Happy E-Day everyone! Delivery of the premium paperback edition of "Skavenger’s Hunt" is right on schedule for the middle of this month, but if you ordered an e-book edition, you probably have a nice little surprise in your email inbox right now. 

Yup, the first emails with the various e-book files went out just this morning, which means you can pop the story of Henry Babbitt, Hunter S. Skavenger, Mattie, Ernie and Jack (along with a handful of historical figures from the late 1800’s) into your e-reader right away. As you can tell, I already went ahead and did so this morning...

So many of you have said you’re looking forward to reading the book, but know that I’M looking forward to you reading it just as much!

Oh, and by the way, in case you have any problems with the files, here’s some helpful info:

The PDF is straight-forward and simple...just like any PDF. Same goes for the EPUB, which is the one you’ll want to use for your iPad or iPhone. Just follow the directions in the email you received and it’ll open up easy as can be.

The Kindle is the only that sometimes gives readers a slight problem. If you have issues, I found that a really easy thing to do is email the file to your Kindle. Yep, that’s right, every Kindle has an email address. Just download the file to the desktop of your home computer, and then do the following:

1) Go to amazon.com/myk and sign in to your Amazon account. This will be your "Manage your Content and Devices" page. You’ll see three tabs, the far right one being "Settings." Scroll down to "Personal Document Settings" and find your Kindle. Next to it, you’ll see an email address. That’s your Kindle email address.

2) Plop your Skavenger’s Hunt file you just saved to your desktop into an email (as an attachment) and send it to your Kindle’s email address.

Simple as that. After a few seconds, it’ll download to your Kindle just like any other Kindle purchase. Don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any problems. And if you enjoy the read as much as I hope you do, please go to the Skavenger’s Hunt Amazon webpage and leave a short review, even if it’s just a sentence or two. Amazon reviews are critically important to the success of any book.

Most importantly, though...I sincerely hope you enjoy the story! Drop me a note to let me know what you think!

Thanks, all...

Mike

All things literary have been a whirlwind. I’ve recently gotten notified that The Punch Escrow has been selected as one of Kirkus Reviews’ 100 Best Books of the 2017. That is great news! But on the same day I learned that Goodreads didn’t see The Punch Escrow fit to be listed among their selections for the Goodreads Choice Science Fiction awards. What adds insult to a bit of injury is that some of the books that they did nominate aren’t even published yet!

However, there is still some hope. YOU can alter reality! If you read and liked my book and have a Goodreads account, it takes about 4.8 seconds (I timed it) to write-in The Punch Escrow in the Best Science Fiction category. It would mean the world to me. The write-in field is at the bottom of the link above. It looks like this:

All you need to do is type in The Punch Escrow (it will auto-fill) and that’s it—you’ve altered reality! 

Thank you for everything you’ve done for me and this book. I’ll be writing a more comprehensive update on what’s going on with the film adaptation next year, there’s just a lot going on and I’m legally not allowed to discuss any of it. But it’s all *good* stuff!

-Tal 

You enter your front door to find a computer on the floor. It is old. Ancient. A filthy, clunky CRT sits on top of a bulky gray box with black grease smeared across it and floppy disk drives on its front. There are no input devices.

Also, notably, there are dozens, maybe as many as a hundred black wires flowing out the back of the box and into every outlet, phone jack, and light bulb socket in your residence. Some cords are jammed brutally into the wall, seemingly connected to nothing.

The monitor flickers to life. Green text fills it.

"It’s November 1st. A day without any magic.

Well, unless it’s your birthday, I guess. Happy birthday, Somebody.

The Wolf in the Woods finished in fourth place in the Inkshares Horror Contest. That was just one place away from winning outright and being published. For all my words tapped on all my pages, I can’t find the ones to say how thankful I am that you all got me there. Right now, fourth is a good place to be-- the judges of the competition will deliberate through the course of this week over whether any additional books should be selected, and being The Next Book Down is a great place to be for that.

In the meantime, I have a couple of new things I’d like you to see.

• Dan the Snowman, a webcomic I write that my brother Monty draws. Monty did the cover art for The Wolf in the Woods, and he’s top-notch. Dan isn’t horror, but I think you’ll find the same vein of weirdness going down its middle.
  
  
• Raised on Radio, the novel I’m working on for NaNoWriMo (and the one I worked on last year-- that’s not cheating, right?). It’s a Spielbergian ’80s sci-fi story with a summer romance thrown in. It’s LGBT+ friendly and features a pretty good female protagonist, if I do say so myself. It’s a little rough right now, as all NaNoWriMo drafts are, but maybe there’s enough there for you to get a taste of the story and vibe and warm up to some of the characters. I’m not trying to fund this right now, but if you liked The Wolf in the Woods, it’d be great if you mosied over and hit that "follow" button.

See you around. Stay weird.
--Ben"

The computer blinks off. Everything is quiet. You feel a little sad, even though you thought you’d be relieved that all these annoying shenanigans would be over. Then, you feel annoyed when you realize that the computer is not going to vanish like the mailbox, the dog, and all the other intrusive weirdness in your life over the past month.

Hi Everyone!

We are finally here...Halloween!

Binge watched Stranger Things Season 2 and totally loved it!!  How about you?  Did you watch it?  How are you finding the plot lines this season??

This Netflix series brings out the best from the 80’s horror/thriller genres.

Which brings us right back to Halloween and Fury From Hell.  Why?  Because it all begins on All Hallows Eve - the truly eerie night when the veil between worlds is gossamer thin.

Thank you ALL for your orders, your well wishes, and your support!  It means the world to me.

If you haven’t ordered your copy yet, please do so tonight!  What better way to end this evening??

FYI: Fury From Hell is in 10th place in the Horror contest.

Have a boo-tastic night!

Best,

Rochelle

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Hello friends!

It has been about 2 weeks since the Launchpad contest ended and Eudaimonia made it into the Top 3! 

Since then, I have finished and sent the Inkshares Creative Brief, Author Questionnaire, and my draft of Eudaimonia. I am both equally excited and petrified.

So now, it is just hurry up and wait. But, I am not a very good "waiter". Both in the sense where you take an order and try not to spill beer on someone and when you are supposed to be still and wait patiently. I’ve decided to give NaNoWriMo a whirl this November. I am going to try my hardest to write a novel (50,000 words) in thirty days. Check it out!

 Hopefully, I’ll be able to make some headway in something NEW this November. Wish me luck!

You + Me= Published,

Meghan Godwin

P.S. Eudaimonia can still be pre-ordered if you are interested :)

 inkshares.com/books/eudaimonia-48b598

Happy Halloween everyone!

In honor of the scariest of holidays, I’ve prepared a special gift for you that I hope you’ll enjoy.

I’ve felt bad about the fact that, just over a year after the end of my Tantalus Depths campaign, my many incredibly loyal supporters haven’t yet seen any return on their investments. The editing process moves much more slowly than I’d realized it would, and although I think taking the extra time will make for a much better book, I easily empathize with those of you who are growing impatient waiting for the book you paid for to materialize.

So, to tide you over while the development edits continue, I’m releasing a special treat: a new horror short story, written by yours truly, now available for you to read in its entirety for free right here. I first wrote The House of Chaos in 2012, and after a bit of polishing I feel it’s finally worth reading. As a traditional horror story, it’s very different from Tantalus Depths and Proteus in style and setting, but I’m confident some of you will enjoy it nonetheless.

This is NOT the Tantalus Depths prologue that I promised I’d write last year. That is still coming (believe it or not), it’s simply taken a back seat to the editing process for Tantalus Depths.

And in other news, as most of you know, next month is National Novel Writer’s Month! Many Inkshares authors will be working on different projects for NaNoWriMo, and I’ll be among them. For my purposes, though, I’m only working on existing projects this time. My first priority will be editing Tantalus Depths, and I plan to have the full development draft finished by the end of the month. Any time I have left after that’s done will be spent on Proteus.

I plan to send updates once a week during NaNoWriMo to keep you up to date on my progress. I hope to get a great deal accomplished next month, so prepare to be impressed.

Also, best of luck to my fellow authors who are working on their own projects next month. You can do it! We’re all in the same boat, so let’s do it together!

You feel yourself in a forest, standing on a thick layer of pine needles. It feels like you are remembering something happening right now, like it is real, but merely a recording that you are living as it plays. You are next to a tall cylinder with a bevilled top labeled "MEC-A 6." There is a door next to it. The White-Haired Woman stands next to it with her back to you. Her back is always to you.

"This is the end of things," she says, pride in her voice. "In seven hours, we’ll put that book in the Moon Earth Collider and be done with this."

"There’s still time for it to win, right? To get into third place?" you say, dutifully.

"It would be extraordinary for that to happen," she says, confidently. "I know much about this affair has been strange, but we have fought for this outcome. The book is defeated."

"Couldn’t the author still try--" you say, but you are cut off by a scoff from the White-Haired Woman.

"The author!" she says, derisively. "We are concerned about the book, not the author. He is a good typist, nothing more. Perhaps he could have a place in the DOF stenographer pool as a consolation prize. Perhaps he deserves to actually be a part of something worthwhile."

"What about the judges?" you ask. The White-Haired woman turns her head toward you slightly. It is not enough for you to make out any facial features, but you can, at least, tell that she has a face. This is a relief to you.

"Judges?" she asks. You hear nerves in her voice for the first time ever.

"The Inkshares contest. It has judges. They can choose other projects outside of the top three," you say. "And he just released Company Line. It’s got some science fiction flavor, and Inkshares is awfully fond of science fiction."

The White-Haired Woman whips her head around. You know her face isn’t inhuman, but it is unfathomable. You feel as if you are blocking a memory as it happens. The trees around you begin to explode, their bark shattering in all directions. Fire consumes the grove of trees you are in, then all becomes black.

You wake up in your normal bed, at the normal time.

Hey! LISTEN! 

The audiobook of Sunshine is Forever is available via Audible, narrated by Kirby Heyborne!

ALSO, please review the book on Amazon with a STAR RATING and A SHORT REVIEW. 

Both at this LINK: https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=sunshine+is+forever

Thanks so much!!!

Kyle T. Cowan

Happy Halloween!

Another month has come and gone, and it’s time for another reader update. The Walls are Closing In is still voyaging through the production process. The entire first round of rewrites is wrapped up and has been submitted to my editor.

Portions of my precious story were difficult to part with, and some rewrites flowed easier than others. But, out of the ashes of my murdered darling came a stronger, more piercing novel that I am incredibly happy with and eager to share with all of you.

Matt has already marked up Act 1 (of 3) for round 2 of the developmental edit, and I have completed those changes as well. I am now waiting for him to return Acts 2 and 3 with notes. It will likely be about two weeks before he gets those back to me. So, in the meantime, I am going to dive into National Novel Writing Month.

Every November, authors around the globe strive to write 50,000 words of the first draft of a novel within the month of November, and I have jumped on board.

Someone stop me, please.

The rewrites of The Walls are Closing In will take priority whenever it is in my hands, but when the manuscript is with Matt, I am going to strive to meet the quota (1,667 words per day).

During this time, I’ll likely resemble the undead roaming the streets this all hallows’ eve, and will accept all offers of free caffeine and chocolate.

Until next time,

Jacqui