Hello beloved supporters of Kill Creek!
It’s been a long trip, but we are quickly approaching the exit that will take you from the safety of the highway and down the shadowy road that leads to the Finch house. So I wanted to give you an update on a HUGE milestone: the final draft of the manuscript has been turned in, and just yesterday it was laid out so it, you know, looks like a book. I can’t tell you how thrilling it is to finally see my Word doc turned into an honest-to-God novel. There’s still proofing to do, but the heavy lifting is done and Kill Creek will be available for purchase on-line and in bookstores this Halloween! Holy crap, that’s like two months away. Okay, take a breath. Be cool. Be cool.
In the meantime, I wanted to give you a sneak peak at the fully-formatted first page of the prologue. Thanks again to those of you who pre-ordered and supported me in this endeavor, although I probably should have warned you: the entity that dwells in Kill Creek has a way of finding you, no matter where you are. So if you feel fingers grazing the back of your neck when no one else is around, or you see something out of the corner of your eye, a twisted, lurking thing that creeps closer and closer, just remember that your copy of the book is coming soon. Maybe you’ll find answers there. Maybe you’ll discover a way to stop it.
Then again, maybe nothing can stop it.
Scott
Hi everyone,
This weekend I had an amazing event at Austin’s Book People. Each book store I’ve visited thus far has exemplified the unique literary flare of its city, and Book People did not disappoint. The highlight, for me, was receiving a watermelon carving of The Punch Escrow’s cover. I sent it to M.S. Corley, the cover designer, and he and I agreed that we should have shipped all the books with watermelon rind covers in lieu of foil. Unfortunately, this was not a stock option offered by our printer.
Many of you have been asking me about the "secret" chapter. I am very close to releasing it to you. I have every intention of keeping my word that, as soon as we hit 101 reviews on Amazon, I will send a special out-of-band reader update containing the "secret" chapter. In the mean time, with the help of my friend and 22nd century legal expert Jay Wolman, I’m taking this opportunity to "clean up" some of the future legalese. There are 727 of you on this distribution, only 26 of you who haven’t yet need to post a review on Amazon, and the "secret" chapter is yours!Also! More exciting movie news is forthcoming this week. I am sworn to secrecy (sorry for being so clandestine lately), but the news should be public on the early side of the week (I hope!).
Peas,
Tal
Hi Gamers!
Baby Freya is now 2 months old! Jeez! The past few months has been a whirlwind of love, excitement, family, and sleep deprivation!
(Full post can be read on my blog HERE to see future posts sign up to my newsletter HERE)
Despite the newfound groggy-eyed joys of fatherhood, I have still been hard at work not only on RUNE’s sequel (Oath of the Apprentice), but also on an exciting new Indie Video Game project called Shadow of the Moon (which takes place chronologically between The Rune Chronicles books 1 and 2). I’m so excited to tell you about this game I’m shaking... Or is that the coffee which is currently keeping me awake?! The world may never know...
Many of you might remember Shadow of the Moon from the collaborative Inkshares video game anthology I was a part of called Too Many Controllers. Yes, that same book which "won" the Nerdist and Inkshares Video Game Publishing Contest. (And yes, thanks for asking, I am still sore about the book being canned.) Well, some friends and I were talking about how TMC being canceled shouldn’t be the death of such a great story. We were sad, however, because Shadow of the Moon was written with video game mechanics at its core, and therefore, did not really read well (make sense) as a stand alone literary work.
I kept on trying to figure out a way around this because Shadow of the Moon’s female protagonist, Zera, is featured heavily as a main character in The Rune Chronicles Book 2: Oath of the Apprentice. I could not get over how cool Zera’s background and unique motivations were and desperately wanted readers to have a chance, if they were interested, to know more about her and why she was such a bad ass. Sadly, try as I might, I could not find a good fix to the logistical story problems and was stumped for months!
Well, during the days following Freya’s birth I came to the crazy conclusion that if I could not "write" a solution for the story dilemma, the only "logical" course of action was to actually turn Shadow of the Moon into a full fledged indie video game! GG EZ Fix!
I must have been profoundly sleep deprived because changing mediums would add a huge, exponential multiplier to the amount of work required. Like, There are no words which can adequately describe how much more effort making a video game, even an indie, will be. But I have been working on this project for two months now, and trust me folks, Zera’s story is, hot damn, well worth it! Truly.
Seen above is Zera, the protagonist of Shadow of the Moon, and I have so much more I’m dying to share with you all! We have art, game design mechanics, real to life martial arts, and even code for our custom SDL game engine (which should run a playable demo soon.) Its crazy awesome how much cool shit will be in this game! And the story, oh how the story has grown and evolved!
All of this is thanks to our amazingly talented team. Despite my sleepless nights, I have been able to gather a super dedicated group over at Apotheosis Studios to help me transform my novella into a Rogue-like Action-Adventure, 2D Top Down, RPG Video Game of epic, pixelated proportions! (Think Hyper Light Drifter meets Darkest Dungeon meets Bastion. Yes, you heard me right--we are not fucking around. This game is the real deal.)
I am leading this fearless indie dev team as Creative Director/Writer and so far we have 2 other writers/designers, 1 programmer, 1 editor/marketer, 2 "interns", a wolf, and a viking baby! What could possibly go wrong?!?! If you want to join our ranks, hit me up at @StoneJamison (Currently we are looking for a pixel and/or sprite artist, and music composer, btw!)
I’m also super excited to say that I will documenting our game progress on my blog HERE with an Apotheosis Studios Indie Game Dev Blog Series! I have so much more to share (and some really killer art) but will save those additional details about the game for the "official" blog series, so stay tuned! And yes, I will be doing all of this with a new baby. Many believe I have lost my mind, which if true, should make this game and RUNE’s sequel pretty freaking awesome, haha!
All jokes aside, buckle up Masters and Apprentices and get ready for many more blog posts to come. I am so excited to not only share developments and updates on Shadow of the Moon game development, but also how my wife and I raise our Viking Ninja baby girl.
And in case you are wondering how one raises a little Viking Ninja baby girl in 2017... Well, I’m not really sure, but I figure age and gender appropriate toys (swords, obviously!); good role models (bad ass active duty Army musician mommy and Zera of Shadow of the Moon!); and a loving, strong, and supportive daddy (I’m still growing out my "Ragnar Viking haircut") is a good place to start!
Stay tuned via my news letter HERE and I’ll let you know how it all goes!
Oh, and P.S. if you have not yet posted a review for Rune of the Apprentice on Amazon Dear god, please do so! We currently have 66 reviews, but need 100+! It really helps! Seriously! Thank you!
It’s August again.
One year ago, The Slave Prince entered the Geek & Sundry Fantasy Contest. Boy oh boy, weren’t those days fun? I remember hustling you for support, checking my book’s status daily, and worrying if I could tough it out till October. It sure doesn’t feel like a year ago with such an experience. But, I’m glad I did it all.
One year later - this very month itself - The Slave Prince begins production. Yes, the ball is rolling! But as much as I’m celebrating, I have my work cut out for me. And I have to say, it’ll take a while before the book will be in print.
A week ago I received developmental notes from Inkshares’ Story Head, and just last Wednesday I responded with my rewrite outline. To make The Slave Prince better, some scenes have to be changed, more world building needs to take place, and a deeper drive must be given to the characters. So, I’ve decided to put writing the sequel of my trilogy on hold to focus on this novel. And I hope, I really hope, that I’ll be able to get the book ready for copyediting by the end of this year.
With all that said, there’ll be silence in the coming months. But the next time I write to you, I should be done with developmental editing. Now, it’s time I put my gameface on - it’s time I finish this race.
REVIEW THE BOOK ON GOODREADS
Hey everyone! If all goes according to plan I’ll be signing all of the preordered paperbacks on Thursday. The CEO of Inkshares sent me this picture this weekend. Doesn’t the final book look great?!
If you’ve already finished reading please give the book a star rating on Goodreads. Also write a review if you feel so inclined-the review can be something as simple as "I liked this book." The more ratings, the more attention the book will get. You can login to Goodreads with Facebook. It’s so freaking easy to help! https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33534889-sunshine-is-forever
I’ll be opening preorders for my next book-KARID-sometime this fall. Follow the book here: https://www.inkshares.com/books/karid
Thank you for your continued support! I hope you love the book!
Kyle T. Cowan