Hey all!

In my excitement about reaching Quill and following the aftermath of the contest I forgot to show the full painting since we reached 250! Here it is:

You’ll all be getting a copy of this painting (without all the lines of course). 

Finally, I want to congratulate Kendra Namednil on reaching Quill with her fantastic project Borehole Bazaar: A Vow Unbroken !! Kendra has been one of my biggest cheerleaders during the contest and the first person I connected with on Inkshares so for that I am grateful. The Inkshares community has been so wonderful to me and I appreciate every single one of you :)

I will make sure to keep ya’ll updated on AYSYWTQ? as I go. Have a wonderful week!

Okay, whew. I ran out last Friday to pick up my son, and then we left for a camping trip. I didn’t get the chance to do proper thank yous, so here it goes:

A huge, huge thank you to my supporters. It was amazing on Friday at 11:30 am to have people come out of the woodwork and push me into 2nd place. I absolutely could not have done it without you all. Thanks to my wife for finding this contest and encouraging me to enter. And thanks to all the Harveys and the Clearys and the Mills who bit their nails alongside us. Thank you to Simon Winchester, Brian Baldwin, Sean Garcia, Hannah Davis, and Ryan Weilert. In the end, it was your willpower that won me 2nd place. I’m in awe of all of you.

Great work to everyone else in the competition. There was some serious talent I was competing against. Alisa King ran a fierce campaign. Congrats to Peter Ryan, who really does seem like a genuinely nice guy. I can’t wait to read Too Many Controllers. And as I’ve said before, Andrew Fantasia is a great writer. I hope his novel Sidescroller gets funded so we can all give it a read. I also want to give a shout-out to G.A. Finocchiaro and his book Knightmares. He helped me a ton, and his book looks awesome. 

So what’s next? Sweeping changes. I’ll soon be deleting the prologue that’s up on Inkshares. Years ago, I had written IN BETA as a feature film. At the start of this contest, I was simply adapting the film into novel form. The farther I went down that path, the more I realized I wasn’t excited about a book that followed the rigid formula of a Hollywood comedy. So during this contest, I made significant revisions to IN BETA’s setting and plot. The concept and the characters are the same, but I’ve moved the locale from Seattle, WA to a rural town in the Cascades. The setting works better for a number of reasons. If anyone is interested in the mechanics of "why", ask and I’ll happily distract myself from writing by geeking out over my decisions. Otherwise, just satisfy yourself with the knowledge that I’m not content to deliver a shit novel.

I’m very excited about IN BETA, and I can’t wait to share the new prologue with the world. Thanks everyone for this amazing opportunity. I’ll try to be regular with my updates, and I’ll let you know the timeline of this process once I figure that out.

If you haven’t had a chance to "Like" my Kris Calvin Author Facebook page, would you consider doing it now?   

https://www.facebook.com/Kris-Calvin-152337814840172/

Click on the link  to get to the page,  then click the thumbs-up "Like" icon. Should take under a minute total!  (Note: "Liking" my page won’t clog your inbox or newsfeed—you won’t receive  anything from me as a result of clicking only "like"!)

The number of  FB fans I have  helps to  boost my credibility as an author!!  

https://www.facebook.com/Kris-Calvin-152337814840172/

 As always, thanks so much for your support!   

Kris   

 PS  In New York City recently, here I am, hoping to be discovered by the Radio City Rockettes.  What do you think, have I got what it takes? ( And yes, my friend’s face is hidden behind a photoshopped smokescreen.)

Good day to you all.  Just a quick one today.

First, our GET YOUR NAME IN THE BOOK contest is going strong.  It ends tonight at 3am EST (midnight Pacific.)  If you want to have a character in BLUE WATER named after you, get those preorders in.  If you’ve already ordered, refer someone else, and your name is in the running.  But the clock is ticking.  Get ’em in.

Secondly, BLUE WATER has been in the running for funding for less than two weeks, but this is the second time we’ve tried for publishing.  Our first round was during the Nerdist’s first contest.  The campaign was rushed previously, and we fell short mainly because I had no plan.  This time is different.  

But something is still here from before.  Something rushed that took no planning.  Our COVER.  The jacket for BLUE WATER was pulled from a teaser for the webseries, and hastily photoshopped together, so that we didn’t have to use the generic Inkshares cover.  It served it’s purpose at being a replacement, but honestly, hasn’t done much for us in terms of grabbing attention.  And since Inkshares works by grabbing attention, it’s time to retire it.

So with that in mind, in the not too distant future, next Sunday A.D. (to borrow a phrase from another successful crowdfunding campaign in hopes that some of their good fortune rubs off on us) we’re debuting the NEW BLUE WATER COVER.  I promise you, it will turn some heads, which will in turn snag some clicks.

So tune in next week, and see it here folks.  In the mean time, get those preorders and referrals in to BE A CHARACTER IN BLUE WATER!

Thanks a bunch,

Joseph

Only 21 days of funding remain for Mission 51. I would love to see 9 pre-orders over the weekend. Can you help? Here is how:

1. If you have not yet pre-ordered, please click the green button below and follow the pre-order links. Time is of the essence. I need 4.2 pre-orders a day to qualify for Inkshares’ Quill publication services!

2. If you have already pre-ordered a copy of Mission 51, thank you! Now please take a moment to gently encourage/persuade (harass!) a friend to do the same! :-)

3. If you have already pre-ordered a copy, consider purchasing another one, for a friend, family, or neighbor. It could be a birthday present, or an early Christmas present. Particularly good for readers! :-)

Thanks again, everyone! YOU are the ones launching Mission 51, and I greatly appreciate it!

Greetings wonderful people! Long time no update.

Yes I’m still technically alive.No I haven’t fallen into some kind of crazy worm hole. I’ve just been editing up a storm. Busy busy busy! And now I think I’ve done all I can. Now I need your help. I want to get some beta readers to help really make this book shine. If you want to put your input into Beyond the Codes final product drop me a line with any of the following

Email: Kelsey31@hotmail.com

Twitter: BTCInkshares

Or direct message on Inkshares or Facebook. 

In other news I was recently interviewed by Elan Samuel with the Warbler. Check it out. 

 http://www.thewarblerbooks.com/featured-author-kelsey-rae-barthel/

Thanks so much for following my story and my dream this far. I hope I can soon give you all a date for the final product. Exciting!! 

Have a great weekend and I hope to hear from you. 

Kelsey Rae Barthel

Hey!  Happy Friday!  Wasn’t going to post until the book was in your hands, but there may be a very short delay in the production schedule so just to let you know delivery date should be by August 1 latest on physical books. It will be earlier than that for those who ordered eBooks -- they should arrive on schedule for download.  Stay tuned -- also because I’m working on a longer update where I thank profusely everybody involved in making Women Like Us a reality but I just don’t have that ready yet.

In the meantime, marketing efforts have kept me insanely busy. Looks like the book will be on shelves at Vroman’s Bookstore in Pasadena, Book Soup in West Hollywood, and Skylight Books in Los Feliz. Hoping to get some more stores on board.  The book will also appear on the book shelf of the blog Chicklit Central, and I’ve done a guest blog post for Fiction Dreams.  Here are links to both blogs.

http://www.fictiondreams.com/2016/07/guest-post-by-jason-pomerance.html

http://www.chicklitcentral.com

It won’t show up on Chicklit Central until about November, but that’s no problem because the holidays are great for book buying.  A third and possibly fourth guest blog post are in the works too, and there might even be more after that. Phew!!

That’s it for now. Sit tight -- books coming very soon. Of course once it’s out there, I’ll be asking everybody to go to the Amazon page for the book and leave a brief review and however many stars you feel you want to give (5 right?). The number of Amazon reviews is critical for boosting sales, but more on that later.

Hope you all every a terrific weekend, and Happy Reading!

Guys! Insane support in the zero hour. 

That was an incredible finish for the number two spot. I’m bouncing off the walls right now. I could not have done it without you guys, thank you all SO SO much. I will keep you all posted on what happens next. 

But right now, I have to throw pants on, do a celebratory tequila shot, and then go pick up my son from school!

CHEERS!!!

Hey everyone,

First off, let me just say THANK YOU to each and every one of you that have been following my project this whole time and/or pre-ordered a copy. I might not have won the contest, but I REACHED QUILL (yay!!!). I am going to be a published author and you’ll all get to read this story which is incredible to me!! I never imagined that this campaign would be as successful as it was and for that I am greatly humbled so thank you for making my dream come true.

I also want to say congratulations to the Inkvengers (Too Many Controllers), Prescott Harvey (In Beta), and Peter Ryan (Destiny Imperfect) for running excellent campaigns as well. If you haven’t yet go visit their page and pre-order a copy of their novels! Now that the contest is over I can relax and enjoy the other wonderful works on Inkshares. 

Now if you’ll excuse me I’m going chill by the pool in this dreadful Texas heat. Until next time, cheers!!!!

-Alisa-chan