Rise is in the wild!  Many of you have already received your copy and have sent images of the book to me.  Thanks for that.  I was in the throes of Post Con Depression following Dragoncon when these images began rolling in.  Instant boost to the happiness scale.

Hello Ladies and Gents!

Let me first say thank you. Thank you for following Monkey Business. I cannot tell you how much it has meant to me that over 400 people elected to follow this book. My first book. I love those silly little monkeys and I always will. The same goes for all of you.

But if we could look to the future for a moment, I would like to introduce my new book.

Obviously it’s called Black Cloud. It follows a paramedic and his partner through eight very intense days in their lives. Let me be upfront, this book is not Monkey Business. While it is often funny, it’s also cynical, dark, gritty and heart-breaking. I think it’s a pretty honest look into the experiences and perceptions of many of us who work in emergency medicine. Also there is a lot of cursing. I mean a lot. Just be forewarned.

Currently it’s in the draft stage. It is my goal at this point to gather followers. This book has been entered in the Inkshares/Scott Free Launchpad Competition. That means if it were to make it into the top 25 the book will be in a funding contest beginning on October 4th. If it doesn’t make it into that contest I plan to run a funding campaign within in next couple months anyway.

So please click one of these links and follow this project and if you have a few minutes, read the first chapter. You might get a kick out of it.

Oh and while I’m invading your inbox, let me just put this here:

Monkey Business is doing pretty well on good old Amazon today so if you haven’t picked up a copy yet, go ahead and grab one for $0.99. Tell your friends, tell your lovers, tell your baristas and bartenders. If you’ve already bought a copy, mosey on over and leave a review. I’m certainly not at 100 reviews yet but 52 is pretty good!

Thank you all for everything you do and everything you are. You beautiful, book-loving bastards.

- Landon

For today’s update, I’m featuring a story by an author that’s a bit more established than the others I’ve been promoting this week. Rick Heinz has already successfully funded a book through Inkshares: The Seventh Age: Dawn, and is a contributing member to the Too Many Controllers anthology collection. While my main purpose in sharing these updates is to draw attention to books that need an extra boost to reach an audience, I had to make an exception for this one.

The Seventh Age: Dystopia is the follow up to The Seventh Age: Dawn. It’s a high-powered urban fantasy story centered on the sudden jarring return of ancient magic to the modern world. 

In Dawn, the world was re-introduced to magic. Supernatural creatures and forces poured back into the world, thanks to meddling shadow organizations and secret societies. Now, one year later, Dystopia brings us a world where magic is not merely present, but industrialized. 

Greedy corporations, determined to turn a profit on a world-shattering phenomenon, have built a whole new industry on the research, development, and distribution of magically-infused products. Everything from experimental ability enhancing magical pharmaceuticals to Pegasus meat has flooded the market in a new and strange industrial boom.

But is there more to this new magic-centered economy than meets the eye? Just how much power do these secret societies hold? What greater ramifications will this new world show in time? I’m as excited to find out as anyone else. Please give Seventh Age: Dystopia a look!

Dear Friends

The day has come for you to lip-sync FOR YOUR LIFE!

Just kidding. Today is the first drawing for a chance to become a character in the zombie/drag queen saga Bad Medicine: Slay It Queen!

But before we announce the winner I want to share a couple of things.

First, I’m working with several artists developing illustrations for Bad Medicine. I’m giving them little direction because I want to see what they come up with. This is the first one by the talented comic artist Bartolomeo Argentino.

His, interpretation is very Tina Turner meets Rainbow Brite and I love it! I love seeing how different people imagine my characters.

Also, Bad Medicine got a couple of shout-outs. Geek.com and Jenny Graham Jones gave some love to our drag heroin.

Here is what Jenny had to say “Talking about taking a tired genre and turning it into something fresh and new."

Read the stories here: geek.com, JennyGrahamJones.com

Finally, the winner:

Red Redwine!! (AKA Miss Christine Brennecke)

Red Redwine is a classy queen from Philadelphia visiting New York for a classic Hollywood convention. Red gets caught in the mayhem of this poorly timed zombie apocalypse while getting ready to perform a Bette Midler tribute. 

You’ll learn more about her in future chapters.

Pre-order today, send me your drag-name, and you may be a winner next week.

Have great weekend friends!

Byeeeeee

First off, when I talked about the Sartval earlier this week I meant to link the chapters of Magus they appear in as well.  They first appear in Chapter 10 and Pentaz’ full experience with them ranges from there to Chapter 17(a span that also covers his introduction to Buscidia).  So if you want to read a bit more about that savage race of dwarves in action click the link above.

After a bit of a wall my campaign has started to pick up a little steam again, though we’ll need a great deal more if we’re going to make it so I’m hoping I can convince more of you who have followed but not ordered yet to do so.  As stated at the beginning of the campaign, for every 25 readers I’ll post a new chapter.  We’re only 8 more people away from the next chapter, and if we can hit 100 readers by 9/18 I’ll post 3 bonus chapters beyond those for each set of 25 people.

Moving on from the sales pitch though, I’m continuing my discussion of the different types of dwarves in my world.  Next on the list are the Ansvari, their representative in Exile, Magus being Talari.  She’s a bit of an intellectual, explorer, and a more knowledgeable magus than Pentaz, and she’s pictured below in the wonderful new art from Lho Brochoff.  She doesn’t come in until the last act (quarter really) of the story, but if I get to post the bonus chapters mentioned above I will release 3 of those featuring her.  She is one of the main characters in the sequel - Exile, Hunted, and most every Exile book to follow.  I’ve linked this previously but I feel it deserves linking again in case you want to read an interaction from her childhood between Talari and her grandmother.

The Ansvari as a people are perhaps the least traditional Dwarves.  They tend to live on wide open plains or sylvan glades, organized into loose tribal societies unofficial led by an elder and/or shaman(sometimes this is the same person).

They are a hunter/gatherer people who hold the spirits of nature, both elemental and otherwise, in deep regard.  They don’t necessarily worship these spirits, but they always respect them.  In truth they have much in common with the Wilder Elves, though they do put more importance on physical prowess than the Elves.  Many Ansvari practice at least minor household magic, though not to the extent of the Elves.  They also tend to be a curious people, though they usually limit their fields of study to those of the natural or magical world.

The bulk of the Ansvari tribes originally lived in a region of the Melexi empire now occupied by southern Zaltruscas and western Hanaen.  As the Zaltruscan empire spread it demanded that the Ansvari cede their land and pledge their allegiance to the Empire.  Most refused leading to a ruthless invasion by the Zaltruscans.  In the conflict over half the resisting tribes were eradicated, prisoners executed in town squares or made to fight hopeless battles in the arenas to serve as examples.

Those tribes which survived only did so by fleeing east across the World’s Cleft River and taking refuge in the free Counties of Hanaen.  Some of these tribes have found welcoming homes there, though a few such at Talari’s tribe, the Niajiry, are forced to live as little more than squatters in a county whose lord detests them.

I’ll leave my description of them at that, and as with the previous Dwarven subgroups I’ll post up a prototype of a 5th edition D&D racial option of them for anyone interested.  As for the rest of you, I want to once again thank you for your time and support, and my sincere wish that you keep reading and enjoying.

• Ability Score Increase:  +1 Intelligence, +1 Wisdom, +1 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:  Can be any alignment, but most commonly are NG.
• Size:  Medium, stand between 3’10" - 4’6", though on vary rare occasions there may be an individual who reaches as tall as 4’8".
• Speed:  25’.
• Cantrip:  Choose any 1 from the Druid or Wizard list.  If chosen from the Druid list then Wisdom is you spellcasting ability; if chosen from the Wizard list then Intelligence is your spellcasting ability.
• Armor Training:  Proficient with Light armor.
• Weapn Training:  Proficient with Pike, Rapier, Longbow, and Shortbow.
• Tool Training:  Proficient with any 1 of the following - Leatherworker’s tools, Weaver’s tools, or Woodcarver’s tools.
• Skill Training:  You are proficient with 3 chosen skills from the following list - Arcana, Nature, Perception, Religion, Stealth, and Survival.
• Languages:  Common, Dwarvish and 1 of the following - Draconic, Elven, Primordial, or Sylvan.

Also, to those of you who have been reading these D&D options each time, I would like some input.  A good friend of mine who has been playing in my D&D games for over a decade recently suggested I start taking advantage of the OGL to release a portion of Exile, Magus’ world for purchase online as a campaign setting.  Would this be something you’d be interested in?  Message me either here or through my Facebook page to let me know(or through Twitter - @thoasoold, but I’m bad about forgetting to check Twitter messages).

Greetings Journey Fans!

We are supporting our friend @JeynaGrace in the ongoing Geek & Sundry Fantasy contest. Her entry, The Slave Prince is doing exceedingly well and is currently tied for second place!

Mykl and I have donated 3 signed, low numbered. 1st edition, collectors copies of Journey, A Short Story in a promotion that Jeyna is running.

Here is a link to that announcement. Please consider supporting Jeyna with a pre-order of TSP!


https://www.inkshares.com/books/the-slave-prince

Kind regards,

Richard Saunders

As most of you probably know, anthologies have been banned from all current and future Inkshares contests, so we were not allowed to submit this in the Geek & Sundry contest.

Earth . . . 10,000 will remain open for submissions until we receive enough quality material to fill out the book. This project will definitely be a GO and be successful someday, we just can’t predict when exactly that will happen.

In the meantime, we are supporting our friend @JeynaGrace in the G&S contest. Her entry, The Slave Prince is doing exceedingly well and is currently tied for second place!

We have donated 3 signed, low numbered. 1st edition, collectors copies of Journey, A Short Story in a promotion that Jeyna is running.

Here is a link to that announcement. Please consider supporting Jeyna with a pre-order of TSP!


https://www.inkshares.com/books/the-slave-prince

Kind regards,

Mykl & Rich