Dear friends and followers,

It has been a while since my last update. August has been quiet; I admit to having distanced myself somewhat from the campaign. And now I’m just back from spending the last two weeks out west visiting mom.

This is my mom’s dog, Ernie. Ernie is sad because "Murder at the Veterans’ Club" has not yet hit the magic 750 mark. Poor Ernie.

So, we’ll be ramping up again over the course of the week and be back in full gear by week’s end. I hope I can count on your support.

In the meantime, I’d like to draw everybody’s attention to the following projects:

1) "Tantalus Depths" by Evan Graham. I’ve mentioned this book before, and I’d like to reiterate my support. It’s got horror, intrigue, mysterious outside forces, a feel for the ensemble, and solid prose. Every so often, there’s a book that will please readers who normally dislike the genre, and I think this might be it.

2) "The Darkest Places" by Byron Gillan. Here’s a book I’ve been excited about for a long time. It’s a classic cosmic horror as Lovecraft did it, and is set in the 1920s to boot. And yet, not derivative: Gillan promises a more thoughtful examination of the concept of "the Other", and that has me excited all over again.

3) "The Seventh Age: Dystopia" by Richard Heinz. Heinz has been around much longer than I have, and his first book, "The Seventh Age: Dawn", is slated to hit the bookstores in January. "Dawn" dealt with the return of magic to the modern world; "Dystopia" explores the ramifications some years down the road. I’ve worked with Heinz in "Too Many Controllers", and I can tell you he knows how to craft a story and how to tell it. With "Dawn" and "Dystopia", I promise you won’t be disappointed.

And now, I’d like to leave you with this video of me reading Siegfried Sassoon’s "Aftermath". How do I sound? Not too awful? One day ... one day! ... I shall finally get a book trailer up on my project page. Until then ... have fun! Keep reading!

Good Morning Ladies and Gents!

This morning I have another exciting update to share with you.  Last night, I received an email from the Inkshares Team letting me know that When I’m 64 has been selected as the September Pick of the Idiosyncraticate Syndicate!  For those of you that aren’t familiar with Inkshares Syndicates, what this means is that readers and writers have formed a group in which they pool their money, and select one book each month to support and offer a boost in sales.  This particular syndicate has a unique vision for their group and have chosen to support books that are in typically unsupported genres such as comedy, autobiographical, or in this case memoir.  

I am so proud and honored to have been selected by the syndicate lead, and I wanted to share what he wrote about why my project was selected:

"It takes bravery to put your story out there no matter the subject matter -- even if it’s pictures of people arguing about politics -- but this memoir-within-a-memoir is truly something else. I couldn’t do this and I love that others can. I want to see this go all the way. It’s exactly the kind of book I want this syndicate to get behind. "- Billy O’Keefe

With the backing of this syndicate, I have the support of my fellow authors, and have a total of 346 pre-orders to date.  While this is amazing in and of itself- it does give me hope that we can reach the fully supported publishing tier of 750 pre-orders.  With 31 days left in my funding campaign it would be amazing of you all to continue to help spread the word about this project with friends, family and co-workers.  

Thank you all for your continued love and support :)

Yours in gratitude,

Lauren