Greetings friends,

 
(Huh. Who is that magnificent jerk?)

Somewhere around a hundred people came to the event (our host stopped counting around 80). Those who had already bought there copies got them signed and we gave about 30 more to those who made a donation to Children’s Therapy Center of the Quad Cities raising $602 for children with special needs. Thank you for everyone who came out to support me and my silly little novel including...
 

 

 

 

 

The man partially responsible for my love of Halloween as demonstrated in the picture he brought...
  

 

 

 

Hi everyone,

This is a quick email to let you know some exciting news: the LA Review of Books is planning to run a piece on Up to the Mountains and Down to the Countryside later this month. I have no idea if the review will be positive, but until this point, it’s been very hard getting established media contacts to give me the time of day—let alone consider reviewing the book—so this is a HUGE breakthrough!

Back in December, Alec Ash, a correspondent for the LARB who started a writers’ colony in Beijing, mentioned UMDC while talking about expat writing in China on the Sinica Podcast. Unfortunately, he hadn’t read the book yet, but I was able to get his address and send him a copy while in Bali. Of course, that copy got lost in transit, but four days after he emailed me to let me know that it hadn’t arrived, the Bookworm (a large expat bookstore in Beijing) told me that they would be willing to stock it! One of my former students from Ningyuan agreed to stop by later that month to confirm that they had it:

Like I said, I have no idea if the review will be positive, but I’m hopeful, given this scathing, no-holds-barred takedown of Shanghai Cocktales that Mr. Ash wrote last year. He begins the review by saying:

"Somewhere outside the Fourth Ring Road, a nondescript borderline-alcoholic English teacher might be polishing off the manuscript of the China equivalent to The Sun Also Rises. Escape, reinvention, exoticism, disillusionment—it’s all there for the novelist or memoirist, plus baijiu, smog and as many happy endings as you can afford. There’s definitely a way to do it right, make it funny, and say something meaningful about how us foreigners (with nowhere else in particular to go) engage with China, or don’t."

That sure sounds like me, and that sure sounds like my book! Keep your eyes peeled. I don’t want to get ahead of myself, but my fingers are officially crossed. Thank you again for all of your support. As I hope this update demonstrates, minor victories (mentioning the novel to the right person, getting it into the right store, leaving a review *cough, cough* that resonates with someone else) have the potential to lead to major developments.

Quincy

Dear friends and followers,

As of this writing, we are at 246 pre-orders. That means we are just 4 orders away from Quill! 4 orders from certainty! And 4 orders away from the beginning of the Chez Doris donation drive....

Getting to Quill means certainty of publication (unless I throw a hissy fit and decline the Quill package) so let’s have a look at some of the characters you’ll be meeting within these pages, starting with the club president, Oscar Mainwaring:

In other news, it turns out that there actually did exist a Veterans’ Club in London back in 1924, though it changed its name in 1936 to the Victory Services Club. Well, that’s lovely. I certainly don’t want anyone mistaking the club in this book for that real-life one, so it looks as though I might have to change its name ... which means I might also have to change the title of the book. Anyone have any ideas?

All right. Let’s get on to what’s what on the bookshelves this week.

1) "Seven Days Dead", by Christopher Johnson. Apparently, the focus will be on the interaction of different faiths and cultures in this particular zombie apocalypse, which I’m not sure I’ve seen done before. Also, the action takes place in the Middle East, and Johnson seems to be putting a bit of effort into verisimilitude with place names and geography.

2) "The Battle Within", by Alastair Luft. This one is an exploration of PTSD and its effects on one veteran soldier’s personal life, and if it’s filed as "thriller and suspense", it’s because dealing with life when you’re in that headspace is bound to be a rollercoaster ride of questionable reality. Also, it’s Canadian.

3) "Mission 51", by Ferd Crotte. The captain of a spacefaring craft crashlands on his destination planet ... from the excerpts I’ve seen, it looks like our hero is one of the Roswell aliens, and the destination planet is Earth. It’s an interesting setup, and I wonder where Crotte is going with it.

And that’s it for now. See you next week, folks, when we shall hopefully be discussing the joys of being on the qualified side of Quill.

Hiya Hexers!

I just finished writing a really touching scene, one I had been avoiding all week. Now that it’s done, I feel liberated and am ready to tackle the rest of chapter 7.  

In the last couple of days we’ve had a half dozen orders, bringing our total up to 261. Thanks so much new backers! Onward to #DHM750!

As a quick reminder for any new backers, I’m making all the chapters of the first draft (uncut, unrevised, unedited) available to those who preorder the book. The trick of it is, I can’t spam you with emails without your consent, so if you want to read the book before it’s released, make sure to sign up for my email list here: http://eepurl.com/bw4Cvz

Okay, that’s it for now. I have some sewing to do.  Have a great rest of your Sunday!

Love,

Amanda

Hey guys, 

 Over the weekend I was in Chicago for a wedding and had a chance to meet up with a few very righteous Inkshares author’s whose work i’ve been following very closely. It was a real honor to meet these guys and was really inspiring to find people facing a lot of the same publishing challenges Chris and I are but who are much further down the rabbit hole than we are. Somehow this entire process seems less daunting.

You guys are awesome! We need to do this again!

Hey folks!

"It’s All Fun and Games is as much a nostalgia trip for grownup gamers as it is a gateway drug for the next generation. The pop-culture references bridge the gap between geek parents and their kids. Dave Barrett writes with all the joy and love of a nerd who runs games for his kids—while cracking Dad Jokes. The result is a rollicking good portal fantasy starting with boffer swords instead of d20s." - Dave Gross, author of Lord of Runes  

"It’s All fun and Games is one of those rare books that makes you wonder if around every corner magic and adventure await. Kids and adults alike will find themselves swept away into the world Mr. Barrett has created." — Shannon Mayer, USA Today Best-selling author of the Rylee Adamson series

 "It’s fun and exciting to get lost in a fantasy world while roleplaying. It’s All Fun And Games shows that getting lost in one for real might not be as fun, but it’s no less exciting!" — Jon Verrall, co-creator of hit Geek & Sundry web series LARPs

In other news, the edit and design work is pretty well done, so next step is off to the printer - probably some time late next week - and then about a month and a half for manufacturing and shipping back to the warehouse.  We’re right on target for backers to get their books mid-July, with the e-books coming out a little it before.

Don’t forget you can follow the book and me on Facebook and Twitter!

Again, thanks for all your support.  It means the world to me!

Cheers
Dave