Greetings, Faoii! I know it’s been a long time. I just wanted to let those of you who aren’t already following my Facebook Page what’s going on in the Faoii universe.

First off-- If you live in or near Montana, I will be selling/signing copies of The Last Faoii and "The Faoii of Ashwood" at the Montana Renaissance Festival at ZooMontana on June 1 and 2. I’m sorry I ran out of books so quickly last year (in, like, less than an hour). I’m more prepared this time, I promise! Come and say hi!

Second-- The Last Faoii has been nominated for the Independent Audiobook Awards (Part of the HEAR Now Festival) 2019!! 

This is such an honor. I almost didn’t believe it when I was first told, and my heart is filled with pride and gratitude. I looked over all of the books that were nominated along with Faoii for the Fantasy category, and they are all amazing. They each have hundreds of reviews on Amazon and an established following. Things that, a year ago, I wasn’t sure Faoii would ever have. But I have an amazing army behind me, and because of all of your support, I not only have a seriously kick-ass audiobook (voiced by the astonishingly-talented Sara Morsey) but I also get to fly to the HEAR Now Festival and stand alongside some truly talented people, knowing that our army earned our place there. Thank you. Thank you so so much.

If you’re not already following me on Facebook, please consider it. I’m moving afraid from the Inkshares platform for a lot of different reason (all of which I will be discussing in an upcoming interview. More on that soon), but I still want you to know about updates with The Last Faoii and Faoii Betrayer as they happen. We’ve gotten this far because of you. I want to finish this war with you still by my side.

Shields up

Faoii-Tahani

Good morning, dear supporters.

Well, we have been in this spot before – only a handful of days before the campaign for Bane of All Things expires, waiting for word on whether or not it’s made the grade.

Have you ever been in that situation where you’re waiting to find out if you’ve gotten that dream job, desperate to know but afraid to ask? 

Trust me, this is that times 10.

Who knows where this might go if Inkshares decides to publish BoAT? Take Tal M. Klein’s sci-fi novel, The Punch Escrow. To date, this novel has sold almost 22,000 copies through Inkshares. But that isn’t even the big news – before The Punch Escrow even hit bookstores, Inkshares had secured a 7-figure movie deal for the book with Hollywood studio Lionsgate.

I can only hope. It’s your support that will help make something like that happen.

As you know, when we crossed the 400 pre-order mark back on April 1, Inkshares editors committed to review the manuscript. I expected to have their decision by now, but these are busy folks with a lot on their plates. They may even be waiting to see how much higher that pre-order total can climb by Tuesday’s deadline before responding to me. 

What makes Inkshares so great is that it will support authors who are still diamonds in the rough. The editors will invest considerable time to help authors up their game and produce a strong novel that’s ready for the big time. 

But their willingness to commit to BoAT and to me, and invest that time and effort, very much depends on how much community support I have been able to muster. It’s your support that tells Inkshares my work, beyond its own merits, is worth their time.

After working on my own dime with a great developmental editor up here in Canada before ever launching BoAT’s campaign on Inkshares, I can only hope that this diamond shows some polish. But still, it is you who ultimately holds the power to swing that vote in my favour.

On Monday morning I will reach out to see if the editors have arrived at a decision. If I can beg your patience one more time, let me again ask that you pre-order another copy this weekend, if not for yourself than for someone else. If you have already done that, fantastic, and thank you very much.

Let’s get that pre-order total a little higher before I bite the bullet and send that email on Monday.

Cheers

Leo

To my incredibly patient followers and readers,

Let me begin by thanking you profusely. Thank you for your continued support and interest, for messaging me, stopping me in the office, or spotting me randomly in a store and asking me when the Hell After Death is going to come out.

It makes me feel terrible for the long wait, but it also makes me feel good that so many people are excited to read this novel on which I’ve now spent ten years of my life.

I apologize for the delay. Much of that is simply out of my hands, as I’m merely one of many talented authors whose work is being developed and published by Inkshares, and each of them are as anxious and as deserving of attention as I. 

That said, my number has been called. And over several conversations with Inkshares CEO Adam Gomolin — over email, phone, text, and in person — a plan has been hatched to, yes, once again restructure the novel, this time sharpening its focus on the characters of Cara Lindley and her grandmother Meryem Nurzhan. 

The character of Icara Lightfeather and her entire storyline is going to be cut from the book. (Boy am I glad I didn’t pull the trigger on that tattoo of the compass from the map of Icara’s planet!)

Let’s please take a moment to admire the incredible work of artist Andy Gouveia, who created the map for me.

To those beta-readers who considered this aspect of the book their favorite part, I can say only that Icara and her world will most certainly one day see the light of day in some other shape or form (these things almost always eventually do), and that I have every intention of cannibalizing the crucial plot elements from her storyline in service of this more honed concept.

Meryem’s backstory will be expanded even further, going into deeper detail regarding the previous outbreak of the plague in Kazakhstan and her life in the years between then and her emergence as the world’s preeminent expert on the Fever. 

Some of the novel’s trippier aspects will survive, but will be made far less prominent, and the book will center more on how three generations of one family were affected by a disease, becoming less Cloud Atlas and more Sharp Objects, which — you know what? — is going to be pretty cool and a lot more accessible.

This will take time, of course. Adam’s hope is that further developmental editing will take eight months or so, with our eyes set on a potential July 2020 release date. Whether that comes to pass obviously depends on a number of factors, not the least of which is my own ability to pull it off. 

But I am eternally humbled and grateful to all of you who have stuck by me through this, and who continue to anticipate this novel’s eventual publication. It means so much more to me than you can possibly know, particularly at this moment in my life.

In the meantime, please consider picking up a copy of Writing Bloc’s ESCAPE! An Anthology. It’s packed with twenty gripping tales of escape, including my short story "The Grave Ordeal of Jawbone John South," about an 1885 bank robbery gone very wrong when an outlaw attempts to evade the authorities by ordering his gang to bury him alive with the stolen loot.

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If you are so inclined, you can also pick up a copy of my short story "The Equestrian," the slim tale of a jockey and his horse, and the night of horror that would bestow upon both an incredible ability and a terrible curse.

I’ve also gone and uploaded a bunch of my poetry, essays, and film criticism to my website, Dan-Lee.net, including my poem "Ode," which was previously published in the Santa Clara Review literary journal, "Incidents in a Traffic Jam," the piece that made me a California state finalist for the National Poetry Slam, and my critique of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, which went unexpectedly viral a couple of years ago. 

If you have some free time, please do check that stuff out!

You are all so wonderful. And I can’t say enough how much I appreciate not only your support and patience, but that of the friends I’ve made through being part of the Inkshares community. I’ve never met a more supportive group of writers.

I’ll try to do a better job of updating more frequently, but if you don’t hear from me, please be assured that I am hunkered down, doing the work. And that one day in the not-too-distant future, you will find out what happens After Death.