Hey, all. Happy New Year.

I hope that, despite the glut of bad news with which we were bombarded -- and the losses of more iconic people in one stretch than I can previously recall -- your 2016 was full of good news for you.

On the second to last day of 2016, I decided to draw again for the first time in about 14 years, barring those few things I’ve sketched out over that long stretch of time. It’s a work in progress, but I’m pleased with the result. To draw the four sisters from Disintegration, I derived inspiration from that famous, yearly series of photographs of four sisters that’s been floating around the Internet.

From left to right: Manon, Michele, Agnès, and Karin (Carina). If you click the image, you can see a less red version of it on my Instagram (please follow and like, and all that good social media whoring ;P ).

While I work on the cover for the book and incorporate the edits I’m receiving, I’ll be working, too, on visually realizing the characters through drawings. I’ve always thought Carina’s backstory would make a compelling graphic novel. That’s a back-burner project I’d love to someday bring to life.

The bulk of my time has been devoted to writing Integration and it’s surprising me how different a novel it is, and will be, from Disintegration. It’s so much more subtly science fiction. Not quite blink and you’ll miss it, but it’s much more rooted in (a close extrapolation of) contemporary life without the high-stakes drama of dystopic world war. It’s actually really nice to be able to describe the blue skies overhead. :D

I hope you enjoy this glimpse of the lovely ladies of the Derouard / Duvais family. If you would like to join those who are currently reading the book (and, I’m happy to report, really liking it), let me know and I’ll send you the epub of the manuscript that John Robin was kind enough to make for me.

To close, allow me to crib from one person that, thankfully, stuck with us through 2016:

Excelsior!

P.S. - Speaking of social media whoring, the facebook page for Disintegration has 69 likes. In the stilted English of my Russian cyborg Rozhenko: "Please to be the 70th" ... and beyond!

Happy 2017 to all of my supportive followers out there!

I have a few exciting developments regarding The Walls are Closing In.

News headlines in recent weeks have provided no shortage of headaches, but also no shortage of ideas, and several new scenes have been added to a manuscript that I had originally thought was, for the most part, complete. 

My husband, Artist Bart Castle, has worked up the national emblem that will be ever so prominent throughout the story. A new version of the map has also been uploaded to the book’s page.

The official pre-order campaign will begin next Friday, the 13th, and will run for three months. I am going to throw myself into this campaign completely, and am aiming for the gold, 750 pre-orders and a full publishing contract, which will place The Walls are Closing In on bookstore shelves across the country. Ideas from my fellow authors, friends, family, and followers are more than welcome!

Conversations are in the works regarding blog interviews and You-Tube channel features. Stay tuned.

The book has received several new reviews and recommendations, and for that I am incredibly grateful. I will share a selection of them here in closing.

Happy 2017 Followers of the Space Sloth!

Thank you again for supporting this draft as it moves along. To show my appreciation I’m providing a link to a new short(ish) story set in the Fortunes of the Space Sloth world. It’s called "Collateral Hazards". This story takes place before the draft book’s events. It provides a little more world building and if you pay attention you might see some clues to explain why things work the way they do on the Space Sloth.

Collateral Hazards, by P.A. Tebbe

I hope you enjoy it. Happy New Year.

PT

Dear friends and followers,

Happy new year! By now, you should all have gotten the news that we’ve made our goal, a month early. Or, more precisely, that we’ve made the top three on The List, which means the same result without having to actually hit the full 750 orders. This is pretty awesome, and it’s all thanks to you. Every one of you who pre-ordered, who spread the word, who got your friends to pre-order or even just to look at the book: thank you. Thank you so much.

So, now that we’re "in production", what does that mean? When will you get your books?

I know I’ve been saying that books will probably be out around November 2017, and that was a conservative estimate back in March when I started. But the volume of books going through Inkshares of late means that the production process is longer now than it used to be. Here is what Inkshares has to say about the production process. According to this, it could be twelve to eighteen months from the moment I submit my manuscript before the book comes out. In short: between January and June 2018.

I know. I’m a little dismayed too. But it’s still miles better than not getting it out at all, so it’s still a cause for celebration.

Again, thank you for everything. Let’s party like it’s 1925!

Happy New Year, Knightmares!

I wanted to send out a quick message before the New Year to update you on what’s going on. So here’s the update: Inkshares has quite a bit of backlog going on right now with books waiting to be published. This log-jam, I am hoping, will get some clarity sometime within the first few weeks of the year. 

That’s really the entirety of it. I am waiting my turn while I work on other projects, both artistic and written.  If you have a chance, check out Vexed or Masked, both new projects listed here on Inkshares.

In the meantime, I wanted to wish all of you a very happy close to 2016, and a very prosperous and exciting 2017! 

Thanks again for all your support! And remember, the book is still on sale, so if you haven’t yet, grab a copy!

I’ve been here before, sitting in the quiet before the end, wondering what lies on the other side of the storm. I am the crazy person who has entered four contests on Inkshares, one of which I won with a group of amazing talents much larger than mine.  Four contests in a year. I can mark them like seasons in my life on Inkshares.

The first contest was my introduction to Inkshares as a whole. The Nerdist contest came along at a time when I was waiting for my final edit to return on Shadow of the Owl, when I had already written a book, created a cover, bought my ISBNs and prepared to self-publish. I hit submit assuming many things, not the least of which was that it would easy (not unlike self-publishing on its own).

Next I tossed Deus Hex Machina into the Sword & Laser the Sequel contest, largely because I already had a funding campaign for Shadow of the Panther up on the site and didn’t want to resubmit. I’m glad I made that choice, because while I didn’t win that contest, I did get far enough to grab interest in the project from outside and even eventually get the book a light publishing contract. The outside interest ended up pushing me to write a book while I was funding it (something I highly suggest no one ever do), writing a book I originally thought would never see the light of day. It was at this point that I promised I would never do another contest, by the way.

When the Nerdist Video Game contest came along, I was at the right place at the right time with a group of writing colleagues who wanted to try something crazy -- submit an anthology. The result was a first place win for Too Many Controllers, to which I submitted a story I had been working on for years that is currently titled "Final Boss." I am incredibly proud of that story, mostly because it represents my overcoming a huge fear of short fiction that’s hounded me since I let fear push me out of the fiction side  of my creative writing degree at USC. 

And now, The List 2016 is drawing to a close. In little under six hours I will be ending my first year with Inkshares the way I began it: Watching a contest end. I  find myself introspective (obviously) rather than dejected at the results of this contest. Sitting seventh in a contest that I was invited into is a rather big honor. I have a finished manuscript waiting until the contest closes today, one that I firmly believe is the best writing I’ve ever done.  No matter what result happens from this contest, I will be able to look back at this year with Inkshares and smile. I have one book published, two more in production once I send in DHM, and many more projects. I have found a community of disparate writers from around the world, and a strange and wonderful company that links them all together in this crazy publishing fever dream. 

What’s next up for me in 2017? I am about to write another couple of short stories in the Shadow of the Owl universe. Once I have those done and published I’ll be planning out the sequel to DHM and then hammering out the next (and final) version of Shadow of the Panther. That book needs to be finished -- it’s been restarted so many times at this point that it must assume I don’t love it. Luckily I have the outline complete on what it’s going to look like, and I think I’ve settled on a premise that will fit the fantasy of the series while still innovating within it.

Two stories, two books, zero contests: that sounds like a great year to me. If 2016 was the year of funding books, I think 2017 will be the year of writing books, and maybe even publishing a couple too.  That sounds pretty great to me.