I did something fun today. I've been pretty off my game this week. Bad head & chest cold, lack of sleep, general rundown vibe and not feeling very creative. Although, I did take a break and go to Knott's Scary Farm the other night! Lots of fun, despite my nonstop phlegm fest. :)

Feeling crummy as I have, I just couldn't focus on writing, even when I actually had quiet time to sit and get it down. SO frustrating! So today I went back to my source. It's no secret that Dax Harrison is based off a film script I wrote. Yes, Dax was meant to be a good old-fashioned summer blockbuster. So much so that as I worked on crafting scenes, I would often imagine music from other films as part of the Dax soundtrack as inspiration.

I can't be the only one who does that, right? Heck, sometimes I hear epic soundtracks in my head while I'm just reading someone else's book. Personally, some pretty intense action tunes were playing in my head while reading Katniss fight her way through The Hunger Games, BEFORE the movies started coming out.

So to reinvigorate my writing vibes, and to share with anyone who's interested, here is the Dax Harrison unofficial soundtrack, made of co-opted music from other films, a TV show, and one terrific game series I just finished replaying. I also made a track listing with custom titles, just to give a few hints (but not too many) about how the story plays out. I hope it's just enough to make you say, "GAH! I can't wait to read it! I'm going to share this with 1000 people right now and tell them to pre-order!" ;)

DAX HARRISION Unofficial Soundtrack - (click to play on YouTube)
1. Prologue - The Battle of Feron
2. Ahead of Schedule
3. Schmoozing at Saleon
4. Enter The Pit
5. Central Station / The Alliance
6. The Gala / Mingling with Dignitaries
7. Escaping the Pit
8. Attack
9. Jump!
10. Rescue Op
11. A Little Traffic Ahead
12. Dax's Last Flight
13. Showdown
14. Truth
15. End Credits / Dax Theme

So the contest ends and I don’t say anything? 

To be honest, I didn’t have much to say. Also, there’s a good chance that you were already receiving a lot of emails from other writers and participants. So instead of adding to the noise, I took a step back and worked on a few other things. What sort of things?

For one, I wrote a blog post about what it’s like to work with Inkshares once a book is funded. I also started preparing work on another book and recorded as short unboxing video so that you could see what books published by Inkshares look like (spoilers: dope as hell. Super legit.). 

We lost the contest, but not the campaign 

Aww… we didn’t get in the top five and grab an easy publishing deal. So what? "Suck it up JF!" I told myself. I didn’t jump in this just to win a contest. I’m here to publish a book and that’s what’s going to happen. Because I have a plan.

1. First, I’m going to get a significant extension on the deadline of this campaign. There are many who want to get my first book, ‘The Life Engineered’ before they commit to pre-ordering a second work of mine. Fine! I’ll extend this campaign until you have ‘The Life Engineered’ in your hands if I have to!
2. I’m going to try to reach readers outside my normal sphere of friends and family. Well I’m going to try. It’s not going to be easy because I don’t exactly know how to do that, but I’m willing to learn.
3. I aim to expand my ‘brand’. Let’s face it, at this stage in the game, I’m not just selling books but I’m also selling myself. Which means putting myself out there. Being more public and more accessible.

In essence, I’m not quiet because I’ve quit. Indeed, this is the calm before the storm. Soon I’m going to have to kick the promotion of ‘The Life Engineered’ into high gear and I want to ride that wave with ‘A God in the Shed’. What does all this mean to you?

If you’ve pre-ordered this book, you’re going to get your copy. It might take a little longer, but you’ll be holding this novel in your hands eventually. This is my way of thanking you for your support; not with simple words but with renewed commitment to get this thing funded. 

 JF

Okay! It's Saturday! Update time! We made it!!! THANK YOU!



"Well Rick, now that you've won the contest... what are you going to do now?"

Going to Disney World! (Seriously, going for Halloween. A much needed vacation). 

Many of you made this possible, and I have a lot of work to do in order to get you the best possible book. Thank you very much. I'm really excited for what comes next. Websites, faction stickers: Society of Deus, Unification, or Sons and Daughters? Banners to be made. Books to be finished. Tacos to be had. 

mmmmm... tacos. 

So, it's not over by any measure for me. I still have to keep working on getting this book out there. Just not in the fashion of a rabid squirrel. Everyone should take a moment to log into their Inkshare account and poke around. You can update notifications in the upper right as well to toggle how frequently updates come along. 

You can follow me on Twitter if you haven't @CrankyBolt. (Or here)

I'll keep my updates sparse to preserve the sanctity of your inbox, but I will let you know on events and happenings regarding the book. 

But for now: I begin the editing!

I just uploaded the first half of chapter 3.  Some of you will be familiar with the final section of this particular part, since it was the beginning of a previous excerpt I had posted at the launch of my campaign.  This time I've posted from the start of the chapter however.

That's all I've got for now, thanks for reading.

Well that's pretty cool, isn't it?  Not only did you folks carry me into the top five, but you carried me into the Nerdist collection.  If you haven't already seen the announcement, you can read it here:  http://nerdi.st/1WA7ZjJ

First off, congratulations to the five winners of the Nerdist competition. Well done to each of you. And super congrats to  Welcome to Deadland by Zachary Tyler Linville
 and  It’s All Fun and Games by Dave Barrett for being selected as Nerdist's first collection novels. Nice job guys!

Now that this really cool contest is over all of us who didn't win are probably tempted to take some time off and lick our wounds. Well Monkey Business says screw that noise. We're not licking anything. We're forging ahead on the long road to 1,000 pre-orders. Now that everybody here is all hunky dory back on the same team and not in competition anymore, lets get on with this business. This Monkey Business.

See what I did there?

I would like to start my post-Nerdist marketing push by asking, what do you guys want? I don't feel great about just pummeling you with requests to order my book. Would you like me to post more of it on the site? Would you like an audio recording? Would you like me to do some more silly sock puppet videos? I'm here to help so if anybody has any requests, thoughts, etc. Let me know. Your thoughts are appreciated!

Having said that, I will include a link to the facebook page for Monkey Business. Please like it, share it, build an empire of monkeys who will pre-order this book into existence. And send me any suggestions you might have to my email below.

Thank you guys so much! Hope you have a great day,

Landon

https://www.facebook.com/landonwrites

landoncrutcher@gmail.com

Good afternoon, true believers. If it worked for Stan Lee, maybe it'll work for me. 

Disintegration is four readers away from the 200 mark. I will draw, for the 200th reader, whichever character they choose. So, if you haven't yet signed up ... do so now! In addition to helping the book get published, you'll also get something no one else will have!

Additionally, to anyone who has already bought a copy, if you have someone who will also purchase my book, I'll wind up just shy of the 750-copy eBook goal, and in much better shape to deliver the product for which there has already been such great support.

We're not there yet, though; I need continued help to get there. Please recruit those around you to join in and bring Disintegration to life.

Excelsior!