We are 40% of the way to funding Trigor with 73 days left! This is funding almost as fast as Pilot X did, so HUGE thanks to everyone who has put faith in this book with a pre-order.

We have two sample chapters up. One is the first chapter and the other does not spoil major plot points from the rest of the book. They are only spoilery in that after having read them you will know what happens in them. 

And I’m willing to answer more questions too! Any th9oughts you have on Pilot X or what may be happening in Trigor fly them my way.

And of course big thanks to everyone who has been passing along the link and getting others to order it. I raise my cup of coffee to you and will buy a slice of pie in your honor!

Cheers,

Tom

Greetings friends and supporters! I am pleased to say that in the first few days of my return to the Proteus campaign, we have pulled in a healthy amount of support. Thanks to your help, we’ve reached 286 pre-orders already! That puts our ultimate goal at 464 orders away, which does seem daunting, but if you think about it, we’re also only 89 orders away from the halfway mark. That’s my next goal, and it’s definitely within sight.

Keep up the good work! Tell all your friends and family, about Proteus, and if you have the means to do so, please order a copy.

Now with that order of business out of the way, it’s time for another of my famous lore updates!

In Tantalus Depths, you were introduced to the Colonial Hegemony; the massive, multinational alliance responsible for establishing humankind’s presence on worlds throughout the galaxy. But the Hegemony is not the only such alliance. Now, Proteus introduces the Expansionary Coalition. The ambitious, multi-generational Bella Rosa expedition is the greatest undertaking the Expansionary Coalition has ever attempted in the pursuit of its goal of finding a better home for humanity. For the Coalition, this is not merely exploration for its own sake. It’s an imperative for their future survival.

The Coalition has hung its hopes on the fate of the Somnambule and its 50,000 colonists. Have they placed all their faith on a doomed voyage? Only one way to find out. Support Proteus today!

"Cry ’Havoc!’, and let slip the dogs of war!"

The time has come at last. It has been almost a year since my first attempt to fund Proteus. In that time, I have spent most of my time and resources working on my development draft for Tantalus Depths. I severely underestimated how long it would take for me to finish that first round of heavy edits (I fully thought I would have had them done well before the end of the year), but at last, they are finally done. I sent the manuscript back to my editor about a week ago, and while I wait for him to work through my revised manuscript, I finally have nothing I have to do with that manuscript.

Which means it’s time to switch gears again.

For the next month or so, I am free of any responsibilities with Tantalus Depths, and I plan to take advantage of that opportunity to finish my Proteus campaign, which I started almost an entire year ago. I am still very determined to secure a publication deal for this second book, and thanks to my extension, I still have all the progress we made the first time I campaigned this book. There is still a long way to go, though.

At present, Proteus has 275 pre-orders. It needs 475 more to receive the publication deal I’ve already earned for Tantalus Depths. As of today, I have 97 days to get those orders. This is very doable, but it’s going to be a big challenge. I’ll need as much help as I can get, from all of you.

If you ordered a copy of Proteus last year, your order is still active. You’ll receive your copy when the book eventually comes out. I could not be more grateful for the support you’ve all shown Proteus and Tantalus Depths already, and I absolutely hate having to ask you for help yet a third time. If you have not already ordered a copy of Proteus, I would be extremely grateful for your support: you will be helping me establish my new career as a published author. If you have already ordered a copy and want to help more, you can absolutely do so by ordering a second or third copy. I would be eternally in your debt, and I simply cannot understate how much such a gesture would mean to me.

If you’re not in a position to support the book directly by ordering a copy, you can still help. I’ll be posting a lot more Proteus content soon, and I need to get it in front of as many people as possible. Please like and share as many of these posts as you can, and tell all your friends and family about this book. The more exposure we get, the better!

Thank you for your support, and I look forward to sharing a lot of exciting new content with you very soon. 

Greetings my wonderful followers, 

Beyond the Code has received a review from Alicia Smock from Roll Out Reviews. It’s reaches right into the heart of what I think makes Beyond the Code special. Give it a read and see what she has to say. 

http://rolloutreviews.com/an-enchanting-fantasy-debut-of-knights-in-modern-day-society/

Thank you all for your support and don’t forget to leave Beyond the Code a review. I want to know what you all thought of my work. 

Kelsey Rae Barthel 

Well, it’s been a long time coming, but finally I have a progress update for Tantalus Depths.

I’ve finally finished my first full reworking of the manuscript based on my editor’s feedback, and sent it in. I had intended to get this step of the process finished by the end of last year, but clearly these kinds of edits are a lot more challenging than I had assumed they’d be.

All told, though, I’m happy with these edits. I’ve extensively rewritten several chapters at the beginning and end of the book, but the book very much remains the same story I wanted to tell initially. These changes have helped me make Tantalus Depths a more effective piece of storytelling in the areas that really mattered to me.

At the end of my edits, my manuscript is now about 20,000 words longer than it used to be. Most of that added content was devoted to more fleshed-out worldbuilding, better character development, and better prose in my descriptive imagery. It’s longer now, but I believe the added content improves the pacing and flow of the story to such a degree that it will feel like it’s become shorter.

I originally wrote Tantalus Depths between 2012 and 2014. Since then, I’ve honed my writing skills, and I feel confident that this new draft showcases that improvement in my literary abilities. I’m prouder of this book than I’ve ever been, and I’m thrilled to carry it forward to the next steps.

So, what’s next for Tantalus Depths?

Well, now that I’ve turned it in to my editor, the ball’s in his court. It’ll be a few weeks before he gets the opportunity to read through my changes and send me back any new feedback he has for me. When that’s done, I’ll take a look at whatever other changes he feels I still need to make and then make use of that feedback in another draft. We’ll keep going back and forth like this until we’re both satisfied that the manuscript is as good as it can be. The biggest and most complicated round of edits is done, though, and each step in the development edit process should move faster than the one before it.

Think of the editing process like carving a sculpture out of a wooden log: first you go at it with a chainsaw and remove all the bulky bits you don’t want. Then you go at it with a chisel to get it to the precise shape you want it. Then, finally, you go over it with sandpaper to smooth out all the tiniest imperfections. I’ve just finished my “chainsaw edit.”

So what am I doing now that I’m free of Tantalus Depths for the next few weeks?

Well, until my editor finishes reading through it and sends me his notes, there’s nothing I can do for Tantalus Depths. I won’t be idle while I wait, though. I’m going to jump back into Proteus. My plan had always been to jump back into Proteus as soon as I was done with my Tantalus Depths edits, but I really didn’t think it would take me this long to get through with them, and my campaign for Proteus is almost over. So I intend to ask for one more 90-day extension for Proteus. I still need close to 500 orders to hit my full publication goal, so it’s going to be a lot of work, but during the time that I am waiting for feedback on Tantalus, I plan to devote myself fully to campaigning for Proteus. I’m determined to get both books the publication treatment they deserve, and to firmly establish myself as an up-and-comer in the writing industry.

So, stay tuned. As soon as I have more news for Tantalus Depths, I’ll be sure to let you all know. Meanwhile, I’ve prepared some exciting resources for my new Proteus campaign, and I think you’ll find them pretty interesting.