Happy Hump Day! In the spirit of distraction and fun, I'd like to share a couple of recommendations for other Inkshares projects that are currently funding. This may become a bi-monthly thing (two books, twice a month), provided I remember to continue doing it. ;)

BTW - If you haven't visited the site since ordering Seven Shards, I invite you to log back in and see if you have any free credits on your account. And if you do, I encourage you to spend them!

Onto the recommendations!

First up is Exile, Magus by Thomas J. Arnold. This is a true fantasy book for fantasy lovers. If you're at all intrigued, act fast because its funding window ends in two days! 

“First in a series following a dwarven magus entering a world he grew up only hearing of. As he strives to find a place amid countless dangers (and at least one too many gnomes) his naivete in life and love may bring more danger than any foe could.”

&

Women Like Us by Jason Pomerance, a fictional tale of family and food. Be sure to check out the recipes Jason's been sharing towards the bottom of his page!

“A down and dirty chef and her starchy ex-mother-in-law must bond when a crisis threatens a member of the family.”

That's it for January. More recommendations are due to land early next month!

Only 2 days left to hit at least 250 preorders!

Also its Wednesday which may cause some of you to note how I missed both my Sunday and Tuesday updates.  With the deadline so quickly approaching I decided to skip those updates in favor of doubling up on pitching the book.

We're currently at 285 followers, and 86 copies ordered by only 78 of those followers.  That means 207 of you haven't ordered yet, and if only 164 of you(roughly 3/4) did then we would be at the Quill goal.  While I'm too much of a realist to not acknowledge that its a long shot with such a small amount of time remaining, I'm also too stubborn to give up and not push for it to happen.

With that in mind I'll point out that now is the perfect time to take the chance on Exile, Magus by going ahead and hitting that order button.  If enough of you do so, then this book will be published by Inkshares and find its way into your hands.  If not, then your money and/or credits will be refunded to you after the campaign ends so that you'd have it back in about 3 days time.  So I beg of you to order now if you haven't done so already.

That's all I've got for today.  I will be back Saturday to for an end of funding campaign update.  As always I want to thank everyone for your support, it has been quite entirely heartwarming.  I just wish I'd been able to communicate more directly with all of you.  If any of you do want to communicate with me, then you should hit me up on Facebook and/or Twitter(@thoasoold).  In the meantime, keep reading and enjoying!

Hello everybody! 

I don't have much time so I'll be keeping this brief, although I have a lot to talk about! The S&L contest is over, and unfortunately The Children of the Forest did not take one of the top 3 places. I'm still very proud that the novel managed to hold onto 5th. With the contest finished, the grind goes on. 

I decided to bring in an outside pair of eyes to help detail the opening parts of the book, and thankfully, the ever-incredible John Robin took the time to help edit and offer constructive criticism and advice for the book. I've updated Chapters 1-5 to reflect the changes to the story, and I'm quite happy with the results. John Robin is of course the author of "Blood Dawn," which is also funding on Inkshares, and if you haven't yet, you should immediately check out his work. It's fantastic. 

Looking ahead, I've restructured the rewards and information for The Children of the Forest, and anticipate the outline provided on the book's Inkshares page will be the model I hold to for the remainder of its funding duration. Due to a combination of critical and fan feedback, I truly believe in the story and characters more than ever, and intend to fight and claw my way to the 750 sales required to see a full publishing deal realized. 

This is the point where I'd like to implore anyone who has followed me or look my work previously (and this goes double for those of you who have passed on pre-ordering) to give the book another chance. The chapters have been cleaned up or else "fixed" and they all read amazingly-well. Further still, I've added more rewards and services to give early-backers extra incentives to pre-order. 

Lastly, I just want to let everyone know that the Amazon prize drawing is still scheduled to take place. Due to unforeseen developments I was not able to find the time to enter all of your information into a random generator. I will be taking care of this tonight or tomorrow, at which time the winner's name will be announced! 

I guess that's it for now, so until next time, everyone be safe and enjoy the updates! ~