My first article on how to gain readers on social media is now on my blog. Check it out at https://deborahmunroauthor.com/2017/12/gain-readers-with-social-media/.

In addition, my first interview with avid readers, many of whom are fellow authors, is also available. This one is with Mike Rich, author of Skavenger’s Hunt (available on Inkshares.com and Amazon.com). Mike is the screenwriter for several popular movies, including Finding Forrester, The Rookie, and Cars 3. To read his insights, go to https://deborahmunroauthor.com/2017/12/interviews-with-avid-readers-mike-rich/

Feel free to subscribe to my website or just my blog, and also follow me on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook if so inclined. You’ll be the first to know about new content! :)

Cheers, Debbie

Hello Knightmares!

It has been a while, but that’s because I have good news! The Knightmares manuscript has been trimmed down to a lean 134,000 words, and has had changes made that I feel improve the story dramatically.

The manuscript has been turned into the team at Inkshares, and I now await my turn to move into the actual editing process, which I don’t anticipate being too long of a wait. I have put in over 200 hours of work into this project since early September, and am excited to finally get this out into the world so I can concentrate on everything from my next story, the long anticipated book of short stories called Grace Falls and my next full length novel, Vexed, as well as marketing and promotion for The Knightmares.

Exciting times ahead!

Also...the cover is done...
Check out this beauty, eh?

Hope you like!
Talk soon, friends!

Readers! The big news is out! HOW TO REMEMBER won the 2017 Hugh Holton award from the Midwest Chapter of the Mystery Writers of America. See the press release here. I’m so excited! VALIDATION!

So, now is a great time to pre-order if you haven’t already. And even if you have, I’d love it if you could help me spread the word. I’ve been networking with so many wonderful Inkshares authors, and I want to be a part of the "official" club. I’m getting ready for a developmental review (not a full edit, but I’m so excited to be working with the writing coach I’ve chosen). We can do this - get HOW TO REMEMBER on the shelves. I have all of you to thank for the support I’ve received so far. I hope you all have a wonderful night!

I’m sitting at my desk this lovely morning, watching the snow fall out the window of my mountainside home and feeling very grateful for all of you. This update is coming a little later than usual, and for that, I apologize. I was waiting to hear back on a few points so that this update could be a bit more substantial than the last few. And, it will be!

I have multiple exciting updates to share with you!

1) Developmental Edit Progress

Since my update at the end of October, I have concluded another round of developmental edit rewrites. The book is now back in the hands of my editor. He is going through one more time (he estimates this will take about two weeks), and then he plans to send the book to a beta-reader to get some third-party, objective feedback. We will then use that feedback to do one more pass before forwarding the book to a copy-editor.

2) Title change

While I like The Walls are Closing In (and we may still use it as a tagline for the book), we have decided that a different title is more marketable, provides a bit of mystery, and is catchier for the future selling of property rights (fingers crossed).

So, without further ado, the new title is:

The Seclusion

3) Genre Change

We are making a few changes to the plot and market the book as YA(Young Adult). This will only marginally change the story but will double the audience. It allows us to not only market the book to fans of books such as 1984, Fahrenheit 541, and The Handmaid’s Tale, but also to fans of books such as The Hunger Games and Divergent.

3) Release Date!

The book has been assigned a tentative release date and an ISBN number (this second part is probably not exciting to anyone but me).

The Seclusion is currently set to publish on:

October 2, 2018!

This is a bit later than I had hoped, but I am beyond thrilled that there is an official trajectory. Between now and then I will be doing everything in my power to ensure that the launch is a success.

One last note - the first two chapters on the book’s page have been updated to reflect the changes that we have been making. Feel free to check them out!

Until next time,

-Jacqui

Hello friends and supporters.

Well, NaNoWriMo has come and gone. It was not an altogether unprofitable month, though it was not as profitable as it should have been. I’m not sure who got the idea that the national novel writing month should be smack in the middle of the holiday season, but it’s not the most conducive of times for reaching lofty goals.

As I said, though, it was not unprofitable. I managed to write two full, reasonably sizeable chapters in Proteus, for one. As far as Tantalus Depths goes, I’d say I’m approximately 50% done with the current draft’s revisions. By that, I mean about 50% done with the changes I plan to make before turning the whole thing back over to my editor to see what he thinks of it. It’s possible he’ll want me to make additional changes at that point before we move to the next stage in the production process, but this draft is the one where the biggest changes will happen.

My current goal is to have this draft 100% finished by the end of the year. I doubt my editor will want to work on it during the holidays, but if I have work left to do at that point, I’m going to do it anyway. I am so ready to move ahead in this process it’s not funny. I really want to get through the monotony and frustration of editing so I can get back to the excitement of actual writing, but one thing at a time.

Hopefully my next update will signal the triumphant wrapping-up of my current draft and the next phase of the process. Stay tuned!

Hello everyone, 

The year is almost over! This should be my last update for 2017 so I wanted to wish you all a happy holiday period and New Year. 

Things have been hectic in the world of Blood Capital. Inkshares and I are pushing hard to get the book ready for print, and it’s been all hands on deck. I’m still in edits, but things are getting pointy — the last week has seen long hours devoted to getting a sample of the book ready for sales reps from the major bookstore chains. There’s also been more progress on development of a final cover. As soon as I have that, I’ll be sending out a special update.

Everyone always asks how the book is going, and I love that people haven’t lost interest yet. I’m really excited by the way the story is developing with support from the Inkshares team and putting as much time and love into the project as I can. To keep me honest, and to keep you all in the loop, I’ve upped my game for tracking work on the novel. I’ve created a Tableau Public Dashboard which I update at the end of each writing session. Tracking of my hours is new, so there’s only three weeks of data for that, but hopefully it shows I haven’t been slacking. With a toddler and a demanding day job, it’s sometimes difficult to find the time. Thankfully, I love writing, so I’ve upped my coffee intake and am putting in the hours to get this done. Below is are some static screenshots of the dashboards, but if you follow this link you’ll get an interactive version.

PS: When I started the major rewrites as part of this developmental edit, I pulled most of the samples of the novel from the Inkshares website, as too many details were changing. Over the next month I plan to put a few new samples back up, so keep an eye out for a taste as to how the story as developed from those early days.

As always, thank you.

Robert

https://robertbatten.net

Hello, Shadow King readers!

Hope your December is going well. I wanted to send you all a quick update to let you know that the development edit is done, and I’ve turned the manuscript back in to Inkshares! I’m very, very happy with how it has turned out and can’t wait for everyone to get their hands on a copy.

I’m hoping to get an ETA on when my project will kick-off soon, but I don’t have a hard and fast date yet. But as soon as I do, I’ll be sure to share the good news and any kind of timeline.

In the meantime, I’m working on two other things:

First, my funding campaign for "The Devil You Don’t" will close at the end of this month, and I’m pretty darn close to reaching Quill funding again. Several syndicates have endorsed the book, so if you haven’t checked it out, please take a look. I need just under 40 pre-orders before 12/31/17 to make the threshold--please consider sharing info about Devil with your fellow readers (or order a copy for yourself, I’m confident you’ll enjoy it!)

Second, yes, I have started dabbling on Shadow King 2 (clearly a working title right now). I’m planning to get started on this in earnest over the next few weeks.

Hope you all have a wonderful holiday and New Year, and I’ll update again soon.

All the best,
Susan

Hello there fantastic followers, 

Production of Beyond the Code is going great and I finally have to time to put all my efforts into marketing my debut novel. Part of my marketing plan has been updating Beyond the Code’s facebook page. This page will be chock full of Beyond the Code content such as news on production, concept art, reviews, interviews, and more. So please, follow the link and follow the page for Beyond the Code updates and content. 

https://www.facebook.com/BTCInkshares/

For those who have followed Beyond the Code but haven’t yet pre-ordered, please consider joining this club. Just see what these amazing authors have said about it. 

Craig Munro, author of Bones of the Past says "Elegant descriptions, endless action and super powers - go check out this urban fantasy"

Tony Valdez, author of Dax Harrison says "Fast paced, action-packed fantasy! I can see the movie in my head already!"

Brian Guthrie, author of Rise says "An amazing concept that you won’t regret supporting"

These awesome authors know their stuff, so trust them when they say that Beyond the Code is definitely worth your support. Help make my first novel as successful as possible before it’s release. 

Thank you all for following me on this journey. 

Kelsey Rae Barthel  

Exciting news! My new author website is now live! Check out https://deborahmunroauthor.com to see all the great content.

For the past couple of months, I’ve been working with my web designer, Mary Ann Aschenbrenner of Waterlink Web to create a fabulous new website to promote my book, tell you more about me as a person, share my other publications, provide interesting and meaningful content on how to use social media for marketing, discuss science related to APEX (https://www.inkshares.com/books/apex), and provide a portal to connect with me on various social media platforms.

Hello, lovely readers! Things are going well. I’ve been on vacation with the husband and kids for the last couple days. I’m writing, reading, and networking like crazy. It will be hard to go back to work!

I’ve got a lot of treats for you this December. The latest update is my Bookish Survey and newsletter. I am going to send a newsletter about once a month, and if you sign up, I’m doing a giveaway that ends December 15. Here’s the link: https://goo.gl/forms/Kha6H44DuG9qi6J53

I’m giving away a customized book box, so if you want some holiday goodies for yourself or a friend, this is a great way to get them... Books selected just for you by a librarian! 

And as always, please share the Inkshares link, my book trailer, or pretty much anything :-) More to come!