1. School Visit # 1
   
2. I have a $10 Inkshares coupon burning a hole through my pocket and don’t know how to spend it?
3. In production
4. NEXT ISSUE...

1.) School Visit #1

Thanks to a KOD backer and parent, I was lucky enough to have a school visit in early January at the impressive ACE Academy in Austin, Texas. If you’re ever in need of a healthy dose of self-morale and an unbelievably energetic hour--no espresso needed--, visit a school! 

I gave out a ton of illustrated bookmarks and they asked excellent questions the entire session. I look forward to my return visit in the Spring for a creative writing project! I promise I’ll bring a box of actual books down the road...

When I told them my first significant piece of writing was for an Advanced Dungeons & Dragons module, they all chanted "D&D! D&D!" How cool is that?

They had no trouble spotting the "Easter Eggs" in my illustrations without any prompting whatsoever. 

A future author! 

2.) I have a $10 Inkshares coupon burning a hole through my pocket and don’t know how to spend it?

I’ve been getting this question recently. You supported our project, and Inkshares sent you a $10 coupon to support another project. Now perhaps time is running out or you don’t know what to do with it, or what to spend it on? 

Never fear. Open the mail with your Inkshares coupon. Go to Inkshares through the link in that message. You should see a $10 credit applied to your account. As time permits, I’ll be recommending projects that I think worthy of your support. 

Here’s the first one:

Fae Child by Jane-Holly Meissner. Like our project, it’s a fantasy intended for young adults. To quote the author: "A child slips through a portal into the land of the Fae and traverses the Otherworld with the help of a young elf, while her parents are left to deal with the changeling that was left in her place. ALICE IN WONDERLAND meets TAKEN"

Perhaps you’ll never read this or any other project that you select on Inkshares, but know this: Don’t waste your coupon! And coupon or not, at the other end is a hopeful author that will be VERY appreciative of your support. This site can make dreams come true. 

3.) In production...

So things are moving along, but before I speed it up to ludicrous speed and involve a professional editor and get to finishing the illustrations, I wanted to get some meaningful feedback on the first few chapters. I think the prologue is covered, but please feel free to let me know what you like or don’t like about the new Chapter 1 I sent yesterday. Pretty please? You can leave comments, highlight certain sections, etc. Again, you can find Chapter 1 here.

I’ve decided to post one more chapter in the villain’s voice to make sure we’re on target with tone, but then: it’s some quick editing and off to the races!

4.) NEXT ISSUE...

I grew up collecting comics, and one of the things I loved was to immediately flip to the back and preview the NEXT ISSUE page to see what might be coming. Sacrilege to some of you, I know. But hey, I had to walk a mile to the nearest 7-Eleven across a busy intersection to get my beloved comics. It was worth the peak in the store in case something happened on the way back! 

So coming up: I have a long awaited blog forthcoming. A pretty crazy casting call, and well... I’ll save the other news for down the road and not get too far ahead of myself. 

Thanks everyone. Stay well, and continue to tell new backers about our project!

Best,

Kevin

Hey everyone,

I just wanted to give you a brief update. Wake up Call is getting a new Cover. This one I made myself but a local artist saw my book and liked it. Now she wants to give it a better look that may help it get noticed. I am working with her right now and will let you know when it is up. 

As always, Thank you so much for ordering my book and I will see you later.

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

Dear friends and followers,

It is now three weeks since we won the Full Publication deal with The List. The manuscript for "Murder at the Veterans’ Club" was submitted two weeks ago, and now it is a matter of waiting for an editor to be assigned to me. This could take a while; here’s the article about the publishing timeline, in case you missed the last update: I know there are a couple of new faces among you since then.

So, what lies ahead?

Well, I am currently halfway through working on a story-game project for Choice Of Games. I expect to see it come out some time in the latter half of this year. (I encourage everyone to check them out. I’ve enjoyed their stuff over the past few years, and I’m excited at the possibility of seeing myself in their lineup.)

There is also the matter of what to do with the Peterkin franchise. With the publishing timeline being somewhat longer than I expected, and with the additional time required to properly fund a campaign ... plus the sheer chutzpah it would require for me to begin asking for orders on a second book before the first book is even in anyone’s hands.... If I plan on getting the Full Publication deal on something, I should probably start the funding campaign after the launch of this current book, which means it could be two years or more in between books. That seems ... likely to result in an overall loss of interest.

So, I’m toying with a couple of ideas.

One: start a new campaign anyway, for the short story collection "Peterkin Investigates the Anthology"--but aim only for the 250 orders required for the Quill imprint. It won’t get all the services of the Full Publication deal, but then it isn’t a sequel and it isn’t a full-length novel, and it will be out there and available within a year after "Murder at the Veterans’ Club".

Two: take that collection apart and publish the stories individually via Kindle Direct; say, one every two months.

I haven’t quite researched these options yet, nor have I decided on a course of action. It seems the adventure is only just beginning....