Listen... sure, I said the 17th. Did I try? Oh, baby, you bet I did. Did life decide that the 17th was the perfect day for a combination of hard drive failure, needing a new car battery, and a bunch of smaller nonsense that literally took up every waking hour? Apparently.

Hello to all my Knightmares out there!

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Hello there wonderful people

The video where i answer some of your questions is ready and looking pretty spiffy. Check it out. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9ZOKk3Sp2U&feature=youtu.be

Special thanks to my good friend Sam Chen who brought out his super cool equipment and toiled over the footage to put this together. I hope you all like it and you’re not turned away by how awkward I am on film. 

Thank you all for continuing to follow me and don’t forget to pre-order Beyond the Code if you like my hard work. 

Kelsey Rae Barthel

Happy Sunday, Space Crew!

I know the weekend’s gone too fast, but thankfully you get to conclude it with hearing from me. 

I don’t have a lot of news, but these weekly updates are my way of staying connected to you as we continue our journey through space and time toward the impending September deadline. 

I Need to Get the Word Out. 
This book has gotten a lot of attention in various circles I know or am a part of, and that is fantastic. I’m indebted for all of your support. But unless all of you want to order 10 copies each, we’ve got to get word of this book outside our current Crew. 

If you know of any podcasts, blogs, social platforms, or other networking opportunities that might want to spend some time talking to me or about The Traveller’s Cup, please help connect us. You will be rewarded with a special author’s note inside your copy of the book, and will go down in history as one of our top space recruiters. 

Yes, Your Theme Song is Coming
I’ve been throwing ideas around for awhile, and since we only have 22 orders to go before I officially owe it to you, I’m settling down on something I think is pretty cool. Sample coming soon. 

Meanwhile you can contribute to my motivation by helping me nab those last 22 orders. Please keep recommending this book and spreading the word to your friends. 

Your Friendly Neighbourhood Space Captain,
-AC

Don’t forget! From now until the 22nd, you can download your free "thank you" copy of my short story The Perspective Machine right here.
 

  When a secret society dedicated to perfecting humanity’s flaws develops a machine capable of granting one person full omniscience, they believe they hold the key to mankind’s salvation in their hands. The mentally handicapped brother of one of their members seems to be the perfect subject to receive the machine’s power...but is he? What will become of the world when the power of a god falls into the hands of a man?

  And keep the support coming in for Tantalus Depths! I have ideas for some new rewards to dole out to my supporters in the future, so stay tuned for more on that.

Happy Weekend Everyone,

As if I didn’t have enough to do, I Francis the cat-yes that Francis from Kingdom of Dreams-will be hosting my master/task master/big bully’s shiny new sometimes weekly newsletter. Never fear, I’m not one for incessant updates that irritate more than inform. Speaking of irritating, I’d rather hack up a hundred fur balls than have to listen to the relentless barking beast that resides in the yard behind me. The cacophonous mutt has to go, but that’s another story.

Kingdom of Dreams has 51 followers! The writer/artiste would like to thank everyone for their early support. Me too. Who knows, perhaps he’ll reward me with a new laser pointer if I can drum up another 25 supporters? I can’t resist chasing that blasted red dot around despite how ridiculous and humiliated it makes me look and feel. Quickly moving on...

Unbeknownst to the writer/artiste, I will be using this newsletter to discuss guarded spoilers, delve neck-deep into characters, and reveal glimpses of new illustrations. I will also run contests to give away interesting items such as: some original KOD artwork and related shwag, a fresh batch of the dog’s homemade biscuits (yes, really)--perhaps even the family car keys if the mood fits. I will also recommend other projects that catch my eye on this wonderful site. Of course, who cares what we think? Please let us know what you would like to know and I’ll happily spill the beans.

Ah, yes. There is mention of a trailer.Okay, so not that trailer. 

You heard it here first: after a few screen tests baited by the promise of catnip that never did materialize, I will serve as the star and narrator of the book’s trailer. I narrowly beat out a controversial half-crazed war-horse, an overfed, bump on a log dog, and a feral night terror. Ooh. Lucky me.

Until next time, stay well and happy reading. I look forward to our next chat, hopefully you will as well!

You’re welcome to follow and tweet me at your own risk here: 

Francis @KevinOCoffey 

Just a quick update today. I will be adding another chapter soon. The next chapter sees Amelia and Calvin attempting to confront  the sorceress, but a familiar face threatens to stop them. I imagine many of you have been able to guess the video game memories which Calvin is pulling from, but I hope a few have slid through the cracks. I’m excited to explore some of the other worlds and looking forward to the point when Calvin starts to piece what is happening together. I have only shared about 1/10th of the story so far, so there is still much to look forward to. If you are looking for more of my work to read, but can’t wait until I post another chapter, check out my draft "Idle Machinations." I have the first three chapters posted.

https://www.inkshares.com/books/idle-machinations-a71c4b

Thank you to all those who have supported "Tracing the Synapse." I will continue to edit and make additions until the contest comes to an end. 

Dear friends and followers,

If you’ve been following my blog, you’ll know that I spent the past week catching the shows at the Montreal Fringe Festival, and reviewing them. I’ve been lucky this year in having picked some very strong performances; even the worst among my picks was merely "okay".

So I haven’t really been focussing on the pre-order sales for "Murder at the Veterans’ Club", and, to be honest, I think it may be time to sit back a bit, regather my energy, and reconsider my approach. Also, I need to finish that short story for "Too Many Controllers".

For now, let’s have another look at the Veterans’ Club officers. This time, Edward Garrett:

And meanwhile! What’s happening on the Inkshares bookshelves? Let’s take a look at a couple more books in the Nerdist contest:

1) "Destiny Imperfect", by Peter Ryan. I think I said something similar back when I talked about Ryan’s other book, "Sync City", but Ryan has a great "voice". He does "angry dystopia" really well, and a good voice is 75% of a book’s quality. "Destiny Imperfect", which appears to be a parallel-world "who’s really in control?" deal, is no exception.

2) "SideScroller", by Andrew Fantasia. Swashbuckling adventure/romance, it says, and who doesn’t love a bit of that in their lives? The story progresses on video game rules: when we get a peek at one character’s ID card, it looks more like an RPG character sheet than any sort of real-world ID. It’s a sort of "meta" sensibility that would appeal to anyone familiar with video game mores.

And that’s it for this week. Until next week: have fun, and keep reading.