Welcome to new followers, and greetings to those who have faithfully stuck with me for awhile. I have some glorious news! 384 copies of The Walls are Closing In have been presold, which slides us over the 50% mark! This leaves 366 copies to go!
I am working on an audio version of Chapter 1 to be released once the 400 order target is met - likely sometime in the next week.
That is not all on the exciting news front! In addition to the dystopian book bundle giveaway that I am running to help spread the word, I have also decided to offer a raffle specifically for those who place a preorder. I will be raffling off a $250 gift card for Airbnb as soon as the 750 order mark is met. Everyone who has already ordered has automatically been entered! 
So, for $10, folks can support an emerging author, and enter for the chance to win a $250 Airbnb gift card. Please tell your family, friends, and random strangers you pass on the street.
In the meantime, check out these other great books currently on Inkshares.
Everything is Normal: The Life and Times of a Soviet Kid
One eventful middle-class childhood behind the Iron Curtain in Soviet Leningrad. A mix of a fun memoir and social history of the years preceding the collapse of the USSR.
A female airship Captain and her crew work to prevent a despotic Queen Victoria expanding her empire.
Dear Readers of "Nowhere Else I Want to Be: A Memoir":
Campers!
I bet you’re wondering, what’s going on with Sunshine is Forever? We are now done with Development Edits and Line Edits. The book is in the hands of the Copy Editor, and will be locked and loaded sometime in April. You will receive your book on August 29, 2017!
What happens between now and then? Between now and August we will be gathering endorsements, reviews, and purchase orders from bookstores. Inkshares will also finish the final design aspects of the book. Rest assured, even if the book is locked, there is still a ton of work to do.
In the meantime, we received our first endorsement over the weekend:
"Deep, truthful, and raw, Sunshine is Forever is a book that every school library should carry. This is my favorite book so far of 2017." — Dave Barrett, author of It’s All Fun and Games, winner of the Nerdist Collection Contest
I will keep you posted with more endorsements as we get them, but the early feedback is very promising.
Keep spreading the word and asking your friends to preorder a copy! Thank you so much for your support!
Kyle T. Cowan
It’s weekly update time! Been grappling with the decision of whether or not to accept the Quill light-publishing contract and move on to production, or continue pushing toward the full contract. I’ve come to the conclusion that the differences between the two contracts are just too vast not to continue.
The book is steadily selling copies every day, but not at a rate that will reach 750 in just one month. So, I have extended my campaign through the end of June. I am optimistic that the book can get there. Most who take the time to read the material that is up, feel a connection to the story, and preorder the book.
So, the name of the game now is - reaching a larger audience. Keep in mind that if 750 orders are placed before the campaign end date, that production will begin. So, reaching 750 as soon as possible is the goal! If anyone has any brilliant(or not so brilliant) ideas for spreading the word, I am all ears. If you have not gone through your email list to see if there is anyone you know that would support a book such as this, it would mean the world to me if you could take a few minutes to do that.
In other news, Inigo Online Magazine ran an interview with me earlier this week. Check it out! https://inigoonline.com/2017/03/08/author-of-the-walls-are-closing-in-discusses-her-dystopian-novel/
Update on the book itself: I will be sending the manuscript off to beta readers over the next few weeks so it’s ready to submit to Inkshares the moment the goal is met. News headlines continue to shape the story-line, so I’m continuously combing through the backstory to ensure that the final work is as poignant, yet malleable, as possible. It’s a fine line.
The last couple days I’ve stepped back, intentionally blacked out the number 750 that blinks in the back of my mind, and reflected on the fact that I have sold 335 copies of my first book before it has even been published. This is an amazing feat, and I am incredibly grateful to each and every one of you for the support. THANK YOU.
Until next time,
-Jacqui
Good afternoon, readers of "Nowhere Else I Want to Be: A Memoir":
I’m beginning to hear from people who have read my book, and am grateful for reader comments - so please let me hear from you!
Respond to this message /or/ email me at carol@caroldmarsh.com.
If you’ve finished the book, you may want to Explore the Themes with me in my new online venture, Forum for Growth in Service. Follow this LINK to find a free single-lecture course and a $10.00 4-lecture course that explore the themes of my memoir.
Finally, here’s a LINK to a virtual booklet that will tell you more about the Forum.
Best wishes and happy reading - Carol
Carol D. Marsh
liked an update for Love, Derric: My Journey From Laboratory Experiment to Freagle (who eats burritos at the beach)
Hi! It’s me, Studious Derric! Stay tuned for some updating from Dad about the book.
Hey! Jason here. First, apologies for the delay in updating but between marketing chores on Women Like Us, putting the finishing touches on a follow-up novel and hatching the plot to get it published (more traditional route on this one), other work duties and, well, life, finding time for Derric’s book has been a little challenging. But the good news is most of the writing work on Novel 2 is just about done and now I can focus on helping Derric get his story out.
One thing I’ll have to do, however, is request an extension from Inkshares for the campaign. I just didn’t leave enough time for this. Hopefully that won’t be an issue. Do always keep in mind that if for whatever reason the book doesn’t hit it’s funding goal, you’re pre-order will be refunded. So thanks for your patience, early supporters, and more to come soon!
Love, Derric (and Jason)
Dear Readers of "Nowhere Else I Want to Be: A Memoir":
Here is a lovely review of my memoir in A&U Magazine this month:
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Nowhere Else I Want to Be: A Memoir
by Carol D. Marsh
Inkshares
Reviewed by T.J. Banks
The book that really jump-started Carol Marsh’s imagination as a teenager was Catherine Marshall’s Christy. “I dreamt of being like Christy,” she recalls, “and going to work with poor mountain families—later, Indians on reservations, and later still, overseas with the Peace Corps—and helping people who needed me.” She saw herself living “a life of service in which I would make things perfect for some small village or group of children. For that they would, of course, love and appreciate me.”
Somewhere along the way, Marsh realized that her calling was working with women in need. So, in 1996, she founded Miriam’s House, a place for homeless women in the Washington, D.C., area who were struggling with HIV and AIDS.
Each woman came to Miriam’s House with a painful back story all her own. Claudia was mentally ill. Rebecca had been incapacitated by a stroke and communicated by pointing to pictures or words in a little book that one of the interns put together for her. Laila had contracted the virus from a blood transfusion following a car accident during her childhood. Alyssa, one of the youngest residents, had been pimped out by her mother, who had “needed the money to pay the drug man.”
Marsh and her husband Tim lived at Miriam’s House, and she learned that there was much more to being the director than she’d imagined. She accompanied residents to the ER; sat by deathbeds; and dealt with staff issues and substance-abuse relapses, learning a few truths about herself in the process. But what gave her “real joy,” she discovered, “was relating on an intimate level with the residents.” Over time, “being in service” morphed into “being present” for the residents, and “[t]here was humility in ceasing to help the vulnerable and commencing to be with them. To stay with them.”
Marsh paints vivid word-pictures of the women of Miriam’s House, enabling us to enter their lives as much as it is humanly possible to. And we come away from the book moved by both the story she tells and the honesty with which she tells it.
T.J. Banks is the author of Sketch People, A Time for Shadows, Catsong, Houdini, and other books. Catsong was the winner of the 2007 Merial Human-Animal Bond Award.
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An author is truly gratified when a reviewer really ’gets’ her book. I’m grateful to T. J. Banks for this review.
Peace, Carol
