Dear friends and followers,

It’s Thanksgiving weekend here in Canada, so for those of you who celebrate it, I wish you a happy Thanksgiving. For my part, I would like to give thanks for the progress "A Gentleman’s Murder" has made since its release back on 31 July.

• Firstly, that it was released at all. That in itself is a great gift.
  
• Great reviews, both by professional critics and by readers such as yourselves. I’m glad to be bringing some enjoyment into the world.
• Being optioned for TV. That’s rather like winning the lottery with a ticket bought with the winnings from another lottery.

I assume all of the above means, in the words of Sally Field, "You like me! Right now, you like me!" And I hope you like me well enough to consider backing "Cat’s Paw". Important as it is to give thanks for the past, it is as important to look to the future. With this second novel, I want to give you the same degree of enjoyment, if not more, that you and other readers seem to have derived from "A Gentleman’s Murder". Experience has shown that it can be done; all it needs now is your go-ahead.

Quite aside from this, of course, I must thank all of you who’ve expressed your confidence in me with regard to "A Gentleman’s Murder": those of you who backed it, who introduced the book to your friends, and who afterwards wrote reviews of it on Amazon and Goodreads. May you have as much and more to be thankful for this Thanksgiving season.

Dear readers,

For all of you in Canada, let me wish you a happy Thanksgiving. May your families all be more functional than the Linwoods of "Cat’s Paw" turn out to be. (Roger Linwood, as the story begins, would tell you that his family is very functional indeed -- he doesn’t know yet that it’s all built on a lie.)

I’ve described "Cat’s Paw" as being "Agatha Christie’s ’Ordeal By Innocence’ meets H. G. Wells’s ’The Island of Doctor Moreau’". The first part is easy enough, knowing that Roger Linwood and his siblings are adopted. But, knowing that I’m steering well clear of science fiction and fantasy, can you guess how "The Island of Doctor Moreau" fits in?

Family obligations over the past week mean I haven’t been able to devote as much time as I would have liked to working on "Cat’s Paw", and I’m sorry to say that we appear to have slipped down to third place in the Mystery & Thriller Contest rankings. I sincerely hope each of you might be able to introduce this book to a friend; and if you’re still on the fence, that you might consider adding your backing to it as well. We can still do this.

And for all of you who’ve done anything at all -- by promoting it elsewhere or especially by backing it yourselves -- I offer my heartfelt thanks. It’s Canadian Thanksgiving, after all.

- Christopher Huang

Phew! It’s been a busy first 10 days of the Inkshares Mystery & Thriller contest. I’ve managed to get 225 orders for over 300 books, which is very exciting! This puts me around 40% of the way to the goal. We’re still early in the process, but thanks to all your support Gumshoe Rules is in the #1 position. 

A few people have asked me about Inkshares and why I chose this route to publication. There were several reasons, but perhaps the most important is that I know two successful authors who have used Inkshares: Tal Klein (The Punch Escrow) and Christopher Huang (A Gentleman’s Murder).  Their books are available in bookstores and on Amazon. Coincidentally, they both sold film or TV rights, which is awesome. If you like Science Fiction, The Punch Escrow is a real treat. For fans of “golden age” mysteries, A Gentleman’s Murder is a modern take on a classic 1920’s genre. But why choose? Buy ’em both!

The other reason I chose Inkshares is more subtle. The publishing industry has gone through tremendous consolidation over the last 10 years. With the advent of the Kindle, eBooks and self-publishing, it seemed like the old model of spending a year to find an agent, pitching publishers and eventually get a book deal seemed like a slow boat to nowhere. Inkshares is a disruptive approach to publishing that takes out the gatekeepers and lets readers decide what kind of books they want to read.  Inkshares seemed like a good middle ground between traditional publishing and the wild-west of self-publishing. They get good distribution through retail channels and the process moves faster than traditional publishing. Seems like a win-win to me!

I’ve spent several weeks emailing everyone I know  and I’ve found that to be 10x more effective than Linkedin or Slack and 100x more effective than Twitter or Facebook. If I can ask you to email two or three friends or colleagues about the book, that is greatly appreciated. Every unique order counts towards the contest, so no one should feel pressure to order multiple copies. Send them a link to:  https://www.inkshares.com/books/gumshoe-rules   With your help I know we can get to 400 orders and beyond.

In subsequent updates, I’ll talk more about the authors who have influenced this book, where readers are coming from as well as answer any questions you have.

Thank you so much for your support!
--Z.Z. Traver
PS. At the Bouchercon mystery writer’s conference, I was able to hang out with Christopher Huang, author of A Gentleman’s Murder, also published by Inkshares