6 Days to Launch - Updates Various

Howdy folks! Thanks for hanging in there with me these last few months. I’ve had quite a few ups and downs in my life recently, but your support has always encouraged me. Unfortunately we have not met out funding goal, so I will not be publishing with Inkshares at this time. I will be exploring other venues which will include other publishers and self-publishing. I will continue to keep you all updated throughout the process! Thanks again for your encouragement and support! Y’all are the best. 
  

Sincerely,

Erin

THANK YOU so much for supporting Pilot X. We are halfway to the first milestone, the "Quill" goal that gets it published! I can’t believe it’s only been a week.

To celebrate the halfway mark, I’ve added a second sample chapter. This is the opening chapter of the book. It’s called Prologue 1 because the first few chapters set you up to tell X’s story, although they take place at the end of his adventures. It’s all part of the time travel fun!

Anyway hope you enjoy it and let me know if you’re curious about other parts of the book!  The first thing in the manuscript right now is a section on the three major races of the universe ripped from the Encyclopedia Alendia. Man the librarian was mad at me about that.

Thanks again!

Tom

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

[No Easter Bunnies were harmed in the writing of this update] [...but there might be a hollowed-out bunny-human ribcage or two in the latest scene I wrote for “The Animal in Man.” No joke… Happy Easter.]

Good day, animals. **

Just a quick update to let all The Animal in Man’s followers know that its author is still alive and semi-well (wife just passed her flu to me, I suspect). Some of you have messaged me directly, wondering when the book will be released. Well, I cannot say for certain, and I hesitate to confirm anything, but by my best guesstimate you will have the completed story at your fingertips no sooner than late-2016. (In the meantime, there are PLENTY of other books on inkshares to blow your mind!) I might have mentioned this in a previous update… when I got back into writing it, I revitalized my outline and discovered that this story is much more massive than I realized.

“Why not cut it into a trilogy then, Joe?” Good question! The reason I won’t do so is because it’s ONE complete story, an epic adventure that ramps up quickly and never slows down, start to finish, all within about two week’s time (I think). It is, however, diced up into three parts… Maybe three and a half.

Some of the characters you’ll meet along the way, besides our heroic and cunning fox Maxan, include:

• A white wolf wizard (seen in chapter 1)
• His apprentices, twin squirrels
• An octopus samurai (guess how many swords)
• A one-winged eagle preacher
• A rhino who charges through buildings
• A grey horned owl sorcerer who never blinks
• A thousand-year old [senile?] snapping turtle
• A grizzly bear wasted away by poison

And more… I promise this is not going to be a cutesy tale of anthropomorphic, cuddly snugglemongers. No. It’s a tale about killers. Because in case we’ve forgotten… Animals are killers.

Are we any better?

Peace to you and yours this holiday.

** (My mom was wondering why I’m calling her an animal with every update... Kind of awkward... When I call you animals, please know that I do so with the utmost endearment, and remember that the question of whether or not mankind is any better than animal-kind is one of the central questions driving the story. Animals are also capable of love, I believe, and I do so love each and every one of you.Thank you for your support and attention.

Well, I’m not dead, and neither is A Beast Requires. 

We all fall short sometimes. It sucks. It can be devastating. In the months since the campaign ended, life gave me constant reminders that time keeps moving on. I lost a war with a dying washing machine, celebrated the one year anniversary with one of my gaming groups, and failed once again at reading all seven volumes of In Search of Lost Time. 

I’ve also kept editing. It’s been a slow process, often times with complete rewrites of scenes. The brain lives in autocorrect mode, skipping over homonyms and dangling commas. I wish I could do it all via computer, but I need my dead trees and red pen. But after months of working at it, I have the first ten chapters done. 

You all were behind me in the campaign. You all bolstered my confidence, forming a wall of support that encouraged me to push forward even when my emotions were telling me otherwise. It meant the world to me. So I have this things. It’s up on Google Drive. If you want to read it, let me know. 

Be excellent to each other. Party on, dudes.