Hello Knightmares!

How’s your summer going? Has the heat gotten to you yet? I’m ready for fall. It can’t come soon enough.

I don’t have much to update you with on the publishing front, other than I am still waiting my turn. There were quite a few projects that finished their funding period right around the same time as I, and it’s now a matter of waiting.

I’m sure many of you are restless about your investment, but please understand that I am much more restless than any of you. I do not profit from any of my hard work until the book hits the metaphorical shelves, and this has been a project I have been working on since 2001.

To help ease your wait, I have been posting free content to hold you over. Please enjoy the next installment of my SCALES - Mythology series!

Are you one of those people who are reading this and still haven’t picked up a copy of THE KNIGHTMARES? If so, buy now and get in on the action the moment it is released into the wild. Buy now, here!

SCALES - MYTHOLOGY - THE FIRST FALL!

The first installment of the second chapter in my Mythology series is live on my site! Check it out here!

Other Updates - GRACE FALLS!

My anthology series, GRACE FALLS, is almost done its first draft. So far I am happy with how it’s turning out, with nods to favorite episodes of Tales from the Crypt, Amazing Stories, and more. Short stories can be a lot of fun to read and write, and I am happy to say that the stories I am writing for the anthology are a joy for me on both fronts.

Want to know a little about what’s in the anthology?

Mum - Three best friends in the summer of 1987, cross paths with a serial killer that may just be something even more disturbing.

Breacher - Little Amanda has a grand imagination, but whatever crashed in her backyard in the middle of the night was not a part of it. In fact, it may not even be of this world.

Pajamas - Pajamas is a loyal dog, caring as much for his human family as they do for him, but there’s something fishy about one of the other family pets. It smells funny and makes strange noises unlike anything Pajamas has ever heard before.

Cubicle 43-B - Jonah can’t stand his job, but today, on his birthday, his job will push him to the edge.

Mr. Hallows - Dylan has big dreams of being a rock god, but his math teacher, Mr. Hallows, is an awful curmudgeon who has made it his mission to ruin Dylan’s chill. However, there’s much more to Mr. Hallows than meets the eye, and when Dylan is forced into a dare, he must traverse the dark depths of Mr. Hallows’ personal life by breaking into his home.

The Extraordinary Girl - When evil lurks on playgrounds, little children beware. However, some children are not as helpless as others.

Catch the anthology in its finished form sometime this fall/early winter! If you’re looking to be a beta reader, please reach out to me, I could use the extra help!

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Hi everybody,

Well, here we are, a little more than one month since The Battle Within’s publication date. I won’t take much of your time as I know it’s the middle of summer.  

Thanks again for all the support. The book launch was a success, and the feedback that has been coming in about the story to date has been very positive.

For those who missed the book launch, there’s a book signing on August 19, 2017 at the Chapter’s in Kanata Centrum, from 11:00 am to 2:00 pm. And for those in southern Alberta, I’ll be signing books at the Irricana & Rural Municipal Library on August 5, 2017, from 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm.

If I can ask one more favour, please consider leaving a rating and / or review at the following sites:

Amazon.com: https://www.amazon.com/Battle-Within-Alastair-Luft/dp/194264549X

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/31922135-the-battle-within

The bottom line is that ratings and reviews help drive exposure and every little bit helps. I’d love to get to 100 ratings on each site and would greatly appreciate your help to do so. Of course, please also feel welcome to send me feedback directly; I’d love to hear what you thought of the book.

I hope everyone is having a great summer and once again, thank you for your support.

All the best,

Alastair Luft

To my amazing and wonderful readers,

I wanted to drop a line to let you know we’re still here. I am working through some final notes on Lucky before sending it to the publisher. That irritating thing called "real life" (and "job" and "bills") has been keeping me from working as quickly as I would like. Your patience and endurance through this process is more than any author could ask for.

Stay tuned - more updates are coming down the line!

- Webster

Hey there readers!

Well, I said I’d have some updates coming for you soon. So guess what? I got updates. :)

If you haven’t already spotted me plastering these all over social media today, here are some progress photos of the artwork for the book!

These come courtesy of the artist, Jessica R. Van Hulle, who is in fact creating AN ORIGINAL OIL PAINTING for the book cover! Why? A) Because she is fantastic, and B) Because I am a crazy person and decided "go big or go home". She is without a doubt creating something that truly captures the old-school fanciful sci-fi spirit that I hoped for with Dax. Can’t wait to see the final piece! You can check out more of Jessica’s work at theladyjessica.com.

Also, while we still do not have an exact publishing date for the book, the editing team says we may likely be looking at sometime in October. I will keep you all posted as soon as I have more to share.

Until next time!

-Tony

Hey, gang. Long time no update. The reasons are two-fold: 

1) There hasn’t been much to say regarding the book.

2) I am bad at social media.

Regarding the first reason, I was recently told by Inkshares that there is a 50-book queue and my book is somewhere amidst. I don’t know precisely where, but I am hoping that it’s closer to the front than the back. What this means is that Disintegration not coming out soon. That bums me out and I hope it bums you out, too.

If you are bummed out, email hello@inkshares.com and tell them you want your MTV! No! You want your Disintegration!

However, if you’re over it by this point, I can’t feign shock.

I’m hoping you’re not.

I’d much rather you clamor and advocate for the book. So much of any book’s success on this site is based upon convincing Inkshares that there is money in a title. The way we do that is by selling copies. So, please, if you can think of any science fiction fan in your life looking for a deeply thoughtful, mature tale that unflinchingly confronts humanity’s foibles, direct them to Disintegration!

Don’t be over it; despite the glacial process, the book continues to elicit effusively positive feedback from a wide variety of readers, many of whom are not even regular sci-fi consumers. It warms my cockles to know that, despite the publish date being amorphous, the book still has such vast appeal.

At this rate, I may well wind up providing everyone a copy of the manuscript before the book goes to press. If you’d like to join the ranks of those reading what they’ve already purchased, pipe up and I’ll furnish you with a PDF, too!

As for the second point, I really wish I’d some social media skills because, had I that hustle, had I joined the right contest, had I done this thing or that thing differently from how things actually went, perhaps I could have joined the ranks of "fully funded" books. It’s a category that includes books that have sold equal or fewer copies than Disintegration, but instead received that golden ticket treatment and were swooped up to the Big Time.

I openly admit my envy. I want to see my book come to life. I want it to be seen and read and enjoyed, and any other wonderful possibilities that might arise from its publication.

Someday, they say. I eagerly await it.

Good news everyone! Proteus has received the honor of its very first syndicate selection!

The Fantasy Syndicate has selected Proteus as their pick for the month of July. Why the Fantasy Syndicate? I...have no idea. Proteus is definitely science fiction, through and through. But I’m not going to question it! It’s a good thing! Plus, Proteus is an adaptation of Shakespeare, and Shakespeare goes hand in hand with fantasy, so...there. I found a connection!

Regardless of the reasoning, I am incredibly grateful and honored that the Fantasy Syndicate would consider Proteus a worthy selection, even from across genres. With the contribution of their support, we are within arms’ reach of the coveted 250 pre-order milestone: the one-third marker towards full funding.

More will come soon as I make more progress with Proteus, both in writing and campaigning. Stay tuned, and remember to keep telling everyone you know about Proteus. We’ve got a lot of ground yet to cover!

DOWNLOADING THE EBOOK

Alright Campers,

A ton of you have had problems getting the ebook. Here is an explanation of how to download it. You should have recieved an e-mail from Inkshares that looks like this:

Please note, the ebook did not come from me directly. The e-mail you are looking for is from Inkshares. 

Click on the download button and it will take you directly to a page that looks like this:

Download EPUB for Apple, MOBI for Kindle, EPUB for Android, EPUB for Sony, EPUB for Nook. Please note, EPUB should work on all Apple computers with Apple Books. You can download the Kindle App for free on ANY DEVICE to read the MOBI version.

If you continue to have trouble please e-mail hello@inkshares.com and they can help you sort out any issue. I cannot personally change your incorrect e-mail, tell you your Inkshares password, or sort out any issue with your account. Unfortunately I am not an Inkshares employee, although I would love to help you with any issue.

PAPERBACKS

Paperbacks will be shipped in August. Please note, you can update your address by logging into your Inkshares account. Inkshares will also send you an address confirmation before the book ships. If you don’t receive an address confirmation in August, you probably didn’t order a paperback. If you are positive you ordered a paperback and you do not get a shipping confirmation you can e-mail hello@inkshares.com to see if there was a mistake. 

REVIEWS

Please remember to review the book on Goodreads, Amazon, and Barnes and Noble when you are done.

SPOTIFY

Want to listen to the music I wrote Sunshine Is Forever to while you read the book? Head here: https://play.spotify.com/user/1226958305/playlist/0CCgDQZs4DU3V7tWDfkl3u?play=true&utm_source=open.spotify.com&utm_medium=open

KARID

My next book KARID will fund with Inkshares shortly after Sunshine Is Forever is released. You can follow it here so you can be the first to preorder it when the time comes!  https://www.inkshares.com/books/karid

Please don’t hesitate to ask me any questions and please don’t be offended if I direct you to Inkshares for help with your problem.

I appreciate all of you! Thank you for your continued support!

Kyle T. Cowan

UPDATE #XO

I completed the draft! Woo hoo!

I passed the actual milestone about two weeks ago. I celebrated, quietly, and am only now making the update. Oops! I’m bad at social media, forgive me. It makes me a dinosaur, and ill-suited to take full advantage of the Inkshares platform.

So what now? Well, now I consolidate characters, tighten story beats, discard dead plot threads, strengthen language, yadda, yadda, yadda. In sum: more work.

However!

However I will finally start posting chapters that are near completion. Starting today. I look forward to hearing your thoughts, and thanks again for sticking with me. It’s been a long haul, but the effort is paying off nicely (in my opinion). I hope you’ll agree. And if you don’t, I won’t quit my dayjob. 

Although given that my day job is copywriting, perhaps I should.

Best, Prescott

Hey early followers of Black Cloud. This book has been a long time coming and I wanted to say thank you for your early interest. In the wee hours of this morning I have quietly launched the funding campaign for Black Cloud. I’m sure you’ll all get an email about it.

I wanted to "soft launch" this campaign because I’m doing something that I think might be a first on Inkshares. I’m giving away a free audiobook of my first novel to everyone who pre-orders Black Cloud. I’m really excited about it. I think it’s a really great value and a great way to entice folks to order the new book. It feels really good to me to do it this way because you as a reader are actually getting something immediately for your money. PLUS you’re investing in a future book. PLUS you get the audiobook whether I make my funding goal or not. It’s really win/win for the reader!

I hope all of you will go check out the updated project page. There is a promo video up now that features an audiobook style presentation of the first chapter. I think it’s a good listen. I punched the "audio" portion up a bit with some music and sound effects. You’ll hear what I mean.

I’m assuming most of you are fellow authors. I hope this experiment goes well. I welcome comments, input, questions, etc. If you guys are able, please check it out and pre-order a copy if you want. In about five days I’ll start the real push for support. I just wanted some time to make sure everything was working smoothly before I started begging people to buy books.

I really appreciate your time and I hope you all have a great day!

- Landon