Greetings adventurers,

A very small update tonight. 

I’ve been in contact with Inkshares and I’ve been given the loose timeline of early 2022 for Mushroom and Anchovy to launch. This may change, but it’s a date we can go by for now! 

That’s all I have for you. As always, I’ll talk to you when there are more updates to be had.

May your travels be fraught with wonder and just enough peril to keep them interesting,

K. M. Cooper

Dear friends, 

Wow. It’s been a long journey, and I’m happy to say, it was just the beginning. Even though I’m not going to be continuing with Inkshares, I have found an editor who is working with me to get my book published very very soon...

   Stay tuned on my instagram @themidnightwarriors for more special updates, and I will honored to tell you soon when you can order the book directly from me. 

Cheers,

Nirmani

Hello All,

After a conversation with Inkshares, they agreed to a summer fulfillment if I can provide the proofreading by the end of May. I’ve contracted that through Reedsy with a delivery date of 26 May. Square peg, round hole. I still have concerns; I figure there’s nothing to stop them from kicking the can down the street again. We’ll see.

I’m moving toward marketing, and some disturbing realizations are facing me. Who really wants to read this? It’s not a happy story with a happy ending. Most of it is really depressing. I thought that maybe the story of my family might be able to help families struggling with the same condition (Li Fraumeni Syndrome) as mine, but that’s a horrible idea. LFS has no turnaround. There’s no cure, and now it’s known that traditional cancer treatments aggravate it. You might add a few yeas to a life but that’s it. Everyone needs hope in a situation like that; you’ll cry to God for it but you’re staring down the barrel of a gun. I really hope those families never find this story.

I don’t know what you’ll get from my book - hell half of you probably won’t read it when you get it - and that’s fine. Maybe it’s just for those that are gone. Maybe it’s just the satisfaction of knowing all those moments wont be forgotten.

Thank you for your help. I appreciate it,

Sharek

Greetings, longsuffering friends. I have some news! It’s not THE news, but it is A news. Actually, it’s TWO news. But it’s definitely GOOD news!

The first news: my friend and fellow brilliant authorial mastermind, Kaytalin Platt, was gracious enough to interview me on her website about my most recent short story, Reliquary, which debuted in last year’s Writing Bloc anthology, Passageways. We get deep into my creative process and worldbuilding approach, not just for Reliquary, but for the entire Calling Void series as a whole. It’s a great interview, and I’m very excited to share it with all of you. Check it out here, and while you’re there, check out some of her other interviews from authors in the Passageways anthology, including her own!

And now, the second news, which I think will be even more relevant to your interests.

I can FINALLY proudly announce that Tantalus Depths is officially out of the development editing stage of production.

Those of you who have been following my updates for a long time might be having a “Wait, didn’t we already do that?” moment right now, and you’d be right. We officially finished development edits more than two years ago and were cleared to move on to the copy editing stage. BUT, what we did not expect or plan on at the time was that Adam Gomolin, the CEO of my publishing company, would take direct personal interest in my book and want to go through an additional round of development edits one-on-one with me. While it was definitely a bit frustrating to jump right back into development edits right after I thought we were done, that frustration was hugely outweighed by the opportunities that additional round of edits provided. Adam and I worked tirelessly together to transform Tantalus Depths into an absolutely brilliant book that I’ve never been prouder of, and even though the work was exhausting and the wait has been long, I think it will absolutely have been worth it.

For those of you who are not familiar with the publishing industry’s inner workings, a “development edit” is a round of edits that focuses on story-related things like plot development, character consistency, tone, pacing, and so on. Basically, the meat of a story. Development edits tend to involve significant rewrites; in my case, I’ve rewritten several chapters, added a few new ones, and reworked dialogue and narration to make the story sleeker, deeper, with a stronger core identity. The story and the characters are still absolutely true to my original vision, and the book overall is still the story I always wanted to tell. In fact, even though I’ve rewritten probably 80% of the words in the story at this point, I’m really just telling the exact same story I always have with much better words.

And so, after approximately 8 different drafts, I have finally gotten Tantalus Depths to a point that both Adam and I agree is ready to move on to the next step. The story is locked in now, and will change very little from now to publication day, but there are still a few steps to go in the process. The next big step will be the copy editing stage, which is another full round of edits that will, thankfully, take much less time. Copy editing focuses on simpler, more mechanical aspects of writing, such as grammar and word usage. This stage will not involve significant rewrites and should not require more than one or two drafts to resolve. I’m not going to throw out any time estimations, because I’m very, very bad at predicting things like that well, but where a draft of development editing could take me months, a draft of copy editing should take days.

Before we slide into copy edits, however, I have one special bonus surprise! Adam is hooking me up with an actual, honest-to God physicist to do a special “scientific accuracy pass” on the book. Tantalus Depths has always been designed with scientific accuracy in mind, but for all the hours of research I’ve put into it, I’m still just a layperson with a Bachelors’s in education. This special bonus round of edits will give us the chance to improve the accuracy of the science presented in this science-fiction book, and I couldn’t be more stoked about it.

So yeah, really big stuff is happening with Tantalus Depths! I wish I had a release date to give you all, but we aren’t quite there yet. I have been given a tenuous one, but Inkshares’ release schedule is still pretty flexible, and depending on how long the next phase of production takes, our actual release date could move forward or backwards, so I don’t want to announce anything until it’s more definite. Stay tuned, though! We are really making progress now.

April 29, 2021

Hello All,

Here’s the best update I can provide.

The "pour" is the manuscript formatted for printing or digital copies.

From Inkshares:

Proofreading: 2 weeks

Proof resolution and cleanup: 2 weeks

Cold read: 2 weeks

Cold read cleanup: 1 week

Pour: 1 week

Printing/Ebook conversion: 4 weeks

Ship from printer: 1 week

Ship from Inkshares HQ to backers: 1 week

Publication date: should be approximately 2-3 weeks after backers receive their finished books, but discretion is up to Inkshares.

What is that, seventeen weeks?  September?

This evening I offered to drop another K or two on the project to contract the proofreading myself... to keep the ball rolling. I’ll see where that gets us. Square peg, round hole.

I think its down to the odd bits and that most valuable resource, time.

I admit, the copyedit worked wonders and the pour does look perfect. 

Thanks for being patient,

Sharek

What a year it’s been. I don’t think anyone would have elected for this last year given the choice. It’s difficult on my heart when I sit with my thoughts of everyone who suffered, struggled, cried, grieved or worse. I hope as we start to see a light at the end of the tunnel you can find some light in your life, a little hope, a little happiness, a little relief. My own frustrations this last year were rooted in my book being put on hold (oh and the government, police, the elimination of joy, etc). While Stephen King and Elizabeth Gilbert thrived, book sales for new authors plummeted and hikes in costs for publishing and marketing made publishing my little book a no-go for 2020. I didn’t realize how stunted I felt not having this book out there. My own idiosyncrasies made it very difficult to start new projects with one big unfinished one looming over me. I felt frustrated with my own creative output and guilty for not delivering on something so many of you supported me on. 

But a little hope has has arrived alongside the larger hope that we may see a more active community. The copyedit is finished (Turns out the Chicago Manual of Style prefers LA to L.A. among many other little tweaks) and I just received the I initial pour (like a drink but words fixed on a page)! The book awaits a proofread, and then we’ll have our release date! A date that will be within the window to read on a beach or on vacation (hint hint summer hint hint)

As soon as I have that date, I’ll be shouting it from the digital rooftop! My gratitude for your support and patience is limitless. Whether or not you know it, you were a hero this last year, just calmly waiting, passively or actively supporting me while the days go by and the book I wrote three years ago nears publication. It’s a commitment and not an easy one considering everything we’ve been asked to endure. This year has been so devastating. There are folks who supported me who are no longer with us. The idea that this communication will be sent out to people who are not around to receive it deeply saddens me. Not for my little project but for all the projects and all the connections and all the community that will pick up not where they left off, but with a void that is irreplaceable. It makes all the creating and presenting and all the self-indulgence feel slightly silly. The real value feels like it should be in experiences. Something I wrestle with in the book. Something I’m learning that I’m still learning.

That’s all to say that having the experience of being supported by you, having someone at the other end wanting to read my words, or at the very least nurturing my need to write down my ideas has been immensely powerful in preserving some sort of peace and appreciation during all this. So thank you. Thank you for not just being here for me, but for being here. On this planet. Existing. Living. You’re good company and your presence is important. I hope we get to connect in person in the future. And even though I fear that I will be so distant from the ideas in my book that it will be like publishing an old journal and I’ll want nothing more than to board up the doors and windows and wait for the humiliation to pass, I can’t imagine wasting any more time not sharing a laugh (even at my expense) with all the people I’m lucky to know. So as we continue to wait, continue to navigate and continue to adapt, I’m so beyond thrilled that you’re here to do it with. 

So you’ll be hearing from me very soon. And in the meantime, if you know any reputable authors or infamous writers with time on their hands and patience in the hearts, maybe I can court them to read an advanced copy for a neutral or better review for the marketing. Looking for anything more flattering than "It works for squishing and squashing bugs." -Dean Koontz