Hey all!

In my excitement about reaching Quill and following the aftermath of the contest I forgot to show the full painting since we reached 250! Here it is:

You’ll all be getting a copy of this painting (without all the lines of course). 

Finally, I want to congratulate Kendra Namednil on reaching Quill with her fantastic project Borehole Bazaar: A Vow Unbroken !! Kendra has been one of my biggest cheerleaders during the contest and the first person I connected with on Inkshares so for that I am grateful. The Inkshares community has been so wonderful to me and I appreciate every single one of you :)

I will make sure to keep ya’ll updated on AYSYWTQ? as I go. Have a wonderful week!

We’ve reached another landmark, at last. Late last night, Tantalus Depths finally reached and passed 500 pre-orders. That’s right: we are now three fourths of the way to the full-publishing goal.
 

We are now entering the final month of the campaign. As of right now, we have to bring in 247 more pre-orders within the next 29 days. It won’t be easy. We’re right about where we should be, but there’s still a whole lot more work to be done. If you’ve been holding out so far, now is the time to throw in your pre-order, or to bring your friends and families into the picture for their support. 
Also, even though the 500th order technically came after midnight, I’m still going to go ahead and put up chapter one and the video of my reading it, like I promised we’d do if Tantalus Depths hit 500 on the 16th. Expect those sometime tomorrow, along with our usual character update. :)
Keep pushing everyone! We’re almost home.

Okay, whew. I ran out last Friday to pick up my son, and then we left for a camping trip. I didn’t get the chance to do proper thank yous, so here it goes:

A huge, huge thank you to my supporters. It was amazing on Friday at 11:30 am to have people come out of the woodwork and push me into 2nd place. I absolutely could not have done it without you all. Thanks to my wife for finding this contest and encouraging me to enter. And thanks to all the Harveys and the Clearys and the Mills who bit their nails alongside us. Thank you to Simon Winchester, Brian Baldwin, Sean Garcia, Hannah Davis, and Ryan Weilert. In the end, it was your willpower that won me 2nd place. I’m in awe of all of you.

Great work to everyone else in the competition. There was some serious talent I was competing against. Alisa King ran a fierce campaign. Congrats to Peter Ryan, who really does seem like a genuinely nice guy. I can’t wait to read Too Many Controllers. And as I’ve said before, Andrew Fantasia is a great writer. I hope his novel Sidescroller gets funded so we can all give it a read. I also want to give a shout-out to G.A. Finocchiaro and his book Knightmares. He helped me a ton, and his book looks awesome. 

So what’s next? Sweeping changes. I’ll soon be deleting the prologue that’s up on Inkshares. Years ago, I had written IN BETA as a feature film. At the start of this contest, I was simply adapting the film into novel form. The farther I went down that path, the more I realized I wasn’t excited about a book that followed the rigid formula of a Hollywood comedy. So during this contest, I made significant revisions to IN BETA’s setting and plot. The concept and the characters are the same, but I’ve moved the locale from Seattle, WA to a rural town in the Cascades. The setting works better for a number of reasons. If anyone is interested in the mechanics of "why", ask and I’ll happily distract myself from writing by geeking out over my decisions. Otherwise, just satisfy yourself with the knowledge that I’m not content to deliver a shit novel.

I’m very excited about IN BETA, and I can’t wait to share the new prologue with the world. Thanks everyone for this amazing opportunity. I’ll try to be regular with my updates, and I’ll let you know the timeline of this process once I figure that out.

Holy $#(^!!!!!!  Okay, let me explain…  Hwa ha ha ha ha!!!!!  SO HAPPY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Oh my goodness, YES!!!!!  Dreams are AWESOME!!!!!!!!  OWWWWWW!  Okay, dreams are awesome, and so is my next door neighbor, but running through my backyard to tell her that I just funded leads to splinters.  Geesh!  Well, it’s only a little blood, so… Worth It!!!

Okay, breathing.  Good.  Thank you all SO EXPLETIVE much!!!!!!!!!

I’m kinda glad I wrote the bulk of this letter yesterday.  I’m so excited I keep typing in circles but that’s okay cuz I HAVE FAITH IN EVERY LAST SOUL OF HUMANITY!!!  Seriously!  All of you are amazing, wonderful, PHENOMENAL PEOPLE OF WORTH!!!!!  OWW!  Doesn’t matter if my foot hurts from that twig-thorn, I’m too happy not to dance!!!!!  Okay, the rest is from yesterday, so it’s probably cogent.  Love y’all.  Genuinely.  Love.  I… I’m gonna paint mugs and work on my short story and tell people they’re awesome and make the whole world feel as amazing as I do RIGHT NOW!!!  

For anyone who was looking to get the limited-run prize, tomorrow is the last day to pick up two or more copies of Borehole Bazaar.  This is a super-awesome opportunity to get a uniquely hand-illustrated collection of cute short stories mailed diretly to your home well in advance of your copy of Borehole Bazaar.  That said, I’m hoping BB will be up and ready SUPER quickly so it can get into all your happy hands!

This week, I hit 250!!!  What this means is that I have yet another three RAFFLE WINNERS!!!  The lucky winners are Rebecca Rubin, Crwebber707 and Lauren Huffman!!!  I’ll be getting ahold of you to hear your choice of prizes, but they include an etched glass mug, a hand-painted ceramic mug, a laser-etched coaster (or four!) or an entirely wooden (with hinges) book from those listed below!  If there is something else you would prefer, please just let me know!  I’m fairly crafty and I love my small power-tools!

The list of books should all be child-friendly but I’d advise giving each a once-over, especially A Simple Game and Forgiveness in a Latte.  This week’s selection, Kalla Names a Pup, is indented and alludes to cannibalism and death, so use extra caution with it.

Kiki and the Cantaloupe

Kiki Angers Ambition

Kiki meets Tranquility

Pretty Girl and Luchadore

Bosco Follows his Nose

Forgiveness in a Latte

A Simple Game

Telles Catches Hope

---->;;;;;;;;;;;;;;; Kalla Names a Pup

As always, please Chase Your Dreams.  It’s worth it, as are you.  

Hey everyone,

First off, let me just say THANK YOU to each and every one of you that have been following my project this whole time and/or pre-ordered a copy. I might not have won the contest, but I REACHED QUILL (yay!!!). I am going to be a published author and you’ll all get to read this story which is incredible to me!! I never imagined that this campaign would be as successful as it was and for that I am greatly humbled so thank you for making my dream come true.

I also want to say congratulations to the Inkvengers (Too Many Controllers), Prescott Harvey (In Beta), and Peter Ryan (Destiny Imperfect) for running excellent campaigns as well. If you haven’t yet go visit their page and pre-order a copy of their novels! Now that the contest is over I can relax and enjoy the other wonderful works on Inkshares. 

Now if you’ll excuse me I’m going chill by the pool in this dreadful Texas heat. Until next time, cheers!!!!

-Alisa-chan

Guys! Insane support in the zero hour. 

That was an incredible finish for the number two spot. I’m bouncing off the walls right now. I could not have done it without you guys, thank you all SO SO much. I will keep you all posted on what happens next. 

But right now, I have to throw pants on, do a celebratory tequila shot, and then go pick up my son from school!

CHEERS!!!

Greetings Destiny -followers,

Well wasn’t that a wild ride!?

First of all, thanks to the whole giant bunch of you for your support over the last 6 weeks. So many people from so many different places rallied behind Destiny to bring it to life. You are very much a part of the fabric of this book! I’m going to thank you all personally when my head stops spinning.

And well done to TMC and the terrific crew of authors behind this excellent anthology. I look forward to diving into this one! 

Also, congrats to In Beta. I didn’t get to know Prescott Harvey that well through the contest, but it would be awesome to do so in the tranquility that follows.

And finally, a huge congratulations to Are You Sure You Want to Quit? Alisa King never did quit and went on to achieve Quill level in 6 weeks - this is amazing! She is an author to support and look out for.

Thanks again everyone! I shall now go and find a bottle of beer ... Jack Trevayne finally has a drinking buddy.

Have a great day!

Cheers,

Peter