Good friends,

There is nothing I love more than to tell stories. Writing books has been such a source of enjoyment in my life for the past few years that I keep hunting for new ways to make novels and get them in front of people. Between improving my craft and learning how this complex and evolving industry, I try to find as many opportunities to create as possible. But sometimes, it’s the opportunity that finds you.

This is a bit of news I’ve been holding on for a few months now and I’m elated to finally be able to talk about it to some degree. It’s my pleasure to announce that apart from The Life Engineered and (hopefully) A God in the Shed, I will be publishing at least two more books in the next few years.

The two books will be written for The Ed Greenwood Group; an ambitious enterprise set up by none other than Ed Greenwood himself, involving dozens of writers and other creatives, spanning over fifteen different settings and reaching far into the next few years. I was recruited by my friend Eric Belisle who did the cover for The Life Engineered and has been working with Mr. Greenwood on this project.

The first book and setting for this undertaking were announced on Halloween. Your World is Doomed is the first book of the Hellmaw setting and you can already order and read it.

The books I will be working on are Still Waters of Tarkania, which is set in the For Wolf & Empire setting, a swashbuckling, steampunk historical fiction with werewolves. Because everything is more fun with werewolves. Still Waters of Tarkania will be released in June of 2017.

The second book is Alsecia’s Sun, set in the Under Deadly Stars setting, a far-future hard sci-fi world where stars are being destroyed by an unknown force. This one will see release in June of 2020.

My plans

While I am loathe to over-commit, these two books are now part of my ongoing calendar of works I hope to create in the coming years. Assuming I can find publication for all or most of these, I will be able to keep telling the stories I want to tell.

It’s ambitious to think I can write and publish two books a year while holding onto a full time job, but I’ve always known that if I wanted to be a writer it meant essentially having a second job. My hopes are to be able to write three or four books a year for as long as I have ideas for stories to tell. Obviously that dream depends on being able to write as my only occupation.

While the books published with The Ed Greenwood Group are not going to be funded on Inkshares or under their imprint, that doesn’t mean I don’t want to keep a close relationship with Inkshares. I plan on funding the sequels to The Life Engineered along with the other two books in the God in the Shed trilogy on this platform, along with other ideas that are bubbling inside my brain. In fact, I’m so involved in this platform that I record a weekly podcast with fellow Inkshares writer Paul Inman on the subject of writing and crowdfunded publishing. You can check out the WriteBrain podcast on iTunes or on this website.

Thank you so much for your support, friends. Consider pointing others to both The Life Engineered and A God in the Shed. The bigger these two first steps are, the faster I can get underway on this journey of story telling.

 JF

Good friends,

There is nothing I love more than to tell stories. Writing books has been such a source of enjoyment in my life for the past few years that I keep hunting for new ways to make novels and get them in front of people. Between improving my craft and learning how this complex and evolving industry, I try to find as many opportunities to create as possible. But sometimes, it’s the opportunity that finds you.

This is a bit of news I’ve been holding on for a few months now and I’m elated to finally be able to talk about it to some degree. It’s my pleasure to announce that apart from The Life Engineered and (hopefully) A God in the Shed, I will be publishing at least two more books in the next few years.

The two books will be written for The Ed Greenwood Group; an ambitious enterprise set up by none other than Ed Greenwood himself, involving dozens of writers and other creatives, spanning over fifteen different settings and reaching far into the next few years. I was recruited by my friend Eric Belisle who did the cover for The Life Engineered and has been working with Mr. Greenwood on this project.

The first book and setting for this undertaking were announced on Halloween. Your World is Doomed is the first book of the Hellmaw setting and you can already order and read it.

The books I will be working on are Still Waters of Tarkania, which is set in the For Wolf & Empire setting, a swashbuckling, steampunk historical fiction with werewolves. Because everything is more fun with werewolves. Still Waters of Tarkania will be released in June of 2017.

The second book is Alsecia’s Sun, set in the Under Deadly Stars setting, a far-future hard sci-fi world where stars are being destroyed by an unknown force. This one will see release in June of 2020.

My plans

While I am loathe to over-commit, these two books are now part of my ongoing calendar of works I hope to create in the coming years. Assuming I can find publication for all or most of these, I will be able to keep telling the stories I want to tell.

It’s ambitious to think I can write and publish two books a year while holding onto a full time job, but I’ve always known that if I wanted to be a writer it meant essentially having a second job. My hopes are to be able to write three or four books a year for as long as I have ideas for stories to tell. Obviously that dream depends on being able to write as my only occupation.

While the books published with The Ed Greenwood Group are not going to be funded on Inkshares or under their imprint, that doesn’t mean I don’t want to keep a close relationship with Inkshares. I plan on funding the sequels to The Life Engineered along with the other two books in the God in the Shed trilogy on this platform, along with other ideas that are bubbling inside my brain. In fact, I’m so involved in this platform that I record a weekly podcast with fellow Inkshares writer Paul Inman on the subject of writing and crowdfunded publishing. You can check out the WriteBrain podcast on iTunes or on this website.

Thank you so much for your support, friends. Consider pointing others to both The Life Engineered and A God in the Shed. The bigger these two first steps are, the faster I can get underway on this journey of story telling.

JF

It's my birthday today, and guess what the big highlight has been?

That's right! After overwhelming feedback from readers this weekend -- all of it near unanimous in support of switching to the new funding model and qualifying for the Quill imprint -- I decided LET'S DO THIS!

As of now, Blood Dawn has reached its funding goal! Blood Dawn will at the very least be published under the Quill imprint (click here to read more about what that entails).

However, we still have until April 11th to push hard and get Blood Dawn to 750 pre-orders. If we can do that, then Blood Dawn will be published as a full Inkshares production, with all the added perks.

Either way, Blood Dawn will be a print book and an ebook, which means it will get out there for readers to enjoy! All of you who have supported this book and the many who have emailed me expressing your excitement for Blood Dawn will soon be able to read it -- hold it in your hands, live Rena's story the way I've been living it for the last 14 months.

So, if you haven't pre-ordered this book, or if you've been waiting until it picks up a bit of momentum, now you can jump on board knowing your pre-order is going toward helping Blood Dawn reach 750 pre-orders so that it will get full Inkshares support including more in-depth editorial, design and distribution services. Most importantly, you can order knowing this is a book you will get to read no matter what.

Visit Blood Dawn's new page and order here: https://www.inkshares.com/projects/blood-dawn

You'll notice if you visit the Blood Dawn page that there are now four options:

• Acolyte (1 ebook = $10)
• Sun Priest (1 print book = $20 + $15 shipping for non-US residents)
• God-King (3 print books = $60 + $15 shipping for non-US residents)
• Dragon (7 print books = $140 + $15 shipping for non-US residents)

Here's to Blood Dawn, and THANK YOU for your generous support. Without you, none of this would be possible. You've helped me live my dream, and I promise, this adventure is just getting started.

Hello readers! To start off, no I am not dead, nor has work on my novel ended. I apologize for taking a short leave from Inkshares and from updating my site, but work and other priorities recently kept me away from keeping you all as informed as I would have liked. 

Going forward, I will be returning focus to the Inkshares page in an effort to reach my funding goals in the next few months! I have taken the liberty of updating some things here and there, but this announcement is primarily to show off two new pieces of artwork that have been posted to my page! First up is a finished drawing of Rew and Fionna, along with a brand new cover.

On Monday morning, look for a total of 4 new chapters to be posted to the page, showcasing the new version of my novel. In addition I will be adding further updates to explain the work ahead, my schedule, and some other, interesting tidbits regarding my plans for the Children of the Forest. Lastly, I thought I would go ahead and attach the new artwork for the cover to this update, to show off the wonderful Ellie Yong's work! 

If you've been on the fence about pre-ordering my book, now is the time people! Big things are coming, and I can't wait to share them with you all! 

Until next time, 

So I have some news.

After a lot of thought I have switched the format of Ghosts of War from hardcover to paperback. This was done for several reasons, chief among them being the cost.

It's now $20 for the paperback of Ghosts of War for new backers, with free US shipping and $15 International shipping.

Now for those Internationals, you may not want to pay the $15 in shipping for the paperback, but fret not! Inkshares has implemented an awesome new tier that's just for an ebook. You'll find it labelled 'Recruit' on the Ghosts of War project page.

The price for a single ebook is $10, and of course there's no delivery charge. So if you've been hesitant due to the postage, now there's an option just for you.

Lastly, a bit of an update on the writing front: NaNoWriMo 2015 is going along well. I'm about a day behind on word count, sitting somewhere around 23,500 words. I'd like to say all that's fully developed prose, but a good chunk of it is my rewritten outlines for the remaining chapters and some for book 2. 

I know you're not supposed to count outlines for NaNo, but what can I say, I'm a rebel.

Hey Readers,

In the wake of the contest, I have since been trying to wrap up the final-ish draft of my manuscript, before sending it off to Inkshares to get shopped professionally. Expect a spring release. In the meantime, I wanted to let everyone know that I removed the old drafts of chapters one and two because they were, well, old and grievously not up to my current standards. In their place, I have uploaded a fancied-up version of Chapter One: The Smell of Rain if you would like to give it a re-read and leave me some comments.

I will not be posting any further excerpts from the book, as I'd like to keep everything a surprise until you're holding the physical copies in your hands.

Thanks for all the support, guys!

Adieu.

It's been a while since I've sent out a Reader Update. Just wanted to drop a line and tell everyone where I'm at. After moving and a prescheduled vacation (where I got to hang out with fellow Inkshares author Rick Heinz, go check out The Seventh Age: Dawn if you haven't already. Seriously.) I got back to work and focused on editing. I've just completed a revision of the manuscript for Welcome To Deadland. I will be turning paperwork and the manuscript in to Inkshares very soon, December 1st, and from there on out a team will be hard at work bringing Welcome To Deadland to life and into your hands.

In the meantime, make sure to check out additional books on Inkshares, both funding and in-production. This company has helped me achieve an amazing opportunity, as have other authors working on their own campaigns. Other book suggestions include:

These Old Bones by Andrew J. Ainsworth

Blood Dawn by John Robin (he requests readers wait until Monday, the 16th, to place orders)

A Beast Requires by Jay Lockwood

Thank you all again, 

-Zac

Dear readers,

Today I'm reaching out to get some feedback from you. I am weighing a big decision for Blood Dawn this weekend.

Option A: I get Blood Dawn published. Yes, that's right. I can make a simple decision by emailing Inkshares, and Blood Dawn will have met its funding goal. As many of you might know, under Inkshares' new funding model, I will have met my pre-order goal for Inkshares' new "light" imprint, Quill (read more about that imprint here). However, under the new funding model, buying a print book costs $19.99, an ebook costs $9.99, and there is the cost of shipping to non-US backers. Basically, this is the same as what you'd pay if the book were published. I'll still have until April 11th to get to 750 pre-orders and qualify for full Inkshares publishing. But should I fail to reach that goal, at least Blood Dawn will still be published and out there to generate momentum that might qualify it for further support by Inkshares at a later time.

Option B: I stick with the old funding model where I must reach 1,000 pre-orders to publish with Inkshares. There is no Quill option. I make it, or I don't get published. Period. However, sticking with this model means I will continue to offer new backers the $9.99 discount for ebook + signed print book.

This choice needs to be made soon, because if I choose Option A, then I will have to cancel all pre-orders that came in since October 30th when the system switched to the new model of funding. This will put me at 296 pre-orders. To the 3 GOD-KINGS who backed Blood Dawn after October 30th, since you'll be paying double to re-order, I will still honor your purchase by giving you "honorary" God-King status, but will ask that you re-order the book, just one copy, since that will be about the same amount you invested in the discounted purchase. To everyone who bought a copy since then, I'll be following up by email to be sure you know your order has been cancelled and what options you have (i.e. Inkshares allows you to order an ebook only, for the same price of $9.99).

I am personally leaning toward making this switch (OPTION A), because I know that many of you have expressed your excitement for this book and your desire to hold it in your hands. While I don't doubt that this book is going to continue to sell, if I know that it has a publication certainty, then I think backers who jump on board can do so with confidence. Our goal changes then from trying to get this book published, to trying to get this book published with Inkshares' full support.

Can we get this to 750 copies? Damn right we can!

Please, leave me comments. Let me know what you think. You are my readers and I will use your input to help me weigh this decision which is as much about me as it is about you. If you prefer to keep your comments private, email me: johnrobinrt@gmail.com.