There isn't too much new to report this week, but I want to make sure I keep readers who might not have seen my previous post in the know. I will be reposting the original "Raffle-Post" a couple more times leading up to the drawing for the prize, just to make sure everyone is aware of it (and hopefully to generate some additional sales!) I will be posting a new chapter sometime during the week (hopefully two). The rest of the post will be the information regarding my novel's raffle-giveaway!

In honor of the upcoming holidays, I've decided to put together a contest, and I've even added extra rewards for those of you who've already chosen to back The Children of the Forest! 

With gift-giving season upon us, I thought it was fitting to pull something from my store for all of you readers out there. To that end, I've picked up a $250.00 Amazon Gift Card. You can cover all of your holiday needs with this one handy item! Or, simply splurge for yourself and pick up any number of great items to keep you busy for months!

The way the contest will work is simple. Everyone who purchases one or more copies of my book will receive X amount of entries, based on the purchase level. An E-book-only purchase, for example, will give the buyer X 1 ticket, a hardcover sale will award X 2 tickets, and so on and so forth.

For everyone who has already backed my book, you will receiveDOUBLE the normal ticket value of your support level, as thanks for choosing to back my story without incentives!  

I will be running this campaign until December 10th, at which time, I will announce the winner. If you've been on the fence about picking up a copy of my book, now is the time. Every single purchase awards you with a chance to win this great prize!

So remember folks, support my book, The Children of the Forest, with your pre-order(s) today! It's already nearing 150 total sales, and I'm really hopeful that I can break the Quill requirement before the end of the holiday season! I need your support to do that. Every purchase of support puts me one step closer to realizing my dream, and gets the book into your hands that much sooner.

Have a great night everyone ~ until next time.

This is later in the week than I had intended.  The off season at my day job has just recently ended, which has resulted in me having to return to my 4am wake ups to drive an hour to work and the loss of reliability in my update schedule.  I apologize for that.  This has been a busy week in other ways for me as well.

First off, I was on the Vitamin Geek podcast Monday, with the show being made available for your listening pleasure as of today.  So if you've always wanted to know just what an overly nervous, timid voiced, 240 pound, fire-haired/bearded man sounds like as he's flubbing every pitch/synopsis/selling point he had carefully crafted and even written down before hand, then check out the episode on iTunes, Stitcher, or at their site.  Seriously though, while my social awkwardness was heavily on display, I had a lot of fun being on their show and you should definitely check it out.  We talked a bit about my book, literature in general, and ended with a round table on our top 3 fantasy movie picks.  Also be sure to check out some (or all) of their past episodes here.  Between their Vitamin Geek and House or Horrors podcasts they cover all things geek really.

Also, I was happy to see that I received a review on the project page (from Rob Gokee), and especially happy that it let me know that I pulled off with the scene in question exactly what I was going for.  I would love for more of you to post reviews and/or comments, since that is the best indicator to me of where I'm succeeding or failing in my efforts.

Beyond that, with the return to work I've not had much chance to work on anything beyond Book 3 edits and continuing to pitch this first book.  This has also made me realize that I'm most likely not going to be able to continue making 2 updates a week as I had been doing previously.  From now on I will be posting an update on either Thursday, Friday, or Saturday of every week.  Feel free to chime in on which day of the week you would prefer.  Myself, I'm leaning towards Friday around noonish.

I don't really have much more to update you on.  The campaign is continuing on, but isn't making quite the daily progress I would like to have.  After last week's addition of the e-book only purchase option I now have until 1/22 to reach goal, so please help me with that in anyway you can, whether by recommending, sharing, or preordering.

Thanks again for all of the time and support that you've already given me, and enjoy the rest of your week as well as the impending Thanksgiving.

Another week, another update! Chapter 6 is now up, as a mysterious new character enters our tale. And speaking of characters, here's a D&D 5th edition character sheet for the mighty Valora! Right-click and hit "Open Image in New Tab" to see a full-size version:

Feeling very Lumbergh this morning, appropriately while sipping my morning coffee. Officially past the halfway mark, but there's still a long way to go in a short time. The good news is that Inkshares has pushed the deadline to December 27th. 40 days, 124 books to go. Wish me luck!

To my fellow Inkshares authors: If you have any marketing tips and suggestions for me, I'm all ears. I've bothered all friends & family, online contacts and so on, and littered my surrounding neighborhoods with paper flyers. I haven't been able to find any author/publishing conferences around, and all the local comic cons have come and gone.

I would like to give a nice shout-out to the staff at Comics-N-Stuff at the Chula Vista mall and Mysterious Galaxy independent book store in San Diego, who not only let me post a flyer but were also super interested in the book!

Feel free to message me HERE. Thanks guys! :)

-Tony

Epic Update Time... 

It's my birthday today, and guess what the big highlight has been?

That's right! After overwhelming feedback from readers this weekend -- all of it near unanimous in support of switching to the new funding model and qualifying for the Quill imprint -- I decided LET'S DO THIS!

As of now, Blood Dawn has reached its funding goal! Blood Dawn will at the very least be published under the Quill imprint (click here to read more about what that entails).

However, we still have until April 11th to push hard and get Blood Dawn to 750 pre-orders. If we can do that, then Blood Dawn will be published as a full Inkshares production, with all the added perks.

Either way, Blood Dawn will be a print book and an ebook, which means it will get out there for readers to enjoy! All of you who have supported this book and the many who have emailed me expressing your excitement for Blood Dawn will soon be able to read it -- hold it in your hands, live Rena's story the way I've been living it for the last 14 months.

So, if you haven't pre-ordered this book, or if you've been waiting until it picks up a bit of momentum, now you can jump on board knowing your pre-order is going toward helping Blood Dawn reach 750 pre-orders so that it will get full Inkshares support including more in-depth editorial, design and distribution services. Most importantly, you can order knowing this is a book you will get to read no matter what.

Visit Blood Dawn's new page and order here: https://www.inkshares.com/projects/blood-dawn

You'll notice if you visit the Blood Dawn page that there are now four options:

• Acolyte (1 ebook = $10)
• Sun Priest (1 print book = $20 + $15 shipping for non-US residents)
• God-King (3 print books = $60 + $15 shipping for non-US residents)
• Dragon (7 print books = $140 + $15 shipping for non-US residents)

Here's to Blood Dawn, and THANK YOU for your generous support. Without you, none of this would be possible. You've helped me live my dream, and I promise, this adventure is just getting started.