There’s no other way to describe 2015 other than ‘eventful’. I’m still reeling from the chain of events that have brought me to this point. From entering the first Sword & Laser Collection contest, becoming a runner up and being chosen for the collection, it’s all been an insane ride. I’ve discovered the near-euphoric joy of working with a good editor, had my book read and reviewed by a plethora of people, got an awesome cover blurb and will soon be seeing my book in the hands of readers. Started Paul Inman and I’s podcast, WriteBrain. Most of all though, I’ve been able to forge relationships with people I admire as well as meet so many new and awesome people that it’s hard to keep track of everyone.

None of this would have happened without your support. The silver lining of 2015 is completely your doing, and I'm forever grateful for that.

But, it wouldn’t be January 1st without resolutions. Like everyone I have the standard weight loss, increase in physical activity and maybe yelling a little less about robots in public places, but I have some creatively driven goals that I think might be interesting.

• Finish my first book for The Ed Greenwood Group (as per contractually demanded)

• Get A God in the Shed to 750 copies by April 1st and get it published

• Finish the sequel to The Life Engineered and start the funding campaign for it

• Write another book (I have ideas) and start giving it out to beta readers

• Write four short stories (I’m not good at short stories. I need the practice)

What are you guys looking forward to in this new year? Apart from more robots that it.

JF

Seven days in my campaign left! Yikes!

Ten secret-filled illustration postcards left! Tell all your friends!

I made a collage for Relai to go along with the Milo one:

Happy Wednesday!

The Trekonomics New Year's Update

Dear readers, followers and friends of Trekonomics,

I am very happy to report that after two months of furious rewriting and editing, the final manuscript has been sent for copy-editing. We are on track for our late-spring 2016 release.

A lot of coordination is involved in producing a book. I am discovering the age-old process of designing a cover and gathering all the elements for the book's jacket as well the so-called "front matter" (that is, all the text and pages that are not part of the manuscript itself).  

Speaking of the book's front matter, we are planning a neat little surprise. It will be revealed in time (and I will not say anything more lest I jinx it). 

The cover is being designed by the incredibly talented Jennifer Bostic (http://www.paperplanestudio.com/) and John Powers (http://johnpowers.us/, as well his essential blog http://starwarsmodern.blogspot.com/). It is an awesome privilege to work with artists of their caliber. We will share the cover design and artwork with all of you as soon as it is blocked and finalized, within the next few weeks. 

2016 will mark the 50th anniversary of Star Trek's first airing on NBC. The exact date is September 8 at 8:30PM Eastern Time.  For that occasion, the US Postal Service will release a series of four commemorative stamps. Here they are in all their glory:

"Forever" means that they will be forever good for first-class letters, regardless of future price increases. Hopefully, we will be able to ship some of your pre-orders with these stamps on the envelopes.

As a final note, I am happy to announce that I am contributing to Fusion.net's Real Future on a regular basis. You can set your RSS readers to: http://fusion.net/author/manu-saadia/ or follow me on twitter (@trekonomics).  My latest piece was on Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

We will be in touch very soon. In the meantime, a happy and felicitous New Year.

Live Long, and Prosper

Manu

We Interrupt This Program To Bring You This Important Message

Short note. Today I heard from two original backers of The Astronaut Instruction Manual who have not received their books. This was the look on my face:

If somehow you did not receive your purchased books and you were one of the original backers, inkshares has let me know they take this very serious, so by all means please email me at mike at mikemongo dot com and let us know.

…we now return to our previously scheduled programming already in progress which is THE AIM BEING #1 NEW RELEASE CHILDREN'S BOOK ON AMAZON.COM!!!

(So, yeah, let's make sure the people who got us here are as happy as I was on the opening of Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Before and after seeing it!)

May the Force be with you,

Mike Mongo
astronaut teacher

We’re nearly there! A third [and my wife hopes final?] raffle drawing will fire off when we reach 250 readers! I’d thought perhaps I would finish it all right there, but I’ve just now spontaneously decided to hold another drawing when we get to 300. That’s right, I’m hitting the reset button on this goal of mine and moving it back. Why not? (Please don't tell the wife!)

As lost as I’ve been in the campaign for “The Animal in Man,” I haven’t been able to take as much time to really dive into the wealth of great stories on display at inkshares.com. Until recently.

Jason Pomerance’s “Women Like Us” completely blew me away. Normally I stick to fantasy and sci-fi, but his writing truly drew me in and didn’t let go. I left a review and several comments on this amazing book. Worth your attention and your credits.

And while it’s only in a Draft phase of production, Peter Ryan’s “Sync City” has crashed through the windowpanes of my psyche and left itself in a bloody glorious post-apocalyptic Mad Max fuel for survival kind of mess on the floor of my brainpan, in the best way possible. I highly urge you visit his page and let Peter know you feel the same way I do, with less gore if you like.

And finally, my fellow Sword & Laser contestant Edmond J. Wedge has a very intriguing first book in a nine-part series he’s planned called “Ocean Black: The Noble Exiles.” I found his mix of genres and settings and atmospheres very engaging. I hope you’ll toss some of your money his way and help get his book published. 

Look, everybody… Full disclosure, many who are receiving this update might only be following my book. It is to you - not the other inkshares authors - that I am sending this message. Inkshares has been good to me. It is good for me, for my dream of getting “The Animal in Man” into your hands. And these three gentlemen are just like myself in that regard. Do what you can to get their stories told. You will not be disappointed.

(Final shout out to Vincent Lim, author of “The Cora Chronicles”, for raffling off a sweet wall poster for his book, which I shall gratefully receive, sir. And to Byron Gillan, author of “The Children of the Forest”, which is hitting me in all my nostalgia and love for Final Fantasy, Princess Mononoke, and even The Banner Saga with that amazing artwork. To you, sir, I will have a full review of your chapter soon!)

Peace! (....I hope all these links work!)