Mark your calendars!

Okay you guys, here's the deal. I'm going to release another chapter and another piece of art as soon as we hit 35 readers. So, if you guys would be so kind, please share this campaign page on your Facebook and Twitters. This is a team effort you guys! I can't wait for you guys to see whats in store for these characters!

Its Tuesday and that means another blog post.  This time I'm giving you a peek both into another continent on Pentaz' world which has been cut off by a jagged wall of sky high fire from the rest of the world since the Demon Gods' Invasion, and just how horrible a writer I was in high school.  Its a narrative poem I wrote in high school and have never once got around to editing and polishing.  All of the links in this update lead you to it.  Read it and laugh at how awful I used to be, then be thankful I got better.

BIG NEWS!  

I've taken a brief leave from my day job to finish the manuscript of the second book in the Maren Kane Mystery Series. The working title is A Timely Murder! Without revealing too much, I can share that one of the main characters from One Murder More (Book 1) runs for office, one is shot (no!) and Maren finds herself in deep trouble  on the strip in Las Vegas.

I also want to share that although I’ve been fortunate to have several agents wooing me, I am staying with Inkshares!  I could not imagine a more reader and author-friendly environment in which to write. But it does mean I need to have sufficient pre-orders to meet the threshold for Inkshares to publish me again—there is no “free pass” for sequels; each work must (appropriately) stand on it’s own. So I will be asking you soon to consider preordering the 2nd book in the Maren Kane mystery series, and to encourage others you know to do so. In particular, the system has changed—for  One Murder More, money could be contributed without being linked to additional books to the backer. Under the new system only money  to purchase books will be accepted, and 750 books total must be preordered to qualify for  full publishing via Inkshares.  This is  true democratic publishing in action—you "vote"  to secure the future of the book by purchasing copies  in advance.  

While all backers in the new system will receive special insider updates from me, I want to ask your input now on recommendations for a special incentive for individuals  who order 10 books or more.  (Upon request, I’ll arrange to have any books  that a backer  does not personally wish to receive  donated to reputable charitable organizations. One I have in mind is the Downtown Women’s Center for homeless women in LA http://www.downtownwomenscenter.org.  I welcome your suggestions for organizations that would similarly benefit from books for adult literacy efforts and for resale for their  fundraising.) 

Your Ideas for Incentives?  In particular, what fits the “Maren Kane Mystery” gestalt?  Also, I will need to be mindful that any incentive will be at my cost for production and shipping. In a general post Inkshares suggests " a t-shirt, mug or coloring book".  Not sure any of those fit though...One idea I had is writing a special short story that would go only to  “super-backers”, prior to being submitted to mystery magazines for publication.

 Finally, I would appreciate your assistance in coming up with a better name than “super-backers” for those who are able to offer more support.  

Thanks again for everything! It’s been quite a journey so far.

Kris   

www.kriscalvin.com

ps Thanks for the  great audiobook  development suggestions! Will keep you posted...

It has been exactly one week since I uploaded a sample of Transilience. And, I have to say, my experience on Inkshares has been a rather exciting one. It's given me an opportunity to find a group of writers who share the same hopes and dreams that I do. The chance to be published. To take some agency in the process - to circumvent the slush pile - and let the strength of our writing and our ideas determine our fate.

With that in mind, I give a hearty Thank you! To those who have already supported Transilience. Your generosity has pushed Transilience one step closer to becoming a reality.

Cheers!

Kev

Hello everyone! I'm back with an update after one crazy week of finals and waiting anxiously on grades. I got the grades that I needed and now instead of constantly thinking about that I can get back to writing! I have been adding chapters to the story and editing the already existing chapters and I am happy to say that the draft is almost finished. Please take a look at the chapters and leave some feedback so that I can know what I need to fix or what's good about my story. Thank you!

Hey guys. Sorry if you're getting a bunch of updates. Seems the comment system has issues with Firefox. We're working to get you guys a couple more sample chapters this week. We're nearly done with our rewrite of the entire story and are working hard to get our most interesting chapters to you guys. Obviously we want to intrigue and tantalize you guys rather than just shoving our entire book into Inkshares. Until then check out the latest original art from our Universe!

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I’ve been meaning to edit the first chapter and re-upload it to the Inkshares page. “The fox’s eyes WERE dazzled as he passed from the darkness beneath the arch and stepped into the daylight. Maxan HAD BEEN following his mark…” Argh! Those passive verbs are killing me! One of my weaknesses as a writer that I’m trying to work through is the fact I obsess about the quality of every line, every arrangement of words, practically every letter that I produce. Which wouldn’t be so bad if it all happened AFTER I committed the sentence to the page, you know - like normal editing.

But no. No. Oh no. Unfortunately it happens to me DURING the writing. I’ll type something that’s maybe not perfect but not so bad, and then I’ll instantly convince myself there’s a better way to say it… *backspace*backspace… “Aaah, there you go, Joe. Now we can move o… Hold on, what was I going to write next?” By the time I get ready to move on, I’ve lost the rhythm. Anyway, as I said, I’m getting better at ignoring the perfectionist riding on my back. I need to be a bit more Blaster, a lot less Master and just get the g*d**n first draft done!

Besides the superficial edits that need to be done… There are some sweeping changes that need to be made to all of The Animal in Man’s earlier chapters. You see, one day, I got tired of worldbuilding and just said “Hell with it! Let’s write!” And I did. Only while I was writing it, I was discovering things about the world that I hadn’t prepared for. Like this plague called “The Strayn” that grips the Herbridian population.

When a Herbridian develops a case of Strayn, they have quite literally ‘gone astray’ or become ‘stray.’ It’s not a physical affliction. It’s a complete breakdown of their mental faculties. It’s a complete reversion to a wild, feral nature. They lose anything and everything that makes them more than an animal, starting with coherent speech. They growl. They stop using utensils to eat their food, opting instead for the more natural claw and fang to scratch and rend and tear into their sustenance. And they develop an ‘unnatural’ taste for meat. Live meat. They hunch, they stoop, they start to move on all fours as opposed to upright. Their entire bio-mechanics change. The most advanced cases of stray Herbridians are relatively indistinguishable from the animals you or I might see behind a cage at a zoo in this world. Only a Herbridian is roughly the size of a human. So imagine that Lion-man, standing upright, 6’6” tall, powerful, proud, the sunlight of Yinna glinting off his golden armor, his hand gripping a Gladius hilt buckled at its side, and then some hunger sets in, some beast whispers within the veil of this Lion-man’s dreams, reminding it how much it enjoys the flesh of the gazelle, the thrill of the chase, and soon the Lion starts slouching, just a little, over time, inch by inch, and soon the Lion starts staring down the cobbled street toward a block of Crosswall it knows many gazelles call home. More and more, it catches itself there on that corner, week to week, day to day, every minute, and soon the lion doesn’t bother to wear its armor any more. Wearing clothes has no point, nor standing tall, when one moves so much faster, when one hides so much better, beneath just the fur that covers its skin. And one day the hunger overcomes the lion, the whisper has grown to a scream that can only be silenced if the beast slakes itself on the blood of that gazelle.

And thus the once-proud Lion-man has fallen astray.

So when I edit The Animal in Man, I will need to remind readers of the danger that surrounds Maxan when he skulks through the Western district. He doesn’t just shadow from the rooftops because it keeps him hidden. Oh no. It keeps him safe. The Western District of Crosswall is an enormous cage. The Leoran King has ordered all Stray to be quarantined within the high stone walls that run the length of its miles-long perimeter.

But are all those Leorans locked in this district Stray? No. Many are falsely accused of going stray and exiled. Neighborly disputes in the other areas of the city can be solved by whoever bribes corrupt city guards to believe that their rival’s fangs might be showing a little more involuntarily these days… “Right? Maybe his shoulders are stopping a little more than they used to. Maybe he doesn’t feel so right in the head?” And after a coinpurse changes hands, that perfectly healthy rival might find himself flung into the Western District, surrounded by Stray, separated from his family and from his claim to property in the city. His life completely destroyed.

Such is the nature of greed, or of revenge. Of opportunity and betrayal. Besides our tendency for violence, there are many ugly parts of ourselves we try to hide. There’s just not enough room in this update to list them all. Stay tuned for the next weekly update, due this Friday Dec. 11th, wherein I’ll tell you about Maxan the fox, The Animal in Man’s reluctant hero.