Hello my Knightmares!

This is my monthly check in to say hey, give you my perpetual thanks, to entice those who have not purchased a book to do so, and to share with you some free content! 

I am still waiting in the queue to begin publication, but there are rumblings that things are moving along and that I will be taking part soon. As soon as I hear something, all of you will know!

In the meantime, if you’re still on the fence about THE KNIGHTMARES, now is the time to grab yourself a copy for you, for your friends, for your significant other, for your dog and your cat! Grab one today. The Knightmares is ranked #2 on INKSHARES in Horror. Let’s give it a push!

FREE CONTENT! FREE CONTENT! FREE CONTENT!

As a promise to you all, I have continued my monthly serial called MYTHOLOGY, and I present to you not just one part, but two! Check it out! Make sure to read part I if you haven’t already!

Check out the first part here.

Check out parts II and III here.

The Mythology will not only build a larger universe, but it will set the stage for The Knightmares, and other projects I am working on.

Second order of business! I have decided to have my cover artist, the very talented Rachel Perciphone, design a SECOND cover. Once both of these are wrapped up, I will present them to you to choose which is best with some extra incentives. Check out her work! She’s awesome!

Stay tuned for more information!

Lastly, I leave you with a teaser image from my upcoming short story, MUM.

Dear Sparked reader,

Thank you so much for your amazing support during our preorder campaign last fall. You might be wondering where the heck your copy of the book is, and why we’ve taken so long to update you. 

Good news! We have a publication date: October 3, 2017. Your book will be mailed (or become available as an e-book) on that date. And the reason we’ve taken so long to update you is that we’ve been working hard on making Sparked completely ready for your eyes. 

We thought you might be interested to hear a bit about that process and the lessons we learned, especially if you’re a writer yourself or interested in writing. 

Lesson #1: Don’t shut down when you get feedback, even if you THINK you’re done.  

When someone gives you feedback, it’s human nature to focus on the negative, and it’s a writer’s nature to blow the negative wildly out of proportion. After Sparked achieved its preorder target, a developmental editor gave us a—gulp—twenty-page letter that sent us into a tailspin. The word “overkill” jumped out and something about how we should remove every reference to zombies. We’d already revised Sparked countless times. In despair, Helena couldn’t even bring herself to read the whole thing, while Malena lost herself in cat videos on Youtube. 

 But when we forced ourselves to read the letter line by line, we were shocked at how positive it actually was. It was like realizing that the mean girl at school, muttering insults under her breath, was actually complimenting your fashion sense (and giving you some useful pointers too). If we’d received that feedback with an open mind in the first place, we would have gotten the revision done a lot sooner.

Lesson #2: Thinking your book is done is usually a clear sign that you need to do another draft.  

You should never tempt fate using the word “final” when naming a draft of your book (as in “SparkedFinal.doc”). Just as we were treating ourselves to a celebratory lunch, we received notes from editor number two, our line editor. More changes were needed, including more “sexual tension.” Believe us, it is not easy to find a way for the hero and heroine to make eyes at each other while also trying to prevent the end of the world. But we set to work again.  

In the end, both editors were totally right and we’ re grateful to them for their brilliant insights and even more grateful the book is finally finished (or at least going to press. If you see more that we should have changed, maybe keep it to yourself at this point). We’re also excited that the book is coming out in October because it’s a spooky book that takes place in the week before Halloween, and…

Well, after all that work, we don’t want to spoil the story, do we?

We will update again when there’s more concrete news to share (readings! parties!) but for now, we are deeply grateful for your support and your patience and we can’t wait to send our book to you.

Warmly,

The ‘lenas

What I love most about Maria’s drawing technique is the balance she strikes between stylistic interpretation and realistic detail. Her innate sense of what’s too little and what’s too much resonates with me, it always has, which is why I’m so excited to be partnering with her in this way. Like me, she’s learning as she goes (or, as my partner Michael would say, she’s building the plane while flying it). Maria’s making great progress, and her illustrations look fantastic!

For those of you who missed Maria’s introduction in my last update, you can catch the video here.

Other news

I’ll be receiving my editor’s comments on May 3, which basically makes me this owl, right now, and for every second until then.

(Photo credit: Naldz Graphics)

(Very exciting. Blink blink. I might puke I’m so nervous.)

Also exciting, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau paid Kitchener a visit yesterday. The folks at Vidyard hosted him. They took him on a tour of the office and chatted about many things.

I had the pleasure of tuning in to watch the livestream of the chat, which was fantastic (full recording here: http://demos.vidyard.com/watch/7VRMFw6CbkSfmFfPTsaaRH).

To everyone who pitched in to make yesterday seem so dreamy from the stands: Congratulations on doing an incredible job of hosting our country’s leader. Thank you for making such a lasting and positive impression. I’m proud to be part of a community where members push themselves to be compassionate and thoughtful, take risks, and behave transparently. 

End of news.

You can probably surmise that the phrase ’Your book is in the mail’ is my dearest haunt. I can’t wait for the moment when I get to call you up (email or text, more likely) and say those words. So I thank you for your continued patience and understanding. Most of all, I want to thank you for reading! 

Donna

Now for some fun bits... ;)

Maria’s creative process has been fascinating to observe. I mentioned how, like me, she’s figuring things out as she goes. Maria’s had to stretch her limits to overcome challenges, and in doing so, has developed her own techniques (read: hacked solutions together and I love it). 

It’s my pleasure to be sharing with you some of her midstream work.

(^ ERMAGHERD!)

I hope you’re tantalized by these small flashes. Stay tuned for more detail in updates to come!

Hi everyone, I’m still here. Not in the Jaoquin Phoenix performance art sense, but in the "oh geez, I’m not talking to anyone much lately" sense.

A call to action. PLEASE REVIEW SINGLE VERSION ON AMAZON. That is the best way anyone out there can help me right now. And it does help. A lot. Go here and leave a review when you can: https://www.amazon.com/Single-Version-Scott-Barsotti/dp/1942645139

Reviews on Goodreads, Inkshares, and elsewhere are great too, but Amazon is where I need to see those numbers ramp up in order to continue pushing the book.

I saw CURE in the MOAB.

I saw CURE during NoDAPL.

I saw CURE in the United incident.

I saw CURE in that Pepsi ad.

I see CURE every time I open a news site, more and more everywhere these days...which is not comforting.

A lot of people have messaged me and said that SINGLE VERSION appears to be coming true, politically, socially, environmentally, technologically, and for the people reading it right now, I’ve heard that’s an eerie experience. I’ve heard "I’m glad I read this BEFORE the election" more than once.

I go back and forth about what this means.

So...tell me what this means. Is it good SCI-FI? Good HORROR? A good yarn, who cares about genres? Let me know. Email me or better yet, PLEASE REVIEW SINGLE VERSION ON AMAZON. Pretty please.

https://www.amazon.com/Single-Version-Scott-Barsotti/dp/1942645139

Great news today! I received the Rites of Passage syndicate award! This syndicate supports first time authors, and I couldn’t be more proud to be recognized this way. 

I’ve submitted my manuscript markups to my development editor, and I like to imagine her pouring over them this week. Once I’ve heard back from her, I’ll move on to reworking sections of my manuscript, adding and deleting scenes, and changing back to the original point of view. It’s going to be a lot of work, but well worth it in the end. :)

Cheers, Debbie

Faoii! This is exciting! Listen up: 
The Last Faoii is currently the #3 Best-Selling Dark Fantasy novel on Inkshares. It’s been 5 months since the contest and our army is STILL growing. Let me hear your war cry!

If you haven’t pre-ordered your copy yet what are you waiting for? Get on it, Faoii. Grab your sword.

Hopefully I’ll have more updates soon. Shields up.
Faoii-Tahani

Hi all! Big news regarding Daughter of the Mara (here’s a hint: it involves Amazon). Check it out over on my Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/daughterofthemara

April 23rd was a big landmark. After rounds and rounds of revisions, I finally hit "send" on my email to the publisher tonight. Yes, the manuscript is off! Huzzah!

The next step is a copy edit, which should begin in a couple weeks after they identify the right person for the job. In parallel, I’m working with a professional graphic designer on cover options (I’m looking for your input following my next update!) Then we face more clean up, proofreading, ’pouring’ into the format, printing, and shipping. The publisher tells me that this whole process should take about six months, meaning that Indispensable should hit bookshelves this fall.

Thank you for your patience in getting your copy. I’ll be eagerly awaiting mine as well!
Meredith