Friends and drag enthusiasts

Funding campaigns are a lot like Jennifer Aniston’s career. Somedays people are raving and can’t get enough of you, and some others they roll their eyes and wonder why you just don’t quit. Same as Jennifer Aniston I’m not a quitter. Also, I have great hair and often have to explain to people that I’m not pregnant just bloated; but I digress.

The point is the last two weeks have been like Friends. I have enjoyed your encouragement and support and dreamed of the possibility of an undeserved Emmy. We still have many weeks to go, though, and I know that The Breakup times are yet to come.

There are many exciting things happening to make the eye-rolling days as short as possible. First, don’t forget about the chance of becoming a character in the book. If you already pre-ordered, send me your drag queen name. Every Friday I will randomly choose a name to join Bad Medicine’s cast of queens.

Also, we have great concept art coming our way. This is the first draft from Moises May.

Lastly, but super important, I have received messages from some very enthusiastic readers who want me to post more chapters. I hear you my pretties and I will. As soon as we hit 100 readers, the second chapter will go up. If there is anything I can say about the second chapter is that it is full of surprises.

That’s it for today. Tomorrow I’ll send a quick update with the winner’s name

Have a great day

It’s September 15th! 

To some, it’s the Mid-Autumn Festival. To me, even though I’m craving mooncakes, it’s the one year publication anniversary of The Battle for Oz! 

Can you believe it? It has been a year! After 3 months of crowd-funding, 9 months of production, The Battle for Oz hit the shelves on September 15th, 2015. Now one year later, the book has sold over 1000 copies, has been reviewed by Jack & Jill Magazine, has been chosen by the Inkshares Book Club, and maybe, just maybe, will end up as an audiobook in the future.  

But all those aside, I want you to know that I’ve not forgotten your support during the crowd-funding season. Your willingness to stand beside me and believe in my dreams made this book happen. Without you, I wouldn’t be writing this today. Without you, I wouldn’t have started another campaign on Inkshares. So thank you for your generosity and faith. 

If you’re a reader who’ve only hopped on after the publication of the book, I am still very grateful for your support. You’re keeping the book alive - making it relevant among the many books out there! So thank you for giving The Battle for Oz a chance. 

I’m extremely grateful to have you in my Oz adventure, and I’ll be continuing on my dream-chasing journey. If you’d like to come along, oh please do! You’re most welcomed. But if you’d like to get off here, know that I will always remember our camaraderie. 

Till the next epic tale, have a wonderful day!

*My new novel, The Slave Prince has entered the Geek & Sundry Fantasy Contest. Should you be interested in joining this adventure with me, visit https://www.inkshares.com/books/the-slave-prince and pre-order a copy!

Hello explorers, investigators, and general purveyors of the strange and the occult. Another update awaits you for The Darkest Places ~ When last we left off with the narrative, an evil ritual ended with blood, though not perhaps with the blood of the expected. A terrible evil has entered the world, and the question now turns to how, and why...

Chapter Two is now live, introducing to readers the characters of James Porter and Professor Richard Forsythe, the presumptive heroes of this dark tale. I hope everyone enjoys, and remember, it’s never too late to throw your support behind The Darkest Places. While currently we may be down, this contest is barely even started. 

Enjoy ~ 

The final hours are upon us, Space Crew.

Look at all the things we’ve done. Over 300 copies of this book are going to go out in due time, guaranteed. If any of you are miraculously waiting to order 450 more, I’ll take it, but I’m really happy with our progress. 

When I have some time to sort out all the thoughts and feelings in my brainspace I’ll send out another update, but for now I just want to say thanks, and welcome to the Crew for anyone’s who’s joined us on this final push. Let’s all spam our networks one more time and then rest easy knowing this space book has become reality. 

Reusing an old doodle because I don’t have my tablet to draw with at the moment and I’m feeling sentimental. 

Your Sappy Space Captain,
-AC

I debated with myself whether I should do an author spotlight this week or not, since I made that my focus last week, and I don’t want to overwhelm you with information about projects that you’re not directly following. However, I do have one particular project I really want to support.

I’ve already made this book the subject of a previous author spotlight, but it’s worthy of a second one. 

You may ask yourself "Evan, why are you, an unmarried, childless man, so invested in a memoir about a woman raising her toddler?" Well, you’d be right to assume that it isn’t my genre of choice. Other than being a gamer as well, I have little to tie myself to the subject matter of Mothering: The Game. However, interestingly, there are quite a few parallels between that book and Tantalus Depths.

Tantalus Depths saw its origins in Geek and Sundry’s Hard Science Fiction competition. It placed in the top ten, but failed to win, and ever since then I’ve been working overtime to see it hit the full funding goal the hard way. One by one I’ve seen every other entrant in that contest either give up or fall short, their campaigns dropping left and right until the only ones left standing are the winners of that contest, and me.

Mothering: The Game saw its origins in Nerdist’s Video Games competition. Regina also managed to claw her way into the top ten, but not quite to the top. Since then, she’s been working hard to try and scrape together the support she needs to make it to the Quill goal the hard way. One by one, the other entrants in her contest gave up or failed, until the only ones left standing are the winners, Alisa King’s "Are You Sure You Want To Quit" (which managed to make it to Quill and deserves your support as well), and Mothering: The Game. Only a few scattered stragglers remain, none of them with more than a couple dozen pre-orders.

I’ve seen a determination and tenacity in Regina’s campaign. She wants to finish it, she wants to hit that goal, and she’s been willing to work hard for it. She’s successfully earned the Break The Bechdel syndicate’s pick, a syndicate that focuses on books with strong female protagonists. Well...the protagonist of Mothering: The Game is Regina. The real Regina. She’s a strong female protagonist in the flesh, and she’s earned all the success she’s seen and much, much more she’s yet to see.

Her writing is personal and meaningful. The relationship between her and her daughter radiates off the page and warms the heart. I’ve backed this book, and I’ve been kicking her butt to keep trying for that goal ever since I first found Mothering: The Game. True, it’s not my genre. That doesn’t stop me from loving this book, though. And even if it did, it could not stop me from seeing the reality that Mothering: The Game is a book that must exist. There is nothing like it on Inkshares, and there are few books like it in existence. Please, please consider playing a part in bringing this book to its goal.

Mothering: The Game has only 14 days remaining in its campaign, and has already been extended once. It needs 47 more orders to reach Quill publication. If I had the cash and Inkshares allowed it, I’d buy all 47 myself.

Time to talk about the last of the Dwarven ethnic groups in the world of Exile, Magus.  This particular group is for the most part not really a group at all.  They could easily be seen as the most cosmopolitan of all the Dwarf types, having foregone the clustering into small communities of their own race in favor of direct coexistence with the other civilized races(mainly humans and elves).  This has lead to a great diversity among them, to the point where they do not have any true ethnic identity, being typically referred to merely as Dwarves or Common Dwarves.  Part of this diversity lies in the fact that so many of them had non-dwarf’s among their list of ancestors.  Such an inclusion of human or (far more rarely) elf to their lineage is limited to 3 or more generations back since anything more recent would place them among the half-dwarves.

Such a lack of notable traits often leads to them being underestimated or taken for granted(especially by those who choose to refer to them as "Common" Dwarves), but they are remarkable as well.  Unlike the other Dwarven groups, their approach to life has led to them being more capable of living with any race as well as adapted to a variety of tasks as opposed to filling only a few small niches.  You can of course find examples of them focusing on typically Dwarven tasks such as smithing and warfare, but just as often you’ll find them filling other roles such as merchants, sailors, farmers, bakers, and so on.  For an example of an exceptional Common Dwarf there is Karamos Daern in book 2 - Exile, Hunted.  Admittedly he does fill a more traditional role as a master armorer and priest for the primary Dwarven God, Hatrien Quin, but he is exceptional nonetheless.  You can have a brief encounter with him by reading this chapter in Exile, Hunted (which does have some spoilers for the current book, Exile, Magus, so be warned).

I’ll leave the description at that.  Thanks to everyone who has ordered Exile, Magus already, and I hope that those of  you who are following but haven’t ordered already will consider doing so.  Even if you can’t order be sure to refer the book to others, if the book funds you can still win one of the available awards for being a top 10 referrer even if you haven’t ordered a copy for yourself.

That’s all I’ve got for this week (other than the Common Dwarf racial option for D&D 5th edition which I’ll be posting below for my fellow players/DM’s), so I’ll once again thank you all for your support and wish you enjoyable reading and whatever else you may desire.

• Ability Score Increase:  +1 Constitution; and +1 in 2 Ability Scores other than Dexterity or 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:  Any.
• Size:  Medium, stand between 3’8" - 4’8".
• Speed:  30’.  Living amongst the taller races has taught them the importance of keeping up.
• Dwarven Toughness:  +1 to Maximum HP at every level.
• Skill Training:  You gain proficiency in any 2 skills of your choice.
• Tool Training:  You gain proficiency in any 1 artisan’s tool of your choice.
• Versatility:  You can choose to either gain Dwarven Armor Training(proficiency in both Light and Medium Armors) or gain 1 bonus Language and 1 bonus Proficiency in either a skill or artisan’s tool.
• Weapn Training:  Proficient with any 4 of the following - Greataxe, Greatsword, Heavy Crossbow, Light Crossbow, Longbow, Longsword, Maul, Pike, Rapier, Shortsword, Shortbow, Warhammer, War Pick.
• Languages:  Common, and 1 of the following - Dwarven, Elven, Giant, or Gnomish.

Hello everybody!!