too.  Please ask all those folks to leave me a review as well.  3 minutes of clicking and typing is a great price to pay for a novel.

So, I think that’s all the news that’s news.  You may or may not have received an email from Inkshares regarding new contests.  There are three right now.  Of perhaps the most immediate interest to backers of It’s All Fun and Games are the Geek and Sundry Fantasy Contest and the Crypt TV Horror Contest.  If you’ve got any interest in helping another author fund their novel, here are some suggestions of books written by some of the buddies I’ve met throughout my own contest process –

 A Beast Requires

Apex

Arcadia

Bad Medicine

Exile, Magus

Phew!  That was long!  Thank you again for all your support, and I promise not to wait so long between mailings next time!