An avid reader.. My son Paul wrote Ghosts of War. Check it out, all support greatly appreciated. It ...
Hello dear readers,
A lot has been going on and that’s kind of why I’ve been rather discreet in my communications. Also, I bet with three contests currently vying for attention, you get enough emails already. So what could possibly have taken up so much of my time?
Let’s start with how I had to do revisions to the manuscript for A God in the Shed. I had already handed it in but after a meeting at WeedRoad Pictures in L.A. a few weeks ago, several ideas to further improve the story demanded to be put to the page.
WeedRoad Pictures? What the hell is that? Well, that’s the second bit of paralyzing news. A God in the Shed has been optioned by Skydance Productions through the help of Akiva Goldsman from WeedRoad (props to Greg Lessans and Alexandra Neil for their part. Amazing people). I can’t do this news justice but you can read the article by The Tracking Board if you want to know more.
So what does this mean? The short answer? I don’t know! It doesn’t mean that A God in the Shed is going to be a television show but rather that there are efforts behind making that happen. Needless to say that the book is in the hands of some incredibly talented and hard working people. I’m still reeling from the news and gathering the details myself, but as far as excuses for my silence, I think that’s the best I can do right now.
What’s next?
Let me finish this with a heartfelt ‘thank you’ to Adam Gomolin and Brooklyn Weaver who worked like tireless maniacs to make this happen, along with the rest of the Inkshares crew for their support and of course, you guys, the readers, without whom none of this would be possible.
On to the next step!
JF
It’s Friday time!
So, here’s how the week went:
It’s snazzy, and a little slim on the words unfortunately. Things were a little all over the place schedule wise this last week, but next week is looking calmer so ’writing time’ has actually been given allotted hours.
But it’s not all bad, I was able to finish Chapter 30 and get a nice chunk of Chapter 31 done and I went over the 95k threshold. So yes, good progress was made, not much, but it was good. I should be able to finish off 31 this week and maybe 32 as well, they are shorter chapters after all.
Then it’s on to finishing off 23 & 26, which will be a bit more work, 26 might be the longest (and most important) one in the book.
And then it’s on to tidying things up for beta reading time...
See you next week.
Hello, fine readers and followers. How are all of you on this dreary, gray, New York day? I hope you’re somewhere sunnier than I.
Okay, ladies and gentle men, time for an update on all things Ghost-y.
You may have noticed last time I said a thing about having the book done and submitted by the end of July. Well, that didn’t happen, but there are reasons, some good, some less so. Let’s begin.
I was talking to Inkshares around the time of the last update and mentioned my intention to submit at the end of July. Inkshares have a lot on their plate at the moment with a bunch of books in production and some behind the scenes changes, and they felt it would be in the best interests for my book if I took a bit more time to work on things, and not rush it so that when it came time to submit they could give it the appropriate attention.
So what this essentially means is the book is about 95% certain to not be coming out in 2016 which, while disappointing, is best for the books future. Rest assured though, it will be coming as soon as humanly possible in 2017.
One side effect of this "take your time" directive was that my brain went into "oh you can put this off for a while" mode (among many other unhelpful modes)...and here we are: three months later and no finished draft.
This is a problem. For me. For you. For Inkshares.
It is not, however, a problem without a solution and that solutions name is accountability. It’s all well and good to give myself deadlines, but if I’m the only one I’m beholden to, then I tend to fall between the cracks. So I figure having near on 400 people on my case should be a good motivator.
So, starting next Friday I’ll be sending out weekly updates that will include the daily word totals for the previous week. They’ll continue until the first draft is done (which is close mind you) and then I’ll reassess the schedule as things head into beta reading and revisions and such.
Current Stats
Word Count: 94,203
Chapters Finished: 27 of 32
What’s Left: 23, 26 & 30 need to be finished and I have yet to start on 31 & 32 (though they are fully outlined)
Estimated Final Word Count: somewhere around 110,000
I’ll see you all next week.
Less than 100 orders to go!!! We are still just on pace to get those 750 preorders by the Oct 20th deadline. I’m confident we will make it and get a full publishing deal but it’s going to come down to the wire and every order is significant. Please do continue to share with friends; conversing in person or sending a personal email is always great and if you have Facebook you can invite friends to this nifty event I created that gives a pitch for the book: https://www.facebook.com/events/336202026717097/
As always, thanks for making all of this possible for me. I’ll leave you with a photo from Illegal; I took this from my front door in Latacunga, Ecuador at the start of what is now referred to as the ’citizens revolution.’ The entire city had been cut off from the rest of the country for three days and every intersection downtown burned. Within the week the government would agree to the protester’s demands and abruptly stop all trade negotiations with the United States. 
