It has been an emotional last couple of days. At 2:30 AM on Thanksgiving Day, I have looked over my final interior design layout, the final cover is in the works, and my publishing day is fast approaching.

It’s been a long time.

Quick update-

The 94,200 word Mission 51 manuscript delivered to Inkshares is currently waiting its turn in the editing queue. I am told it may be after the first of the year before the Inkshares staff can "dive into it." - I think I can hold my breath that long!   

Hello readers, followers, and pre-orderers of The Silent Scream of Melania Trump,

Inkshares informed me this morning that the staggeringly beautiful work of art that is The Silent Scream did not meet its funding goal. Those of you who pre-ordered copies will be refunded by Inkshares. 

I choose to believe that every venture, whether successful or not, is worthwhile in some way. Through this campaign I learned lessons about fundraising, project management, and most significantly that there are over 100 people out there who are willing to champion my work. Some of you surprised me, popping back into my life after many years to cast your pledge. But be you old friend, current pal, or mysterious patron, I am honored to have your support. Thank you for pre-ordering, retweeting, and plugging on your podcast/Facebook walls. 

So what’s next?

NaNoWriMo provides a really great impetus for continuing to revise and refine the book. I intend to sand away some of the rough edges and then pitch it again. In the meanwhile, I will begin writing a passage for Our Fair City’s forthcoming art book (likely to release in 2018). And I will continue to publish new episodes of Blastropodcast and Muffed Movies every month.

I’m not going to lie - for the moment, I feel crestfallen. But I remain hopeful, and I am happy in the knowledge that it is the process, not the product where the tastiest grubs like to huddle. I have more grubs to unearth before I can put a book in your hands. Thank you for your patience.

Mark 

One third of the way through NaNoWriMo and I’ve come to a revelation about myself: I don’t like editing.

It’s a whole different world from writing, and trying to pick apart a story you’ve written already and piece it back together in a way that works better is a phenomenally headache-inducing process. It’s necessary, and the results of the process will speak for themselves in the end, but gosh is it exhausting.

I wish I could say I’ve made a lot of progress on Tantalus Depths already, but it’s been very slow going. Most of the editing I’ve done so far has been in the form of outlining rewrites on problem scenes and trying to boil the entire story down to specific thematic elements so I can increase the consistency in theme and tone throughout. It’s slow but crucial work, and hopefully it’ll make the remainder of the process move much more smoothly.

To keep myself creatively inspired while working through the frustrating and tiresome work of editing, I’ve been doing a decent amount of work writing Proteus as well. Since the beginning of NaNoWriMo, I’ve managed to work through about a bit over a dozen pages in Proteus, and about two full chapters. I’m definitely not up to the recommended word count for NaNoWriMo, but since I’m dividing my attention between writing and editing, I feel like it’s a fair bit of progress.

My plan is to try and get the first half of Tantalus Depths edited by the 20th of the month, finishing it by the end of November. Somewhere in there I’d like to knock out another half-dozen chapters of Proteus if possible, but that remains a secondary priority.

Hopefully my next update will be an encouraging one. Back to work I go!

Hello horror fans!

I come to you with a humble request. A God in the Shed has the honour of being a semi-finalist for the Goodreads Choice Awards 2017. This is a big deal. What would make it an even bigger deal is making it to the next round as a finalist. A huge deal. Gargantuan really.

All I ask of you, is a few clicks.

First, click here to get to the voting page. Then, while logged into Goodreads, click on the red VOTE button under A God in the Shed.

There you go. With that simple gesture, you participate in what can be a huge step in my writing career and that makes you awesome. Hurry! You only have up to November 12, 2017 to vote!

Thanks for the support! You’re the best.

JF