As most of you probably know, anthologies have been banned from all current and future Inkshares contests, so we were not allowed to submit this in the Geek & Sundry contest.

Earth . . . 10,000 will remain open for submissions until we receive enough quality material to fill out the book. This project will definitely be a GO and be successful someday, we just can’t predict when exactly that will happen.

In the meantime, we are supporting our friend @JeynaGrace in the G&S contest. Her entry, The Slave Prince is doing exceedingly well and is currently tied for second place!

We have donated 3 signed, low numbered. 1st edition, collectors copies of Journey, A Short Story in a promotion that Jeyna is running.

Here is a link to that announcement. Please consider supporting Jeyna with a pre-order of TSP!


https://www.inkshares.com/books/the-slave-prince

Kind regards,

Mykl & Rich

Well guys, that’s it. SQUIDS IN has failed to reach its publication goal! 

The good news is that every single person who supported this project by throwing down some cold hard cash will get it ALL back. That’s right, every last penny will be refunded to you at somepoint over the next couple of days.

It’s the Final Countdown, Space Crew. 

 

For today’s update, I’m featuring a story by an author that’s a bit more established than the others I’ve been promoting this week. Rick Heinz has already successfully funded a book through Inkshares: The Seventh Age: Dawn, and is a contributing member to the Too Many Controllers anthology collection. While my main purpose in sharing these updates is to draw attention to books that need an extra boost to reach an audience, I had to make an exception for this one.

The Seventh Age: Dystopia is the follow up to The Seventh Age: Dawn. It’s a high-powered urban fantasy story centered on the sudden jarring return of ancient magic to the modern world. 

In Dawn, the world was re-introduced to magic. Supernatural creatures and forces poured back into the world, thanks to meddling shadow organizations and secret societies. Now, one year later, Dystopia brings us a world where magic is not merely present, but industrialized. 

Greedy corporations, determined to turn a profit on a world-shattering phenomenon, have built a whole new industry on the research, development, and distribution of magically-infused products. Everything from experimental ability enhancing magical pharmaceuticals to Pegasus meat has flooded the market in a new and strange industrial boom.

But is there more to this new magic-centered economy than meets the eye? Just how much power do these secret societies hold? What greater ramifications will this new world show in time? I’m as excited to find out as anyone else. Please give Seventh Age: Dystopia a look!

Hey Campers!

511 preorders, 239 away from the end of this campaign and a full publishing deal.

This week I wanted to share an interview that I did with my fan/friend Sue. She discovered me on Manhattan and has been extremely supportive ever since.

Check it out: https://eyesandearsbooks.wordpress.com/2016/09/07/author-interview-kyle-t-cowan/ 

I still need your help with spreading the word.

Please e-mail or message one friend, and urge them to preorder the book too! It won’t take you more than five minutes, and it will help me tremendously.

You can also invite all of your Facebook friends to this event: https://www.facebook.com/events/1228625917161072/

If you are following the book, and you haven’t preordered, I would really appreciate it if you would TODAY!

PREORDER NOW: https://www.inkshares.com/books/sunshine-is-forever

$10 E-Book

$20 Signed Copy

LET’S PUSH TO 750 PREORDERS! The faster I get to 750 preorders, the faster I can get this book into your hands.

You are all the best,

Kyle T. Cowan

First off, when I talked about the Sartval earlier this week I meant to link the chapters of Magus they appear in as well.  They first appear in Chapter 10 and Pentaz’ full experience with them ranges from there to Chapter 17(a span that also covers his introduction to Buscidia).  So if you want to read a bit more about that savage race of dwarves in action click the link above.

After a bit of a wall my campaign has started to pick up a little steam again, though we’ll need a great deal more if we’re going to make it so I’m hoping I can convince more of you who have followed but not ordered yet to do so.  As stated at the beginning of the campaign, for every 25 readers I’ll post a new chapter.  We’re only 8 more people away from the next chapter, and if we can hit 100 readers by 9/18 I’ll post 3 bonus chapters beyond those for each set of 25 people.

Moving on from the sales pitch though, I’m continuing my discussion of the different types of dwarves in my world.  Next on the list are the Ansvari, their representative in Exile, Magus being Talari.  She’s a bit of an intellectual, explorer, and a more knowledgeable magus than Pentaz, and she’s pictured below in the wonderful new art from Lho Brochoff.  She doesn’t come in until the last act (quarter really) of the story, but if I get to post the bonus chapters mentioned above I will release 3 of those featuring her.  She is one of the main characters in the sequel - Exile, Hunted, and most every Exile book to follow.  I’ve linked this previously but I feel it deserves linking again in case you want to read an interaction from her childhood between Talari and her grandmother.

The Ansvari as a people are perhaps the least traditional Dwarves.  They tend to live on wide open plains or sylvan glades, organized into loose tribal societies unofficial led by an elder and/or shaman(sometimes this is the same person).

They are a hunter/gatherer people who hold the spirits of nature, both elemental and otherwise, in deep regard.  They don’t necessarily worship these spirits, but they always respect them.  In truth they have much in common with the Wilder Elves, though they do put more importance on physical prowess than the Elves.  Many Ansvari practice at least minor household magic, though not to the extent of the Elves.  They also tend to be a curious people, though they usually limit their fields of study to those of the natural or magical world.

The bulk of the Ansvari tribes originally lived in a region of the Melexi empire now occupied by southern Zaltruscas and western Hanaen.  As the Zaltruscan empire spread it demanded that the Ansvari cede their land and pledge their allegiance to the Empire.  Most refused leading to a ruthless invasion by the Zaltruscans.  In the conflict over half the resisting tribes were eradicated, prisoners executed in town squares or made to fight hopeless battles in the arenas to serve as examples.

Those tribes which survived only did so by fleeing east across the World’s Cleft River and taking refuge in the free Counties of Hanaen.  Some of these tribes have found welcoming homes there, though a few such at Talari’s tribe, the Niajiry, are forced to live as little more than squatters in a county whose lord detests them.

I’ll leave my description of them at that, and as with the previous Dwarven subgroups I’ll post up a prototype of a 5th edition D&D racial option of them for anyone interested.  As for the rest of you, I want to once again thank you for your time and support, and my sincere wish that you keep reading and enjoying.

• Ability Score Increase:  +1 Intelligence, +1 Wisdom, +1 Constitution.
  
• Age:  Typically reach adulthood at around 60-70 years and live up to 450-500 years(though most die in battle before this).
• Alignment:  Can be any alignment, but most commonly are NG.
• Size:  Medium, stand between 3’10" - 4’6", though on vary rare occasions there may be an individual who reaches as tall as 4’8".
• Speed:  25’.
• Cantrip:  Choose any 1 from the Druid or Wizard list.  If chosen from the Druid list then Wisdom is you spellcasting ability; if chosen from the Wizard list then Intelligence is your spellcasting ability.
• Armor Training:  Proficient with Light armor.
• Weapn Training:  Proficient with Pike, Rapier, Longbow, and Shortbow.
• Tool Training:  Proficient with any 1 of the following - Leatherworker’s tools, Weaver’s tools, or Woodcarver’s tools.
• Skill Training:  You are proficient with 3 chosen skills from the following list - Arcana, Nature, Perception, Religion, Stealth, and Survival.
• Languages:  Common, Dwarvish and 1 of the following - Draconic, Elven, Primordial, or Sylvan.

Also, to those of you who have been reading these D&D options each time, I would like some input.  A good friend of mine who has been playing in my D&D games for over a decade recently suggested I start taking advantage of the OGL to release a portion of Exile, Magus’ world for purchase online as a campaign setting.  Would this be something you’d be interested in?  Message me either here or through my Facebook page to let me know(or through Twitter - @thoasoold, but I’m bad about forgetting to check Twitter messages).

For Day 2 of my week of referrals, I want to direct your attention to a fascinating book that’s been campaigning slowly but steadily, amassing a large following without much fanfare. Yet its success so far is no surprise at all; once you do catch sight of this book, it holds your attention from then on.

Murder at the Veterans’ Club is exactly what you hope it will be: a pure love letter to the golden age of detective fiction. Set in post WWI London, Murder at the Veterans’ Club follows Eric Peterkin as he seeks to find the truth behind the murder of a colleague, seeking the answers to a crime the police have no intention of solving.

Christopher Huang has clearly written this book out of a deep-seated love for the genre, and it shows. The tone, plot, characterization and language are all painstakingly delivered in the style of classic detective literature, resulting in a story that reads as if it were a manuscript recently pulled from a vault left sealed for 90 years.

If you yearn for a new Holmes or Poirot novel, you owe it to yourself to give Peterkin a try.