The first draft of “Gumshoe Rules” was written in 30 days last November during National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo. Right now there are hundreds of thousands of novelists working eagerly to create their first 50,000 word draft. For anyone interested in NaNoWriMo, I wrote an article with 13 tips for authors on how to breakthrough this month-long writing marathon. To commemorate this event, during November I’m donating $5 of every order to the NaNoWriMo.org non-profit.
Meanwhile I’m on my third draft, knee-deep in edits to continue to make “Gumshoe Rules” as good as it can be. I’m fortunate to have been able to tap into some world-class editors both locally and around the world through a web site called Reedsy. For those who might have their own novel in the works, I strong recommend taking a look at Reedsy in order to hire experienced professional editors and cover designers. They also have a wealth of information on structuring a novel, building suspense, character development and more.
One slight complication has been reported to me by backers of this project. Somewhere between 3-4% of all orders placed on Inkshares did not make it through, due to some quirks in the Inkshares system. (The problem has now been corrected.) However, even if you are getting this update, it doesn’t mean your order was placed. Please check and if you didn’t receive an email confirmation from hello@inkshares.com with the subject Gumshoe Rules Confirmation, then you’ll need to place your order again. Be sure to click on the final green “Confirm” button to make sure your order goes through. Please go to https://www.inkshares.com/books/gumshoe-rules to place your order.
I am grateful to all who have helped support this creative project. I’m confident that with your help, we’ll finish November strong and raise some money for NaNoWriMo! If you can encourage just one other person to buy the book, that would help immensely.
Thank you for all of your support!
--Z.Z. Traver
PS. At Bouchercon this year, I met Martin Edwards, whose most recent book "Gallows Court" has just been released to great acclaim. Edwards is a bestselling novelist, Chair of the Crime Writers Association, editor of the British Library’s classic crime series and an all around nice guy. 
