Wildly sarcastic, often bored, fond of words like "inasmuch" and "aforementioned." Come on in.
Dear Readers,
I am happy to say that we are doing VERY well - this week saw a decent jump in pre-orders and LUCKY’s location on the Nerdist Space Opera contest position. As of this update, she’s sitting at #3 and praying for a lucky break (sorry, I couldn’t resist!) to stay in the top three until March 16.
Of interest this week: LUCKY and I were featured on the Inkshares blog as part of the top ten authors. The link is here: http://blog.inkshares.com/post/139990528800/what-inspires-the-top-contestants-in-the-nerdist Check it out!
Unfortunately I still haven’t fixed the chapter order issue yet. My real-life job kept me swamped ALL WEEK and I have house guests until Monday. I’ll get there, but feel free to still leave feedback. I love hearing from y’all and I read each comment carefully.
Stay tuned for more updates coming hopefully early next week! Please continue to share LUCKY around with your friends, families, random strangers...you know the drill. Sharing is caring, my friends!
- Webster
Dear friends,
I notice that a lot of you--a LOT of you--are fans of science-fiction and/or fantasy. So I’d like to point to The Traveller’s Cup, by AC Baldwin. Take a look at the sample chapters: there’s some fascinating world-building there. I personally don’t do sci-fi much, and I’m still enthralled.
There is a new Peterkin short story out on Wattpad: Castles on the Moon.
And the Facebook page for Peterkin Investigates, the overall series name, is live. Go. Like. There is a part of me that is running around in panicked circles crying "what have I done, what have I done". I really better get started on the sequel novel now.
We still seem to be on track for Easter, though honestly I’m tempted to go Push The Button right now.
Origin of the Book: The general idea for Pixilated Obsidian Roses came out of my learning to play chess, almost 20 years ago. In order to learn the movements of each piece around the board, I would often play against myself—a black piece one moment and a white piece the next.
However, as I progressed in my understanding of the game, I came to find that there was no way either side could defeat the other. Because I was one person playing both sides, I began to notice that there was simply no way that I could act in the interest of only one side.
For example, as I would plan a move by black against white, I would realize that, subconsciously, I was already planning a counter move by white and that in turn affected my thought process in my current move by black. It felt almost schizophrenic. As a result, these solitary games would always end in a stalemate, if they even got that far.
From out of this, I began to imagine the spirit of a man that had been divided against itself at death and the only way that he could find peace in the afterlife would be to defeat his opponent, which would ultimately negate himself. However, as I learned through my solitary chess experience, every move that one side makes will, in essence, serve the opposing side. Thus both sides are locked in a stalemate.
Twenty years later, I have decide to put these ideas to paper.
The Inhabitants. Inkshares. The creative process. Kevin Smith. DeGrassi.
These are topics discussed in the inaugural episode of The Showdown, a new podcast hosted by my brother-in-law, Mark Fideler, and his friend, Ben Bohall. They graciously offered to interview me for their maiden voyage about three weeks ago, and I was very honored.
It can be streamed on Soundcloud by clicking the link below:
https://soundcloud.com/theshowdown123/the-showdown-episode-1-mike-shebby
I hope you enjoy listening as much as I enjoyed participating.
Greetings sentients,
This is the very last day before the official release of The Life Engineered. It’s an exciting but important time for the book’s release and would like to recruit you in helping make this as good an event as possible.
However, as your time is precious and you likely receive several of these updates every week, I’m compiled all you need to know in a tidy bullet list:
As always, thank you for your support. This has been a great ride so far and I hope it can keep going for a long while. Next step: the sequel!
Regards, JF
The end is near
My campaign ends today. If you want a signed copy of the book this is the last day to order it.
The next update will be the official Quill update.
Oh and yeah if all the followers on this book order today we will break the 300 copies before entering the Quill Collection.
Have a great evening my friends.
So something pretty cool happened last night ~ "The Children of the Forest" hit its funding goal to qualify for Inkshare’s Quill! I’ve been completely blown away by the last-minute rally of fans, and I’m floored that in less than 7 days we managed to move over 50 copies of the book!
Looking ahead, I’m still somewhat processing the fact that the book will be made. It’s been a long road to reach this point and I couldn’t have come this far without everyone in the Inkshares community who put their time, money, and opinions to use in helping me craft what has become "The Children of the Forest."
I just wanted to offer a quick look at what to expect in the next few weeks, regarding the schedule for the novel.
Most likely there will be more, but those are the major beats for now. Again, a huge thanks to everyone who backed my novel and made it a reality! I can’t wait to have the finished version in your hands ~
