I was taken completely by surprise this morning with some wonderful news and I am still reeling in the excitement of it! Mission 51 is the June 2017 selection of the Rite of Passage Syndicate!

I want to thank the Syndicate Lead, Christopher Lee Eichenauer, and the entire syndicate membership for this incredible honor! I humbly join a remarkable group of authors and works and I am greatly encouraged by their faith in me and Mission 51. Please check out the Rites of Passage Syndicate and consider becoming a member of this supportive group of amazing human beings.

This boost gives further momentum to the Mission 51 campaign in the current Nerdist Science Fiction Contest on Inkshares. We remain in 1st place out of more than 160 contestants. But the contest is far from over. There are many remarkable books by talented authors in the competition. We need to keep pressing on!

I am eternally grateful to everyone who has pre-ordered a copy of Mission 51! If you have yet to pre-order, I ask that you click on the green pre-order button below. It is through your kind and generous pre-orders that Mission 51 will become a published reality. Be a part of it!  :-)

Thank you again to Christopher Lee, the Rite of Passage Syndicate, and everyone who supports Mission 51. You have all touched my heart more than you can know!

Peace!

Ferd

Just a quick update on the status of Mission 51. The novel continues to be #1 in the Nerdist Sci-Fi Contest on Inkshares! There are now over 150 contestants! I am thrilled!

But the contest has 18 days yet to go and the competition is really heating up. As I’m sure you know, contestants are ranked by the number of people who pre-order the book. Your pre-order would be a HUGE help and I would GREATLY appreciate it! The top three contestants win a full publication deal and you know how awesome that is!!!

If you can, please click on the green pre-order button below and help me get Mission 51 published!

This update is about a part of Mission 51 that I did not anticipate when I first put "pencil to paper."

There came a moment during the writing of Mission 51 when I thought a real picture would be a fun way to describe a part of the story. I made a very brief effort to draw something on my own, but I quickly realized my drawing skills were not good enough. So I began to look elsewhere. My search for a compatible artist eventually took me to DeviantArt, where I proceeded to look at the work of hundreds of artists. I found two who I believed could interpret moments in Mission 51 in a way that would be compatible with the spirit of the story: Idan Carré and Chris Pyke. It has been a sheer pleasure working with these two talented individuals.

The process of creating the images in Mission 51 starts with countless emails back and forth. Chris lives in England, so there is also the matter of working around time zones. I takes a lot of planning and time to get the moment of the story, the important elements, the framing, the angle of view, the expressions, and the feeling just right. Idan and Chris have an amazing ability to capture those kinds of things in their painting and drawing.

By way of example, I’ll share this portrait of Dr. Linda Deltare, an important character in Mission 51. The time period would be in the late 1950s or early 1960s, so she appears much younger than the old lady who approaches me in the Preface of the book. In fact, at that time she was close in age to the story’s protagonist, Mat. Deltare has a PhD in linguistics. She is a crossdresser and a chain smoker. But most importantly, she was Mat’s best, and perhaps only friend during those early years. In this phenomenal pen and ink drawing, Chris Pyke has captured Deltare in her office in Area 51, right down the hall from Mat’s cell. Awesome detail!

A last step that I have added more recently is expert digital colorization by a young colorist in Israel. Lea is able to add color and life to these drawings without taking anything away. The subtle shading, the hash lines, everything in the original drawing is still there. Magical!

I am fortunate beyond words to have the chance to work with such talented people, and I cannot wait to share the rest of their work with you. Please help me make Mission 51 a reality. I need your pre-order to stay in the top three of the Nerdist contest. That will get the book published.

Thank you in advance for your kind consideration and support!

Peace!

Ferd

How exciting! I have just added a video book trailer to the Mission 51 home page. When you have a moment, please check it out!  :D

thank you! Thank you!! Thank You!!!

After one full week of the Nerdist Sci-Fi Contest, Mission 51 is sitting in First Place! That is fantastic!

I am sincerely grateful for the outpouring of support for me and Mission 51 this past week. The whole thing is a bit scary. It’s scary just putting the story out there. It’s scary asking for pre-orders. It’s even scary being in 1st place. And believe me, I’m not the scary sort. This is just way different than anything I do in my usual life.

I do feel very good about the book. It has a fun feel, with serious undertones. The historical fiction side includes plenty of real people, places, and things. My hope is that readers want to check  Wikipedia and other sources frequently while reading the book, to get a better and better feel for Mat’s world in 1954-1969. It has a lot of fun detail.

I’m proud of the "Staff Pick" and the "The Great Sci-Fi for the 21st Century and Beyond Syndicate" badges. It’s also humbling and cool to read the great recommendations Mission 51 has garnered. I’m grateful for it all!

There are still five weeks remaining in the contest, and there are now almost 70 projects participating. Twenty of them are now on the leaderboard. So I am grateful for where Mission 51 is right now, but I am still asking for your support. Many thanks to those who have already placed their pre-order. For those of you who have not, I humbly ask that you please take a moment to consider, and then another moment to go ahead and pre-order Mission 51. I would be forever grateful! :-)

Thanks again, and Peace!

Ferd  👽

This update is for all the wonderful people who supported me and Mission 51 with a pre-order in 2016. Those pre-orders are gone!

How exciting! After the first day of the Nerdist Sci-Fi Contest, Mission 51 is in First Place!

As most of you may recall, I started this project on Inkshares last year, in Feb 2016 to be exact. I had discovered Inkshares at that time and impulsively jumped into a contest that was already half-way through. I had a story in my head and started writing it down. I was thrilled at the early response and amassed a good number of pre-orders, but I was also overwhelmed by the time commitment. Writing the book, campaigning for a contest, and my medical work were really three full-time jobs. I eventually came to the conclusion that to do a good job, I needed the time to complete and refine the novel with as little mental pressure as possible. I took Mission 51 out of funding in August 2016 and Inkshares refunded everyone for their generous pre-orders.

I’m very glad I did that. Mission 51 is now a mature project. It has gotten great feedback from laypersons and professionals who have read samples. Personally, I think it’s a fun read. It is intricate, old-school science fiction which honors a solid foundation of sci-fi lore. It is also a historical fiction and period piece within the time frame of 1954-1969. More importantly, Mission 51 dances around issues of immigration, intolerance, and personal/societal ethics. Those might be heavy issues, but I believe I have kept it light and fun. Aliens help do that! LOL

So, if you supported the project when it was in funding last year, I ask that you please support it again now. Mission 51 is actually way better than it was last year! Your pre-order is essential for it to stay on top of the Nerdist contest leaderboard. The time for Mission 51 has come! The time for your pre-order is now!

Thank you very much!

Ferd  👽

Celebrate! Celebrate! Dance to the music!

Hi, everyone!

Princess Gail and I just returned from a busy week in Florida. I golfed with old high school friends in the Clearwater/Tampa/St. Pete’s area and Gail visited her niece, Lana. It is always great catching up with family and friends!

Then we crossed over to the Atlantic side of the state for a multi-purpose side trip. We spent two glorious mornings exploring the Merritt Island NWR. Even before the Spring migration, this is a spectacular site for birders like us. We particularly enjoyed spotting the endangered Florida Scrub-Jay in its dwindling natural habitat.

We visited the Kennedy Space Center in the afternoons. There aren’t strong enough superlatives to describe the things that happened and continue to happen here. We’ll have to come back someday to experience a launch at close range.

On top of all that, one of the reasons I wanted to come to this area was for Mission 51 research, as the final chapters of the book take place around here. It was great to visualize this important geography first hand. It can only make the book better.

Keep your eyes open for the Mission 51 Inkshares campaign which I anticipate to be in the near future!

I’ll leave you with this image of a Great Blue Heron taking flight, which I took two days ago at the Merritt Island NWR.

Peace! 👽