The winners of the Inkshares Mystery Contest have been announced, and I’m happy to say that "Cat’s Paw" is on the list! This means we will be going forward with all the editing and rewriting and nosegrinding that goes into the publication process, and, probably a year from today, the book will make it into your hands.
Onwards!
Hey everyone,
I have some exciting news. As promised earlier in the week, I’ve just updated Red Circle with the following additions:
I’m continuing to revise the remaining chapters I have written, and I hope to have what I consider the complete first act of the novel online in the next week or two. I really hope you enjoy what’s available so far, and even if you don’t I want to hear from you. If you take the time to review or leave feedback on my work and I have not gotten to yours yet please let me know and I’ll make that a priority.
Also, as a tease, here are some upcoming chapters titles in no particular order:
Thanks again so much for your time and support and I look forward to sharing more of this book with all of you soon.
Best,
Matt Farley
Hi everyone,
I’m here to give you a brief update on the status of Red Circle. Before diving in I’d like to first thank everyone who has followed this book, left comments and reviews, and spent any time reading my work. I’ve only been on Inkshares for a couple of weeks but I’ve received a tremendous amount of feedback and support in that short amount of time.
Some of you have kindly been asking me for more of this book, and for those of you who are eager for additional chapters I have good news. I have 10 chapters completed, which is nearing the halfway point in the novel. I’ve outlined the remaining sections and I’m in the process of writing more. I’m also taking time this week to review and revise what I’ve already written to ensure it is in the best shape possible before sharing it with the Inkshares community.
To that end, I’ve just added revised versions of the first two chapters, and you can expect additional chapters in the next week or two.
Thank you again for your time and support and I look forward to hearing more about what you think of Red Circle!
Sincerely,
Matt Farley
February!
I’m still working on my second developmental rewrite. I’m on chapter 13 of 42 and this draft is much harder. As I’m learning more and more about what it takes to make a book exceptional, I’m working more slowly to try to incorporate what I learn.
I woke up around 5am for about a week to try to get writing in before the kids woke up, but then my daughter started waking up at 5am. Lately I’ve just been squeezing in writing time wherever I can.
Inkshares had me read a manuscript of another in-production book an an exercise. I wrote a letter about the idea, characters, theme, conflict, plot, prose, and setting, and soon they will send me the official editor’s letter about those same things. It should be really interesting to see what I caught and what I missed and then apply that to my own book. It’s not a book I would usually pick at all, but I loved it. Writers, read outside your genre!
I usually ask y’all to send encouragement, but this month...send babysitting!
Thank you, as always, for following along and for all of your support!
A happy new year to everyone, and all the best for 2019! We’re kicking things off with an interview with Battles of the First World War, a podcast which delivers exactly what it says in the name, a comprehensive examination of individual WW1 battles. Mike, who runs the podcast, took a break from the trenches to have a few words with me about my own military experience and how it relates to my fiction.
So, things seem to be going well. Over on Amazon.com, we’re just four (4) reviews short of fifty. I’m told that fifty reviews is when Amazon begins to take a book seriously, and starts doing a bit of the work in pushing it -- which in turn means I and everyone at Inkshares can devote more energy to creating the next book. So if you haven’t left an Amazon review yet, please do.
As for the "next book", an initial draft of "Cat’s Paw" has been written; tomorrow, I begin working on the next draft. I think we should be getting definitive news within a few days about whether it’ll be chosen as one of the "additional winners" of the Mystery & Thriller contest. Fingers crossed!
(Pre-ordering now should entitle you to a signed first edition, by the way. I admit that I never really understood the draw of things signed by me -- unless it’s a cheque -- but I was recently contacted by a bookseller asking for a signed copy of "A Gentleman’s Murder", so clearly I know nothing about how these things work.)
Meanwhile, I’ve also been working on a pilot screenplay (there’s a possibility I might be tapped to write the proposed TV adaptation of "A Gentleman’s Murder" myself) and catching up with my reading. On Inkshares, the latest projects to have caught my interest are "Goodbye Horses" and "All That Glitters". "Goodbye Horses" is a comedy; there’s murder involved, of course, but primarily it’s about the madcap woes of a Texas small town sheriff. "All That Glitters" is a mystery woven through one woman’s relationship with her parents when repeated murder attempts come knocking. So, yeah, check ’em out.
And have fun!
It has been a while, and so many great things have happened. Let me break them down.
Since getting bumped from Quill an Inkshares property, and getting all the wonderful benefits that come with that, The Living God went through several rounds of developmental edits. It has been copyedited, "poured" into book format, proofread, and had a brand new cover designed by Tim Barber of @dissectdesigns!
I don’t know about you, but I think it looks fantastic. I’ve gotten several compliments on it ranging from, "Its beautiful!" to "It looks like a NYT bestseller!" And while it may not be a NYT bestseller (yet, gotta keep the faith), it sure does make me feel like one!
The whole process has been a rollercoaster of emotions, mostly joyful. However, there is a change that I am sorry to inform you. The publisher has moved the release date to May. This is to better strategically place and market the book. While I’m bummed you won’t get it for a few more months, I understand their decision to do so.
These things take a lot longer than I ever anticipated when I started this process and when you pre-ordered in 2016. I want to thank you all again for believing in me and in this project, but especially for your patience. May will be here before you know it, I promise.
