Happy Week of Days With Descriptors!

We are nearly at the end of said days, but as the focus of today is "Giving" it is the perfect time to remind everyone of my raffle. I have six Audible codes for the An Unattractive Vampire audio book and if you give money to an at-risk cause, your name will be entered in to win one of them. If you need more information, visit my website or see my last update. There are lots of lists out there of groups who need help. Groups like Trans Relief Project, CeaseFire Illinois, Doctors Without Borders, the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, and more. 

Once you’ve donated (and you did donate, didn’t you? *Guilt stare*) tell me you did. You can respond here with a comment (don’t just like the post, that doesn’t actually tell me anything) or find me on twitter or e-mail me at anunattractiveemail@gmail.com. Your name will be entered into the contest which ends December 15th.

Look it’s win/win. You win because you get to feel good about yourself AND might win a free audiobook. They win because they get the money and resources to help people who desperately need it. And humanity wins because the entropic decay of the universe will be put off a little longer. EVERYBODY WINS!

Except for the cannibal Futurekind. They don’t win.

At 81,369 words, yesterday I submitted the final draft of The Punch Escrow manuscript to Inkshares and Geek & Sundry. There are still a couple of rounds of developmental editing coming which may see the story change somewhat, but I’m fairly confident the narrative arc is concrete (or firmly crooked, to quote Douglas Adams) at this point. Good news is: the book is coming on for super duper sure in July 2017

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Here’s the schedule going forward for those following along at home:

TK hand in manuscript: 11/28/16
MH to begin dev edit: 11/28/16
Dev edit letter/assessment due back to TK: 12/9/16 (1.5 wks)
Dev edit rework due to MH: 12/30/16 (3 wks)
Dev round 2/line edit due to TK: 1/11/17 (~2 wks)
Dev edit cleanup due to MH: 1/30/17 (2.5 wk)
Final dev edit version to INK: 2/6/17 (1 wk)
INK hands MS to CE (copyeditor): 2/13/17
Copyedit due to TK: 2/27/17 (3 wks)
TK’s copyedit review due to CE: 3/13/17 (2 wks)
Clean copyedited MS to INK: 3/20/17 (1 wk) {INK will print galleys}
INK hands CEMS to proofer: 3/20/17 
Proofread due to TK: 4/4/17 (2 wks)
Proof comments due from TK: 4/9/17 (1 wk)
Clean proofed MS to INK: 4/18/17 (1 wk) 
Send clean proofed MS to interior designer: 4/25/2017
Book published: 7/11/2017
Geek & Sundry SDCC book launch: 7/19/2017  

We have reached 450 orders! This means we have only 300 more to go before guaranteeing the Full Publication deal.

We’re also holding steady at second place on The List.

Things are looking good, but nothing is written in stone yet. The competition on The List is close, but a just a few more orders could be all we need to ensure our position; and if we make it to the end of the year still in the top three, we won’t have to worry about getting a whole 300 more orders. So, tell your friends, tell your neighbours, tell your enemies, tell your total strangers ... the sooner this becomes a done deal, the sooner we can start the process of getting this book into your hands.

Good things are coming.

FREE SHORT STORY!

While you wait ever so patiently for Mr. Butler, I thought I’d offer you some light reading. I’ve entered a short horror/thriller story of mine into a contest on Wattpad. It’s called "Open Heart," and you can read it here:

http://my.w.tt/UiNb/T1xXRvgeDy

No need to purchase anything. But if you like it, I’d appreciate it if you clicked on the "vote" star in the app. Couldn’t hurt. 

Otherwise, The Editing of Mr Butler is going quite well. I anticipate turning in my manuscript in a couple weeks. Thank you for your patience. 

Love to all, and I hope you had a wonderful thanksgiving (if in the US) and I wish you a happy holiday season. 

-Michael 

Greetings!

Food Holiday is over! I hope everyone loaded up and then promptly slept like lions. Then came the blackest of black Fridays where humans stampede over each other in a time honored ritual of consumerism. 

Now, as we continue our march of metal holidays into the land of illuminated trees, impractically wide candles, and finally putting 2016 in it’s grave--there is one more holiday that needs to be highlighted: 

Krampus Day.

St. Nick’s counterpart. The Half-Goat Half-Demon comes on December 5th and his soul purpose is to give children who misbehaved the gift of murder. That, or coal. You see, right before St. Nick’s day on December 6th, Krampus comes out on the night before hand and rather than reward children, he gives terrible presents instead as a reminder. 

If you are curious at just how awesome Krampus day can be over in Europe, check out this video of a parade. (I am going to try some embedded HTML code below and I don’t know if it will work. There is no preview feature on these updates)

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At long last, an update on the progress of things! Tantalus Depths​ is officially 100% funded, and I am so, so thankful for that. I couldn’t have possibly managed any of this without your extensive help. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for making this happen. So what’s next?



Watch the vlog for details, but here’s the summarized version: I’m working on my final round of edits before I send Inkshares my finished manuscript. There’ll be a wait before they can pair me up with an editor and put me into the production process, and the entire process could take quite a while. But we’re on our way, and the greatest obstacles are well behind us now. Happy Thanksgiving to all, and congratulations to Kelly Miloro​ for winning my "name-a-planet promotion" thing. You’ve earned it :)