Hey everyone, happy Saturday!

Today’s a big day for me, it’s the friends and family screening party for my first feature. I’m getting anxious, not so much nervous, but anxious. Really looking forward to it!

Before I get into anything on Cape’s Side Bay’s end, I wanted to give a special shout out to Tabi Card for putting together this sweet new cover for Cape’s Side! If you haven’t already please check out her work, Scribbles: A collection of words, which is funding now and Project Human. They’re both great and I think you’ll enjoy them!

And, WOW WOW you guys are the best! Over 31% to light-publication!!! This is incredible! Who knows if we will make it that far, but I’m getting exciting. The campaign is a long long road ahead and your support will continue to be needed to help reach the goal. That being said, you’re all flipping amazing! 

And lastly!

MUGS!

As mentioned above and yesterday today is a friends and family screening of my first feature film: Out There. Also as mentioned yesterday we are raffling off some of the mugs (pictured in previous update) from the film!

The first will go to all of you who have already pre-ordered. Then another will be given away to the next 10 pre-orders will be entered into a raffle for 1. And then the next 15 pre-orders will be entered into a raffle for another 1.

Let’s spread the word of Cape’s Side Bay and get it to where it needs to be to become a published novel. Which in ten years you will be able to see someone read and say “hey, flip to the back. See that? That’s my name."

After some recent discussions, I felt the need to post this to the project page and send it as an update.

What this Book is NOT:

First, this is not a book meant to answer all the questions.  This world the story takes place in is a complicated place where everything has changed owing to the cataclysmic event.  As a result, everything you know about society, religion, politics, genders, gender roles, and much more has changed.  Second, this book is not "women can’t go on without men."  Having lived for 500 years without them, clearly they can.  This book is an exploration of that idea: what would it be like if you take the most basic form of diversity and remove it?  And then what might happen if you reintroduce it?  How would society react?  Third, this is not an anti-feminist diatribe.  It is also not a Complementarian manifesto.  The idea here is NOT to declare one gender is better than the other, or that they can only exist together if they exist in a specific mold.  The idea behind it is to explore what would happen if such an event were to occur, not pass judgment on you or anyone else for how they view or believe on this subject.  Finally, this book is not going to tell you what to believe or accept about it.  This will have a lot of ambiguity in it ON PURPOSE.  This is not to avoid conflict, but to avoid "leading the witness."  The narrative is going to have a lot of opportunities to make small and big statements throughout.  Places where we can hit you right in the face with something just because we want to.  We won’t be doing that.  The idea here is to create a setting where all of these preconceived notions we carry into our interactions with each other have all fundamentally been altered or vanished.  We all are going to approach this story with differing world views and beliefs.  That is fine.  The goal of this story is to take you as you are and, on the other end, leave you where you choose to be after contemplating the ideas and possibilities herein.  

Since The Army of the Man is in the Hard Science Contest, I thought it might be time to discuss some of the hard science behind the book!  Get ready y’all...it’s time to SCIENCE.

As discussed on my project page, The Army of the Man involves a shadow group using the parasite Toxoplasma gondii to their advantage. How? They use its behavior altering properties to change humans into super humans, unafraid of consequence and the perfect soldier. 

At a base level, this is exactly what the parasite T.gondii does to mice.  Mice infected with the parasite (by eating contaminated food/cat feces) are noted to be more active, the first ones to enter traps, and unaffected by the presence of cats and their smells.  Some evidence exists that the mice may even become sexually aroused by the smell of cats!  The result? A mouse that runs right up to a cat to be eaten.  To the parasite, this is important because it reproduces ONLY inside feline gut.

The specific mechanism for this behavior is thought to be a dramatic increase in the infected organisms’ dopamine and hormone levels. Interestingly, similar impulsive behaviors can be found in humans who are infected by T.gondii. Humans with the infection are more likely to be involved in car accidents.  Infections have been linked to schizophrenia and other mental health diseases.  The length of time a human has been infected also seems to have an effect.  One study found that men who had been infected for many years are less conscientious of others. Huh...

What if science could harness T.gondii?  Use it to alter behavior of humans?  Make them more impulsive, less afraid, and more aggressive.  Access specific personality traits that might make, let’s say, a super soldier. Then, my friends, you would have the beginnings of The Army of the Man.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/common-parasite-linked-to-personality-changes/

A huge THANK YOU to everyone who has pre-ordered The Army of the Man. I’m blown away by the support I’m finding here on Inkshares. If you haven’t pre-ordered already, please do so! 

Holy alot of updates Batman!!

I know, I know. I’ve been updating lately like no ones business but I have some more GREAT NEWS!!! Beyond the Code has been chosen by the John Robin Epic Fantasy Syndicate!!! EPIC!!!! I want to give a HUGE heartfelt thank you to everyone in that wonderful group for believing in this project. 

That has given Beyond the Code a huge level up and we are now at 193 orders!! Only 57 orders to go till Quill!!! SAY WHAT!!!! And only 7 orders till the next 50 Point Raffle!! 

Quill is right around the corner ladies and gentlemen. If you love fast paced action with a dash of super powers hop on-board the Beyond the Code band wagon and pre-order today. Let’s make this happen!!