What is this madness!! An update on Tuesday!!?

Why. Yes. It’s officially publication day!

Even the Audio Book is live today. It’s AWESOME! (might be biased). If Audiobooks are your jam, you can totally find it here: Seventh Age Audio Book

Also, if you can, please share that with other people who might like the Audio Book. 

In other news, on Launch Day I’ve got two great links! 

An amazing review of the book: Click Here

A feature article on Dread Central! Avalon over at Inkshares nailed the perfect place to feature the book. 

Just in case you DON’T have your book yet, and I know many of you still haven’t gotten them yet; (particularly super readers); You can always email Hello@Inkshares.com and double check that it was shipped. It should be any day now. 

So now... enjoy the read! Let me know what you think! I’ll be asking for reviews in a month or so. I’ll even do an entire update about the importance of them and why it’s critical that readers leave them. 

Otherwise.... maybe you can spot me, or the booth imp, at a con!

Greetings Bards and Druids!

It has been a few weeks since my last communication with all of you wonderful people. As you know, The Lore of the Aos Sí did not reach its funding goal of 250 Orders by January 1st. Even though this was hard to swallow, I am not discouraged. Why? Because even though the book did not fund, my story and characters managed to wiggle their way inside the hearts and minds of many of you over the past year. That I take as a splendid sign that my work is promising and will eventually lead to a published product for many readers in the future. 

I want to thank each and every one of you who Pre-Ordered, spread the word, and aided me in my quest to publish this book through the Inkshares platform. It was a wonderful experience and I met and became friends with a great many talented and kind authors here. Although I will probably not be publishing the Lore of the Aos Sí here on Inkshares.com. I will still use the hub to communicate my progress on the book and the next stages. 

I have taken a few weeks off from writing to collect my thoughts and determine what will be the best way to proceed in the future. 

Once again I am deeply humbled by the support all of you have lent me over the past year. I hope that one day soon I can give you this story in its entirety. I am currently pursuing other avenues of publication and will keep all of my readers here posted. 

I wish everyone here a happy new year and I look forward to bringing you more content in the future. 

Blessed Be, 

Christopher Lee

Greetings Jackolytes,

Well now, where are we at exactly? In the twisting, turning world of publishing, Jack finally has a fixed date for release on the unsuspecting public. And that date is February 28th, 2017. If you have pre-ordered the paperback version of Sync City, then your copy(ies) should appear around that time. If you are an international person of mystery (i.e. a non North American), they may take a touch longer to get to you.

For those of you who went the ebook route, things should be a little more straightforward, and you’ll just need to follow the instructions in the email sent to you at that time.

So what’s new in Jack’s world? Well, my website is new. Or at least tremendously updated. If you click here, you can see my new home page. And if you follow this link, you can read the first two of chapters of Sync City to whet your appetite. Many thanks to my lovely wife, Nicola, for doing all the heavy lifting on this one.

One of the sexy things you’ll notice on the home page is all the online booksellers from which you can now pre-order Sync City. Of course, if you want to get in on the ground floor, then you can very much pre-order it here (and please share with those who have yet to meet Jack). And if you are familiar with the opening scene of Sync City (read here and don’t be shy!), then make sure you come in on the ground floor and not the basement. The basement is a bad place to be!

Cheers,

Peter

Dear Readers,

It. Is. DONE! The Phantom Forest has reached its Quill publishing goal, which means the book will have a limited release in both print and digital! I’ve talked to a number of authors who have gone through this process before me, and the timeline is pretty similar to a traditional publishing calendar: there’s going to be an editing phase, beta-readers, design, and marketing planning, so the actual release date might not be for another 7-12 months, even though the manuscript itself is complete. But rest assured, as soon as I have an official release date, I’ll update everyone! You will have those signed copies in your hands and I will have callouses after signing all of them for you and I will love every minute of it.

Okay, so here is the part where I rattle off about a hundred thank yous... so sit tight!

I was fortunate to get an enormous boost this week from not one, not two, but THREE Inkshares syndicates! You’ll see little "medals" for each on the book’s main page - there’s the Staff Syndicate, which is run by members of the Inkshares team, then there’s the Fantasy syndicate, which backs that specific genre, and the Break the Bechdel Syndicate, which specializes in books with strong female leads. A huge, heartfelt thank you goes out to all the syndicate members who nominated the book and pushed it into the spotlight. You made a huge difference this week and helped it reach the tipping point!

Another thanks to the awesome folks who put together the book trailer for me, which made a major impact: there’s director David Diperstein, whose work you can check out here, and our lovely actress Jess Nurse.  I’m still so flattered that they made this beautiful trailer for me and I think it really helped to give everyone an idea of all the cinematic potential in this story. 

And then of course, there’s all of you, the readers! You thought you were just going online and buying some book you’d never heard of, but you also helped me accomplish a huge goal 5+ years in the making, you helped support an awesome new publishing startup, you graciously helped me raise money for the ACLU when I started feeling conflicted about the ethics of crowdfunding for a time, and you gave emerging filmmakers and artists exposure by watching and sharing our trailer and giving our cover artist the green light! 

Thank you, whether you’re an old, dear friend or a new supporter on the internet I’ve yet to meet in person. I can’t wait to start the next phase of this adventure! 

Love,

Liz

Happy New Year, everyone! A lot of things are now transpiring with Kingdom of Dreams...

1. Officially In Production!
2. What now? Casting Call!
3. Next Steps...

1.) Officially In Production!

Has everyone noticed the new page? We have shifted from funding to in production. Because Kingdom of Dreams will be published, you’ll notice the book has also been slightly reduced in price. 

We have earned a third badge as well,  this one as part of the Quill collection. What is Quill? Well, it’s an opt in publishing option that Inkshares offers for projects like this one that didn’t hit the full publishing quota of 750 pre-orders, but did reach a minimum threshold of support that suggests there is enough backing to publish. Read more here for a complete breakdown.

2.) What now? 

When will my readers have the book in hand? 8-12 months from now minimum. Though it sounds morbidly slow, it’s pretty typical for publishing dates. There is a significant queue of books to be published in front of this one. But I will try to expedite this process as much as possible by completing the following steps in short order:

• I will finish editing and any new rewrites over the first quarter. 
• Complete Illustrations as well. 
• I turn over the manuscript to a professional editor, then to Inkshares. At that point a timeline to publication should appear on my page with the approximate shipping dates.

Casting Call: Now that the project is official, I have an open casting call for 4 roles to help complete illustrations for the book:

• Jimmy Reve, the main character. An imaginative 6th grade boy that is picked on by the bullies at school.
• Lem Reve, Jimmy’s big sister. An 8th grader, decorated swimmer that while protective over Jimmy, enjoys picking on him relentlessly as well.
• Clay Rakes, a huge, intimidating eighth-grade bully. 
• Bucky Brees, a lanky, devious seventh-grade bully.

If anyone knows any kids close to this age range that might be interested, please contact me as I will pay them to use their likeness. I hope to have the children cast by the end of the month. All ethnicities are welcome and encouraged.

3.) Next Steps...

Thanks again to everyone for backing Kingdom of Dreams to a guaranteed publishing deal. That said, we have a ton of work to do to get this project known to the masses. The more pre-orders we can get as this project gets closer to completion, the better the chance Inkshares will give it full marketing attention and start a distribution plan of getting it in bookstores, and supporting it at key conferences. 

I’ll keep you up to date on my progress, but please continue to evangelize as much as possible. Look for new updates as significant milestones occur. Thanks again, be productive and stay well!

Best Wishes,

Kevin

Hello everyone!

It has been a while since my last update, but today marks a special anniversary for me – exactly one year ago, The Bones of the Past won a publishing contract. This is going to be a long update, so bear with me!

There has been far more work involved in getting the book into shape for publishing than I ever expected – I’m just now working on my review of the last proofread – but it has been an amazing experience and the book has evolved into something I am extremely proud of.

I just wanted to take this opportunity to thank all of you once again for your continued support and interest. I would never have made it this far without you!

Now, I do believe I owe you some news about the book including when and where you’ll finally be able to get your hands on it!

First of all, you’ll see in the attached picture that we have the back cover and spine of the book finalised and we’re just missing the “placeholder attributions”. These mini reviews are from authors who read the book in a raw form (still full of typos) and who had some positive things to say about it!

I’m very proud to say that I received some “cover blurbs” from three really amazing authors and I am truly humbled that people as talented as they are would have such positive things to say about my book.

Joseph Asphahani’s excellent SciFi/Fantasy novel - The Animal in Man - secured publishing through the same contest that I was in. His book isn’t out yet, but I’ve had the privilege of reading an early copy of it and I can’t recommend it highly enough. So, keep an eye out for it!

Rick Heinz’s The Seventh Age: Dawn is an incredibly exciting take on urban fantasy vampires and demons. It kept me up late on more than one occasion and is a book that anyone with even a passing interest in the genre should run out and buy right now!

Alan Campbell is the author of a number of bestselling novels. Most notable is his Deepgate Codex series. He does fantasy differently than any other author I’ve read and the result is something you won’t soon forget. I’ve been reading his books for at least ten years, so having him read mine (and like it!) is more than a little surreal. The Deepgate Codex is a trilogy that’s available in its entirety right now and should be on any fantasy fan’s ‘to read’ list.

So… what did they have to say about The Bones of the Past? I’ll share that closer to publication date or let you read the blurbs on the book for yourselves!

And so, we come to the publication date. The process is still on track for a May 30, 2017 publication. That means that you should get your copies a little bit before that if you ordered through Inkshares. If you haven’t or if you’d like to pick up a hardcopy, please go ahead and pre-order it through your local bookstore! That will make one store that’s more likely to keep my book in stock and on its shelves! All the major chains have it listed already, and most independent bookstores can get their hands on it easily enough :)

Book sales, and more specifically launches, are all about creating buzz. So more pre-orders and more attendees to the launch event go a long way toward making a book stand out and succeed (second only to reviews!).  The launch event will be held in Ottawa at a date somewhere around May 30th. Work has already started on nailing down exactly where and when. I’ll let you know as soon as I have something solid.

Thank you all yet again!!!

Dear friends

How’s 2017 treating you so far? For me, the last couple of months have been an interesting time of struggle and opportunity. I won’t bore you with details of my up and downs, but I do want to share the lesson I learned.

Pouring your entire soul into what you love is essential to achieve your dreams, but also essential is to be kind to yourself. At some point in the last two years, in between attempting to write three novels, holding a full-time job and trying to launch a writing career, I stopped listening to my body. As a result, my physical and mental health declined to a point in which I was not able to do any of the things I love. I couldn’t run the New York City Marathon, and I didn’t finish writing Bad Medicine: Slay it Queen!

Fear not, this is not a sad update. This update is about discovery and opportunity. I’m not the kind of guy who makes New Year resolutions, but this year I made one: I will be kind and patient with myself and with others. I will tune out the negative noise that surrounds us and walk the road that leads to my dreams with no rush.

I have many projects and ideas that I’m excited about. Worlds Walker is done, and Bad Medicine will be a scary and hysterical ride. My hope is to deliver the manuscript to the patience folks at Inkshares sometime in the spring. I also have a stack of short stories that I will be releasing for free on Amazon Kindle starting in March.

I’ve been reminded through this struggle that my goal was never to become a famous writer. That my goal was not for The Catcher’s Trap to be turned into a movie or sell a million copies. My goal is to share the stories swirling in my brain. My dream is for those stories to find people who connect with them and enjoy them. Many of you have reached out to me to tell me how much you enjoyed The Catcher’s Trap, for me, that’s winning.

So here’s to a great year ahead of us. A year of creativity, magical thinking and kindness.

As always, let’s end this update with wisdom from my favorite hero

Hey it’s that anniversary update I was talking about!

It’s now a year (more or less) since Ghosts of War successfully finished it’s funding campaign. Now I know you’re all probably wondering the same thing...

’Dude...it’s been a year....where’s the book?’

A valid question. No doubt. But the last year has been good to Ghosts. It’s a rather different book to where it was at this time last year. For one: it’s finished. At just over 106,000 words, 32 chapters and maybe north of 400 pages, it’s boiled itself down to a story that I’m really rather proud of. Now I say that as it’s author, and the only one who knows how it ends, but I’m quietly confident you’ll like it too (please like it...O_O).

’Yeah, no but for reals...how much longer?’

Not long. I’ve come to realise you can only revise things so much, and at some point you just have to leave it be. As such, I’m currently going through the final polish and tidy up on the current draft and that will be done by the end of January. At that point, I will hand it off to a few beta readers to get their thoughts and then it will be onto the final, final edits.

From there I’ll hand it over to Inkshares (tentatively by the start of March), and it’s generally then around 16 weeks until Pub Day. So, all going well, it should be in your hands by the middle of the year.

’Got anything for us now though?’

I do actually. If you head over here ---->;;;;;;;;;;; CLICK ME

But wait...there’s more...

Chapter 2 has been updated too! Nowhere near as extensively though, I think I only added about 30 words. Most of it was just grammar/punctuation fixes. But it’s still new...kinda.

Chapters 3-8 will be updated over the next week too, so keep an eye out.

Now it wouldn’t be a Ghosts update if I didn’t close with a gif. So...

Until next time.