Greetings Hexers and Machina Riders:

Editing is in process on the second draft of Deus Hex Machina (my spreadsheet of many colors is about 60% blue now to indicate finished scenes), and although I had to push into November, I am expecting to be done soon.

But that’s not what I’m here to talk to you about. Today I will be joining forces with Extra Life and starting the first of four gaming sessions where I will stream for charity -- specifically Children’s Hospital of Alabama. My goal is to raise $100 to help kids at the hospital get the treatment they need, and I will be streaming every Sunday evening throughout the month of November over on my Twitch channel. I’ll be starting at 8PM Central, and am thinking it might be fun to let the audience help make my choices as I start a new character in Stardew Valley. If you like watching gaming, stop by and say hi, and if you like what you see, please consider donating to a good cause.

TL;DR:

WHO: Well, me, actually.

WHAT: A Charity Gaming Stream for Extra Life

WHEN: 8PM Central every Sunday evening throughout November

WHERE: http://www.twitch.tv/mandifesto

WHY: To raise a minimum of $100 for Children’s of Alabama. Donate here if you want to jump the line and just give money to kids without having to watch me make a fool of myself online. Although, I think that’s half the fun.

See you tonight!

’You don’t need much to change the entire world for the better. You can start with the most ordinary ingredients. You can start with the world you’ve got.” - Catherine Ryan Hyde, Pay It Forward

Hello followers of Women Like Us! Long time no update, but a couple of things to report, plus something new.

The book continues to sell. Of course not in the massive numbers we’d all like, but I consider every sale a good sale, and every reader a good reader. The book sells best when it gets promoted on one of the sites that blast out emails to eBook buyers so that’s where marketing efforts are being focused. Book giveaways also help. Over a thousand people entered book giveaway number one on Goodreads, and three winners were chosen (two in England!). Another giveaway is going on right now. It ends tomorrow so why not share the link below if you know anybody who might be interested. 

In the meantime, don’t forget that Amazon Reviews are critical to helping sales If you’ve read the book (and liked it...or even if you didn’t), please head over to Amazon and leave a review. We’re up to 31.  50 is better!  Or go to Goodreads or Barnes & Noble -- whichever you prefer. Or, copy and paste and leave reviews on all three. No harm in that. Here are the links: 

https://www.amazon.com/Women-Like-Us-Jason-Pomerance-ebook/dp/B01IOZUBEW/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1478211877&sr=8-1

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30007119-women-like-us?from_search=true

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/women-like-us-jason-pomerance/1123727840?ean=9781942645108

And here’s the link to the Bookreads Giveaway:

https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/205939-women-like-us

Now on to something new. Some of you are aware that we adopted, Derric, a beagle who was rescued by the Beagle Freedom Project. Well Derric has a story to tell, although I’ll be taking it down and translating it so you can follow along. Here’s the link to Derric’s book on Inkshares. No, it’s not launched for pre-orders yet. Not quite ready for that, but you could follow along if you’d like. We’d both appreciate the support. That’s it for now. 

Thanks all.  Below is the Beagle link.  Click it and let us know what you think!

https://www.inkshares.com/books/love-derric-my-journey-from-laboratory-experiment-to-freagle-who

Quick update this week...not much happened except, oh yeah:

The first draft is done. At 105,694 words. It’s done. And by done, I mean there’s a whole lotta work left to do. But it’s done. D-O-N-E.

Here’s how the week went:

Nice and productive (at least in the November parts of the week).

So, now that that’s done, lots of things need to happen and I’ll go into more detail on that next Friday. For now though? Now I’m going to eat some chinese food to celebrate.

(Yes, I know that mexican is not chinese...but the first draft is done...so whatever.)

All of you have received an email from Inkshares this week informing you of a refund for ILLEGAL. It was sent out in error. I’ve been struggling to figure out what is going on and how this will be fixed and I wish I could write and tell you what will happen but I can’t. Basically the Inkshares team says they don’t know what triggered the mass refund but they can recharge credit cards and get those orders back. However, they do not want to re-issue orders that used credits--when the campaign began the platform gave you credits to encourage participation and they have since discontinued that practice. This seems unfair to me and I’m trying to reach out to them to come up with a better resolution. I don’t know what that will be but I’m also not sure how long it will take to figure out and I know many people were confused and curious about what was happening and I wanted to be transparent and share all I know. As you can imagine this is a very frustrating situation for me and I appreciate your patience and support, probably more now than ever.