Greetings, adventurers! 

 Some bittersweet news: we are no longer in the running for the Launchpad contest, as we did not make the top 75. A HUGE congratulations to those who did make the cut! Now I get the opportunity to follow several more exciting up-and-coming books. All in all, it was a good experience. Thanks to Launchpad and Inkshares for the opportunity!

 So now, to the good news! It’s been another HUGE week, so I have lots to share. 

 This was another exciting week for the campaign, and another huge milestone! In fact… we hit TWO milestones. Firstly, on Sunday, we hit the 100 preorders mark. Considering we were barely over 50 preorders at the beginning of the month, this was a pretty exciting number to hit. Then, yesterday, we hit the halfway point of the campaign! 

 So, we’re now over 125 preorders, and we have less than that many to go with a little less than three weeks left. It’ll be tight, but I think we’ll be able to squeeze in the full 250. Thank you to everyone who has been preordering and spreading the word—there are a lot of you! 

 This week, I was featured on the front page of ThisWeek (see what I did there?), an arts-focused paper distributed weekly to my area. The multi-talented Margaret Eaton came by my house and interviewed me about my creative work, with a focus on Mushroom and Anchovy. Her article was very in-depth and I really couldn’t be happier. Thank you, Margaret! 

 On the same day Margaret came by, I recorded a little video to try and convince a few other people to preorder. It’s right here if you want to see me yelling about my book (because you haven’t seen that enough already).  

 I had a couple other points to make, friends, but this e-mail is long enough. I’m just happy I can present this much information for you, because it’s really exciting to me! I am 52% of the way to reaching my biggest goal for this year. Thanks for reading this far and joining me along the way. 

May your adventures be fraught with wonder and just enough peril to keep them interesting, 

 K. M. Cooper

Hi All,

I’m long overdue for some news about Lost in the Fog, so here we go!

First, I must express my continued gratitude.  Because of all of you, my novel surpassed the 250-pre-order requirement (272 thus far) and will be published by Inkshares!  Your support brings a ginormous smile to my face, and I am beyond grateful.  For years I’ve wanted to share Lost in the Fog with the world, and I will be able to do it because of you.  Merci beaucoup, danke schoen, arigato, mahalo nui loa, and thank you!

Second, I want to provide an update to the question you all have: when will I receive my copy of Lost in the Fog?   While I wish I could give it to you right now, unfortunately the world of book publishing moves at a slower pace.  Here’s a recent example.  Robin Sloane, author of the outstanding best seller Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore (which I highly recommend), announced to his fans on July 15, 2016 he had finished a new novel.  On September 5th of this year, Sloane’s Sourdough will be released to the world.   

For those of you who don’t want to do the math, that’s almost 14 months from completion to publication for an author who just had a best seller. 

While I’ve yet to have a best seller, the goal is to get Lost in the Fog to you a whole lot sooner.   Here is where I am with the process.  While I’ve gone through so many drafts of my novel that I’ve lost count, I am still working on one more.  When that is finished I send it off to the publisher, and then they assign an editor to work on it with me.

The editing process can take several months, and then there’s the cover, the clean-up of the final version, printing, marketing, and distribution.  This meticulous process will be done to produce the best possible version of my book.  Because you should never over-promise and under-deliver, my goal for Lost in the Fog is that it will be published next summer. 

Inkshares is located in the San Francisco Bay Area, and I plan on flying back there to sign every book before they ship.  So while a little patience is in order, I’m happy to report that everyone who pre-ordered a paperback will receive a personalized signed copy!

Third part to this update: as we walk down the long and winding road to publication, I will keep you informed along the way and hopefully have some fun with it.  I plan to share with you, the ones who have made Lost in the Fog possible, special items akin to DVD/Blu-ray extras.  Here’s a sneak preview.

In the beginning of Lost in the Fog (which you can check out right now on the "Read" tab), the main character Camden takes the Caltrain (the commuter rail) from San Carlos into the city of San Francisco.  Here is what he sees and thinks that morning:

Tired and hungover, he could only stare slack jawed at the lavender and pink clouds which appeared to be crashing like waves over to the East Bay sky.  Camden couldn’t get it out of his mind that he was a yo-yo.  Slung up the Peninsula to San Francisco in the morning, he was suspended there in a “walk the dog” move for the day.  As the sun set the giant wrist flicked and he returned to his home thirty-five miles south of the city.

 At the Caltrain Depot in San Francisco, Camden exited with the mass of commuters and began his usual walk up Fourth Avenue…….   

Below are some pictures of what Camden would have seen as he approached the San Francisco station on that morning, and also the view of when he exited the train to walk to his job as a gallery attendant.  Back when I was writing the first draft, commuting into the city was my life.  Those thirty-five to fifty-five minutes (it all depended on whether it was an express or a local), I used to spend working on Lost in the Fog.  That time on the train fueled my creativity and was very important to me. 

Thank you all again, and looking forward to sharing more updates soon!

-Michael

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

Happy Friday!