5 until 5,000!!!

That’s my mantra for today. I also want to take this opportunity to thank Matthew Isaac Sobin and the members of the GREAT SCIFI for the 21st CENTURY and BEYOND SYNDICATE for selecting Welcome to Deadland as their September book!

My request for reviews and the raffle for the Welcome to Deadland short story and postcard set is still ongoing with several ways to enter!

1. Order a copy of Welcome to Deadland through Inkshares. 

 2. Recommend Welcome to Deadland to a friend, and when they purchase a copy, you will both be entered. 

 3. Rate/Review Welcome to Deadland on Goodreads, Amazon, and Barnes & Noble. Each site you post a rating or review will count as one entry, by doing so on all three sites you will receive three entries. If you rate AND review the book, you will earn an extra entry. 

 4. Tweet me or post to Welcome to Deadland’s Facebook page fun pictures of your copy of the book or fan art from the story!

If you haven’t ordered a copy yet, or need a copy for a friend, today would be an awesome time to place an order and help us cross that 5,000 line!

Thank you all,

Zac

It’s September 15th! 

To some, it’s the Mid-Autumn Festival. To me, even though I’m craving mooncakes, it’s the one year publication anniversary of The Battle for Oz! 

Can you believe it? It has been a year! After 3 months of crowd-funding, 9 months of production, The Battle for Oz hit the shelves on September 15th, 2015. Now one year later, the book has sold over 1000 copies, has been reviewed by Jack & Jill Magazine, has been chosen by the Inkshares Book Club, and maybe, just maybe, will end up as an audiobook in the future.  

But all those aside, I want you to know that I’ve not forgotten your support during the crowd-funding season. Your willingness to stand beside me and believe in my dreams made this book happen. Without you, I wouldn’t be writing this today. Without you, I wouldn’t have started another campaign on Inkshares. So thank you for your generosity and faith. 

If you’re a reader who’ve only hopped on after the publication of the book, I am still very grateful for your support. You’re keeping the book alive - making it relevant among the many books out there! So thank you for giving The Battle for Oz a chance. 

I’m extremely grateful to have you in my Oz adventure, and I’ll be continuing on my dream-chasing journey. If you’d like to come along, oh please do! You’re most welcomed. But if you’d like to get off here, know that I will always remember our camaraderie. 

Till the next epic tale, have a wonderful day!

*My new novel, The Slave Prince has entered the Geek & Sundry Fantasy Contest. Should you be interested in joining this adventure with me, visit https://www.inkshares.com/books/the-slave-prince and pre-order a copy!

Time to talk about the last of the Dwarven ethnic groups in the world of Exile, Magus.  This particular group is for the most part not really a group at all.  They could easily be seen as the most cosmopolitan of all the Dwarf types, having foregone the clustering into small communities of their own race in favor of direct coexistence with the other civilized races(mainly humans and elves).  This has lead to a great diversity among them, to the point where they do not have any true ethnic identity, being typically referred to merely as Dwarves or Common Dwarves.  Part of this diversity lies in the fact that so many of them had non-dwarf’s among their list of ancestors.  Such an inclusion of human or (far more rarely) elf to their lineage is limited to 3 or more generations back since anything more recent would place them among the half-dwarves.

Such a lack of notable traits often leads to them being underestimated or taken for granted(especially by those who choose to refer to them as "Common" Dwarves), but they are remarkable as well.  Unlike the other Dwarven groups, their approach to life has led to them being more capable of living with any race as well as adapted to a variety of tasks as opposed to filling only a few small niches.  You can of course find examples of them focusing on typically Dwarven tasks such as smithing and warfare, but just as often you’ll find them filling other roles such as merchants, sailors, farmers, bakers, and so on.  For an example of an exceptional Common Dwarf there is Karamos Daern in book 2 - Exile, Hunted.  Admittedly he does fill a more traditional role as a master armorer and priest for the primary Dwarven God, Hatrien Quin, but he is exceptional nonetheless.  You can have a brief encounter with him by reading this chapter in Exile, Hunted (which does have some spoilers for the current book, Exile, Magus, so be warned).

I’ll leave the description at that.  Thanks to everyone who has ordered Exile, Magus already, and I hope that those of  you who are following but haven’t ordered already will consider doing so.  Even if you can’t order be sure to refer the book to others, if the book funds you can still win one of the available awards for being a top 10 referrer even if you haven’t ordered a copy for yourself.

That’s all I’ve got for this week (other than the Common Dwarf racial option for D&D 5th edition which I’ll be posting below for my fellow players/DM’s), so I’ll once again thank you all for your support and wish you enjoyable reading and whatever else you may desire.

• Ability Score Increase:  +1 Constitution; and +1 in 2 Ability Scores other than Dexterity or Constitution.
  
• Age:  Typically reach adulthood at around 60-70 years and live up to 450-500 years(though most die in battle before this).
• Alignment:  Any.
• Size:  Medium, stand between 3’8" - 4’8".
• Speed:  30’.  Living amongst the taller races has taught them the importance of keeping up.
• Dwarven Toughness:  +1 to Maximum HP at every level.
• Skill Training:  You gain proficiency in any 2 skills of your choice.
• Tool Training:  You gain proficiency in any 1 artisan’s tool of your choice.
• Versatility:  You can choose to either gain Dwarven Armor Training(proficiency in both Light and Medium Armors) or gain 1 bonus Language and 1 bonus Proficiency in either a skill or artisan’s tool.
• Weapn Training:  Proficient with any 4 of the following - Greataxe, Greatsword, Heavy Crossbow, Light Crossbow, Longbow, Longsword, Maul, Pike, Rapier, Shortsword, Shortbow, Warhammer, War Pick.
• Languages:  Common, and 1 of the following - Dwarven, Elven, Giant, or Gnomish.

’Meaningful: have meaning,’ - A dictionary I wish gave me a longer description.

Hey everyone! Just a quick update to let you know that there’s a new blog post up about the contest! And this time, I got to answer the question. Check it out here: 

http://blog.inkshares.com/post/150368022920/top-10-authors-in-geek-sundry-fantasy-contest-on

They had to edit my original response down, so I’ll give you the whole of it here. I got a little carried away. 

If you could live in any fantasy world, which would you choose? Caveat: the choice is permanent - you can’t leave! 

 I’ve thought about this question a lot over the years. There are so many wonderful worlds I’ve played in over the years. I’ll have to start with some favorites that I wouldn’t want to live in and narrow it down that way. My favorite current author is Brandon Sanderson, and his Stormlight Archive is just fascinating but I’m not sure I could live in a world like Roshar, with all of its stone and lack of trees. I love thunderstoms, but high storms are another thing all together. I don’t think that’s the place for me, especially since, at the moment, it seems to be breaking apart. 

I’m a long time fan of Harry Potter and the Wizarding World, but really that is just the same as here, and I’d probably be a muggle. Boring and in general, safe. If I did know about wizards and magic there, I could probably get pretty good ’fiction’ stories out of that, but then I’d get Obliviated so that wouldn’t be much fun. 

My favorite epic fantasy series is Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series. If I could make sure it was the fourth age, then I could probably make my way there as a caregiver or even a storyteller. It would be great to play in Randland for real for a while, but since peaches are poison I couldn’t stay forever. Plus there’s the Dark One’s Touch business that didn’t work out very well for the ordinary folk. 

Xanth from Piers Anthony could be a ton of fun. Butterflies that look like flying sticks of butter, sunflowers that shine as bright as the sun when they bloom... puns might stop being funny though. Not to mention the Florida aspect. That would be a great place to visit, but I wouldn’t want to live there.

 I’m going to have to stick with my oldest favorite. Tolkien, the father of the fantasy genre caught my heart as a child with The Hobbit. Middle Earth was so rich with meaning and warmth, I could fall right in. I wouldn’t need to live in the grand cities though. If I could somehow have a home in the Shire, that’s where I would want to be. The comfort of good food, good friends and a safe home would be wonderful, especially if I had to stay forever. I’d be the weird human lady down the road who wrote stories and baked cakes, but I’m okay with that. Most of the upheaval in those books never touched the Shire, so no matter what point in history I dropped into, I’d be okay. The best part would be the option to go adventuring, to see Rivendell, Rohan, or even Gondor, but still have the beauty of the Shire to come back to, with tales to tell. I always identified with Bilbo about that. Getting used to the comforts of home, but having that wanderlust tickle you in the middle of the night until you just had to go somewhere. Traveling, then writing about it at my desk, and adding a dragon or two for color would be the very best kind of fun.

The hardest adjustment would probably be the lack of modern conveniences. I have a love affair with my air conditioner, and of course modern medicine. But I have always transplanted well when I move. I’ve studied history a bit, so living without electricity would be possible. I’ve always preferred writing with pen and paper, and candle or lantern light would be soothing without the hum of fluorescent lights. Adjusting to all the manual labor required to live that way would be the rest of the hard part. But I would do it. Those little round doors and rolling hills were always comforting to me, even when the adventure tried to keep my interest elsewhere. I could make a home there. Home is where your story begins after all. 

I hope you enjoyed this peek into my favorite worlds. Have a good night! 

Light and love,

Tara

Hey gang. Long time no see...chat...whatever.

If you didn’t know, I enjoy doing this writing thing...like a lot... 

(Did you know Ageless was the first in a trilogy? If you read it, you probably picked up on the fact that there could be more. SPOILER - there is more! Follow Timeless here!)

But, I need your HELP to continue doing this writing thing. (Hint - REVIEW AGELESS on AMAZON and GOODREADS)

I put together the following (very) tentative & (very) ambitious production schedule covering the next few years. See anything you like? I hope so! Let me know what you think. 

@PaulInmanSC on Twitter & Instagram

So, shipments of backer copies have been flowing out, especially to the USA supporters.  However, I’ve been receiving messages from overseas supporters that they had issues with the address format and Inkshares has confirmed that there have been some issues with the overseas addresses.  So, to all my supporters in Europe, Asia, Africa, and Canada, this is for you.

As you can see in this image:

You have several boxes to fill out.  For most Germans, you will skip the State portion entirely.  For the British as well.  The most common mistake appears in the country portion.  It was mistakenly set to the wrong country.  There are other potential mix-ups but the key is, if you think you have an issue with your address, contact inkshares and they will help you.  Email them at hello@inkshares.com.  You can also message me and I can give you some pointers but Inkshares has indicated they are more than able to help you fix any issues with your address.

Thanks!

Today is the day!

Rise is now available for order.  Not preorder.  Actual order.

#lifetimeachievementunlocked

Next?  Funny you should ask.  Fall.

Happy reading and please leave a review as soon as you can:-)

Tomorrow is the day these critters come skitter-scuttling to your front step. SINGLE VERSION officially publishes 9/13. TOMORROW.

For all of you expecting paperbacks, they’ll be shipping any day now. If you ordered an e-book, you should be getting it today.

When it reaches your beautiful eyeballs, take it on the train with you so everyone can see Susie Kirkwood’s breathtaking cover design, and when a stranger asks you, "That book looks so attractive and yet...repulsive," you can say, "First of all, that wasn’t a question. And second of all, this is SINGLE VERSION. It’s part sci-fi, part horror, part cyberpunk, and it is creeping me the fuck out. Please, stranger, would you check my back for roaches. See any? None? I feel them there. No? Great. I LOVE READING!!"

I can’t believe this day is finally here. Thank you everyone for your belief and support. I truly hope you dig the story and that it resonates with you. And if it does, please tell someone about it. Write a review on Amazon or Goodreads. Toss it up on your blogs, your Facebooks, your Instas. Pitch it to your book club. Any help spreading the word is wonderful, appreciated help.

And I’ve got another project in the works...more on that very soon.

In the meantime...please enjoy SINGLE VERSION.