QUILL ACHIEVED, SPACE CREW. 

We hit 250 last night, which means this book is going to be published. Let’s take a moment to breathe. This was made possible by all of you (our relentless Crew), with the last Quill order going to our honourary Quill Captain, Micah Baker. 

If you want to pick up his intriguing book, which is a sinister sort of space opera, you can do that here.

So What Happens Now?

First, the good. 

• Once the campaign ends I’ll be working with the crew at Inkshares to talk deadlines and a publishing schedule. This is happening!
  
  
• I can now officially pledge funds to BuildOn, the literacy charity I’ve partnered with. They’ll be getting 25% of my profits. 
  
  
• Your prizes are guaranteed. All the prizes that don’t rely on numbers of pre-orders will be happening. 
  
  

And the reality: 

•  This is where we are right now. Yes, The Traveller’s Cup is getting published, but it’s not fully funded
  
  
• Fully-funded means that Inkshares will take care of a lot of the publishing "dirty work". Editing, marketing, distribution, etc. 

• Since they’ll take on those services it frees me up to give more time to producing a solid book, and leaves me with more funds to give to prizes, and to increase my BuildOn donation from 25% to 50. 

So while we hit a major milestone, you can’t expect the ship to stop here. 

If you’re a member of this Crew, I need you to make it your personal responsibility to help me boost this to 750. Tell a friend. Order a copy for your mom. You can make a huge difference. 

Your Cautiously Celebratory Space Captain,
-AC

 Hello there wonderful followers. 

We have broke the 200 orders mark and you know what that means. We have another 50 Point Raffle!! WOOT WOOT!! Thank you all for your awesome support. You’re all the reason this campaign has climbed this far. Pat yourself on the back. Good job. 

Without further a due the winner of this 50 Point Raffle is...

  Paul Robinson!! Congratulations!! 

Your super soft Beyond the Code blanket will be making it’s way to you shortly. 

We only have 50 orders to go in 20 days. We can do this!! So please put your order in if you haven’t already. You’ll get your hands on a super cool action adventure novel, your name entered into the next 50 Point Raffle and good karma in helping someone’s dream come true.  

Hop on-board the Beyond the Code train and see what people are talking about. 

Kelsey Rae Barthel

Hello Champions,

Just a quick note to let you know I’m still writing! I usually write with a soundtrack playing in the background so I thought I’d share what Champions of the Third Planet sounds like to me.

First, this track from Two Steps From Hell, which was used in the Star Trek trailer a few years back. I picture a lot of the moments from the beginning of the story here, with the kids discovering the Orb. Milo says, "I found something in the woods" around the :38 mark and the Orb takes off around 1:02: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxkJvYGP2qE

This track is from one of my favorite bands, the Dandy Warhols. It seems to get used a lot in movies and trailers. It’s pretty high energy and a lot of the very original images for Champions came to me with this song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FuFtfhOipNQ

Whenever I’m thinking about the kids on the Dead Planet in their quieter, melancholy moments -- hanging around, missing home -- I think of this part of John William’s score from Star Wars, where Luke is looking up at the binary suns: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Gt8D8SXD_8

This track from Mad Max: Fury Road is something I’ve been using for a huge set piece late in the book that I can’t tell you about yet, but I love the furious intensity: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Gt8D8SXD_8

I don’t know if any of this music makes sense to you in terms of the book, but it’s all awesome and it all speaks to me for this story, which I guess is what counts.

Back to work!

--Chris

1500 COPIES
WE DID IT!!!! In fact, we killed it! It’s dead! We are over 1600 copies on our way to 1700. VAMPIRE PARTY!

  (When going to your snobby vampire blood tasting, swirl the blood in your glass and take in the full bouquet.)

DID YOU KNOW?
9 out of 10 hypothetical doctors say that leaving a review on Amazon makes you super cool. The last doctor is your dentist who keeps trying to give you adult braces. Don’t listen to her. Leave a review!

NEWS
An Unattractive Vampire was this months featured book pick of the Paranormal Shopping Network. I also did an interview with them on Twitter which I compiled into a handy little post here. Also, I will be a spotlighted author on the 125 Pages blog in September.

 Dragon Con is accepting nominations for their new awards and there is a push to get Inkshares authors into the mix. So head over and nominate An Unattractive Vampire in either the Fantasy (Paranormal) category or...Asteroid Made of Dragons in Fantasy and An Unattractive Vampire in Horror. Either way, be sure to nominate The Life Engineered in Science Fiction.

As for events:
Tonight

 Our Fair City is having a fundraiser at Headquarters in Chicago (2833 N. Sheffield) Come out, say hi, and support your favorite dystopian mad science audio drama featuring a wall of meat.

Saturday

Our Fair City (including me) will be doing a podcasting panel at the Columbia Geek Culture Gala at 2 PM. I will have postcards to hand out and fruit will be SMASHED!

Next Week:
I will be returning triumphantly(?) to my old Quad City stomping grounds to sign books for backers at Barley and Rye in Moline, IL. There will also be copies available for those who make a donation to Children’s Therapy Center. 

OTHER NEWS:

Big congrats to fellow Sword and Laserer J-F Dubea for hitting tha magic 750 preorder number for his second Inkshares book.

Remember: there are still lots of worthy books out there looking for love in all the right places (Inkshares). For example Lucky by RH Webster and the contestants for the Live Free or Die...Hard Science competition.

So that’s all for now.

Go forth and leave Amazon Reviews.
(I must be this guy...because I keep Harping on that.)

I was interviewed!

Much respect & and many thanks to MercedesFoxBooks for this wonderful opportunity!

https://mercedesfoxbooks.com/meet-author-c-michael-molisani/

Some exciting mid-week news!

First, we’ll be introducing a brand new cover for Seeking the Elephant, this coming week, 4\28 (or a little soon!) Keep your eyes open for this exciting change!

Second, we’d like to announce -- Seeking the Elephant Pre-Order Raffle!

We’re almost 1\3 of the way to our Quills Goal of 250 copies! To celebrate, we want to announce a raffle -- We’re giving away a $50 Amazon gift card! You can use this card to buy anything you’d like, as a gift from the team behind Seeking the Elephant! How can you qualify? Purchase or recommend Seeking the Elephant in the next 10 days! Between NOW and 4\28, 12:00 PM PST, all orders & recommendations enter you into a drawing for this $50 gift card!

Here’s ticket quantities:

Greetings wonderful people, 

Quill is just around the corner which is super exciting...but then again the end of the campaign is also not far away which is terrifying!!

Keep it together!

So I just wanted to drop a line with you fine people who have decided to follow this crazy dream of mine. First of all thank you all soooo very much for you continuing support and awesome feedback. You all have carried me through the uncharted territory of this campaign and I couldn’t be more grateful. 

Secondly, I need your help to make that last push. We are short only 56 orders till Quill and I know we can make it. So please if you ever wanted to support Beyond the Code put in your pre-order before time runs out. 

Thanks again

Kelsey Rae Barthel