Dear readers,

It's the weekend again, and that means 20 more pages of Blood Dawn await. I'm really excited to be where I am in the novel right now. Like clockwork, more than one year of drafting with a professional coach, careful planning, pacing, and setup are coming together. Better yet, with the end in sight, I realize I will be finished the draft in November, about a month earlier than expected.

I love my writing time. It's when I can shut the world out and disappear into the story, often moving around to several different Starbucks and writing for hours on end in the company of a French press. Each week, though, that's getting more difficult with the daily demands of promotion -- about 3-5 hours / day, 7 days / week. I'm so encouraged by all the support you've shown me and the sometimes daily emails I'm getting from enthusiasts expressing how much they want to see this book succeed, so consequently, I work harder, because I realize this is not just my vision, but our vision. Whatever it takes to reach 2,501 pre-orders by next April, I'm going to do it, not just for me, but for the readers who I want to enjoy holding Blood Dawn as a real, physical book.

But, that said, the story comes first. It has to. That means I need time to regenerate and get my mind in the right place to ensure that each week I make not just the right story choices, but amazing story choices. So far, I'm still doing it, but I still have about 200 pages left. I can't let a single one slip, and that's a tough feat, so it means I need to find the balance to keep my creative energy fresh and strong.

One thing that helps me get my energy back is the time I spend helping other authors. I've loved the World Builders series on my blog, where three times a week I get to learn about other authors and help them promote their great works. I've also enjoyed watching what started as my attempt to connect individually with other authors and help them promote their books evolve into what is now a Goodreads group with more than 200 Inkshares authors (thank to Joe Terzieva's great incentive!), and I continue to connect with new authors to help us form a strong community where we work together to reach out to readers.

So, it's the weekend, and I'm about to disappear into my writing, but that doesn't mean I'm going to forget all about promotion. I thought, though, that instead of pushing at everything myself, I'd first try doing something I normally don't do: I'd like to ask you for help.

I'm only one person, and even though I'm the captain of this ship that is Blood Dawn, you are my crew and you all have stepped up to back this project with the same hope I have of reaching the far shore. There are many things you can do to help me, right now, so that while I step away this weekend to drive the story forward some more, we can push this dream closer to completion.

• If you have followed Blood Dawn but not backed it, then why not go to my page right now and consider backing it? (Here is the link: https://www.inkshares.com/projects/blood-dawn) Read the three options you have, because there are some awesome perks, especially the DRAGON package (I'm just LOVING naming new dragons after DRAGON backers -- my thanks to Azzavastan, Patazamazzon, Lazahalaur, Lazagauld, and Kazangaura).

• If you have backed Blood Dawn, then here's how you can help: think of any friends who you can recommend this to, then please let them know about it by email. If all of you told your friends and that brought only one reader on board, then as far as I'm concerned that's still a victory, because that's one person who would have never known about this project -- and one more member to join our team.
  

• If you are an Inkshares author and you really want to help me with this project, then what about sending out an update to your readers? I think it's great when we as authors can share other's great Inkshares projects with our readers. I was thrilled to see how Jack Bender's Elephant in the Room received such great support from you all when I sent an update out to help him reach his pre-order goal (which he DID). In fact, as a follow-up thank you to any author who shares Blood Dawn with their readers this weekend, I will share your books with my readers on Monday.
  

Here's to teamwork, the key to our success with Blood Dawn, and the more of us who join and are passionate about this project, the more power we have as a whole. So let's make this dream not just real; let's make it amazing!