Deus Hex Machina was just chosen to be part of the illustrious Sword & Laser Collection here on Inkshares. I would write more about this, but I’m too busy shaking with gratitude.
We did it! The Punch Escrow is getting published!!
I’m on a plane and my laptop battery is about to die, so I have to make this quick. You lot have done something which my wife would have heretofore deemed impossible: I am speechless. So, while I do a little happy dance to myself, I wanted to recognize a few people, and then we’ll get on to all the raffle winners and such tonight (alas, victory doesn’t afford me the ability to shrug off my job).
Rachel Klein: I know it’s not easy being married to me. Thank you for putting up with my creative obsessions. I love you.
Iris and Violet Klein: My two beautiful muses. You’re too young to understand, but you’ve given my life purpose.
My extended family. Especially the Brown ladies, who are making me discuss my book at their book club at our next family reunion. Thankfully there are no sex scenes, although the protagonist does get naked once or twice. (’ey lord! Bless his soul!)
My “staff” (+3 of great friendship, 20% savings throw bonus when asking others for favors) – These folks have gone above and beyond to assist me in various phases of the book. Without them, The Punch Escrow would not be: Peter Birdsall, John Hannon, Joe Santoro, Dave Sontag, Ian Ellison, Russ Mitchell, Dan Salinas, Ben Murphy (kindof), Ryan Potter, Meredith Peruzzi, Acar Altinsel, Robert Kroese
My Inkshares “mental support” crew: James Rasile, Rick Heinz, Pat Edwards, Peter Bats, and my arch nemesis Brian Guthrie (who, despite the fact we were competitors, was always on hand to help me understand the Inkshares contest process, and teach me promotional tips and tricks).
Micah Pegman - Won the shirt raffle this week!
Our top 3 referrers in the past 96 hours (each gets a "teleporting" The Punch Escrow coffee mug):
Pete Downing
James Rasile
Nicola Sarjeant
Stay tuned for the MAJOR PRIZE announcement. Also, if any of you who participated in the Penguin Magic promotion have not gotten your Tarbell 51 code, please let me know, don’t bother the Inkshares or Penguin Magic support people.
More soon!
-Tal
SO CLOSE!
Order number 700 was just made meaning we’re only 50 preorders away from hitting the full publishing goal.
Dammit. @iamsteadman just ordered one as I was writing this.
Meaning we’re only 49 pre-orders away from hitting the publishing goal. (Thanks Mark!! Happy Eurovision!)
As a huge thank you for being in before the end here’s a little snippet from the book I won’t be putting up on the general page.
THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!
LESSONS
“It’s so easy to teach you since I always know what you learned exactly four years before,” the Secretary had crowed. He instructed each version of Ambassador X in order each day so he would move from least experienced to most experienced.
The lessons usually came during physical labor.
Ambassador X would be digging up dirt to cart over for the building’s walls. The Secretary would come up and start drilling him.
“What are the four major types of Sensaurians?”
“Overmind, Command, Soldier, Worker.”
What is the name of the Progon homeworld?”
“Tiel”
What are the Sensaurian eating habits.
“We do not know as they refuse to dine in diplomatic situations.”
“Should you ever offer Progons food?”
“It is not necessary but they appreciate the courtesy. Only offer once as they see the insistence as an insult to their machine nature.”
“What are the Sensaurian wheeled containers properly called?”
“Buckets. They really are buckets even in translation. Hilarious.”
“Focus. What is unique about Progon evolution?”
“They are non-corporeal and had the lowest probability of reaching sentience of any known sentient species.”
And on and on, day after day, until the day before Ambassador X’s original arrival.
Greetings you magnificent human beings,
Today is the last day of the campaign so I thought I’d take a minute to thank you all for carrying Beyond the Code to Quill. I’ll do my best in forging through the mostly unknown (to me) world of publishing to bring you the best book Beyond the Code can be.
The selling campaign of Beyond the Code was started kind of by accident before I was really prepared but I always strived to do the best I could. Thank you for your patience and support as I stumbled like a drunken four year old through the world of crowd funding. Your kindness and pulling together to help me with my dream has touched my heart in a way you couldn’t imagine.
We are at 257 orders so I’ll let you what. If we make it to 260 orders by the end of this campaign I will post the next chapter and I’ll do another prize draw to end things off right.
Thank you all again for bringing me this far. I’ll keep you posted on what comes next. Brave new world.
