Yippee! Thank all of you who have contributed to the first 50% of my progress towards Quill and getting published!  So, first things first...CHAPTER 10 is on the site.  Secondly...

I have about 150 followers...and over a hundred who haven’t ordered yet are just itching to have a reason to pre-order.  So here’s my offer.  The next fifty pre-orders will go into a RAFFLE.  I will then draw a name out of a virtual hat and award $100 to the winning name!  I know, people offer mugs and scarves and hand knitted blankets...but really, nothing says thank you more than buying what YOU want!  Okay, the raffle is officially open! Hit the picture below or HERE and pre-order now!

Various and Sundry Updates - TWO WEEKS until LAUNCH Edition

Have you packed your bags for : AMOD Launch Party - Athens,GA - 4/5 - AVID BOOKSHOP? I’ll be the one dressed like this:

And now another great picture of me - to honor your support and sear your ocular nerve.

Check out the "Not Afraid of the Fall" Facebook Page (https://www.facebook.com/notafraidofthefall/) to see the video clip that accompanies this excerpt from the book:

"Jumping for the first time is scary. I wasn’t afraid of landing on anything. The water that resembled blue Gatorade was clearly twenty feet deep. I also wasn’t afraid of drowning. I am not a great swimmer, but I am a magnificent water-treader. What scared me was the fall itself. I was afraid of jumping because as soon as I left the familiarity of my rock, I was no longer in control. I couldn’t decide that I preferred the comfort of my rock halfway to the sea and turn back. It was all or nothing. Gravity would take over and whether I was ready or not, I would be seeing my rock from a different perspective. Despite the fear of the unknown, I decided I had spent enough time on this rock and jumped. When gravity introduced me to the Adriatic, she welcomed me with open arms."

P.S. - For those of you not counting  at home, we only have 40 days left to reach the 750 preording goal! This means we need all hands on deck! Please share this with your friends, colleagues and family to spread the word!

I know we can do this. After all, they don’t call it March Madness for nothing.

-KJ

It’s time now to begin the official MUSTERING PERIOD for Blood Dawn Risk (from this point forward known as "The God-King War").

If you’re thinking of ordering Blood Dawn, then you can help one of our players by pledging your pre-order to them.

You can win prizes!

I will be giving out special prizes to allies based on pre-orders pledged. You are automatically eligible if you pledge your own pre-order to one of the dragons or houses (listed below) playing in the game. From that point forward, additional pre-orders that you pledge count as your pledges as an ally.

These are not competitive prizes. They will be based on reaching a milestone, so no matter what you’ll win if you attain it.

Bronze (10-19 pre-orders)

You can collaborate with me to create a minor character who will appear in Blood Dawn.

Silver (20-29 pre-orders)

You can collaborate with me to create a setting which will be worked into Blood Dawn.

Gold (30-39 pre-orders)

You can collaborate with me to create ANY other thing you’d like (plot, setting, or character) which will be worked into Blood Dawn.

Diamond (40+ pre-orders)

You get to participate with the game winner in creating a part of the Blood Dawn world with me (the grand prize for the dragon or house who wins the game).

*Note that prizes are cumulative, so if you attain gold, for example, you will get the prize for bronze and silver as well. So if you attain gold, you will get to create a minor character, as well as a setting, AND any other additional element.

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Here is a summary of the houses you can pledge to. These houses will all play in the game with troop armies, trying to conquer territory and capture dragons:

House Vastaron - one of the high houses in Powrend

House Mastion - one of the strongest, most widespread houses in Powrend

Clan Mynro - a nomadic clan in Ulyria

Clan A’Kyrif - one of the Ulyrian mountain clans

Clan Jodhyn - a clan of the Fifedan highlands

Asfani - one of the seven High Sultanate ranks in Allvara

House Asparone - among the fourth ascendent class of High Dalen

House Shamel - a Lividian house, of the Order of Thistles

Here is a summary of all the dragons who you can pledge to. These dragons will try to evade capture and increase in strength by wreaking havoc on house armies:

Zamisha Zhon - the Old One

Avabazzelaur - this is Manwen’s dragon, the most mysterious of them all

Branakataurai - Vastwing

Azzavani - the Seven-headed

Talaza Parau - the many-minded

Azzavaston - the Crystal-Winged

Lazahalaur - Graceflight

All pre-orders pledged between now and the start of the game will be used to determine the house or dragon’s initial strength when the game begins. For example, if the dragon Branakataurai gets 8 pre-orders pledged to him, he will start with 8 hit points in addition to the hit points he starts with by default. If House Vastaron gets 13 pre-orders pledged to her, then she gets an additional 13 troops.

How do you get pledges?

Simply email me at johnrobinrt@gmail.com after you place your order to tell me who you’re pledging to and you’ll officially be in the game as an ally. I receive an email whenever someone pre-orders my book so I’ll match up your pledge with the confirmation email I get from Inkshares, then I’ll enter it in the spreadsheet I’m using to keep track of everything for when the game launches.

For future pre-orders you pledge, email me to tell me who you’ve pledged and which house/dragon the order is for, and I’ll match that up with my pre-order confirmation email and add it to your pledges as an ally.

How can you get pre-orders?

It’s one thing to tell people to order a cool book. It’s another thing to tell them you’re involved in a cutthroat game where their pre-order will help you contribute to the book by collaborating with the author. Of course, you should tell them about Blood Dawn, have them watch the fan trailer on the page on Inkshares, but the game adds a whole new dimension of fun and likelihood that they might help.

What I recommend is you think of all your friends, coworkers, and family who you know like fantasy books. Tell them about this game and direct them to my Inkshares page, watch the fan video with them. If you’re feeling ambitious, root through your contacts list in your inbox and email people (I recommend one at a time -- that’s usually the most effective), telling them about this game and linking them to Blood Dawn. Make your email short and give them easy to follow instructions.

You can even think outside the box. Two of our players are using Facebook to build a team of helpers. You can do absolutely anything you’d like to get pre-orders, just as long as you tell me who has ordered for you and I can match that with the pre-order email I get from Inkshares.

What if you don’t want to be an ally, but you want to pre-order now and pledge to an ally?

That’s absolutely fine too! All non-pledged pre-orders will be gathered up and used as part of a secret “Easter egg” in the game.

Therefore, ALL pre-orders between now and the game’s end will count toward the game. 

Happy Sunday!

Dear Readers,

Apologies for the delay in sending out updates. My IRL job was crazy over the last week and I am just now getting caught up.

Bad news first: As you have probably figured out, we did not win the Nerdist Space Opera contest, but not for lack of trying! 

Good news: We did make it to our Quill! Quill means that we have sold a minimum of 250 copies. We are still funding and will continue to sell copies until May 2. With luck and help from everyone seeing this update, we will get 500 more copies sold and be able to go forward with a full publishing deal!

As incentive, I will post Chapter 8 to Inkshares once I finish editing it. I will post Chapter 9 when we get to 500 copies sold, and I will post Chapter 10 when we reach full funding goal of 750 copies sold!

Thanks for all your support so far in this campaign! 

- Webster

We are now open for pre-orders.

Those of you outside the U.S. are strongly advised to find two or more other people, form a group, order at the "Super Sleuth" level through one person in the group, and redistribute the books among yourselves afterwards. This should help to save on the shipping costs.

I still can’t believe it. I’m trying and failing to process the fact that I won the Space Opera contest. Incredible.

First and foremost, I want to acknowledge all of the other wonderful entries. I’m not going to be as bold as others have been to name favorites, but I want to summarize it all very simply:

EVERY BOOK IN THE CONTEST IS AMAZING. Take the time to peruse the entries. if there’s nothing that strikes your fancy, then you are entirely too picky and weird to be here...GO HOME!

Seriously...there are some incredible ideas out there, and I hope everyone puts all of their effort and love into taking them as far as they can. I know I have. I’ve had a few people email me directly to ask about the "secret to my success," and my answer is simply this:

Do you know anyone who doesn’t know you’re a writer? Do you know anyone who doesn’t know you have a book that could be published unless it doesn’t reach a certain number of pre-orders? 

If your answer is "no" to either question, then you aren’t doing enough. This is your life, your story, your career as an author. Nearly all of my neighbors and every single one of my wonderful friends on Facebook and Twitter bought a copy of my book. Why? Because I asked them very nicely and directly, and I am a good person and a good writer. I believe in myself, and I told everyone I possibly could that I do. Have you done that yet? If you haven’t, you should. 

That is all for now, as far as advice goes. I hope I didn’t come off as cocky; I only want the best for all of our stories, and that is seriously what has worked for me thus far.

Otherwise, my week has been exceptionally amazing in that I have also been invited to be a writer for Renderosity Magazine! Renderosity is a site that mostly focuses on computer-generated animation and art, but the magazine branches out and includes many subjects, including an article featuring yours truly. I will be starting an arts forum on their website, so look out for that...

Also worth noting is another amazing happenstance of this week in receiving a shipment of other Inkshares published books:

If you haven’t, then please go and get these works:

"An Unattractive Vampire" by Jim McDoniel

"The Life Engineered" by J.F. Dubeau

"Abomination" by Gary Whitta

"Asteroid Made Of Dragons" by G. Derek Adams

These books represent our future, and if they aren’t well received, then what should you expect? Get as many Inkshares published books as you can, and then please review them on Amazon and wherever they appear. Why? Because Inkshares is a label, and the more sales and the better reputation Inkshares gets, the better off everyone who gets published by them is!!! Do it! Got extra credits? Buy a book you’ll get in your own hands in a few days! 

Oh wow, such a long time between updates, huh? Was I dying?

Not really. Certainly felt like it at times. Next year: flu shot. Nothing like severe, body-shaking chills, fatigue, fever and medication induced hallucinations, and a throat so ravaged by coughs it took a month and about 150 cough drops to heal. So here I am, several weeks later, updating.

Right now? I’d say my life going swell. That’s not sarcasm, either. Holy cow, I feel good! I won’t say why here, let’s just say a massive ball of stress is gone, and a couple of smaller nodules are slowly being chipped away at.

Moving on to Blurred Weaponry stuff. Because I was so sick and stressed out, I haven’t done much writing recently. My current attitude means I’ll be back on track soon and will finally be able to send this thing to my editor. The new First Five – chapters, of course – are solid. Not sure if I need to spice them up, though, as 3, 4, and 5 are mostly conversational and exploratory, with a focus on tension, accusations, establishing who does and doesn’t trust whoever else, and so on.

That being said, my main page is updated with the latest version of Chapter 1 (the one my editor will see), which is now split into two named parts to be a little more attractive for readers. Chapter 2 has been added and I’ll be sending that separately to followers later today (something I’ve never done before, so why not). These shorter, punchier chapters have been a ton of fun to make, and I’m pretty happy with them and look forward to [FINALLY!] running through the remainder of the manuscript for whatever minor additions / changes are needed to match the new material.

Thanks for being a part of me slowly-creeping-back-into-pre-orders campaign, and I’ll have more to talk about soon!

Peace out,

MAV

Greetings hexers,

I’m happy to say I was able to finish chapter 3 yesterday. I didn’t know it was finished yesterday, but I realized it this morning sitting down looking at how I’m planning things out. This means I will post this up for you today.  I’m sure you’re going to LOVE it.  

Chapter 3 sees the introduction of another major character that certain readers will be very interested in *cough* A.C. Weston *cough*. I am having a TON of fun destroying Orange County and rebuilding it. I only regret not being able to do my research in person. Instead I’m working from memory and from consultations with Professor Google. If anyone lives in Orange County and finds inconsistencies, please let me know. It’s best to change these things now before we get further down the story road.

Have fun learning more about Dax and Isidore!

Cheers, Amanda

  PS: Remember I’m still giving out prizes for referrals on my quest to get to #DHM750. Right now Joe Terzieva and Billy O’Keefe are leading the pack, and I know either one would look amazing in a Church of Technology pendant. I can’t wait to start giving these away! Join my Mech Crew today and start winning!