Hello everybody,

So we’re finally here, one month to the pub date for The Battle Within. It’s been a long trip to get here and I thank everyone for their continued support. Some details as we head into the final stretch:

The books have been printed and advance copies have been mailed to a number of media outlets. Over the next few weeks, the books will be mailed to backers and those who’ve pre-ordered, although you may get an e-book as early as next week.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t possible to marry up with the books so I could sign them without affecting the launch date. In place of signed books, Inkshares designed and developed themed bookmarks, all of which have been personally signed and which will come with the books. As nice as the bookmarks are (and Inkshares did a great job), I recognize they’re not the same thing as a signed book, so please know I’ll make myself available for signatures as much as I can. There will clearly be some logistics to sort out, but please just get in touch with me directly and I’ll see what I can figure out. On that note:

24 June 17:  Book Launch Party, from 2:00 – 4:00 pm at Perfect Books (www.perfectbooks.ca), located at 258A Elgin Street, Ottawa. This would be a great opportunity to get a book signed and also take in downtown Ottawa as it readies for the 150th birthday celebrations the week after.

27 Jun 17: The publication date.

The last thing I’d offer is that I hope you enjoy the book. All of you made this possible and after nearly a year of production following the crowdfunding campaign, I hope you’ll find that it was worth the wait.

Thank you again and all the best,

Alastair Luft 

12 days into the contest, and we are still in the top three! It’s pretty important that we keep our momentum and stay up here on the top of the pile. More authors are entering the contest every day - in the Fantasy contest last year we had a late entry who blasted to the top of the leaderboard in a few hours, and then went on to win the whole thing with over 750 preorders. SO. If you’re thinking you want to preorder, please do it today.

And now, to the fun stuff. Here is a glimpse at one of the characters in Mutants: Uprising, and since it’s written in second person, today this is all about YOU.

You are Jane Meyers, known in League circles as Zombie. You discovered your mutant gene like many people do - the hard way. When your adrenaline surges your strength increases and your body becomes numb. You can take an obscene amount of damage and keep walking, as long as you can keep your adrenaline high. As soon as your heart rate drops, however, you fall into a coma which looks a lot like death, and you stay in that state while your body heals. You ran away from home as a teenager, and were mentored by a mutant named Deimos, who brought you with him when he became a leader in a Midwest cell of the League. After serving as his enforcer for years, Deimos recommended you to take charge of the fumbling Los Angeles cell. You’ve been there a few months, and have gathered a fairly solid group around you. Maybe being a leader isn’t so hard after all?

That’s it for now, I can’t wait to tell you about the other mutants who are in your group, but that will be another day!

Thank you for the support!
Jane-Holly
[PREORDER HERE]

How exciting! I have just added a video book trailer to the Mission 51 home page. When you have a moment, please check it out!  :D

Dear Readers and Followers,

It is just past the end of the second full week of the Inkshares/Nerdist science fiction novel contest, and my entry, Mutants: Uprising, is tied for second (so technically in 2nd, alphabetically). I spent a good part of the week in third, and then yesterday was TIED FOR THIRD with two other books, but a surge of support put me up, and here we are today.

Needless to say, without continued support from YOU (and you, and you too) we won’t be able to stay in the running. Mutants: Uprising was nominated in a couple Inkshares Syndicates this month, and I am hopeful that I might get at least one to back me. It would be an immense boost to my campaign!

Less than four weeks to go. Never give up, never surrender!

I’ve had some questions about the Lovecraft connection in my novel, and while I’m wary of giving away too much, I’m going to let you, my followers, in on part of it. The Cthulhu/Lovecraft connection is a surprise for Jane, who has a lot on her plate already, so it isn’t present except as foreshadowing in the early parts of the novel.

Lovecraft exists in my universe, only he was a mutant - a psychic who managed to contact a much stronger psychic Presence in another dimension...and It wants to come here. My main character (you) stumbles into this information the further she goes, as the conflict escalates from local gangs to shadowy organizations who may or may not want the world as we know it to end.

Order your copy today!
~ Jane-Holly

The developmental edit for Human Resources continues. During the last month I completed Act One of the rewrite, handing it over to Inkshares and my editor to review and "course correct" before pushing on. 



I’m lucky to be working with such an engaged team who are working tirelessly to help me transform my rough-cut stone into a sparkling gem (of dark adventure). After reviewing the updated Act One, we have more changes to implement as we focus in on the core themes of the novel. That means a slight pause on the rewrite itself while the outline is tweaked further, then back into it with gusto.

I think it’s been a few updates since I thanked you all. I have this opportunity because of your generosity, and I won’t forget it. Thank you — for your belief, support, and patience. This process is a marathon, but I’m continuing to drive through it and each day brings us closer to physical books rolling off the production line.

BTW: If you haven’t seen it, Inkshares have a sci-fi themed competition running right now in partnership with Nerdist (https://www.inkshares.com/contests/nerdist-sci-fi-contest). There’s some great novels being pitched, so it’s worth checking out.

I hope you all had an amazing Month — I’ll be back with another update at the end of June.

Robert   

Hello, readers.

If you haven’t already, please check out my new project, 1000 Faces. It’s currently 6th place in the Nerdist sci-fi contest. If it ends the contest in the top 3, it’ll get a full publishing deal. Here are a couple of excerpts from the novel:

https://www.inkshares.com/books/1000-faces/book_segments/excerpt-1-https://www.inkshares.com/books/1000-faces/book_segments/excerpt-2-

I am humbled and flabbergasted by the show of support I continue to receive for Mission 51! Thank you all so very much! After the first two weeks of the Nerdist Sci-Fi Contest, we are still in 1st place! More followers are following. Pre-orderers are pre-ordering. I am very grateful! :-)

I was especially floored when I took a look at the list of "Notable Readers" in the sidebar of the Discussion section of the Mission 51 project page. This is a list of successful Inkshares authors I greatly admire and I am honored to have their support! These are The Cool Kids of Inkshares! I encourage you to click on their names and support their work.

There are four more weeks to go in the contest. I am actively reaching out to everyone I know to ask them to join The Cool Kids Club, and that includes Mission 51 followers who are still on the sidelines. So if you haven’t yet placed your pre-order, perhaps Ned Stark can convince you...

"One must first purchase a Mission 51 pre-order!"

LOL. Again, thank you all very much for your kind support! I am blessed and grateful!

Peace and love!

(and join the club!)

Ferd 👽

Hello, 1000 Faces followers.

As I’m almost certain you’re all aware, 1000 Faces is part of the Nerdist Sci-Fi contest and is currently placed 4th. To be in with a chance of receiving Inkshares full publishing support, the book needs to place 3rd or higher. Due to the short length of the contest - it ends on June 25th - I’m going to come right out and ask you all for a big favour: please consider preordering and recommending this project to a friend. Today. Right now, even.

1000 Faces is set in a not-so-difficult to imagine near-future where the internet bubble has burst, creating an unprecedented era of paranoia as every part of the internet becomes accessible to the public. To maintain a shred of anonymity and privacy, people wear digital avatars - a mask, like a more high-quality, identity-concealing version of the photo filters we see on Snapchat and other social media. The main character, Kara Finch, is a designer of these masks for the ubiquitous MyFace corporation. She’ll find herself caught up in an attack on her companies code base, coerced into working with a new generation of cyber-terrorists and strong-armed by government snoopers. If you like Black Mirror, A Scanner Darkly, Mr Robot, or Gattaca, her story should tickle your fancy.

I’ll be sharing some draft content from the book soon. Keep your eyes on your inbox.

~ Jenny

It has been a minute hasn’t it!

I’ve been keeping the updates that hit your inbox sparse for a reason: I want everyone reading the book instead of updates. Don’t worry, I’ll hit you up for REVIEWS more in the future. I’m up to 30 now, and I’ll need to claw up to 100. So every person who feels like clicking on that and leaving one helps!

In other news. I’ll be at ACEN this weekend! If you are attending one of the largest Anime Cons in the nation, FIND ME! I’ll be buried in the bowels of Artist Alley selling souls and books. (souls are in limited quantity). 

And in my final Seventh Age news... I’ve been at work writing. Both writing for the Sequel, other projects, and 7th Age short stories that will come out at the end of the year. 

For now... here is a tease..