Happy New Years everyone! 2016 has begun. Next week I have my Inkshares kick off meeting to begin production on the Seventh Age Dawn. So, there is that. I'm going to be at Midwinter Gaming Convention up in Milwaukee on the weekend of Jan 16th. Peddling my wares and trying to get some gaming in. If anyone wants to meet up, drop me a line on twitter if you are in the area. 

Lastly: Today I begin trying to define the sequel. The Seventh Age: Rise of Dystopia into to 15 words so I can start building my outlines. If you curious how I start a book, it works something like this: I start off with 15 words regarding what the story is about. (This is actually really damn hard). I then make those 15 words into 5 sentences, followed by taking each of those 5 sentences into a paragraph. Finally each paragraph ends up as it's own page. That's how I start off building my outline. Today... I need to do this. 

So here is where I ask for help: I LOVE music, and it's my largest inspiration for writing. Tweet me @crankybolt for any music that reminds you of the cyberpunk or techno-thriller music. I'll be assembling a playlist all month as I dabble with the outline. 

I'm really curious to see what some of you other authors and Seventh Age Followers come up with in regards to music. Toss your best at me :)

Happy New Year Machiners! 

Based on my map of where pre-orders come from, some of my wonderful supporters are definitely celebrating already. To those all over, have fun tonight, and be safe.

A couple of real quick hits on this 2016 New Year's Eve:

The support the last few days has been tremendous. I cannot thank all of the new followers enough for getting onboard. Monday we hit 100 readers and tonight we may hit 140. That's incredible! 

I had a funny thought after thinking about this today. I hope you all know this book basically has only one character! Well, our protagonist talks about one other important character. For those who haven't read, I won't give it away...

There was a new Inkshares blog post today. Some of the folks in the Sword & Laser contest provided their "best reads" of 2015. Definitely cool to see what everyone is reading. The novels I touched on weren't actually written this year, but to me, they are books worth visiting time and again.

I know I'm behind on the raffle game. At some point in the New Year, I will remedy that. Guaranteed.

Lastly, there is a fun new page on Facebook for The Last Machine. Check it out and Like when you have a moment: https://www.facebook.com/3BillionYears/

And I'll leave you with this brand new, hot off the presses, super rad artwork from Jack Katz of The Last Machine and that "other character." Enjoy, Happy New Year!

Happy New Year humans!

I'm feeling compelled to say something poignant or inspiring, but having been working on character sheets for most of my free time during this break has somehow dampened my abilities.

So, I shall just say this... make it a good one.

LLAP \V/,

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