Hi Everyone!

It’s February 13, so happy birthday to me!  The universe gave me a birthday gift in the form of at least 2 feet of snow on the ground and a snow day at the University.  Yay!

Of course I’m writing to you not about my birthday, but about some news I’d like to share.  I’ve finished my first editing pass through “More Fun and Games,” the sequel to “It’s All Fun and Games!”  I hadn’t even looked at it since penning it during NaNoWriMo back in 2011, and I’m pleased to announce that it’s a fun little story, with quite a few twists and turns.  The story follows the friends to the busy streets of Providence City as they make their way east and attempt to establish alliances to help them on their quest.

I do all the editing by hand on paper, and then I go back to the computer to input all the changes, working through wording and making other edits as I go.  This acts as a second full editing pass.  Once all the writing has been cleaned up (and some of it was pretty messy), I’ll then turn to think about bigger structural and story continuity issues that may need to be addressed.  Only once that has been done will I start seriously looking at how to bring the book to market.

I’ve been at it for about a month now, and finally finished, so wanted to share.  I’m proud of the story and can definitely see it turning into something everyone will enjoy. 

And now some announcements -

I’ll have a table at the Bangor Toy and Comic Con at the Cross Center over Memorial Day weekend, so if you’re in the area, feel free to stop on by and say hello!

More immediately, I’ll be at TotalCon at its new home in Marlborough, MA the weekend of February 25th, mostly playing in the Pathfinder Society area.  Again, feel free to say hi!

Lastly, since it’s my birthday, if you wanted to give me a present, head over to Amazon or Goodreads and leave me a review!  I’m up to nearly 80 on Amazon, averaging 4.6 stars.  I’d love to break the 100 review barrier!

Some of you folks may get this twice, once from Inkshares and once from my own mailing list.  I apologize for the spam, but am trying to be more savvy about marketing stuff and getting more eyeballs on my posts.

Thanks again for all your support!

Dave

Hello, everyone!

I wrote a short blog post on the topic of immigration. You can find it here:

http://thebestparts.net/immigration-the-entire-journey/

Peace!

Meet Saghan. A venomous viper, hailing from the distant swamps of Drakora. A slithering, green-scaled assassin with little care for life - whether those of his victims, or his own. A slave. A self-aware puppet who knows he can never break the invisible strings of the all-powerful puppeteer.

I commissioned this concept of Saghan about a month ago, and while I received a couple other pieces in the meantime (including this amazing one of Maxan, if you haven’t already seen it), I am so utterly impressed by artist Nic Morales’ interpretation of my character that I’ve sent him to the front of the line. Saghan serves as a foil to Maxan. Whereas Maxan makes choices informed by his sense of right, Saghan has no choice, and has given up on the idea of deciding his own destiny. And yet, we have a fox, and we have a snake... Both creatures known for their cunning, their guile, their deceptive natures. Maxan and Saghan are more alike than they know.

This right here… This portrait… THIS is EXACTLY what I saw in The Animal in Man. Make no mistake, this world is brutal, full of beasts, full of killers.

I truly wish I had more news in terms of the book’s publication date, but no movement has been spied on that horizon just yet. Please continue to be patient, as I am. And in the  meantime, I will continue to post new pieces of concept art as they come in. Thanks as always for your continued support, my dear Animals.

Welcome to February everyone! By now, hopefully everyone has gotten their books. Some of you, may have started reading by now. So I’ve come to bring you artwork;

This is an image of a hairless squirrel cat rodent rat demon thingy that steals tacos and eats pizza. His name is Sparkles. 

Say Hello. Brandwyn did this wonderful little critter, and is working on another demon that will be revealed later. You can find more of her artwork here. 

Now this brings us to reviews! If you’ve read the book (liked or disliked) I would very much appreciate it if you left me a review. Rankings, Algorithms, Search Engines, are all based on reaching bench-marks of reviews--so the more reviews I get, the better chances the book has out in the wild. 

Audible: (For those Audio Folks:): Click Here

Amazon: Click Here. 

GoodReads: Click Here

Barnes and Noble: Click Here. 

Pick your flavor of website. Hell, pick all of them if you really are feeling ambitious. 

Finally, I just want to say thank you to everyone for all the support. The book is finally out! From here on out, I’ll be posting updates through here maybe once a month. Based on new artwork, con news, or other progress updates on the sequel. I’ve also got a short story about Akira I’ll be bringing out this year as well. 

Gah! ~Rick. 

Dear friends, backers and followers.

I thought I should update you on the progress of Lies and Deception.

I am done with edits now, and manuscript is almost ready to send to Inkshares. I am currently working on a new cover for the book. Once this will be done I will send that lovely package to Inkshares.

Now let me introduce you to a non Inkshares project. This was the short story I had for the Anthology ; Too Many Controllers.  After we learned that the book wasn’t going to be published by Inkshares. I  decided not to let that  Short Story at the bottom of my hard drive.

I have my short story, Hardcore : Spinning Reels, on : 

Amazon, Google Book , Ibook, Barnes and Nobles and Kobo.

0.99c for the ebook, here is the link for the Amazon version . 

But the most important thing is once you have read it please  leave a review , as reviews are crucial for us Authors to generate more sales .

that’s it for now.

I go back working on the new cover for L&D  .

The Walls are Closing In has received 200 preorders within the first three weeks. Thank you, thank you, thank you! And one more for good measure. Thank you!

First things first. I owe all of you a couple of things for helping me cross the 100 reader and the 200 order thresholds!

Using a random number generator and a spreadsheet of my first 100 readers, I have selected two winners to either have a minor character named after them or select the name for that character.

The winners are Robert Batten and K.L. Noon.

Congrats! Let me know what you would like to name your character!

As promised, I have also uploaded a mid-book excerpt to commemorate reaching 200 preorders. Experience Patricia and Rexx’s first steps into Zone 36, a town sealed off due to fracking-induced pollution and destruction, and meet my favorite character, Oliver.

The campaign, as it sits now, has a view of the full publishing contract with few obstacles in the way, but still has some hiking to do. If half of those who are following the book on Inkshares, but have not placed an order yet, order, then The Walls are Closing In will surpass the Quill light-publishing mark.

I have been working tirelessly to cross the Quill milestone early. It is important for a variety of reasons. It signifies that the book is happening! Though I am aiming for 750 preorders and a full publishing contract (think marketing, bookstore shelves, public book signing, cover design, and complete developmental edits), passing the Quill mark (think print-on-demand, ISBN, and Amazon listing) means that there will definitely be a book. Advanced promotion to reach outside of my already-tapped circle will then become much simpler, as those in the book-review world are understandably more willing to promote a sure-thing.

Thank you all again for rallying behind me and this book. A special thank you to both my grandfather Allen Ahearn and aunt Beth Fisher, of Quill and Brush, who shared The Walls are Closing In with their broad community of book lovers!

More milestone perks to come! At 300 orders I will release a new novel trailer with teasers.

-Jacqui

Greetings Jackolytes,

There is movement in the garage, and Jack is getting ready to ride. The final touches are being put on the back cover and spine, and the designer has done a fantastic job. I’ll share it with you when it’s finalized. But what this does mean is that we getting much closer to the publishing date!

I also got this tremendous review from one of my beta readers. He was kind enough to pop it up on Goodreads:

From remarkably edgy, irreverent, and sometimes quirky well developed characters, to movement (sometimes planned, sometimes not) between shifting time lines and realities replete with their own civilizations and cultures, to a shape shifting, sentient frankenbike with an attitude and a best hits of weaponry past, present, and future designed to wreak maximum havoc, Sync City has it all. Ryan had me from the get go, and I peeled through the entirety of it as fast as I could get my hands on new chapters. Another big upside? Unlike some works that have one strong story line, maybe two, and a couple of weaker ones that you’d rather blow through quickly to get back to the good parts, all the lines and characters Ryan builds work in concert and are equally strong and well developed. Grab it, devour it, and get set for the next installation. 

If this inspires you to jump on board and have the ride of your life, you can pre-order the paperback at Amazon (ignore the Jan 17th publishing date – I’m trying to get that changed), Barnes and Noble and Book Depository. The ebook is available for the low, low price of $5.99 at Inkshares. Please help send all these books to a good home and don’t forget to share!

Cheers,

Peter

Afternoon, everyone.