Hello humans,

Just  a quick update - I'm still very much a corporeal being in this reality, rumors of my untimely dematerialization have been greatly exaggerated.

So, I've finished revising character sheets, which can be fun and a chore at the same time (especially when you just want to get stuck back into the writing).  No only do I better understand my characters, I also know a lot more about the world/galaxy/universe I'm building (sci-fi is BIG).  As a result, I have begun tweaking Genesis to include these new developments, which I think will make the story more interesting.

Those of you with writing experience know that this is the reverse method, especially for someone who had very little exposure to fiction writing.  My consolation is that I didn't succumb to world-builder's disease.  Haha.  Anyway, I've begun first pass author-edits on Chapters 3 and beyond and hope to get a second pass editing soon after.

To those of you who have $5 credit from pre-ordering before the 31st Oct 2015, here's how you can further assit me by pre-ordering the e-book for FREE:

1. Sign-in
   
2. Click on INKSHARES (next to Recommend via)
3. Wait 5 minutes for your confirmation email, then click CLAIM
4. Pre-order e-book (credits are automatically applied)

Live long and prosper!

P/S: Congratulations to the winners of the Sword & Laser sequel contest! Matt, I knew you could do it! Well done!

Dear backers and friends of Trekonomics,

I just posted the final, revised and expanded introduction to the book (minus a few still-ongoing copy-edits!). Cover will be revealed and shared will all of you this week. We are on schedule!

You may read the new introduction to Trekonomics here: 

https://www.inkshares.com/projects/trekonomics/book_segments/introduction-3720

In addition, if you are so inclined, I invite you to read my latest column celebrating the 15 years anniversary of Wikipedia: http://fusion.net/story/256371/wikipedia-15-years-old/. 

As always, 

Live Long, and Prosper.

M.

I hope everyone's new year has been good thus far. Though we had several great losses, we shouldn't lose hope for the potential of this year.

Work has been keeping me pretty busy as well as editing chapters on any free time I can find. With the first round of editing pretty much finished, I have to think about what I will do next.

I thought about entering Sword & Laser contest, but at that point I didn't feel confident yet until I had finished cleaning up the story. Now I have to decide, do I wait for the next contest while refining the story or start the pre-order campaign.

Friends and family are eagerly awaiting the start of pre-orders, however attempting to get new readers and other authors to commit on a pre-order is so very daunting.

For now however, I am curious to hear from anyone in regards your opinion. What do you think of the story so far with the five chapters upload so far? Right now the finished novel is roughly 60k in words, or about 18 chapters.

Have a wonderful weekend!

~S.J.

Hello and Happy Saturday!  Here we have a short video where we determine the winner of the McCall's Meat and Fish Company gift certificate raffle.  So sit back and enjoy, especially the last seconds, which include an amusing directorial snafu!  

https://youtu.be/PNyFq2z7-Rs

As of today only 78 copies of "Women Like Us" need to sell and we'll have met the goal for Quill Publishing. If you're like me you want to hold this book in your hands, and we're getting closer every day. But there's only a month left, so please pre-order if you haven't, and if you have there's nothing wrong with having that back-up copy, just in case!

Finally, stay tuned for an announcement next week about one more beagle-freedom related raffle that you can get in on if you already haven't. This  one involves a tattoo!

We won!!!!

 I can’t seem to make myself fully believe it, still so I have to keep saying it! :)

I am incredibly grateful to each and every one of you for all the help and support getting word out about my book. The last month has been one of the most exhausting experiences I can remember – Sleep? No time for that, I have to message people in other time zones! Writing? After work, there’s only time for promoting the book!

I would like to take a moment to thank my family who went above and beyond in getting me through this contest, in particular - my sisters Kirsty and Laura, my brother Keith and my brother-in-law Cyril who each worked at least as hard as I did promoting the book; my parents Scott and Elaine who reached out to more people than I can count; and of course my lovely wife Margo who not only worked tirelessly alongside me, but also somehow managed to keep me sane.

I was also greatly helped in my efforts by a number of great friends including Sebastien Genest, Mathieu Pralus, Sara Hernandez, Isabelle Pottier, Eddy Lesert and so many others that I just can’t list everyone. Again, I am grateful beyond words.

And I can’t leave out the amazing authors who helped me out and made (and continue to make) the Inkshares experience as amazing as it is – John Robin the author of Blood Dawn and backbone of the whole author community, Julian Green the co-author of Suffrage – the First World Key, Cara Weston the author of She is the End, Billy O’Keefe author of These Are My Friends on Politics, Michal Sebby author of The Inhabitants: An Unremembered Life, and Janna Grace author of the Talkers are Talking, not to mention my co-winners Joseph Asphahani author of The Animal in Man, and Matthew Sobin the author of the Last Machine in the Solar System. All of their books are amazing and well worth checking out if you’re looking for something else to read!

 And now, I’d like to make my small gesture of thanks to my supporters: here is the video link of the 4X50$ gift card draws, and the draw for a themed cake by Lolai’s Yummies. Congratulations to the winners!

 I’m looking forward to a little break - picking up Fallout 4, maybe even making it in to see the new Star Wars movie, and most importantly getting back to my writing! I’ve started to miss my characters and wonder what they’ve gotten up to in my absence! There are also still some edits and rewrites I need to finish before the manuscript is ready to be turned over to Inkshares so that the process of getting it published can get under way :)

 Thank you all!!!!

Hey good folks,

Thanks for your support! With your help, The Remains had officially reached 100 followers and 74 preorders with more than 90 days left. That left a warm fuzzy feeling inside my heart, but that isn't love...because, as a writer of comedy, I am secretly dead inside. You can only churn so many sacrifices to the old gods before your writer's block kicked you in the posterior. 

But because I feeds on the positive support that had been given to me, I had created a special book trailer to commemorate this moment and cement the fact that this book DOESN'T suck and had not been the targeted by the cats yet (though they are lurking in the background).

Here's the video in case you cannot see the book trailer for any reason: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EgIR9SvXVUk