As a thank you to all your support during the campaign to bring Rise to publication, Inkshares sent out a gift of $10 credits to use in another contest.  I’ve contacted many of you through the Book of Faces, but just in case I missed people, I’m sending this little announcement out.  They expire on Monday, 16 May 2016.  Most of those I have talked to did receive the credits but there are a few who did not and I’m not sure why.  Still, it doesn’t hurt for you to look.  And, if you have them, I could think of at least one way you could use them by Monday night.

After Man!

In other news related to Rise itself, I’ve seen the final copy sent to the proofreader and it looks amazing.  This thing is so close to happening yet still so many months away.  Stay tuned for news regarding a small release party at or around DragonCon in Atlanta, GA the week leading up to the convention.

Finally, many of you have been asking about the sequel to Rise, Fall.  Some of you have noticed on my author page it lists a certain draft named Fall and asked why you couldn’t go follow or preorder it yet.  The reason is I haven’t quite finished prepping the page for public viewing so you can follow it.  It will not be available for preorder until closer to Rise’s release date of 13 Sept 2016.  Stay tuned.

See below for more content related to After Man’s back story.

Less than 6 hours to go.  Then the production starts for After Man.  We cleared 300 readers yesterday and are now approaching 350 copies sold.  That may not seem like a lot, especially compared to Rise’s 609 readers during the contest and 780 copies sold to date, but 350 copies is still a large number of books.  More copies means more people reading and more people talking about it and more people hearing about it.  That’s the key to a book taking off.  So thanks to you for helping make that happen.  Also, I’d like to say a big thanks to Jim Chatfield for his being the 300th reader to hop on board After Man’s support train and then later bringing his wife on board!  It’s things like this, people like you choosing to not only preorder but to go and find someone else to jump on board, that make an author smile a lot inside.

Now for what’s next for After Man.  First up will be my finishing the rewrite of the manuscript.  After that, the same editing and production process as before with Rise begins.  It will be several months before this book is ready.  Rise took almost a full year to get out to people (Nerdist Contest ended 30 Sept 2015, release date is 13 Sept 2016).  After Man is going to be shorter than Rise or Fall (which I’ve completed btw.  Keep an eye out for that one), but I still expect it to be in production until at least Jan 2017.  And remember, this time I’ll be going to San Francisco to sign all of these before they are shipped for sure.  That’s part of what you helped make happen by preordering.  I likely won’t be able to do the same for Rise, but everyone who preorders After Man will get one of those signed copies.

As always, some content for you, this time in the form of a news headline from long in the past.  Enjoy!

Martin Hoffman, Nobel Prize-Winning Geneticist and Last Man On Earth, Is Dead at 76

by Alexandra St. Fleur May 4, 2121

Martin Hoffman, who shared the 2100 Nobel Prize in Genetics for discovering a new more stable method for artificial insemination of the female egg using artificially create sperm using female genetic contributions, died on Sunday in East Sussex, England. He was 76.

The cause was complications of chorioepithelioma resulting from his exposure to the same viral agent released at the end of World War III in 2095 that led to what is now called the Great Death, the death of all Y-chromosome carrying males.

As a geneticist, Dr. Hoffman played a key role in the advancement of an early 21st century process wherein skin cells from adult females could be harvested and used to artificially inseminate an egg, thus creating an embryo. His Nobel Prize-winning discovery, which he shared with Dr. Rebecca Smalley and Dr. Roberta Curl of Rice University in Houston, was the demonstration of specification of hPGC-like cells (hPGCLCs) from germline competent pluripotent stem cells. 

Dr. Hoffman, a life long lover of art and service to community, always gave credit to his partners for the lionshare of the work put in to finish the revolution of this new process, a key step in preserving humanity in the wake of the Great Death.

"He always gave us the credit, and never wanted any accolades," said Dr. Smalley, formerly a genetics professor at Houston university, where Dr. Hoffmann worked for nearly two decades after the war before returning to England in the fall of 2115 because of failing health.

"Unlike most discoveries in genetics, this was immediately impactful," said Gina Forrino, a science writer who worked with Dr. Hoffman at the Science Museum of London for a brief stint in 2116 before he officially left public life and returned home to East Sussex.  "Everyone in the world felt this.  I mean, the work of those three saved humanity."

Dr. Hoffmann studied genetics at the University of Sheffield, earning his undergraduate degree in 2067, and completed his Ph.D there in 2070 with a focus on Cell Biology and Molecular Genetics.  As a student, he divided his time between conducting experiments, playing tennis and amateur painting.

Dr. Hoffman completed postdoctoral work in the United States and Canada in 2073 and returned to England to work as a teacher at the University of Sussex.

He began working with Dr. Smalley and Dr. Curl at Rice in the fall of 2091, two years after World War III erupted in central Asia.  In addition to his wife of 53 years, Mary, he is survived by two daughters, Stephany and Diana.

Hey folks,

We’re two orders away from my posting another excerpt from Devil’s Call, and I wanted to take a moment to thank the 19 readers who have been driving the novella’s sales so far. Your recommendations and reviews mean the world to me.

Special shoutout(s) to those of you who joined Inkshares just to support me, and to the following people:

- Peter Ryan, author of Sync City
- Janna Grace, author of The Talkers Are Talking
- Nicola Sarjeant
- Christopher Johnson

Y’all’s referrals have led to preorders, and you have a warm place both in my heart and on my dashboard.

Cheers,
Jamie

One thing I realized is that in my rush to send out the update yesterday, I neglected to thank my parents, who have watched me sweating bullets since this contest began and were quick with encouragement. During one especially stressful morning, my dad, Avi, took me aside, and with his heavy Hebrew accent said, "Tal. What are you worried about? You are my son. You will win." And my mom, Yona, who has the superpower of overhearing anything my dad says regardless of where he is, said, "Avi, you don’t know that he will win." To which my dad responded sternly, "Yes, Yona, I know." And that was it. The universe was compelled to act.

Since yesterday, I’ve received lots of emails, tweets, and messages from supporters and friends. This update will address the two most common questions:

1. When do I get my book?

The first draft of the manuscript was submitted to my developmental editor, Robert Kroese, before the contest began. He delivered a very thorough developmental edit from which I am now doing a COMPLETE rewrite of the book. In fact, I’ll be removing most of the chapters I posted to the Inkshares page because they are all very, very different now. So if you want to feel like a beta reader, get to it now because the MASS DELETION event happens soon. I’ll leave The Big Mac of Theseus chapter as-is, spelling and grammar errors and all as a memento of this campaign for the time being. I will deliver Inkshares a final draft by August 1. After that they’ll let me know more about the publication date, and rest assured I will share with you whatever information is at my disposal.

2. What about the MAJOR PRIZE raffle?

There were over 30 entries to our MAJOR PRIZE raffle, however, of those, only 8 got the International Transport slogan *exactly* right: "Departure, Journey, Arrival... Delight!" Yesterday, when the contest ended, I asked my daughter, Iris, to assist me in drawing the winner. We used Randompicker.com for the drawing. It’s a very cool site that uses hardware based randomization to ensure drawings are completely, well, random. Here we go:

Michael Haase (whose last name I butcher in the video) was the big winner! The universe decided another publishing contest winner should receive the box. I conducted this brief interview with Michael following Iris’ drawing:

TK: I think it’s very interesting that a fellow Inkshares author won this contest. I’d say the process of entering the contest was prohibitively semi-involved, but we still managed to get 34 entries. Of those, 8 were correct, and several were fellow Inkshares authors. I think that speaks well for the community, I’ve noticed that although Inkshares is a small ecosystem, it’s a very active one. How did you discover Inkshares, and what made you want to take the leap?

MH: My sister discovered Inkshares for me. I had no idea such a wonderful playground for authors existed. I have always been a writer in some form or another, and I certainly have forced plenty a story or poem upon friends and family. When my sister heard about the Nerdist Space Opera contest, she told me that I should enter because she thought I could win, even though I had not yet written a Space Opera. With that kind of endorsement in hand, I worked all day on February first and had a rough outline for Mr. Butler by the end of the day. I entered the story immediately, and have fallen head over heels over the Inkshares concept and community of authors ever since.

TK: Adding to the kismet of your win, you, yourself are also a contest winner. I know this contest was completely exhausting for me, could you share a bit about your publishing contest experience? What were the ups and downs, surprises, and so on?

MH: I think no one was happier that it was over than my wife. Participating in a contest requires a ton of dedication and time. From February 1st through March 15th I was networking, marketing, contacting every person I know and ever knew, learning how to market, trying not to back away slowly from marketing, checking my phone like a fiend, tearing up my workspace in my basement, outlining, writing, planning, scheming, making new author friends, reading other authors’ work, working full-time in an ER, raising a toddler, trying to the the best I could for my pregnant wife, and generally burning the candle at both ends until I dropped the candle on a powder keg. I’m surprised anyone still likes me after that contest. But if I had to do it all over again, I would in a heartbeat. I’ve made amazing friends with other authors all over the world, sold copies of my book on all continents except Antarctica (stupid penguins don’t read...), and renewed my confidence as an author. Probably the greatest surprise was the outpouring of support I received. Pat Edwards, who is an amazing author and another Nerdist winner with his book "Space Tripping," convinced me to literally contact every single person I knew. I decided to just go ahead and write every single friend I had on Facebook and Twitter to ask for their support. Almost every time I sent someone a message and thought to myself "Oh, they couldn’t possibly be interested in buying my book," I was wrong. 

TK: Do you think the protagonist of your book, Mr. Butler would be up for teleporting somewhere if he knew that to teleport he’d have to be destroyed in one place while simultaneously being replicated in another? What would go through his mind in making that decision?

MH: Absolutely. He is a man desperate for science and fact beyond what is readily observable. On his planet, he is nearly alone in thinking that the universe is a puzzle to be solved. If he were approached with such an offer, he might question the implications of being destroyed and replicated somewhere else, but the need to embrace the science behind the travel, experience it for himself, and, ultimately, leave the wretched planet on which he lives would drive him to accept the offer to teleport with enthusiastic nods. He wouldn’t even care where he went, as long as it wasn’t to another place on his planet. Only in that scenario would he think twice. 

TK: You are the winner of the MAJOR AWARD raffle. A mysterious box which I claim is from the future, which I also state is scientifically impossible. If you were creating a thematic mystery box for the Madness of Mr. Butler, what would be in it?

MH: A flask of hallucinogenic serum, an astronaut’s helmet, a journal, an 8-track player with several cassettes of rock music from the late 60’s and early 70’s, a noose, a large stick, a quill made from a fishbone, and a ghost.  

Here are the complete results of the MAJOR PRIZE raffle:

Michael Haase - WINNER

Phillip Rendely, Sarra Lord, and Nicolas Coombs - 2nd prize: "TELEPORTING" PUNCH ESCROW COFFEE MUGS

At your service,

Tal