Hey Campers!

My good friend Lew Temple blurbed Sunshine is Forever. Check it out! Your copy arrives August 29, 2017! 

Dear Sparked reader,

Thank you so much for your amazing support during our preorder campaign last fall. You might be wondering where the heck your copy of the book is, and why we’ve taken so long to update you. 

Good news! We have a publication date: October 3, 2017. Your book will be mailed (or become available as an e-book) on that date. And the reason we’ve taken so long to update you is that we’ve been working hard on making Sparked completely ready for your eyes. 

We thought you might be interested to hear a bit about that process and the lessons we learned, especially if you’re a writer yourself or interested in writing. 

Lesson #1: Don’t shut down when you get feedback, even if you THINK you’re done.  

When someone gives you feedback, it’s human nature to focus on the negative, and it’s a writer’s nature to blow the negative wildly out of proportion. After Sparked achieved its preorder target, a developmental editor gave us a—gulp—twenty-page letter that sent us into a tailspin. The word “overkill” jumped out and something about how we should remove every reference to zombies. We’d already revised Sparked countless times. In despair, Helena couldn’t even bring herself to read the whole thing, while Malena lost herself in cat videos on Youtube. 

 But when we forced ourselves to read the letter line by line, we were shocked at how positive it actually was. It was like realizing that the mean girl at school, muttering insults under her breath, was actually complimenting your fashion sense (and giving you some useful pointers too). If we’d received that feedback with an open mind in the first place, we would have gotten the revision done a lot sooner.

Lesson #2: Thinking your book is done is usually a clear sign that you need to do another draft.  

You should never tempt fate using the word “final” when naming a draft of your book (as in “SparkedFinal.doc”). Just as we were treating ourselves to a celebratory lunch, we received notes from editor number two, our line editor. More changes were needed, including more “sexual tension.” Believe us, it is not easy to find a way for the hero and heroine to make eyes at each other while also trying to prevent the end of the world. But we set to work again.  

In the end, both editors were totally right and we’ re grateful to them for their brilliant insights and even more grateful the book is finally finished (or at least going to press. If you see more that we should have changed, maybe keep it to yourself at this point). We’re also excited that the book is coming out in October because it’s a spooky book that takes place in the week before Halloween, and…

Well, after all that work, we don’t want to spoil the story, do we?

We will update again when there’s more concrete news to share (readings! parties!) but for now, we are deeply grateful for your support and your patience and we can’t wait to send our book to you.

Warmly,

The ‘lenas

Hey fans and friends! 

I want to give everyone who preordered my book in the funding stage something special. I really appreciate the support. Publishing with Inkshares has been a dream. So, if you were one of the first 750 people to preorder a paperback of my book, you will also get this limited bookmark with your shipment. (E-book preorders will not get this perk, mostly because you don’t need a bookmark for an e-book haha)

 Thanks again!

Also, I was in Better Call Saul last night. Lines got cut, but you still see me, and I still got credited. Check it out!

Thanks for the continued support!

Kyle T. Cowan

Once upon a time there was a friend. This friend asked me to join a contest, and I didn’t think about it too much and just did it. First mistake: had I known what I was getting into, I would never have pulled the trigger on Inkshares in August ’16 and started the journey that culminated in a publication deal in March ’17.

Second mistake: She asked me to join another contest, this one a flash fiction writing contest from Sci-Fi-London (the 48hr Flash Fiction Challenge), and I did that too. On April 8th I opened the site to view my story requirements. A title, a line of dialogue, and an optional bit of science. The maximum word count was 2,000 words, and I had just two days to write it in.

Title: NOT ON MY WATCH
Dialogue: When the clouds are this low it can be a nightmare to get a clean signa
lScience (optional): Augmented reality becomes so good we neglect reality, when the system to fails, the decay is revealed.

Except I worked all day on Sunday, so I really had just one day. And then I knew that in all honesty I probably just had Saturday morning to write it. The good news was I already had a pretty good idea what I wanted to put to paper. I popped open Scrivener (worth it’s weight in gold), wrote out descriptions for about seven story points, and then just...

...wrote.

I finished up a little over 2k words before noon, trimmed it down, sent it to some friends to read, edited the mistakes, and then sent it off. I’m not sure how I got that word count done so fast, but my brain was sizzling with ideas and I just let it get on with it.

And now YOU can read it! I published the short story through Pronoun, making it available for free on all major ebook retailers’ sites, and you can access it here: NOT ON MY WATCH.  If you download it, please rate and review it! It’s only 8 pages, so it shouldn’t take you long at all. Every review or rating helps boost it’s status among other ebooks, and in return gives my author page more recognition, and all of this will help me when Fae Child comes out.

I don’t know if I’ll win the Sci-Fi-London contest, but hey, stranger things have happened? And those things I listed as mistakes at the beginning of the post? Actually they were probably the best decisions I could have made, regarding my writing. Thank you Jenny!

~ Jane-Holly
p.s. Of course, the work on Fae Child continues! We are #2 on Inkshares in Teen and Young Adult, how cool is that?

Apparently, it’s been a good four months since I gave an update about Tantalus Depths, which, frankly, is inexcusable. Particularly given that I’d said my next updates would have come by the end of the year. Turns out I am really bad at setting deadlines for myself, and this is something I am going to work on fixing going forward.

Fortunately, the update I have for you is a great one.

 

Yes, after far too much deliberation with my personal final round of edits, I have finally submitted my manuscript of Tantalus Depths to Inkshares, along with the various other paperwork necessary to get the production process going. My last round of feedback from my beta readers gave me a lot of ideas for things to work on, and I’ve incorporated lots of changes into the book that greatly improve the pacing and tension.

Technically, Tantalus Depths was more or less submission-ready as soon as the pre-order campaign ended, and I could have sent it in right then. I’ll be getting extensive help with editing as a part of the production process, with professional editors, so I could have thrown my manuscript to them right at the beginning for them to sort out. I could have done that…but I really couldn’t have done that. This story is too important to me, and I feel that you, as my supporters, deserve a book that is as good as it can possibly be. I’m confident that the extra time and effort put into the manuscript before submitting it to Inkshares will improve a story that I’m already proud of, and I think you’ll be really pleased with the result.

Now, because people are going to ask, submitting my manuscript does NOT mean it’s going to be published immediately. Technically, the production process hasn’t begun yet. It’s going to be a while before Inkshares has time to devote to Tantalus Depths; other excellent, well-deserving books are ahead of me in line, and Inkshares can only work on so many projects at once. What this DOES mean, though, is that the timer has officially started. I have personally done everything I have to do to get the production process started; the ball is in Inkshares’ court now, and they’ll get it rolling as soon as they can.

The production process for a book can take a year or longer, so realistically, don’t expect Tantalus Depths to come out until sometime in 2018. I can promise you, though, that I will update you on its progress in production as soon as I’m updated myself (realistically, there’s no possible way I’ll be able to keep quiet when I hear the news that they’ve launched production)

Do expect to see more other Tantalus Depths-related content in the future. I haven’t forgotten my campaign promise to release an Inkshares-exclusive prologue to the book (I temporarily tabled it to focus on the book people paid for), and I have many other irons in the fire. I look forward to bringing them all to you before too long.

Strap yourselves in, folks. Our voyage is just beginning. 

 Hello sentients!

I’ve been asking a lot out of my readers and friends lately. Pre-order books, help me get nominated for this or that award. It feels like a very one-sided relationship. Recently however, I’ve been given the opportunity to participate in a little something where I get to give back just a  little.

The fine folks at Sci-Fi Bridge have offered to let me give away some free books as part of a bundle. It’s one of those raffle type things, but all the details can be found here: www.scifibridge.com.

The list of books being given away is impressive. Some are digital copies, but some are signed books.

So let’s quickly address the elephant in the room: Who are Sci-Fi Bridge?

Sci-Fi Bridge is dedicated to bringing you exclusive deals, new releases, and other exciting news from your favorite Sci-Fi authors straight to your inbox! In order to celebrate the Bridge’s recent launch, its Captains are excited to bring you the third of four massive book giveaways!

There are FREE Prizes available for all who enter between April 20 and 27, plus the chance for 5 winners to receive 30+ e-books from Sci-Fi authors of every stripe. 1 Lucky Grand Prize Winner will also receive 20+ signed books, including Cyberstorm by Matthew Mather, Aye Robot by Robert Kroese and full series from Tom Reynolds, Rachel Aukes, M. Pax and Nathan Van Coops! Enter here: www.scifibridge.com.

Worth checking out if you ask me.

JF

Friends, Readers, and Sorcerers All,