This week something pretty amazing happened. Inkshares sent me the back cover text and author bio for The Punch Escrow. I was also given an official publication date, which is a lot further in the future than I originally imagined, but makes sense. The book will be released at San Diego Comic Con (July 19, 2017) and will be given a big promotional push by Geek & Sundry there. We haven’t even started coming up with what sort of pomp and circumstance we’ll do, but I’m sure it’ll be fun. Anyway, the rewrite is moving along swimmingly. Some days more swimming than others. Right now with around 35% of the rewrite complete, I can’t seem to get out of the limbo that exists between 28,000 and 29,000 words, but I’m very motivated by deadlines and I’ve committed to handing in the manuscript by November 1, so I’ll get there. For those curious about the back copy and author bio, here’s what they look like (some of you who have been with me since the beginning of this campaign will note that International Transport has gotten better at marketing, they’ve eliminated "Journey" from their slogan):

Back Cover Synopsis:

It’s the year 2471. Advancements in nanotechnology have enabled us to control aging. We’ve genetically engineered mosquitoes to feast on carbon fumes instead of blood, ending air pollution. And teleportation has become the ideal mode of transportation, offered exclusively by International Transport—a secretive firm headquartered in New York City. Their slogan: Departure... Arrival... Delight!

Joel Byram, our smartass protagonist, is an everyday twenty-fifth century guy. He spends his days training artificial-intelligence engines to act more human, jamming out to 1980’s synthpop—an extremely obscure genre, and trying to salvage his deteriorating marriage. Joel is pretty much an everyday guy with everyday problems—until he’s accidentally duplicated while teleporting.  

Now Joel must outsmart the shadowy organization that controls teleportation, outrun the religious sect out to destroy it, and find a way to get back to the woman he loves in a world that now has two of him.

Author Biography Back Cover Version

Tal M. Klein was born in Israel, grew up in New York, and currently lives in Detroit with his wife and two daughters. When she was five years old, his daughter Iris wrote a book called I’m a Bunch of Dinosaurs that went on to become one of the most successful children’s book projects on Kickstarter —something that Tal explained to Iris by telling her, “your book made lots of kids happy.” Iris then asked Tal, "Daddy, why don’t you write a book that makes lots of grownups happy?" Tal mulled this over for a few years, and eventually wrote his first book, The Punch Escrow. It won the Inkshares Geek & Sundry Hard Science Fiction publishing contest, and will be the first book published on the Geek & Sundry imprint.

Friends

*Crawls out of editing cave, hissing at the light*

I LIVVVVEEEEE!!!!!

Yes, I’m still technically alive. Haven’t fallen in a deep, dark hole or anything like that. I’ve just been a slave to the editing process and, of course, my day job. 

But I’ve decided to peek my head up from the abyss to send you all an update. 

First and foremost, Beyond the Code news. Editing has been going slower then I’d like but very well. Results from my wonderful beta readers have given me some ideas for rewrites of the story. These changes will give some of the characters actions more of a dramatic punch that I really think you’ll all enjoy. 

In other news, I will be taking my first try at pushing my book at a convention. I will be at the Edmonton Expo on Saturday. I will be handing out bookmarks to anyone who will take them to try and get the word of Beyond the Code out. I hope to see any of you there. 

I also want to take this opportunity to talk about Evan Graham’s book Tantalus Depths. It’s a really well thought out world that deserves full funding and it is very close. Please, if you have not already, take the time to check it out and consider backing this great project. 

https://www.inkshares.com/books/tantalus-depths

Thank you all for continuing to support this my dream and I hope I can give you a fully realised product sooner, rather then later. 

Kelsey Rae Barthel

Greetings!

First, it’s so exciting seeing all the images people have been sending of their copies of the book or them holding the book.  I’m saving all of these, of course.  Be sure to get a picture of some interesting place you choose to read it for a bit.  It’s been fun sharing those.

Second, you are able to review Rise on Amazon.com, BN.com, and Goodreads (and mark it as reading on that last one if you still are).  The BN page is a bit dodgy with the reviews.  Some people have reported it won’t accept the review while a few have managed it.  I appreciate your attempting to do so.  It really does help.

In other news, I’ve resumed editing Fall around my re-write of After Man.  It’s fun revisiting this new adventure in the same world as Rise after taking several month off from it.  I can’t say Fall will have as many edit run-throughs as Rise did but it is still getting a meticulous comb over.  If you’re as eager to read this second book as I am in editing it, why not go ahead over to Inkshares and preorder your copy today.

Finally, yours truly recently was a guest on the Write Brain podcast, hosted by Inkshares veterans Paul Inman and Jean-Francois Dubeau.  We had a blast discussing cake, Dragoncon, authors we like to read and don’t like to read, and, yes, even Rise.  Be sure to look for it in whatever podcast app you use, episode 30 or go to http://www.jfdubeau.com/writebrain/ to listen.  Additionally, in two weeks time on Oct 7, 2016 I have the privilege of appearing on a podcast on a network I’ve been a fan of since 2009, Frogpants Studios.  I’ll be appearing on the Current Geek podcast hosted by Scott Johnson (of The Instance podcast fame for you WoW players) and Tom Merritt (a name that will be familiar to most of you as he’s the guy on the front cover of Rise giving that amazing blurb).  I’m really excited and a bit nervous to be appearing on any show on this network but I’m sure it will be fun.  If you haven’t discovered the library of shows Frogpants Studios and friends of the network are making, I highly recommend going to frogpants.com and checking them out.

Happy reading and listening!

We posted ENHANCED’s first three chapters a few days ago, and Chapter 1 was completely new. Today, we added to the new Chapter 1 in the interest of world building. We would love to hear what you think -- positive or constructively critical, we value your thoughtful, honest opinions. Thanks very much!

Good day, detectives. 

Today marks 100 days until the end of the campaign! We’re currently at 55 preorders. In order to reach the 250 preorder quill goal, we need about 2 new preorders a day. Is this possible? Absolutely. I just need your help.

We have 117 followers, 48 subscribers, 14 recommendations, and 4 reviews. If all of the followers who haven’t subscribed yet were to back the book at merely the Deputy ($10 level), we’d be so much closer to that goal.

Upload was recently backed by the Thriller Night Syndicate, for which I’m incredibly grateful. Their confidence and support in my book is invaluable. I would love to see Upload backed by other syndicates as well, so if you’re part of one or know of a syndicate who might be interested, I’d love to see you share the book with them.

Next Wednesday at 7PM PST, I’ll be hosting a Q&A over on the Upload Facebook page. Feel free to go over there and like the page, as I’ll be providing updates for that over there. Feel free to ask any questions about the setting, my writing process, my outlining techniques or anything else you can think of about the book in that Q&A.

If you’ve got a book here on Inkshares, and you’d like me to take a look, shoot me a message. I’d be happy to exchange reviews with you.

Finally, I’ll be participating in NaNoWriMo this year. Unlike most NaNoWriMo’s, however, I won’t be conjuring a book out of whole cloth in a month. Instead, I’ll be completing Upload in that time (at least, the first draft). I’ll keep you appraised of any updates on that as we draw closer to November.

Thank you for all your support. Let’s keep this thing moving!

I’ve never been so thankful for a Wednesday.

First of all, A Beast Requires is closing in on a 100 backers! So far 93 people have pre-ordered 115 copies of the book, pushing it towards that first hurdle of 250 pre-orders. Yea, it’s pretty damn awesome. What isn’t awesome is that this entire month has gotten away from me. There was a carefully orchestrated schedule of events and a timeline set in place, that went out the window to find a shallow grave in the backyard. Granted my entire backyard is a shallow grave, see as it’s the place where good grass comes to die. 

See, I have this job, right? It’s at night, doesn’t pay great, and ever so slightly eats away at your soul. It’s difficult to describe, mostly because of the sort of work they do. Say you’re out at the zoo, and you’re walking through the primate house, unless your zoo doesn’t have a primate house, which would make me sad. But let’s say hypothetical zoo has a hypothetical primate house, full of hypothetical primates. Now there is a spot in this hypothetical primate house, where hypothetical primates fling hypothetical poo. There’s no avoiding the spot, no matter how much you try, and before everyone leaves, they are always pelted with hypothetical poo. My job is to block the exit and ask you which hypothetical poo smells the hypothetical best.

On Monday I gave them my two week notice. On Monday I was offered a much better job. It will take me a few days to adjust to a new work schedule, but it will be much more conducive to updates. With 70 days left in the campaign, there’s a lot to get done, and expect the videos to start returning next week. Thank you all for supporting A Beast Requires. Without knowing it, you’ve all helped keep me sane and helped me to survive the hypothetical house of poo.

- Jay