Hello Everyone!

Wow, the holidays sure did fly by this year didn't they? One minute I was eating five meals a day to train my stomach for the onslaught of Thanksgiving (It takes dedication), the next  I am trying to find space in my house for the sweaters my grandma gave me for Christmas.

I wanted to share some exciting news with my "Not Afraid of the Fall" family! We have reached the 250 preorder mark and are 1/3 of the way to 750!! I cannot thank you enough for your support. By preordering this book, you are helping me reach a dream of mine and I cannot wait for you to read about the many successes and mishaps of our journey. From moped crashes in multiple continents, to Buddhist rituals performed on us from 90 year old Shamans, you are in for quite a journey.

I am getting a bit ahead of myself here...we still have a long  way to go to reach 750 preorders. I still need your help spreading the word and sharing the book with friends, family, co-workers, neighbors, mailmen and pets (Animals use wifi by now right? I saw both a dog surfing and an elephant painting on Facebook yesterday. If they aren't preordering books yet I would be amazed...)

Just think, if everyone reading this shared the book with just TWO people, we would reach our goal of 750! (I know I know... but this type of math helps me sleep at night).

LASTLY, (I am sure only 32% of you have made is this far) remember to let people know that when creating an account on Inkshares, they receive a $5 credit towards any book. This makes the price of an E-book only $5!! 

You guys really are amazing people for supporting an aspiring writer. Not to mention, what better way to start off a new year than to build your 401-Karma account. 

Cheers my friends,

Kyle James

Ah hah! We hit 90 readers!  That means I get to give away a signed copy of Shadow of the Owl!  

Good morning everyone,

Lies and Deception is now at 99 copies pre ordered. wow that is amazing !!!

We are also at 3 readers away from our first raffle ; a 50 $ gift card of the winners choice. I cannot say how much I am happy right now, of course I will not win the Sword and Laser contest but I am getting one step closer to Quill.

I am doing this book, as I always wanted to write a good story and also want to prove to my children that you can achieve anything if you work hard and believe in yourself. When they will be older and I will be an aged man they will be able to say here is the book my father wrote... one book, maybe more.

Again if you like what I am doing, please recommend to your friend and family.

thank you once more from my children and I :)

Today's update is a short one. I just wanted to remind those that are following the book that there are three days left in the Sword & Laser the Sequel contest, and Deus Hex Machina is only three people away from 6th place. Only ONE order away from our next giveaway!  Gah! I want to give away a book today! Can we do that please??

Thank You!!!

As of bedtime-o'clock last night, Seven Shards has hit the Quill funding goal! This means it will be published!!!!!!!!

The little bundle of nerves that has been sitting in the pit of my stomach since August has now transformed into a miniature fireworks show. And not one of those blink-and-you-miss-it fireworks shows, but a fully choreographed, big-budget fireworks extravaganza. Coffee? Haha, who needs it!

I must extend my deepest gratitude to the members of the CEO Syndicate and John Robin's Epic Fantasy Syndicate for pushing Seven Shards over the edge. You (you beautiful people, you) surprised me and humble me and basically make me much more than a little verklempt.

There's probably more I could say, but right now the bottom line is Thank YOU!

Happy New Year! I hope that you all have had a wonderful 2016 thus far. Other than picking the losing team in literally every Bowl game that I watched this year, my 2016 is off to a fantastic start. 

I've been hard at work on several stories, including a new one inspired by my nearly one-year-old son. Of course, Blink Unremitting, the sequel to Shadow Incandescent, continues to progress nicely.

As I began revisions on my first draft of Shadow Incandescent, I realized that my book was a rough retelling of Plato's "Allegory of the Cave." Though I had never read the allegory before, I was roughly familiar with the basic premises of the allegory. When I realized my book had such an obvious literary ancestor, I panicked. What if I got some important points wrong? Or worse, what if I had unknowingly followed the allegory too closely?

I immediately downloaded a critical edition of Plato's Republic and read through the cave allegory about a dozen times. Satisfied that I had paid due homage, but also told a unique story that didn't rely upon the allegory for substance, I continued to revise with the allegory and other elements from the Republic in mind.

Shadow Incandescent, Blink Unremitting, and the other planned sequels get their titles and some key ideas from images found within the "Allegory of the Cave" and other, related parts of the Republic.

With so many other dystopian series currently staking their claim within the zeitgeist, I also had to be careful that I wasn't blatantly writing a Hunger Games, Maze Runner, or Divergent clone. Though I was well into the first draft before I had heard of any of those series, I feared being written off as just another dystopian band-wagon jumper.

Fortunately, the initial inspiration for Shadow came from history. The Greenbrier Luxury Resort, where the U.S. Congress built a top secret bunker complete with radiation decontamination rooms and a human body-size incinerator, became the model for the Refuge, a secret facility where only the very "best and brightest" would be allowed to survive the end of the world. Although it sounds like something a conspiracy nut would rant about on the Internet, the truth is that Congress really planned to wait out the Apocalypse (or similar disaster) at a luxury resort.

Though the Greenbrier bunker was never needed, the fact that it existed gave the Refuge an anchor in reality that I hope sets it apart from the Katniss's Panem and Tris's factioned Chicago.

Thank you so much for your interest in this book. I'm excited to share it with you. If you haven't pre-ordered yet, make sure you do before the pre-sale ends. We need 250 pre-ordered copies to send it to print. If you've already pre-ordered, don't forget to share Shadow with your friends.