Good morning, everyone.

I suppose I must have lied about scaling back my updates to a monthly basis. See now, I’ve got some news to share that simply can’t wait.

For starters, Inkshares has launched their latest publishing contest in partnership with the Nerdist network! If you’ve got an epic “Space Opera” science fiction story hyperdriving through the wormholes in your brainspace, then I encourage you to chart a course t… Okay, enough. Just enter the damn contest HERE!  The beauty of this crowdfunding model is that all you really need is an idea for a story. Write something up - a synopsis, some character descriptions, a first chapter, whatever - and post it up on Inkshares. “What’s a space opera,” you ask? For you TV nuts think Firefly or Battlestar Galactica. The movie buffs should envision Guardians of the Galaxy or that little franchise Star Wars maybe. Gamers like me should recall Mass Effect and Destiny. And bibliophiles (a term only bibliophiles could love) should check out Iain Banks’ Culture series (my favorites) or Asimov’s Foundation series. 

If you’re serious about entering, I and some fellow contest winners shared some winning advice recently on inkshares blog. The fact that many of us had different versions of the same tip is quite insightful on that particular tip’s utility (you’ll see). But I would add another that I don’t think was mentioned: Be Organized! I had a massive spreadsheet I updated with all my campaign activity during the Sword & Laser contest. I couldn’t have done it without it. 

Finally, two more bits of news:

I am writing “The Animal in Man” every day, every night, with a daily goal of 1,000 words that I’m pleased to say I’ve often overshot. I thought maybe I’d just clean the early chapters up a bit, but geez was I mistaken! Instead I’m pretty much tearing the house down and rebuilding everything from the ground up. I’m almost done revising chapter three, and work continues steadily.

John Robin, the extremely talented author of “Blood Dawn,” had reached out to me about sharing some details of my story’s world in greater depth. Of course I agreed! Here’s an amazing picture I found that captures my own personal interpretation of the animal-human creatures that inhabit Herbridia:

(Credit to Adrean-BC on deviantART) If you want to pore over some more of the background knowledge - and go fishing for a hint or two about what’s really going on in my novel - then click here to visit John Robin’s World Building page on his blog.

And for gah’s sakes, pre-order your copy of John’s book. It comes with my absolute highest recommendation. 

I’m so excited to announce that The Talkers are Talking has met its Quill goal and will become a part of the collection!!  I just want to say thank you to all of you lovely, wonderful, generous and supportive readers.  I couldn’t have done it without you, and now as I start the long road to publication, I promise to do whatever it takes to make Talkers the best it can be. More updates to follow (also in regards to Breaking the Bechdel Syndicate- hell yea people, we are really making a formidable group against manic pixie dream girls and other depth-less female character tropes), but for now, thank you, thank you.

And just like that - there's no turning back.

The interior of Asteroid Made of Dragons has been approved and it's on the way to be printed. Inkshares staff, Bethany at Girl Friday Production, the irrepressible copy editor Carrie, the mysterious being I only know as DES (Designer), and my Pokemon trainers Veronica and Tom from Sword & Laser have all given the nod. Final cover tweaks are coming today as well and we're off to physical production.

I feel odd about it. I've self-published before, so there was much more of a feeling of instant gratification when I put the book out. After intense beta reading and copy editing by friends and colleagues - I clicked a few buttons and it was done. You could order the book immediately. That moment of white-hot excitement as I pushed 'GO' and tossed my stuff out into the world - it was wonderful. And then, inevitably, I'd realize I'd goofed on stuff.  The problem with being both writer AND publisher is you get to overrule a lot of sensible things when you WANT BOOK NOW. My first book, I actually pulled it down, re-edited it and put it back up on Amazon a few months after release because of all the snarky little copy edit and formatting problems. Ha, I had an ogre that changed names at least twice in one chapter.

So, the moment where I left to my own devices would have put this book out - was months ago. And in all that time, the book has only gotten stronger, cleaner, better - less prone to causing impromptu hauntings. Intellectually, this is amazing - readers will see a remarkably more polished form of my work this time around. But emotionally, hmm. It's been long enough that I've kind of come disconnected from the excitement of the book coming out? Maybe I'm just tamping down my expectations for what launch is going to be like, but in a weird way - it's like I'm excited about someone else's book coming out?

Stephen King (Uncle Stevie), has a phenomenal book called 'On Writing' - and one of the many passages I really took to heart was his edict that you have to put the book away after you write it. Long enough that you can read it as a stranger - that it doesn't sound like your own voice in your head. I think this is the first novel I've really been able to do that. Especially this week as we were working on the final copy edits - I found myself reading passages of AMOD and thinking Who wrote this? This is pretty good. Ha ha, Sideways is the best.

And you must now how much it pains me to say this about my own stuff. I am a quiet, quivering ball of self-loathing. 

But quite honestly - I kept feeling a new excitement. Not the sweaty, PUSH THE BUTTON release fervor I've felt before - but more of a Christmas morning, oh, just you wait until you see what I got you kind of feeling. As dangerous and perilous for my anxiety as this is to even think or type - I felt ...proud...of the book. I wanted to swagger.

I hope this feeling lasts. I'm going to ride it as long as I can - until the crippling doubt returns, natch.

Thank you all again - I can never say it enough. Real bookstores are buying the book! You are going to get to read my book in just a few weeks! You did this. YOU DID THIS.

It's all your fault.

More reports as they come in - be prepared, we're on target for release at the beginning of April - so you're going to hear more and more from me soon.

NOTES OF INTEREST

Audiobook giveaway for Spell/Sword - Precursor novel to AMOD. - ends 1/31

My jam.

My twitter! - c'mon and follow me people! It is SOLID GOLD over there. Just me whining and complaining ALL THE TIME.