The air has become poisonous. Olivia and her fellow travelers have miles of underground tunnels standing between them and The Haven. And forget about vampires and zombies...at the end of the world, there are cannibals
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Greetings, adventurers!
It’s been awhile. How are you doing? During this strange time, it’s my hope that this letter finds you in good health.
Before I get too far into it, I’d like to introduce you to the newest addition to our household and the reason I’ve been silent for so long. Meet Baby Olivia, AKA "Snorlax"--secondborn of the Escapist household children. She arrived in early March and has been growing like an out-of-control little weed ever since. We’re all doing great--her delivery was quick and easy--and we’re all in love! It’s definitely coupled with our global pandemic to make things chaotic, though. You can read more about that in my most recent blog post.
I have another small update for you. When last we checked in, I had been given the date of early April for Mushroom and Anchovy’s production kickoff. However, as we all have seen, a lot can change in the span of a few months, and now we’re deep into global pandemic territory. I reached out to the lovely folks at Inkshares and confirmed with them that production had been suspended for the time being--a decision I fully support. They are now hoping we can kick off production in July. I’m hoping to release another chapter soon--something I wasn’t originally planning to do, but seems pertinent in times like these.
I’ve told you before that I’ve been streaming this past year and a half. I did take a break for a time following my daughter’s birth, but I’m slowly getting back to it. Right now, I’m streaming Monday nights at 9:30 PM AT (8:30 PM ET) with low-key chatting and kitchen-cleaning streams. I’ll be coming back to a partial cooking stream schedule in about a month or so.
I hope to be moving this newsletter to my website in the near-ish future. I’d love it if you’d sign up there! I plan on having monthly letters--nothing spammy, I promise--featuring a clip-of-the-month, updates, previews, stream events, and more. You can sign up on my website by navigating to the bottom of the page. I will still be updating with book-related information and news here, but everything else will move. If you’d like to keep up with non-Mushroom and Anchovy work, please do sign up on my website! A starting point for the newsletter will be gauged by level of interest.
Before I go, I want to take a moment to express my appreciation to everyone for your continued support while I take a step back. I have been really enjoying this time with my family and it’s been nice not to worry too much about having to produce. Being productive is in my nature, however, so do plan to see things from me outside of blog posts in the next two months or so. I plan on trickling various content back in bit by bit, with an end goal of having all of my main ventures back by September.
I hope to have more updates for you in the months to come. I’m not sure when the next update will be for Mushroom and Anchovy, but until then, may staying home be fraught with calm and as little peril as possible, for the time being.
Yours in adventure,
K. M. Cooper
Howdy, folks.
It’s hard to believe it’s been only three months since my last update. Feels like a year. I hope everyone is keeping safe and sane as best they can as we weather this viral storm.
Today, I returned the revised manuscript for BoAT to my editor at Inkshares. I do hope that with two rounds of developmental edits now complete, the end is in sight, but we will see.
Tomorrow marks the one-year anniversary, if you can believe it, since I got the word that Inkshares would publish this tome. Whether you work with a publisher large or small, it can routinely take 18-24 months to get a book out the door.
With Inkshares, I had hoped to shorten that cycle to 12-18 months. But thanks to social-distancing measures, it’s hard to say when we might have a launch date for BoAT. Bricks-and-mortar bookstores, in addition to online sales, are an important part of Inkshares’ marketing strategy. The team doesn’t want to launch any title at a disadvantage. Neither do I.
So, stay tuned.
As some of you know, since my last update, I have had a cancer diagnosis – metastatic melanoma.
I have had two surgeries to remove all the lymph nodes under my left arm. In mid-May, I will begin targeted gene therapy – a year of fiendishly expensive meds that have a good chance of completely and permanently eradicating the cancer.
By some morbid twist of fate, a half dozen friends, neighbours, and former colleagues have also had cancer diagnoses in recent months.
This of course puts a whole different flavor on living in the time of a pandemic. It emphasizes how much the small victories matter. How much a positive attitude matters. And how important it is to occupy yourself in productive ways.
Thank you all again for your patience and support. Stay safe and keep reading!
Cheers
Leo
Greetings my wonderful followers,
With the current state of things lately, alot of you have been forced to self isolate in order to help flatten the curve of COVID-19. Filling the long hours can be difficult but, you know what helps, entertainment. So I’m doing my part to help you all fill those hours. I am now offering the ebook of Beyond the Code for free on Amazon! Follow the links before for Amazon.ca and Amazon.com and pick up Beyond the Code for absolutely nothing. And remember in the trying times to stay calm, stay informed, and stay kind. We are all in this together.
Hey everyone,
I ate the cookies.
I finished the Doritos.
I am running low on chocolate.
How is it possible that two weeks of quarantine snacks only lasted a few days?
While you ponder that, I wanted to drop in with a quick note to let you all know that I recently completed and turned in re-writes for the most recent draft of Showtime. With everything (including my job) shut down due to Coronavirus concerns, I’ve been able to devote all the time I would’ve been spending at work on doing re-writes. Between having two solid weeks to work on it, as well as having less to do with it in general this time around, this draft took about half the time as the last one.
From here I’ll wait for Sarah to get back to me with another editorial letter and we’ll see what else—if anything—we need to work on to make sure the characters, plot, and the book in general is as perfect as possible when it plops out of the sky and into your gloved, sanitized hands (you know, since we’re social distancing).
Thanks again for your patience, support, and enthusiasm. Stock up on snacks and wash your hands!
Ricky
