Hello, everyone! It’s beyond time for an update!
First, book news, since I know you’re all curious. HOW TO REMEMBER has now been through two complete rewrites, and we’re on to the third. The team at Inkshares is truly pushing me to make this book something special, as we work to focus on the novel’s emotional core. While I’m just as eager as you are to hold the completed work in my hands, I know that it’s so important to get it right - so hang tight and be patient with me while we work this. It’s going to be amazing.
To tide you over, though, I’ve got a special announcement. I’m part of the team at Writing Bloc, which is bringing you the Escape! anthology in 2019. It’s available for pre-order now, and there will be a price jump once it comes out, so don’t wait! There is some major talent in this book, and you won’t be disappointed.
On this day after Thanksgiving, I truly appreciate you all and the impact you have made on my life by supporting this book. I want to give you all the reading experience you truly deserve, and I promise you I won’t let you down. Happiest of holidays to all!
Well friends, we’re overdue for an update. I was holding off on sending one out until Tantalus Depths had officially been put into the copy editing phase, since I really wanted that to be the next news I could deliver, but unfortunately we’re still not there yet. I do have good news, though, so stick with me to the end of this update for that.
At the moment, Tantalus Depths is in a sort of limbo between the end of the development editing process and the beginning of the copy editing process. This is because Adam Gomolin, the CEO of Inkshares, has personally given me a new set of notes for further recommended revisions. Adam knows his stuff, and has helped other authors achieve enormous success with their debut novels, including getting TV and film deals. As much as I want to finish this process, get the book into stores and the hands of my longsuffering supporters, I have to take Adam’s feedback seriously. He wants this book to succeed as much as I do, and I owe it to all of you to make this book as strong as possible before wrapping up the editing process. He and I have been going back and forth over how to make improvements to the book for the past couple of weeks, and I should be able to deal with this final edit over the next couple weeks, aiming for an absolute final development draft by the end of the year.
So that’s where the book itself is sitting right now. I know it feels like it’s not going anywhere (believe me, I am painfully, intimately aware of that feeling), but progress is happening. That leads me to my first piece of really exciting news:
Tantalus Depths is going to have an audiobook!
We’ve signed a deal with Audible to produce Tantalus Depths as an Audible-exclusive audiobook. Audible will produce this audiobook in-house, with a professional narrator and crew. We don’t know any details about the juicy stuff like who the narrator will be yet, and production can’t really begin until we’ve fully finished the final draft of the manuscript, but this is really exciting news nonetheless. I’m a huge fan of audiobooks and have listened to them religiously on Audible for years, so I couldn’t be more thrilled. I’ll keep you all updated on this as it unfolds!
Finally, I have one more piece of exciting news. I’ve been keeping this one under my hat as a special surprise to you all, but the time has come to finally let the cat out of the bag!
I, along with 19 other published and soon-to-be-published authors, participated in a short story anthology, which will be released on New Years Day and is now available for pre-order. My brand new original short story, Breach, is a standalone story set in the same universe as Tantalus Depths and Proteus.
Breach is a tense, thrilling tale of desperation and peril as two starship crewmen struggle for survival in open space, trapped in a piece of debris when their ship is destroyed by pirates. Death surrounds them on all sides; can they hold it together long enough to survive the deadly debris field, their own diminishing air supply, and bloodthirsty space pirates intent on leaving no survivors? You’ll have to check out Escape: A Writing Bloc Anthology to find out.
After all these delays with Tantalus Depths, I am so glad I can finally present you a tiny peek into this universe of mine with this new short story. Beyond that, though, I am beyond thrilled that my work gets to appear alongside so many other incredibly talented authors in this anthology. I’ve read most of the other stories, and let me tell you, you’re in for a treat here.
Well, I’ve dumped way more than enough info on you all for now. I’ll give news on the final draft of Tantalus Depths, the audiobook, and the Escape anthology as soon as I’m able. Stay tuned!
Greetings, Faoii! It is Thanksgiving here, and I am once again so grateful for all of you that supported me and The Last Faoii so we could get this far. Whatever battle you’re facing, I hope that you have people who love you at your back and enough food at your table. I could not have gotten this far without you, and I am grateful to each and every one of you that has stood at my side.
While you’re reflecting on your own blessings, I hope you’ll consider helping a large group of hopeful and aspiring authors to spread the joy of reading and storytelling by pre-ordering Escape!, an anthology of fantasy and science fiction short stories. It features a stand-alone tale of the Faoii universe which I truly think you will enjoy. It’s only $2.99 and will be releasing on January 1st. I promise you’re going to want to read everything the book has to offer.
Click Here to pre-order it on Kindle and Here to get it in one of the other e-book formats.
As always, keep your shields up. We’re all in this together.
Today is the 20th of November. In the original scheme of things, the Inkshares Mystery & Thriller contest would have ended on the 24th of November, four days from now; however, the deadline was extended some time back to the 14th of December, which means we have a little more breathing room.
Or, it means other people have the breathing room to catch up to us....
Well, we passed the Hundred Reader mark a few days ago, and just yesterday, we received the backing of the Staff Syndicate. That’s great news. If we can reach 250 readers by the 14th of December, it’s publication and no questions asked. It seems like a big hurdle, but hope springs eternal, and an honest effort could still count for much.
Remember to check your online Inkshares bookshelf, especially if you’ve not received a personal thank you email from me. It would be terrible to miss out on things simply due to "technical difficulties".
For now, though, I have a novel to write. You’re going to love it.
The 100th anniversary of anything happens only once, ever, and never again; and today was the 100th anniversary of Armistice, the end of the First World War. Here in Montreal, the event was marked by a ceremony at Place du Canada.
The haze you see is drifting smoke from the artillery guns, fired periodically as punctuation to the ceremony.
To all the veterans out there: Thank you for your service.
Hello readers!
I’ve updated Grimalkin’s ’about’ page with more insight into the story and my approach to writing. I will be sharing Chapter 6 with you soon. Kira and Raphael are so cute. It would be a shame if anything happened to them.
If you have not done so already, please consider pre-ordering Grimalkin so I can have a chance to win a publishing deal in the 2018 Inkshares Horror Contest. If you have already pre-ordered, thank you again for your support. You can continue to help by leaving a recommendation, or sharing the link with family and friends.
Is everyone having a lovely Friday!?
Unlike most of my recent updates, this one is just going out to the backers and followers of The Seclusion on Inkshares. I just wanted to send a brief check-in message to all of you, my original support team!
The book has now been out for two months, and a one pretty major thing happened recently that I wanted to share with everyone. The Seclusion received an official ’Starred Review’ from Kirkus Reviews! This is in addition to being named as one of the Best Sci-Fi releases back in September. These are both wonderful benchmarks for a new book from a first-time author. It wouldn’t have happened without all of you, and we hope to have more exciting news in the coming weeks and months.
Reviews continue to climb on Amazon and Goodreads. We are at a 4.26 star average with 111 reviews on Goodreads, and a 4.9 average with 39 reviews on Amazon! If you have had a chance to read the book, and have not left a review yet, it would mean the world to me if you could take a moment to leave a review. It is absolutely vital to the continued success of the book now that the ’new release’ energy is wavering. Especially on Amazon. Once we pass 50 on Amazon (only 11 more reviews!) the book will receive a bit more recommendation love from the sites algorithms.
I hope those of you that have had a chance to read the book, have enjoyed it! I appreciate all of you, and if you ever want to reach out with any comments or questions, I would love to hear from you - JacquiCastle@gmail.com
Hope everyone has a beautiful weekend!
-Jacqui
November 2018
Good morning, everyone.
I hope you’ve been well! We’re a little past one month since Shadow King launched and it has been quite the ride. I had two successful book signing/author events in October and hope to have more in the future. Right now, I’m planning to be at Arisia in January (in Boston). I’ll keep you posted on that.
I was also interviewed by WBZ-AM Radio’s Laurie Kirby for her Women’s Watch segment. You can listen to the interview on the WBZ website if you’re interested.
IMPORTANT:
If you were one of my early backers and have not yet received your copy of Shadow King OR a link to download the e-book (or both), please contact Inkshares customer service at hello@inkshares.com and they will be able to help you out.
I’ve had a few people ask about their copies -- in most cases, people thought they ordered a hard copy but only ordered the e-book version. But you were all so kind as to support me early on in this adventure, I want to make sure you get your book!
Have a great weekend - and I’ll update again soon (I have two other interviews coming up and will share those links when they’re available!)
Best,
Susan