Hey Fans, Followers, and Fungi,

That one’s for you, Coop. When I was a youngster, we gave everyone nicknames. I still do, so if you don’t have yours yet, just let me know and we’ll get on that.

Ruining Boise update. Haven’t spent a lot of time with it, work is out of control, but I’ve been exploring themes and using Scrivener to create character sketches, map location scenes and capture ideas. This is new to me. I use Scrivener to write—love it as a writing tool—but mostly was blank paging it. My thought is to develop this as far as I can so it becomes a repeatable process to produce an outline to guide the writing. This is the current arrangement, inspired by Mike, that we thought might connect two stubborn authors into an effective collaboration. And to avoid bloodshed. Unless that’s what you really want…I think Mike’s been taking karate…

This is what I’m doing while waiting for the MINE manuscript to come back from my personal editor before sending it back to the Inkshares editor. If anyone out there needs the services of a professional dev editor, reach out. Mine (hehe) is a superstar. The Inkshares editor ain’t no slouch neither. Two superstars for the price of one!

I’m going to start with the opener, storyboard it. I like to jump right into the action, and have an idea for that allows for a lot of showing not telling of the situation...I’ll be sending that to Mike when it’s more fleshy, but don’t want to distract him either, as he’s engaged in writing his 2nd pass on PrOOF, so it may not come for a while. The point is, I’m dabbling with this story line, sketching it around the edges, and if we don’t realize any payoff with this current promotion, we shall return.

Want to mention a few authors who’ve been supportive with a shout out.

Celso’s paranormal novel in the Horror Contest deserves a look

https://www.inkshares.com/books/the-ghost-tracks

Go watch Chip’s reading of his first chapter. I want to hire this guy to read MINE

https://www.inkshares.com/books/ripe-for-execution

Durena Burns memoir. This book deserves more attention, IMO

https://www.inkshares.com/books/we-re-the-whiteheads

Nick’s entry in the Horror Contest, who doesn’t love a snipe hunt?

https://www.inkshares.com/books/snipe-hunt-639c7f

Hope you all enjoyed a wonderfully horrifying Halloween!

Dean

This message is approved by the Dean Fearce+Mike Welch collaboration machine

https://www.inkshares.com/dean-fearce-michael-welch

Greetings, Adventurers!

It seems I completely forgot about #MuchAnch Monday this week in light of all the busy-ness going on. We’re currently selling our house in favour of moving into a bigger one in a smaller community nearby, and that’s kept us on our toes. 

Also... WE GOT A NEW KITTEN. Meet Mystery, our third fur-child. Our human-child is absolutely enamoured with him, as are we!

As such, I don’t have any updates for you. I’ve been out of the house, cleaning the house, and doing just about everything but writing in and around the house. I haven’t even been cooking and, unfortunately, a whole lot of takeout has been the go-to, so I haven’t even put any new recipes on the blog--not even ones that are done! 

The good news is that this should all be over soon and I should be in a new space before long. I hope so! I have plans for an "office nook", and if you’re interested, I’ll keep you updated on the progress of that. 

In the meantime, please feel free to join me on Instagram @thepracticalescapist and on Twitter @ThePracticalEsc for updates. Please follow me on Insragram, because I’d love to hit 666 followers before Halloween... ;)

That’s it for now, adventurers. 

May your travels be fraught with wonder and just enough peril to keep them interesting,

K. M. Cooper

www.thepracticalescapist.ca

And then, on a Tuesday like any other, this happened: "Your novel Release Date is November 13, 2018....!"

It’s finally happening thank you, so much, for your continued love and patience. I will be in touch with more details in coming weeks :) 

Greetings, adventurers!

Happy #MushAnch Monday! I said I’d be updating every other Monday to hold myself accountable, and here I am. 

I don’t have any news about the book to share today, admittedly. As I only submitted the manuscript about 2 weeks ago, I’ve yet to receive any news. Thank you for patiently waiting alongside me. I know that when I do have news, it will be worth sharing!

I’d like to hear about you. Now that I’m peeking my head back around Inkshares more often again, I’d love to hear about your projects--new, old, funding.

I have a bit of news about my other projects. I’ve amalgamated my online presence to "The Practical Escapist"--everything will be under that umbrella name online now. I have already switched over my Facebook, Twitter (@ThePractialEsc), Instagram (@thepracticalescapist), Ko-Fi, and Patreon, and I’m working very hard on my new website. I hope it will be ready for official launch by September 24th--the next #MushAnch Monday--so I can parade it around for all of you!

I’ll be sure to have a meatier update next time, but it’s good to check in, just in case. Shoot me a "hello" and let me know what you’re up to!

May your adventures be fraught with wonder and just enough danger to keep them interesting,

K. M. Cooper

Hello all,

First, thank you all for your patience. Writing, editing, and then finalizing a project that you care about takes a lot of work, and a lot of time. It’s important to bring justice to the project by being patient, which at times was difficult as I had all of you—my backers—on my mind. I can’t wait to get this novel into your hands. But, I took my time, worked it through thoroughly, hired a reputable editor, Caroline Tolley, and turned my early drafts of Under The Rug into something I’m very proud of. And, the process is now moving forward as I’ve just submitted my manuscript to Inkshares. 

Now, Inkshares will still have their editors take a look at it. But because I’ve had a professional editor already work on this with me, the process will move much faster than normal. The next few things I will be submitting to the Inksahres team are things like book cover, layout, author bio, etc. Soon Inkshares will communicate to me a realistic date for the release of the book. Rest assured however, that you, my backers, will receive your copies before it hits the bookshelves. That’s it for now. Will let you know something when I know something. 

Hey everyone!

I know I’ve been MIA for a while, and I apologize.  For those who know me, this is the busiest time of year for me, as I get the pleasure of working with the talented crew of the Knott’s Scary Farm’s production team as we bring nightmares to life.  (Pretty cool pitch, right?)  Even as my schedule has become less than ideal, I wanted to let everyone know that Tainted is still plugging away through the editing process.  And I must say, it really is coming together nicely.  I’ve spent a lot of time chiseling the story down into a lean, mean, horror machine... wait, that sounds dumb... Let’s try this.  A lean, mean, rip your face off and eat it because it likes it, nightmare of a ride... ok, that’s better.  Not great, but better.  With that said, I’m really happy with how the story is turning out.

Before I get swept back into the raging torrent that is Knott’s Scary Farm, I wanted to share a review I received from one of Tainted’s beta readers:

First, let me say I personally am not the ideal demographic for this book. It was not written for me, a middle aged stay at home mom. Nevertheless, I really enjoyed reading it. This book is a thoughtfully written and well crafted horror fiction. It nods respectfully to the campy and well loved nostalgia of seventies horror movies. There were enough twist and turns that I got dizzy with anticipation of what could possibly be hiding around the bend. The non-linear plot line kept me reeling with curiosity. The Author writes in a way that assumes his reader is as intelligent as he is. Character developed is solid, resulting in a cast of characters that are complex and interesting. It feels very intentional that each character was giving enough substance, they could stand alone as the main in their own story line. This brings me to the way Point of View is delivered. Using a omniscience Multi character point of view which offers a more holistic and layered storytelling. I was reminded of the parable about two wolves living inside us, a good wolf and a bad wolf, the one who wins is the one we feed. The beast of Tainted are fed well, and often. I appreciate that the Author went full bore into gore and destruction, never shying away from describing scenes that make you cringe. With that said, there was plenty of personal growth and relationship drama to balance out the bat-shit crazy. I liked the added element of real life drama by including the ever present raging wildfires of California. It helped bridge the world of fantasy and reality. The end crescendos and fades in a way that is both satisfying and entices the reader with hints of exploring more of the story. 

Pretty cool, right?  I’m excited, are you excited?  

I must go, but I will share again soon!

Till next time,

PJ Marshman