Dear friends and followers,

As I write this, we are at 303 pre-orders. Wow. I was sitting here yesterday morning, thinking, "oh, would it not be cool if we could clear 300 tonight?" And here we are. 303. You know what this means?

It means we now get to gaze across the desolate plains of 300-400 and despair.

Okay, sort of but not really. Clearing 300 is crossing a psychological barrier. It puts the end goal of 750 that much closer, and makes it look that much more attainable. It’s that first digit that makes the difference. We can do this, people. I believe this in a way I didn’t back when we were at 299, and I have you all to thank for it. (The image in the header above is from Jacques-Louis David’s "Leonidas at Thermopylae", because everyone knows "300" equates to "Spartan Awesomeness".)

So ... how about a look at another of the characters you’ll be meeting in this book? Introducing Patrick Norris:

And here’s our weekly look around the bookshelves on Inkshares:

1) "Upload", by Mark Meredith. In a world where people clone themselves in case of death, a New York cop has to solve his own murder. I just came across this today, and it looks SO GOOD. The writing has a deliciously gruff, cynical tone, the sort you might expect in a noir thriller--so I’m jolly well going to read it as one.

2) "Patria", by Robert Groves. A Mexican immigrant to the UK and his adventures with Mexican cuisine. I love food, and I love a story where food makes things better. And anyone who loves Mexican cuisine as much as Groves does (check out his MexiGeek blog) is bound to come up with something suitably poetic.

3) "The Dead Wizard", by Brian Marsden. I’m not a fan of the title, but hey, these things may be changed in production. It’s about goblins investigating a murder ... I’m hoping for a bit of a Pratchett influence, and maybe some observed interaction between goblins and other fantasy races. Also, goblins can be so damnably cute when they’re just messing around.

Clearly, the way to impress me is to include in your premise the words "investigate a murder". Can you blame me, really? Until next time: keep having fun, and keep reading.

I bought a book. Now what? 

This is the first update I’ve dispatched since These Are My Friends on Politics reached its full funding goal and became a real published book that a real publishing house is putting into real bookstores instead of the unprofitable ones I see in daydreams. So a thank you — to everyone who bought in, followed along, shared it with others and otherwise showed support for this little ray of light in this insatiable nightmare of an election year — is overdue. 

But it’s overdue for a reason, because rather than thank and leave you with a vague "you’ll get it someday!," I wanted to show my gratitude by letting you know exactly what’s happening with your support. (And I wanted to know what I was talking about before I started talking.) 

So here’s what’s happened. I sent in the manuscript and the initial cover design. Inkshares’ production partners at Girl Friday sent both back with some notes and some ideas about modestly bumping up the page count to hit the magic 64-page printing number (long story having to do with printers and multiples of four) and very possibly give the book the hardcover treatment (at no extra cost to you, of course) instead of the softcover treatment. (No promises yet on that, because I don’t know if it will happen, but it could happen.) I made a batch of new pages, lightly touched up a few existing pages, and handed in version 2. They sent back a few more notes, I did a last round of small touchups, and then I cropped and sized the pages so that they’re printer-perfect before handing in version 3.

And here’s what happens next. While the production wizards take those pages and assemble them into a sharp-looking book with all the interior and exterior necessities it needs, the marketing wizards at Inkshares are ramping up an extensive (word not used lightly — it’s extensive) plan to put the book inside national and independent bookstores and in front of media large and small that cover not just books, but politics and current events too. All of these wizards and plans are joining forces to coordinate a far-and-wide-reaching release in October, and if you’re a backer, you’ll have your signed and numbered copies of the book most likely a month before that October release date. (Again, that’s not ironclad, but based on what I’m told and on my own experiences as a backer of other authors’ books, backers getting their copies a month early seems to be the norm.)

So that’s the roadmap. It’s lengthy (even though it’s hyperloop-fast by book publishing standards — these things almost never happen inside of a year, never mind six months), but it’s that way because a lot of talented people are using really impressive resources to give this book the best possible chance it could ask for. When I said back in the campaigning stage that fully funding this thing is a (to borrow a phrase from the great Eddie Olczyk) tremendously tremendous deal, this is what I had in mind. So thank you for helping make that a reality.

5+2+1+1+6 = 15 

As is customary with these updates, I’ll close it out with the best thank you gift of all: some new pictures of Nina, who turned 15 on May 21 but whose face and table mannerisms remain indistinguishable from those of a puppy. Enjoy, and thank you again.  

Earlier this week, Geek & Sundry posted a very cool article about how Dungeons & Dragons was successfully being used in social therapy. In The Punch Escrow, I predict that games will replace therapy as we know it in the future.

Here’s an excerpt from the chapter Hiraeth:

In 1979 Edward Packard published the first commercially successful novel in what would become a very popular 20th century series of books called “Choose-Your-Own-Adventure.” In many ways this was a bridging of the worlds of interactive games and books (they didn’t have coms at the time, so they just wrote stuff down on paper), because the reader would play an active role in the narrative by choosing what the protagonist did next from a series of options. Rather delightfully, at least one option usually led to instant death.

"The Cave of Time" was the title of the first adventure published in that series. It was an imaginative story that took its readers on a journey through several real and fictional periods of time, from the end of the entire universe to the days of Camelot and the round table. The story’s mechanism for time travel was rather brilliantly not some fantastic device invented by a Vernian mad professor, but rather a series of tunnels that transported the reader through time, depending on which tunnel they chose.

Sometime in the early 22nd century, with the ubiquitousness of virtual reality and immersive gaming, a team comprised of cognitive neuroscientists and gaming technology experts created a psychoanalytical game based on The Cave Of Time. The virtual-reality game sought to help diagnose individuals with mental conditions, ideally with the aim of identifying such ailments before degeneration took effect. Using real-time analytics of eye movement, heart rate, neural activity, and facial expression, the games provided players with the opportunity to practice engaging in realistic social situations all in the context of a choose your own adventure scenario. The choices people made were helpful in establishing their mental state and whether they suffered from any psychological irregularities. The game itself eventually crossed over into the mainstream when modifications enabled players to edit content and endings. People would record their travels through the caves, personalizing outcomes. The caves became microcosms of their own universe and timelines.

After the Last War, many attempted to play out alternate strategies and endings to the war in The Cave of Time. Eventually it became common wisdom that the Last War would have taken place regardless of what was done in the immediate years preceding it, the prevailing common wisdom was that the clockwork which led to the war’s advent was put into action thousands of years ago. Still, to this day people still try to go back in time through the caves in search of answers.  

So in today’s Seventh Age update I’m going to write about some of the production stuff and projects I’m trying to assemble prior to the book launch on 11/1/2016. 

After the Editing:

• Cover Design is still underway. 
• I keep staring at my actual website and don’t have a friggin’ clue what to do with it.
• Wrote an actual acknowledgement.
• Placed my claim that all spiders need to be destroyed. 
• Anddd.. all the Grand Patrons who ordered the book using handles, character names, or odd-ball emails: I have a particular set of skills, and I will find you. Processed Meatman will be printed in the back of the book. 
• Actually... Processed Meatman is pretty damn hilarious. It stays. 

Looking for artists!

I will pay you for commissions related to the Seventh Age! Email me at CrankyBolt@gmail.com if you are interested in helping with art. My website is in vast need of an overhaul, and I’m trying to collect artwork related to the book so I can flesh some things out, make a better book trailer, and swoon over artistic ability that I have not.

The Quest to 1000:

We, and I from the bottom of my heart, I mean we; have almost reached 1000 copies. This is a huge milestone for any first time author. On Inkshares, it also has a special significance. 1000 copies before meant your book qualified for full publishing on it’s own outside of a contest. I think it’s a pretty important statement to make if we can prove that The Seventh Age could make it all the way there before publication on 11/1. 

I haven’t issued a direct call-to-action for a while and now that the book is actually coming out in a few months I think this milestone is worth it. If you know anyone who would enjoy an unrelenting, action packed urban fantasy tale: Send them here. The #1 way people buy books is by recommendations. 

Until next week!

Hello followers of Cape’s Side Bay!

Thank you all for following, for recommending, of pre-ordering, reviewing and everything you’ve done to help us get to 241 pre-orders in a month and a half!

So 241 is a fantastic number, it’s 9 away from the illustrious 250. So, now, we are close, very close, and I’m hoping to hit 250 soon! So if you are planning on ordering and are able to please do!

I also want to thank Joni Dee who is helping me with the editing of the book among other things. his book is over halfway to the BIG BAD 750, and his book AND THE WOLF SHALL DWELL is a great read and I would suggest ordering a copy if you haven’t already!

And, a huge congratulations to Tabi Card for her awesome book Scribbles: A Collection of Words getting published under Quill! Cannot wait to read her fantastic stories! You can get it now at a discounted price!

Until next time, enjoy your Friday and all the best!

James

Good evening to all...unless you’re in another time zone then good whatever time for you. 

Things are going good ever since the campaign ended with Beyond the Code on the happy side of Quill. Set aside some quality rest time after the soul strengthening climb and now I’m back to work. I thought it would be prudent to give you guys a run down of what work I’m doing towards the book you all paid good money for. 

I don’t have any real set dates yet but I can give you a summery of my plan of attack. First of all the name of the game is EDIT EDIT EDIT!! I’m going to completely dedicate every free minute I have towards going through the book and using the advise I have received from the campaign to make this book the best I can. 

Second, and this brings me to a question of opinion for all of you, the subject of beta readers. I was thinking about selecting some volunteers to  be Beta readers for Beyond the Code. You may caught a plot hole I didn’t see or have an idea on something that would be totally awesome in the book. What is your opinion on this system. Email me at Kelsey31@hotmail.com. I’d love to hear from you. 

And third, once those things are taken care of I’m going to be giving the cover art a complete make over. I have some ideas for that but nothings concrete yet so I’ll keep them to myself until I figure out which ones are actually doable. 

That’s it for now. I’ll keep all you lovely people up to date on the happenings of Beyond the Code. A reminder to all you followers who haven’t pre-ordered yet, now that Beyond the Code is officially a thing you can get a physical copy for only $14.99. Cool beans. 

Thank you all soo much for following all this time and I will see you later. 

Kelsey Rae Barthel