Hello friends! It’s been a while. 

I’m here to announce that I’ve been busy! I recently published a short story within the Writing Bloc’s DECEPTION! Anthology called "Quibbles". You can purchase the entire anthology on paperback, or for your kindle, here!

OR! You can buy the standalone story for your kindle, here!

Synopsis - "The night Nikki ran away from home, she left under frustrating circumstances. A fight with her parents was the last straw and before midnight, she was gone—not that she had any idea where she was going. However, she may have taken a different path out of town if she had known of the dangers that would find her at the crossroads between Here and There."

Check out the promotional artwork below! And don’t forget to leave a review!

If you’d like to follow me more closely, go to GAFino.com and sign up for my newsletter! Or follow me on twitter!

If you haven’t already, don’t forget to pick up a copy of The Knightmares too! Or grab a copy or two for holiday gifts!

Exciting new announcements coming soon!

-G.A.

Hello, everyone! I know, I know... it’s been almost two years since we funded HOW TO REMEMBER. It’s all good! The book is still on its way. I turned in my third draft and am looking forward to my next round of feedback. I’m convinced it will be ten times better than the last.

In the meantime, lots of stuff has happened! I completed another novel and entered it in Pitch Wars, which is a mentorship competition (find more info at PitchWars.org). While the odds of being matched with a mentor are slim, getting the book together and submitting it has been a great experience. I also edited a full-length novel and a short story anthology through the indie co-op Writing Bloc. The Deception anthology is out today on Kindle - you can find it here.

Are you doing NaNoWriMo? My participation will depend on whether I’m picked for Pitch Wars. If I’m able, I’ll be working on yet another manuscript, hoping to add another 50,000 words to the draft. I’ve never completed NaNo in November, but I’ve written a book in a month... a few times ;-)

Bouchercon, the annual celebration of crime fiction, is happening now, and I have major FOMO. But I’m planning to attend the Public Library Association conference in Nashville in 2020, so there will be some shenanigans there! For those who are attending BCon - I miss you, and have fun!!

Thanks, readers!! Happy Halloween!

It’s official! Under The Rug releases October 22nd. I look forward to hearing what you all think. Thanks for the continued and patient support. 

We did it! The campaign has ended, I’ve had a wonderful talk with Adam, the CEO of the publishing company, and the sequel to The Seclusion is officially in production. 

Thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone who supported over the past few months!

I’m going to give everyone’s inbox(and myself) a break for a bit, but there is exciting news in the pipeline and I will keep all of you updated as I can with news and behind-the-scenes developments every month or two. While I don’t have a timeline yet, my best guess after having been through this process before is a early/mid 2021 release. Again, I’ll let you know more as I do. Try and stop me. 

For now, I’m going to turn my attention to something I haven’t been able to focus on as much as I would have liked to these past couple months - finishing the story! Right now, it is about 85% of the way finished, and my goal is to have the first draft turned in to the developmental editor by the end of October or early November.

From there we will talk through how to make the story stronger. Then, we go through the old song and dance of revising, editing, revising, editing... and rinsing and repeating until everything is shiny and perfect. 

For those of you who supported by ordering 3 copies or more, look out for occasional emails from me regarding polls and surveys for behind-the-scenes decisions. 

Tomorrow evening I will be at the Author Reception and Signing at the NC School Library Media Association Conference in Winston-Salem. If you will be be there, let me know so we can connect! 

Thank you again, and until next time! 

-Jacqui

P.S. - The winner of the $100 Air BnB Gift Card is Jason Stokes who referred over ten supporters!!! Congrats Jason!

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Thank you to these final backers! 

Catherine Evans, Anya Pavelle, Mike Donald, Anthony Bassignani, and Glen Cantrell  

Check out some of their work below: 

Greetings Crow’s Gambit Supporters!

I have good news and not as good news. Last night I submitted the completed draft of Crow’s Gambit, along with all the other front and back matter, to Inkshares. I am sincerely sorry for the procrastination and the obsessive nitpicking that has delayed you getting your book. That said, Inkshares won’t be able to start working on it for at least three months.

While you wait I will be getting you some Crow’s Gambit tidbits; the Crow Research prospectus and employee manual you have been promised, as well as some tidbits from the second book, Crow’s Haven.

In the meantime, if you are in the mood, check out the short story I submitted last week to the Reedsy Short Story Contest called "Accident on the Waterloo". For those who are familiar with my other book on Inkshares, Fortunes of the Space Sloth, this story takes place in the same universe. (click here to read the story)

As always, thank you for your support.

PT

HELLO EVERYONE!! 

Long time, no hear from. Alot has happened since I started with Inkshares to publish my first novel, Beyond the Code. I got to have book signings at big bookstores like Chapters and Indigo, I have had several good reviews from professionals, I put myself out there in the writing world and now, I’m proud to say that Beyond the Code is now available on AUDIOBOOK!! Check it out through the link 

https://www.amazon.com/Beyond-Code-Kelsey-Rae-Barthel/dp/1947848097

It was a great experience and the narrator, Lisa Beacom, did an amazing job. She delivered an awesome performance that brought the characters to life and I couldn’t be happier. 

Check it out and spread the word!!! 

Kelsey Rae Barthel 

I recently went to one of those indoor rock-climbing joints. There are a lot of things that cross your mind as a high school Junior blazes through an insufficient safety briefing and then holds out a borrowed harness for you to step into. 

I’m going to sweat through this shirt. Why didn’t I trim my nails? Is this bra even up to the task? Who am I and what do I do in the world? (Thoughts whir out of control quickly in the insecurity spiral.)

One of the things I found myself thinking about as I stared up that wall studded with multicolored handholds was stamina- figurative and literal. I don’t have a ton of experience with the latter. I’m not a marathon runner or even a 5k walker. But I thought I might have just enough will to get up that wall.

Partway up and approaching the first protruding ledge I found myself stuck. With shaking forearms, gritted teeth, and (as promised) sweat there was a resounding internal “NOPE”. I couldn’t make myself move past this man-made wall jetty. I leaned back because someone said that I could simply “float back to earth” when I needed to. (That high-schooler was a damn liar). My stomach squealed and clawed like a lobster under the lid of a boiling pot. Expletives were uttered. 

Rattled, I sat drinking water and wondering where all this sweat was coming from. There was an 11-year-old girl grappling the wall in front of me, as sure footed as a baby mountain goat. I’ll admit, my first inclination was jealousy. It soon passed into curiosity and I noticed how she was working. 

She wasn’t muscled or tall and she didn’t have spider webs shooting out her wrists. She was careful and thoughtful as she assessed each handhold. She wasn’t self-conscious. I don’t think she even knew anyone else was in that crowded gymnasium. She strategically plotted the course, deliberately placed her hands, and pushed with her legs when needed. It was incredible to watch. And there was a lot I could learn from her.

I eventually got up and over that ledge. I pushed with my legs and didn’t stop until I made it to the top. 

Stamina has also been on my mind these days with regards to this editing and rewriting business. Writing and deleting, deleting and writing, writing and rewriting and then deleting, forever and ever. Amen. If the stamina holds out (I still have some shaking forearms and gritted teeth) I’m hoping to have this current draft wrapped up in October. If it doesn’t, then I’ll regroup and try again for November.

I’ll get up this wall, too. Just you watch :)

 Thanks for everything,

Meghan Godwin 

Good morning to all of you!

Last week, I received my editorial letter from my new editor, Sarah. I am so excited to start working on my next draft with their fantastic and intuitive feedback. Sarah had many good things to say and praised the ingenuity and uniqueness of the story, the world I’ve created, and the characters at its heart. There are still improvements to be made, as I expected, and I am thrilled to have new, specific goals to keep readying this work for publication. 

With this fresh draft, I will be delving into a few more aspects of world-building that I had only glossed over in previous drafts, namely the more intricate details concerning Paz government and the criminal justice system. Sarah’s simple suggestion regarding those two needs sparked my imagination to weave in a compelling new aspect of paz society that I think will not only address the necessary specifics, but will impact Inquieto and Carmen in powerful ways throughout the story.

In addition, I will be really flexing my writing muscles to perfect my first-person prose. "First-person" is the term used when a book is told directly from a character’s perspective. Example: "I went to the store yesterday, and an employee asked me if I needed help." Alternatively, the term "third-person" is used to describe a book that is told from the author/narrator’s perspective. Example: "The woman went to the store yesterday, and an employee asked her if she needed help."

Some of you know that Curio Citizen is the first and only novel that I have ever written in first-person. I naturally gravitate toward third-person, but I really felt from the beginning that Curio Citizen needs to be told from Carmen’s perspective. Her personal experience on Paz is vital to this "fish-out-of-water" tale, and while that is achievable through third-person prose, I think this novel will be far more powerful if the readers (you!) can experience everything exactly as Carmen does.

First-person prose can be tricky and is, in ways, a different art form than third-person. The ideal outcome would be for my voice as an author to disappear completely from the narrative, and only Carmen’s unique voice would shine through. In this round of revisions, I will be digging further into Carmen’s head to develop the natural course of her inner monologues and to describe the world as she sees it at a deeper level than what I have written in my previous draft.

After ten months of writing other books to practice my craft, I am certain I am up for the challenge for these new improvements. I am beyond ecstatic to dive back into Curio Citizen and return my focus to the heart and soul of the book--Carmen and Inquieto.

Thank you again for you interest and support! I will keep the updates coming!

Best,

Katherine

The calendar has flipped eight times since my last update, but I finally have some good news to share about my novel Lost in the Fog!

As mentioned previously, Inkshares is a small company with limited resources, and they can only put out so many books each year.  Most of you reading this update have already purchased/backed my book, and I wish you had a copy of it in your hands right now.  I submitted my final draft last summer, and my manuscript has unfortunately been collecting digital dust since then. 

But I’m happy to say that Lost in the Fog is finally in production! 

An editor from Inkshares (Mr. Ryan Quinn) recently did an excellent copy edit on it last week, and I got the opportunity to review it.  My job was to go through all his comments, answer his questions, and then either make changes or respond with “stet”, which means “let it stand”.  Then I had to review all of the tracked changes he made (mostly punctuation, formatting, and keeping the manuscript copacetic to the Chicago Manual of Style), and either accept or reject them.

Thankfully Mr. Quinn did not have many questions (I attribute that to the great job of my first editor, Ms. Caroline Tolley), and all of the changes he made were technical ones that I accepted.   But I still took about 6 days with the manuscript, figuring this is likely the last time I will be able to make any modifications to it (I ended up making some minor tweaks of my own).  I am very happy with this new and improved version of Lost in the Fog, and I submitted it to Inkshares on Friday.     

Once a book begins production, Inkshares says the process is approximately four to six months to when backers (that’s you) will receive your copy in the mail.  Lost in the Fog still needs to go through another round of edits, a design pour (whatever that is), design updates, cover design, printing, and shipping.  I’d love if my novel could be released by Christmas, but to be safe let’s target January/February of 2020.

I’ll know more soon, and as the timeline gets firmer, I’ll keep everyone updated.

Thank you!