Core77’s 2016 Ultimate Gift Guide Contest

Hopefully this will make you smile some. It’s goofy and a touch of mirthful good news. My gift guide"Best Aunt/Uncle in the World–All 5 for $100" is winning list in design website Core77’s 2016 Gift Guide contest. Woohoo!

However what’s really fun is what’s on the list…

…including the Fondoodler, a $25 hot glue gun for cheese!

Which ALSO WORKS WITH CHOCOLATE.

(Of course The Astronaut Instruction Manual is on the list, too.)

Happy gift-giving, everyone. Fun notwithstanding, the best gift of all? Thanks.

Mike

FREE SHORT STORY!

While you wait ever so patiently for Mr. Butler, I thought I’d offer you some light reading. I’ve entered a short horror/thriller story of mine into a contest on Wattpad. It’s called "Open Heart," and you can read it here:

http://my.w.tt/UiNb/T1xXRvgeDy

No need to purchase anything. But if you like it, I’d appreciate it if you clicked on the "vote" star in the app. Couldn’t hurt. 

Otherwise, The Editing of Mr Butler is going quite well. I anticipate turning in my manuscript in a couple weeks. Thank you for your patience. 

Love to all, and I hope you had a wonderful thanksgiving (if in the US) and I wish you a happy holiday season. 

-Michael 

Read & share:
The $11 Astronaut Instruction Manual
Thank you, supporters!
Mike

So yeah. Long time no update. 

Stuff has happened. Probably a lot of stuff and I’ve been busy with grad school, but really I don’t feel like talking about any of that. Because right now sucks. A lot. 
 

Why I’m updating everyone at this time when so many of us just want to curl up into the fetal position and do nothing is because while I don’t have a lot of money to donate to causes that may need it in the next four years or the skills to help people (I write silly stories about monsters), what I do have are six codes for the audiobook version of An Unattractive Vampire. 

So here’s the deal: between now and December 15th, donate to an at-risk cause. Here’s a list from Jezebel to get you started. Once you’ve donated, tell me. Tweet at me @jimmcdoniel or leave a comment on this post telling me that you’ve donated or walk past me on the sidewalk and give me the Elder Sign. Just make sure I know and your name will be added to the list. On December 16th, I will draw six names and those lucky do-gooders will be able to experience my book as it was meant to be experienced: read to them by a British man.

So hey, let’s get out there and make this all suck slightly less.

Good lord...I don’t even have words...

We did it. We finally did it.

After campaigning day and night since March...after losing literally hundreds of orders in the credit abuse scandall....after extending the campaign a whole two extra months...We’ve done it. We’ve reached the full publishing goal of 750 copies.

Tantalus Depths is a book now. It’s an honest to God book with a full publication deal. It’s happening.

It took 461 people and six syndicates to make this happen. Of particular note is the Idosyncraticate Syndicate, which swooped in out of absolutely nowhere and pushed us over the final line. Thank you all, from the depths of my heart. I love you all for this.

I’ll have more words soon, when I can process them. For now, I can only say: thank you.

My life changed forever today. I owe that to you.

  Huge news!
 

Just one day after receiving the Rite of Passage Syndicate pick, we’ve been given the tremendous honor of being named as the Staff Syndicate’s October pick! The Staff Syndicate is the second-larges syndicate on Inkshares, and thanks to them, we are currently now only TWENTY-EIGHT orders away from full publishing!

Guys...we could finish it today. Campaigns tend to build up a lot of momentum once they get this close to a publishing goal. Now is the time! Pour everything you have into getting the word out, because we are SO close.  

Tantalus Depths has come a long way since this campaign first began. It’s also fallen pretty far here and there, but it’s also come a long way since then.

The support I’ve seen from all of you has been beyond critical to the success this campaign has seen, but we still have a long way to go. As of today, we need 185 more pre-orders to hit full publication, and we have only about a month to get there.

I’ve reached out to just about as many people as I can at this point. I’m dependent on you to help bring in new readers; people you know who would like Tantalus Depths who I haven’t had the pleasure of asking about it myself.

To that end, I’m launching a special promotion from now until the end of my campaign: at the end of my campaign, whoever has referred the most people to buy copies of Tantalus Depths will have a minor planet named after them in the book.

It won’t be seen, since the entire story takes place on Tantalus 13, and will likely be only a passing reference. However, your planet will become a fixture in Tantalus Depths’ universe; a member world of the Colonial Hegemony, alongside other exotic and mysterious exoplanets such as Showalter, Samrat, Hayden, and Atropos. Your planet will be a part of the canon of this universe, and who knows? We may one day see more of it in future sequels or spinoffs.

To qualify for this honor, you simply have to be responsible for bringing the largest number of new readers to Tantalus Depths. Your own first order counts as one. If you get a friend to order a copy, that counts as two. A new friend counts as three. It’s that simple.

If at the end of the campaign there is a tie, the winner will be selected at random from among the top referrers. To prevent abuse of Inkshares’ referral systems, please confirm any new referrals with me via private message.

Have fun, and get to referring! (especially if you have a cool planet-sounding name.)