5 months. 392 books ordered. Syndicate Pick. #1 reviewed Funding project. All characteristics that I’m sure had a part in me receiving this e-mail at 4:23pm today from the CEO of Inkshares:

“Ricky,

Great campaign.  We will push your book into production.  Tell your backers.  

Adam.”

Translation, Showtime is going to be published! More thank yous, screams (and tears) of joy, and info. when I have it—and when I’ve fully comprehended what this means on so many different levels.

Thanks everyone for being part of making this happen. You all rock.

Ricky

I promised the publisher I would submit the new draft by the end of June and I’m glad to report I was able to beat that deadline by ten days. The latest draft is 82,000 words or 300 pages, which seems about right. (By comparison, this is longer than most works by Raymond Chandler or Agatha Christie, but on par with more contemporary works by Anthony Horowitz or Michael Connelly.) 

 While the core historical fiction murder mystery is the same, there are two major new sections in the book. The scientists at Blakely Labs have been working on something called a Z-Machine since before the war. The Z-Machine is one of those odd contraptions that, if successful, enables man to go beyond the normal realm into so-called higher dimensions. Jack Waters uses the Z-Machine to travel back to 1945 to the liberation of the Mittelwerk underground factory. And at a later point in the book, well, let’s just say he travels someplace else and leave it at that. 

 This draft proceeded at a rapid pace as a result of a detailed outline. I also had a bit of a secret weapon with my co-author Roxie. She’s not a great typist, but she has a way with dialogue. I’ll be taking a couple of weeks off writing as I wait for feedback from the publisher and do some more research.  After that, no doubt another draft… 

Thank you again for your support. If you have questions, comments or feedback feel free to send me email to ZUrlocker@gmail.com
 —Zack

5 days left and so close to the end!

We’re nearly to the halfway point (which I’m hoping will be enough to show that there’s enough reader interest to publish) and since I’m not asking for another extension, this really is the final countdown. If you’ve been thinking about ordering another copy, reading, reviewing, or referring a friend, there’s only a few more days left to do so. After that, everything is in the hands of the people at Inkshares, so we’ll see what happens. Fingers crossed!

Tomorrow is also my birthday so if you wanted to order another copy, that would be a great present…just saying (wink, wink; nudge, nudge). Or you can buy me a slice of chocolate cake. Or a donut. All options are good options.

Thanks again to everyone who has already supported me in buying a book without having it in your hands yet, and to everyone who has expressed excitement to read Showtime in full. It means a lot, so I’m hopeful that you’ll be able to!

Hoping we can get a couple more by Friday!

Ricky 

P.S. Here’s some updated stats:

Copies ordered: 373 | Followers: 299 | Unique readers: 292 | Days left: 5 | People bothered: 7,577 | Number of copies sold since last extension: 73

2 days left remain in Showtime’s pre-order campaign! TWO! After that, I will thank you for your support once more, retreat back to the shadows with a slab of coconut cake (either for celebration or sadness--but either way I get cake), and never bother you again to buy another copy of this book for as long as you live. (Actually, I can’t promise that at all...but I have good intentions!)

So, for the almost, almost final time: if you’re feeling generous, have some extra change you found in the couch while you were eating Doritos, or in the mood to support books and writing, please consider ordering another copy--either for yourself or someone else. Unlike coconut cake, they won’t go bad. In fact, I’ve heard book’s age like a fine wine the longer they sit on your shelf. (Actually, I’ve never heard that. But it sounds good, right?)

As always, reviewing, following, or reading my sample pages is always a help.

Since I’m not asking for another extension, we’re so close to the end. We’ve been a Syndicate Pick, crossed multiple 100s thresholds, met and surpassed the halfway point, been the #1 reviewed Funding project, and have bounced around the Top 3 for trending books...all of these cool achievements since January when getting to this point seemed so far off and nearly impossible.

Thanks for sticking with me this long and reading my updates. And even if you see them in your inbox, roll your eyes while exasperatedly grunting, "Ugh. Another one?" well, at least you haven’t done it to my face! :)

Ricky

Things are moving – and they’ve gone about as far north as you can go.

Greetings my friends and readers of Ripe For Execution!

I’m sorry it’s been a looooong time since my last update, I know, but I wanted to wait until I had more to say than just "...watch this space!"

Now, though, things are really exciting.

By a quirk of fate, I’ve found myself sat in the tippity-top of the Scottish Highlands. Look out from my godmother’s lodge here, and you can see Cape Wrath – about as far north in the UK as you can go. I’m really here because I drove my father the 1,000-mile journey to see some of his oldest friends (starting with a detour from Cambridgeshire to Hampshire, y’see...) – but, while we reside here for the next few days, where better to bring all my focus into a book about a thrilling competition for dominance than a place called "Wrath"?

But this is by no means the start of the next chapter. As in the Bond movie Skyfall, a fair bit has happened before your protagonist finds himself hiding away in an isolated lodge to enact the final stages of a plan. I’ve taken onboard the thoughts of my editor Adam... the insights of writing coach Lisa Cron... inspiration gleaned from a range of "research reading" including JK Rowling, Gillian Flynn and Christopher Huang... and observations from many of you, dear readers... and I’ve distilled them into a final revision plan for Ripe For Execution that prompted Adam to say, in our phone call last Saturday, "This is getting me really excited!"

Many of you, including Adam, told me that you loved the character of Theo, and wanted to see more of him – which, given he’s the main character in the book, was both heartening and a subtle nudge to me as a writer that I’m doing a great job... but I could do it better. With the help of Adam and Lisa, the story is now much more Theo-focused, and is going to be less And Then There Were None and more Gone Girl – that is, less about whittling away a cast of suspects and more about one man’s struggle to be understood.

That doesn’t mean we’re stripping the suspense and mystery away though. Far from it. Adam has got me pressure-testing the motivations of my villains, wrapping them in a more believable set of clues and red herrings, all the while not losing sight of the original terrorist plot, the theme of control, nor the story question – the clash between compassion and unchangeable evil – all of which I’ve honed with the help of Lisa Cron’s amazing book, Wired For Story.

There’ve been other activities "behind-the-scenes" which are also stoking my creative fire, including the comments from many of you backing up Adam’s words to me that "Your prose is excellent" and "You write some great voices". There’ve also been a few things said to me that are really, really encouraging – but I fear I mustn’t say them here in case I jinx things...

So, as I chat with Adam and plot the novel’s final course over the next few days up here in Cape Wrath, I hope you feel as excited as Adam and me about the (very near) future of Ripe For Execution; so as I now say "watch this space", you really want to!

With that, then... watch this space!

Ciao for niao, folks – and thank you again, ever so greatly, for your support so far.

–Chip

We are so close to the publication date! Soon the book will be in your hands! FINALLY! This is super exciting and I cannot wait for you to get it. This brings me to an important part of this process...

If you have moved within the last 3 years, please login to Inkshares.com using the email address you used to pre-order the book and update your address. How do you do that? 

Login to Inkshares.com. Click the righthand corner photo/icon. Select "Shipping Address" from the dropdown menu. Make sure the one they have on file is correct and if it isn’t, please update it. Save and you are SET! 

I cannot thank you all enough for sticking around on this journey with me. It has been a whirlwind, dramatic, emotional, and crazy ride. Thank you for your patience, your encouragement, and your faith in me. I literally could not have done any of this without you all. 

Hey everyone! Sorry I’ve been slacking on regular updates, I’ll try and stay on top of it for everyone. Blind is still in the pre-production phase at Inkshares, which isn’t a fast process. Generally, traditional publishing takes over a year for a novel to be released, so I hope you all understand why you don’t have the book in your hands just yet. I’m supposed to be updated May 1st from the publisher on the next steps and hopefully have a release date for you all. While it seems I’ve been absent, I promise you I’ve been  busy working on another story to bring to everyone. This summer I will be releasing my novella "damned to hell" and everyone that pre-ordered will be given a free eBook! If you desperately want a physical copy, those will be for sale at a "blind preorder discount". If you have any questions, feel free to hit me up and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can! Thanks everyone!