Okay, whew. I ran out last Friday to pick up my son, and then we left for a camping trip. I didn’t get the chance to do proper thank yous, so here it goes:

A huge, huge thank you to my supporters. It was amazing on Friday at 11:30 am to have people come out of the woodwork and push me into 2nd place. I absolutely could not have done it without you all. Thanks to my wife for finding this contest and encouraging me to enter. And thanks to all the Harveys and the Clearys and the Mills who bit their nails alongside us. Thank you to Simon Winchester, Brian Baldwin, Sean Garcia, Hannah Davis, and Ryan Weilert. In the end, it was your willpower that won me 2nd place. I’m in awe of all of you.

Great work to everyone else in the competition. There was some serious talent I was competing against. Alisa King ran a fierce campaign. Congrats to Peter Ryan, who really does seem like a genuinely nice guy. I can’t wait to read Too Many Controllers. And as I’ve said before, Andrew Fantasia is a great writer. I hope his novel Sidescroller gets funded so we can all give it a read. I also want to give a shout-out to G.A. Finocchiaro and his book Knightmares. He helped me a ton, and his book looks awesome. 

So what’s next? Sweeping changes. I’ll soon be deleting the prologue that’s up on Inkshares. Years ago, I had written IN BETA as a feature film. At the start of this contest, I was simply adapting the film into novel form. The farther I went down that path, the more I realized I wasn’t excited about a book that followed the rigid formula of a Hollywood comedy. So during this contest, I made significant revisions to IN BETA’s setting and plot. The concept and the characters are the same, but I’ve moved the locale from Seattle, WA to a rural town in the Cascades. The setting works better for a number of reasons. If anyone is interested in the mechanics of "why", ask and I’ll happily distract myself from writing by geeking out over my decisions. Otherwise, just satisfy yourself with the knowledge that I’m not content to deliver a shit novel.

I’m very excited about IN BETA, and I can’t wait to share the new prologue with the world. Thanks everyone for this amazing opportunity. I’ll try to be regular with my updates, and I’ll let you know the timeline of this process once I figure that out.

Well, ladies & gents, it’s been an action-packed 45 days. In that short span of time, I found myself campaigning on social media, rapping in book trailers, scattering SideScroller adverts all over the city of Toronto, and (surprisingly) being accused of being in league with Voldemort (which I can still neither confirm nor deny).

The video game contest has come to an end, and my final ranking is 8th place. All I can say is...thank you. All of you. I may not have won, but I was part of something crazy & wild, something I’d always dreamed to be a part of. And I never could have gotten here without the support of every one of you crazy kids! (Also, 8 is totally my favourite number, so there’s that!)

Special shout-outs go to fellow Inksharians James Rasile and Tabi Card, for all their technical help, support, beautiful graphics, and gracious advice, and to Robin Williams for filming my book trailers. I’ve also got to thank Prescott Harvey, Regina McNemony, and Peter Ryan; all three of them were kind & supportive to me throughout this contest, even though their own awesome works were also currently in the running. And thanks to the Inkvengers for their podcast shout-out as well. All in all, I’m proud to have come in 8th when the people ranked above me are such admirable, excellent wordsmiths. Congrats to everyone who competed. Pat yourself on the back; whether you win or not, YOU WROTE A BOOK. Let that sink in, homies. You made something special out of nothing. And that’s ALWAYS a win.

Of course, then there’s YOU: you, who pre-ordered SideScroller and helped a brother try to achieve his dreams. You, who put your faith in a book that exists solely in a small, lonely Word file on my crappy Sony Vaio. You, who clicked on a little green button and literally MADE MY DAY. Thank you. Your love & support is appreciated more than I could possibly say.

So, the contest is done. But SideScroller can still be pre-ordered for another 40 days. We can still get this book past its Quill goal and out into the world. If you haven’t ordered yet, now’s your chance. Like any good video game character, SideScroller’s still got a few lives left in her before the screen goes blank.

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