Yesterday I got the clearance from editing master extraordinaire Matt Harry to start writing my final draft of Deus Hex Machina. Today I built my new editing scene list to help as a roadmap for what I’ll be doing for the next month. As you can see, most of the book is changing in some way, although a lot of the changes are going to be minor.  I love this part of the process: Getting to dive into the book, polish up the rough edges and round out the wonky corners. It’s like falling in love with the story in a completely new way.

I’m unsure what happens once I’m done with this draft, so for the moment I’m going to assume that I go into an edit phase like the rest of my cohort. My guess is that such an edit will be very brief because we spent so much time upfront preparing for the 4th draft writing phase. 

I can’t help but smile to think how far Isidore RAM has come. I am so proud of this little book, I can’t wait for you to get a chance to read it.

Cheers,

Amanda

If you followed along last year with my updates on the publication of These Are My Friends on Politics, you’ll recall that the real stars of those updates were the pictures of my 16-year-old dog Nina.

Last month, she passed away. I haven’t brought it up much because (a) I didn’t feel like it and (b) I didn’t have anything valuable to say about losing a beloved pet beyond the fact that I do not recommend the experience. For those who didn’t know Nina firsthand, I’d rather leave you with something uplifting that characterized her life than simply share some sad news amid the endless bad news that keeps hitting us these days. 

 So I did the reasonable thing and wrote and illustrated and published a book about her instead. It’s nothing extraordinary — look, *you* try making a book in a month in your spare time during one of your busiest work periods of the year — but it conveys much of what made Nina such a big deal in this little corner of the world. And it has some pretty pictures in it. And it’s more funny than sad. And perhaps it’s a nice distraction and reminder that the world isn’t all bad even if we’re threatening to end it with simultaneous nuclear and civil wars. 

 Anyway, it’s available now if you’re interested in taking a look. Thanks for reading, and enjoy. If you have any dog-loving friends whom you think would enjoy this, please pass it on. 

Amazon (paperback and Kindle): dog.billyok.com/amazon 

iBooks: dog.billyok.com/ibooks

Kobo: dog.billyok.com/kobo

Barnes & Noble: dog.billyok.com/bn

Indiebound: dog.billyok.com/indiebound

Baby Freya is now 2 months old! Jeez! The past few months has been a whirlwind of love, excitement, family, and sleep deprivation! 

(Full post can be read on my blog HERE to see future posts sign up to my newsletter HERE)

Despite the newfound groggy-eyed joys of fatherhood, I have still been hard at work not only on RUNE’s sequel (Oath of the Apprentice), but also on an exciting new Indie Video Game project called Shadow of the Moon (which takes place chronologically between The Rune Chronicles books 1 and 2). I’m so excited to tell you about this game I’m shaking... Or is that the coffee which is currently keeping me awake?! The world may never know...

Many of you might remember Shadow of the Moon from the collaborative Inkshares video game anthology I was a part of called Too Many Controllers. Yes, that same book which "won" the Nerdist and Inkshares Video Game Publishing Contest. (And yes, thanks for asking, I am still sore about the book being canned.) Well, some friends and I were talking about how TMC being canceled shouldn’t be the death of such a great story. We were sad, however, because Shadow of the Moon was written with video game mechanics at its core, and therefore, did not really read well (make sense) as a stand alone literary work.

I kept on trying to figure out a way around this because Shadow of the Moon’s female protagonist, Zera, is featured heavily as a main character in The Rune Chronicles Book 2: Oath of the Apprentice. I could not get over how cool Zera’s background and unique motivations were and desperately wanted readers to have a chance, if they were interested, to know more about her and why she was such a bad ass. Sadly, try as I might, I could not find a good fix to the logistical story problems and was stumped for months! 

Well, during the days following Freya’s birth I came to the crazy conclusion that if I could not "write" a solution for the story dilemma, the only "logical" course of action was to actually turn Shadow of the Moon into a full fledged indie video game! GG EZ Fix! 

I must have been profoundly sleep deprived because changing mediums would add a huge, exponential multiplier to the amount of work required. Like, There are no words which can adequately describe how much more effort making a video game, even an indie, will be. But I have been working on this project for two months now, and trust me folks, Zera’s story is, hot damn, well worth it! Truly. 

Seen above is Zera, the protagonist of Shadow of the Moon, and I have so much more I’m dying to share with you all! We have art, game design mechanics, real to life martial arts, and even code for our custom SDL game engine (which should run a playable demo soon.) Its crazy awesome how much cool shit will be in this game! And the story, oh how the story has grown and evolved! 

All of this is thanks to our amazingly talented team. Despite my sleepless nights, I have been able to gather a super dedicated group over at Apotheosis Studios to help me transform my novella into a Rogue-like Action-Adventure, 2D Top Down, RPG Video Game of epic, pixelated proportions! (Think Hyper Light Drifter meets Darkest Dungeon meets Bastion. Yes, you heard me right--we are not fucking around. This game is the real deal.)

I am leading this fearless indie dev team as Creative Director/Writer and so far we have 2 other writers/designers, 1 programmer, 1 editor/marketer, 2 "interns", a wolf, and a viking baby! What could possibly go wrong?!?! If you want to join our ranks, hit me up at @StoneJamison  (Currently we are looking for a pixel and/or sprite artist, and music composer, btw!)

I’m also super excited to say that I will documenting our game progress on my blog HERE with an Apotheosis Studios Indie Game Dev Blog Series! I have so much more to share (and some really killer art) but will save those additional details about the game for the "official" blog series, so stay tuned! And yes, I will be doing all of this with a new baby. Many believe I have lost my mind, which if true, should make this game and RUNE’s sequel pretty freaking awesome, haha!

All jokes aside, buckle up Masters and Apprentices and get ready for many more blog posts to come. I am so excited to not only share developments and updates on Shadow of the Moon game development, but also how my wife and I raise our Viking Ninja baby girl. 

And in case you are wondering how one raises a little Viking Ninja baby girl in 2017... Well, I’m not really sure, but I figure age and gender appropriate toys (swords, obviously!); good role models (bad ass active duty Army musician mommy and Zera of Shadow of the Moon!); and a loving, strong, and supportive daddy (I’m still growing out my "Ragnar Viking haircut") is a good place to start!

Stay tuned via my news letter HERE and I’ll let you know how it all goes! 

Oh, and P.S. if you have not yet posted a review for Rune of the Apprentice on Amazon Dear god, please do so! We currently have 66 reviews, but need 100+! It really helps! Seriously! Thank you!

It’s August again.

One year ago, The Slave Prince entered the Geek & Sundry Fantasy Contest. Boy oh boy, weren’t those days fun? I remember hustling you for support, checking my book’s status daily, and worrying if I could tough it out till October. It sure doesn’t feel like a year ago with such an experience. But, I’m glad I did it all.

One year later - this very month itself - The Slave Prince begins production. Yes, the ball is rolling! But as much as I’m celebrating, I have my work cut out for me. And I have to say, it’ll take a while before the book will be in print. 

A week ago I received developmental notes from Inkshares’ Story Head, and just last Wednesday I responded with my rewrite outline. To make The Slave Prince better, some scenes have to be changed, more world building needs to take place, and a deeper drive must be given to the characters. So, I’ve decided to put writing the sequel of my trilogy on hold to focus on this novel. And I hope, I really hope, that I’ll be able to get the book ready for copyediting by the end of this year.

With all that said, there’ll be silence in the coming months. But the next time I write to you, I should be done with developmental editing. Now, it’s time I put my gameface on - it’s time I finish this race.

Hello glorious The Punch Escrow backers!

MID-YEAR UPDATE

I’m guessing most of you, at this point of time, might’ve completely forgotten about my book. Which is fine by me - a blessing, in fact. However, I don’t want to take your patience for granted. So thank you for waiting. Thank you for understanding. And thank you for, as odd as this might sound, the silence. 

Since I’m writing today, you’re probably wondering if there’s good news. Alas, I write this update simply to say I’m still waiting. I submitted my manuscript and all the related documents on March 31st. Since then, I’ve decided to trust that The Slave Prince will start production in its own perfect timing. Silly, I know. What kind of gullible faith is that? However, I choose to believe that the day The Slave Prince is made, is the right day for it to be made. I don’t know when that will be - it could be in 2018 (I hope) - but I believe.

Recently, I wrote a blog post about the perfect timing. It’s sort of my life’s motto (you can read the whole post here: https://jeynagrace.wordpress.com/2017/06/01/the-perfect-timing/). Naturally, I approach this novel with the same mindset. Since it took 3 years to find the right place for The Slave Prince, what’s a few more years? At the end of the day, The Slave Prince is simply a part of my writing journey - it isn’t the finish line.

With all that said, I hope you’ll continue to wait with me. I truly appreciate all you’ve done - supporting the book during the contest, and post-contest with your syndicates (those were such pleasant surprises). I’m looking forward to the day I present you with my book. But until then, believe with me - its perfect time will come.