Happy New Year! Hope you had a great holiday time and that you get a good start on whatever goals you set for yourself.
So, updates for you! I completed the developmental edit and submitted it to the editor for round two. It was a fun task that involved a lot of juggling and slashing and gnashing of teeth and many, many, many hours of Civilization 5 keeping my focused with its turn based system of game play:-)
Also, we've settled on a concept for the cover, taking the original version and blending it with an idea suggested by a reader that touched on themes the publisher felt were significant.
Rise Concept Cover
My thanks to the Inkshares and Girl Friday teams as well as to the artist, Chris McElfresh, for the work and care they've given to see this project come even closer to fruition. September will be here before you know it!
We aren't doing this in a vacuum. All of us authors who are in development or production or who are already printed owe this community for the help and work each and every one does on their own projects. We bring more eyes to this unique community with our successes and even our failures. Taking the power of publication selection and giving it to you the reader is such a novel concept, pardon the pun, and I hope you take advantage of it to help expand Inkshares library of completed projects. I, for one, am looking forward to an entire shelf of Inkshares books and that's saying something as my wife and I went digital a long time ago. Be sure to check out all the funding projects, especially those competing in the Sword and Laser Sequel contest (https://www.inkshares.com/contests/the-sword-laser-collection-contest-the-sequel) as that competition ends in just over 10 days!
Onward and upward!
Hey everyone! Hope you all had a great New Years! Was I the only Californian that didn't go to Tahoe? My Facebook feed was filled with people hitting the slopes and proposing to their GF/BF's on the frozen lake. Felt like the nerdy kid that wasn't invited too the party... ... ... Who was home writing Science-Fiction... /sigh
ANYWAYS! Just wanted to thank everyone whose already grabbed a copy of the book and remind everyone who hasn't yet that there are only 11 days left in the Sword and Laser competition. I'm hoping we can still place in the top ten so we can make our March release date!
For those of you who haven't seen it yet check out our "Directors" video here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDfRsDTH9EQ
Now onward too the new year!
My dear Readerly Friends:
Fist, and most important: I hope you are looking forward to a peaceful and productive New Year.
Second and most exciting: We are very close! As of the moment I write this update, we need only 97 pre-orders to get to publication. I would love for the book to come out during 2016, twenty years after Miriam's House first opened its doors to Washington, DC's homeless women with AIDS.
So my goal is to get those 97 orders by the end of January. How?
1. The largest clinic in Washington, DC (Whitman-Walker Health) is holding a book event for me on January 19.
2. Whoever pre-orders during January 2016 will receive this mug (shipped when the book is published, one mug per order):

3. Tell your friends! Share this update on facebook and twitter and by email.
4. You have already pre-ordered, but maybe you'd like an excuse to get this lovely mug ... or make it a gift package (mug and book) to a family member, friend or colleague. In either case, pre-order another copy!
As always, thank you.
Carol
Hello everyone, I hope you all had a fantastic New Years. I had the good fortune of spending the holidays up in Toronto, Canada, at the Royal York!
I just wanted to post a quick update to let everyone know that I've added several new chapters to the Inkshares page for The Children of the Forest. A 7th chapter will be available later tonight, and the 8th will be released on Monday morning.
I'm very happy with the current draft of the novel, and progress has been moving at quite a lovely pace. I also did a short interview on Off-Beat Cinema this past week, and hope to have the clip up on my page shortly!
Looking forward, we are currently maintaining a competitive placement in the S&L contest, and just a couple pre-orders could easily turn the tide against me, or in my favor. If anyone has yet to pre-order a copy of my book, I'm begging you to jump on the bandwagon now and get yourself a copy (or 10) as there are only two weeks left before the end of the 2nd S&L contest!
That's pretty much it for now, I'll post another short update once I've added the new chapters (7+8) to the page! Thanks everyone for all your support, here's to another fabulous year ~

We did it! We hit 70 orders! Time for the next raffle! *Cracks knuckles and pulls out the random number generator.*