Hello true believers! Long time no spam.

 We assume that in the time since we last contacted you that you’ve been curled in the corner shouting “WHERE ARE NICK AND NOA?!?” or “WHAT IS EVEN HAPPENING WITH PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS FOR MULTIVERSE THEORY?!?” or “I’VE SOILED MYSELF AGAIN!”

Don’t worry. You can stop the hunger strikes, you can put down the gun and let the hostages go. We’re back. And we have a nice surprise for all of you.

COMING TO YOUR E-MAIL BOX THIS FRIDAY: The eBook edition of Practical Applications for Multiverse Theory.

That’s right! You can finally read the book! And if you want to all get together and start up a new religion where PAFMT is your Bible, we would love to serve as your prophets.

But for real, we’re both incredibly excited for you guys to read the book. And don’t worry, you’ll still be receiving your physical copy of the book when we get closer to the April 19th release date.

Now comes the important part. Once you read the book, please do us a huge favor and leave a review on Amazon, Goodreads, or anywhere else that allows customer reviews. As dumb as it may seem, online customer reviews are a huge part of getting stores to pay attention to our little book that could. Here are a couple to get you started:

PAFMT on Amazon 

PAFMT on Goodreads

If you’d like to post screengrabs of you receiving the advance ebook or pictures of you reading it on your favorite electronic reading device or just want to post about it in general on any social platforms, throw in #multiversebook so we can follow the action.

In the coming days/weeks, we’ll be releasing some promo videos for the book, as well as the details about our book launch event, so keep an eye out. 

For now, here is your reward for reading this whole e-mail, an unpurchased stock photo of a puppy reading a book:

Until next time,

Nick & Noa

Twitter:     @Nick_Scott      @OhNoaG

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NickAndNoa/?fref=ts

Top of the Evening to You, Space Crew!

First, a humungous congratulations to those who won the Nerdist contest. That would be Christopher Leone, Michael Haase, and Patrick Edwards. These guys not only have great-sounding stories, but they put in countless hours of marketing and pitching to get their books where they are today. Please consider supporting them if you haven’t already, because their books will definitely be released in the near future.

Where does that leave us? Let me break it down for you. 

First of all, thank you for being the most amazing space crew that’s ever existed. I hope to get around to thanking each of you personally once I’ve had a bit of time to recover from this chaos, but for every one of you who ordered, who pitched to your friends and family, who gave me encouragement along the way—thank you so much. You just may have been a glimmer of hope on a bad day or one of many reasons to smile on a great one. 

In the end we finished 6th. Which, out of  96 entries isn’t too shabby at all! I was extremely focused on the contest throughout this campaign, so I failed to explain the alternative routes. I’ll do that now. First, let’s feel good about how much we accomplished for a moment.

Now we go back to being regular Inkshares book-funders. Let me try to explain this as simply and eloquently as I can.

All the orders we’ve accumulated are going to stick around until May 5. On that date the total orders will be counted and one of three things will happen:

At 750 total orders (note: these do not have to be unique orders), the book will get the same fabulous treatment as the Nerdist contest would have provided. Full service editing, marketing, publishing, and distribution from Inkshares. This is the dream.

At 250 total orders (we’re extremely close already), we reach the "Quill goal". The book will be published via Inkshares with fewer of these fancy services. 

At less than 250 total orders we won’t be published on Inkshares and you’ll all be refunded. That doesn’t mean it’s the end of the road, but that we’ll need to look at alternate routes to get my writing into your hands. That said, I believe this to be a highly unlikely scenario. 

You can check the progress bar on the book page to see how we’re doing. This is us right now, at 199 total orders:

So what should you expect next? I’m gonna cut back on the daily spam until we get closer to the May deadline. It’s a bit much for me to keep up, and I have some "bigger picture" ideas of how to pull more people into the project. 

In the meantime you can definitely keep sharing The Traveller’s Cup with your friends, since reaching 750 won’t be easy. If you use the recommendation links on the book page you’ll earn Inkshares credits too, which will let you pick up other people’s books.

Our ship hasn’t quite reached its destination yet, but that’s okay. We’re still a crew. And thanks to your support in this contest, we’re several pixels closer to our goal. 

Heading into overdrive. Man your stations. And...we’re off!

Your-Inarticulately-Indebted-Space-Captain,
-AC

HAPPY PUBLISHING DAY!!!

 
(Yulric does not approve of my rudimentary photoshop skills.)

So at long last, the day I have worked toward for five years has arrived. Time to sit on my laurels and fall into a deep, contented sleep.

WRONG!!!

There’s still so much news and so much to do involved with this book for me and, if you’re willing, for you. 

First, tell everyone you know about the book! Word of mouth does wonders. If you have extra copies, give them to friends, neighbors, coworkers.If you don’t yet own a copy, you’re in luck! Goodreads is giving away 20 copies!  

Second, again, I implore everyone who reads the book to please, please, PLEASE go to Amazon and leave a review. It doesn’t have to be long or involved. You can simply write "Thumbs up" or "Thumbs down." However, if I get past 50 reviews my book will begin showing up in ads and algorithms so it is really important.

Third, good things...reviews! Interviews! So far things have been incredibly positive. Which is good, because I hate crying. Last night, I recorded a podcast with my fellow Inkshares writers J.F. Dubeau and Paul Inman so look for that soon over at Writebrain Podcast. And in two hours, I get to live the dream by appearing on the Sword and Laser. I’m excited. So...yay!

Fourth, lest we forget...there is going to be a party this Friday at Bucket O Blood Books and Records in Chicago. So if you happen to be in or around the city, celebrating St. Patrick’s Day (again) stop on by. 

And...finally? I don’t know. I’m too excited. I had a hundred things to say in this update and now I can’t remember them all. As one of many thank yous that you all deserve, it was suggested by J.F. that maybe I show a little of the behind the scenes work that went into the process. So here are some early markups of the An Unattractive Vampire cover:

Hold On, I’m Getting At Something

The backer copies of Asteroid Made of Dragons have all shipped and the wave is crashing down on the East Coast. By tonight – tomorrow maybe – they will have all arrived. My Facebook profile is awash with pictures – pictures of my friends with their copy, the copy they bought a year ago because I asked them to. Some have one, some have three, or five, or more. A gesture of love, of confidence, of faith and it wrecks me.

Writing is lonely. Being a human is lonely.

I don’t do well with moments of connection. Socially, sure. Joking, sure. But a real moment? Something important and true? Not my scene. We’re so unstable, the most unsuitable of symbols. How can I know the things I say are being received in the moment, in the blur of memory and sense and thinking of the next thing to say while half-hearing what you are saying now while also feeling the echoes of other versions of this conversation from before and beyond  on TV, in dreams, from splinter-blinks of fragmented now? I mean, how? Maybe it’s just me.

Being lonely is writing. A human is.

Hold On, I’m Getting At Something. This should be my coat of arms. I’ve written three books now (THREE!), and thousands of other words off in the Grand Margins.  And all in the service of this dimly perceived quest of discovery of meaning – of this THING I’m trying to say, but cannot express. Only glimpse the edges of as I travel forward and back in time. It’s hard to connect with humans – but with words, you have a puncher’s chance. This word connects to that, shapes form. Things stay where you put them. Mostly. Rime is Rime and Jonas is Jonas and Xenon loves graham crackers and Linus snores just a little bit. Now, on my desk is a red ball, the color of summer sunset and it is red, red, red. And it will stay red as long as I believe that it is red.

A lonely human is writing. Being.

So now – I see these pictures, I see these signs of love and faith. And all I can say is – do you see the ball on my desk? Is it red? Is it summer sunset or is it more of a cranberry? Why are you listening? Why are you picking up the signal? Why are you dreaming with me of the three moons that have no name and the Lost and the stupid, stupid power of friendship that keeps the dark at bay?

Being human is writing lonely.

Ah, the simple words. I’ve already said them – but they don’t land right. Thank you. Thank you. You thank, you are thanks. Thanks You. A tic, a nod, a thing we say to strangers and waiters and cats when they heed. An empty thing, not enough, a hollow gourd. A blob of ink at the end of emails and yammering sales pitches. Useless, sere, not enough. I pick up the pieces and slam them together, that’s all that I am, all that I do – all that I can do. With whatever art I have I try to say the Thing.

Lonely is being. Human is writing.

Thank you. You thank. You are thanks. Thanks are you.

Lonely human thanks you. You are writing.

Writing is you.

You are thank.

The ball is red and it is not so lonely. Thank you for coming so far with me.