Ooh! I should make an update! That should happen!

A lot of you already know this, but in my excitement, I neglected to make an official update about it, so here I am, finally doing that.

WE MADE IT!

Proteus is now completely funded! We reached our goal of 750 pre-orders, and the whole project has shifted into production mode. I’ve already been congratulated by Inkshares staff, and they’ve sent me some of the paperwork I’ll need to do in order to launch the book into the production process. It’s really happening!

So what happens next, in terms of Proteus? Well, as any of you who have ordered Tantalus Depths are already painfully aware, the production process takes a very long time. Also, since Tantalus Depths was my first project and people have been waiting the longest for it, it is still going to take most of my attention from now until it launches, so Proteus is something I will have to be working on in the background as I prioritize Tantalus Depths.

My plan is to get Proteus into the editing process shortly before Tantalus Depths is released. The whole intent behind launching my Proteus campaign when I did was to ensure that my second published novel came out no more than a year or two after my first, and my goal is to try and release new books on a yearly or bi-yearly schedule, consistently. Inkshares has finally given me a tentative release date of winter 2019 for Tantalus Depths. It’s much later than I thought it would be, but the delay is necessary to accommodate some new ideas that Inkshares’ CEO has in mind for it. It should be a particularly strong release next year, and Inkshares is showing a lot of confidence in it, so the delay will be worth it.

In the meantime, I’m not going to be idle. I have a surprise project I’m working on that should come out later this fall, to tide everyone over as we wait for Tantalus Depths. I also plan on building myself a proper website, which I’ll be loading with all manner of content related to the universe I’ve created, the art of writing, and the community we’ve formed. Now that the burden of campaigning is over, hopefully for good, I finally feel free to devote more of my time and energy into the parts of this process I actually enjoy: the writing, the creativity, and sharing my work to the world.

For now, I’m taking a week off, ‘cause by golly, I’ve earned it. But after that, work starts anew. We’re going to do great things together.

It’s September, Spring has begun in my neck of the world, and the percentage complete on my rewrite tracking continues to climb! 

I’m now halfway through the developmental edit rewrite of the second act of Human Resources, and it’s going well. I recently received detailed notes back from my editor for act one, and it was very encouraging; there were a lot of notes, but they were almost entirely at a very low level, suggesting we now have the structure and flow of act one working nicely. My current plan is to power through the rest of act two, hand it over, implement the fixes to act one while they read it, the jump into act three. 

It’s time I addressed the elephant lurking in the corner; I know you’re all wondering, “why is this update so late?” Rest assured I still care. The truth, one which totally sounds like a line, but it isn’t (I promise), is that I’ve been so caught up in the rewrite I almost forgot about the update. 

Welcome to those who have recently pre-ordered, thank you for joining the team that is helping make this book a reality. For everyone else, thank you for sticking with me — your patience will be rewarded. 

Robert.  

I hope June has been good to all of you. In Australia, the end of this month marks the end of our Financial Year, so the joys of tax time commence! /faceplant.

The past month has been another busy one, but the statistics won’t reflect that this time — I haven’t completed any more scenes and my word count hasn’t increased. Instead, the time has been spent digging deeper into the world building with my editing team, making sure everything we include (or exclude) is rock solid. 

Coming out of this round of workshops, we have deeper science, more detailed history, and a path forward that will (hopefully) deliver something fresh to the genre.

Looking ahead, there’s still some work to complete before diving back into the rewrite again, but we’re close, and I can’t wait to get more of this to (digital) paper.

As always, feel free to reach out if you have any questions. If you haven’t already done so, don’t forget to jump on Facebook and give my author page a like, or sign up to my author newsletter (covers broader content than just this novel).


The following is a special sneak peek from a revamped prologue I’m looking forward to sharing the full thing:

Six letters ended the world. We didn’t realize it at the time — swept away by the excitement of advancing technology and endless possibilities. We failed to predict the chain of events which would follow, but in hindsight they appear inevitable. Sooner or later, someone was bound to be tempted as we were. Perhaps they wouldn’t have made the same mistakes. Perhaps they would have been more cautious. Perhaps not. History cares not for your regrets, pays no heed to your guilt. It will not change regardless how often or fervently you pray. History’s purpose is not the past, but the future. If we are lucky, we learn, move on, and build a better tomorrow. If we don’t, I fear we are all doomed...