Good morning, everyone.

I suppose I must have lied about scaling back my updates to a monthly basis. See now, I’ve got some news to share that simply can’t wait.

For starters, Inkshares has launched their latest publishing contest in partnership with the Nerdist network! If you’ve got an epic “Space Opera” science fiction story hyperdriving through the wormholes in your brainspace, then I encourage you to chart a course t… Okay, enough. Just enter the damn contest HERE!  The beauty of this crowdfunding model is that all you really need is an idea for a story. Write something up - a synopsis, some character descriptions, a first chapter, whatever - and post it up on Inkshares. “What’s a space opera,” you ask? For you TV nuts think Firefly or Battlestar Galactica. The movie buffs should envision Guardians of the Galaxy or that little franchise Star Wars maybe. Gamers like me should recall Mass Effect and Destiny. And bibliophiles (a term only bibliophiles could love) should check out Iain Banks’ Culture series (my favorites) or Asimov’s Foundation series. 

If you’re serious about entering, I and some fellow contest winners shared some winning advice recently on inkshares blog. The fact that many of us had different versions of the same tip is quite insightful on that particular tip’s utility (you’ll see). But I would add another that I don’t think was mentioned: Be Organized! I had a massive spreadsheet I updated with all my campaign activity during the Sword & Laser contest. I couldn’t have done it without it. 

Finally, two more bits of news:

I am writing “The Animal in Man” every day, every night, with a daily goal of 1,000 words that I’m pleased to say I’ve often overshot. I thought maybe I’d just clean the early chapters up a bit, but geez was I mistaken! Instead I’m pretty much tearing the house down and rebuilding everything from the ground up. I’m almost done revising chapter three, and work continues steadily.

John Robin, the extremely talented author of “Blood Dawn,” had reached out to me about sharing some details of my story’s world in greater depth. Of course I agreed! Here’s an amazing picture I found that captures my own personal interpretation of the animal-human creatures that inhabit Herbridia:

(Credit to Adrean-BC on deviantART) If you want to pore over some more of the background knowledge - and go fishing for a hint or two about what’s really going on in my novel - then click here to visit John Robin’s World Building page on his blog.

And for gah’s sakes, pre-order your copy of John’s book. It comes with my absolute highest recommendation.