Once upon a time there was a friend. This friend asked me to join a contest, and I didn’t think about it too much and just did it. First mistake: had I known what I was getting into, I would never have pulled the trigger on Inkshares in August ’16 and started the journey that culminated in a publication deal in March ’17.

Second mistake: She asked me to join another contest, this one a flash fiction writing contest from Sci-Fi-London (the 48hr Flash Fiction Challenge), and I did that too. On April 8th I opened the site to view my story requirements. A title, a line of dialogue, and an optional bit of science. The maximum word count was 2,000 words, and I had just two days to write it in.

Title: NOT ON MY WATCH
Dialogue: When the clouds are this low it can be a nightmare to get a clean signa
lScience (optional): Augmented reality becomes so good we neglect reality, when the system to fails, the decay is revealed.

Except I worked all day on Sunday, so I really had just one day. And then I knew that in all honesty I probably just had Saturday morning to write it. The good news was I already had a pretty good idea what I wanted to put to paper. I popped open Scrivener (worth it’s weight in gold), wrote out descriptions for about seven story points, and then just...

...wrote.

I finished up a little over 2k words before noon, trimmed it down, sent it to some friends to read, edited the mistakes, and then sent it off. I’m not sure how I got that word count done so fast, but my brain was sizzling with ideas and I just let it get on with it.

And now YOU can read it! I published the short story through Pronoun, making it available for free on all major ebook retailers’ sites, and you can access it here: NOT ON MY WATCH.  If you download it, please rate and review it! It’s only 8 pages, so it shouldn’t take you long at all. Every review or rating helps boost it’s status among other ebooks, and in return gives my author page more recognition, and all of this will help me when Fae Child comes out.

I don’t know if I’ll win the Sci-Fi-London contest, but hey, stranger things have happened? And those things I listed as mistakes at the beginning of the post? Actually they were probably the best decisions I could have made, regarding my writing. Thank you Jenny!

~ Jane-Holly
p.s. Of course, the work on Fae Child continues! We are #2 on Inkshares in Teen and Young Adult, how cool is that?

It is update time! Thank you to everyone that has followed and ordered so far. To the new followers and readers - welcome to the show!

The Walls are Closing In has presold 448 copies as of this morning, leaving just 302 to go, and 89 days left of the campaign. My calculator informs me that this leaves 3-4 copies per day. Considering that we are only 2 1/2 months in from the original start date, I am optimistic! But, the work is far from over and spreading the word is still greatly appreciated.

Now that the book is taking off, if you would like to reconsider ordering a few more copies and getting your name(or the name of your organization/business) displayed in the back of the book, far be it from me to try and stop you! The following is the acknowledgment page from a recently published Inkshares book (Tears of the Assassin by William Schiele) so that you can see what that would look like:

Currently, I am spending about 3 hours per day spreading the word. I will be beyond thankful to take a much-needed break from twitter and facebook come June, before jumping back in and keeping everyone updated with the production process.

As promised, I have added an audio version of Chapter 1 to the book’s main page. Check it out if you want, or you know, just go back to what you were doing before I interrupted you with this email.

A few other upcoming perks:

April 13th - Winner of Dystopian Book Bundle announced. If you have not entered yet, you can enter here.

500 Orders - Design revealed for signed postcard, bookmark, or bookplate that will be mailed to all backers (regardless of e-book or paperback purchase) as soon as the campaign ends!

600 Orders - Audio Version of Chapter 2

700 Orders - Audio Version of Chapter 3

750 Orders - Campaign ends, winner of $250 Airbnb gift card announced, and then I collapse into a heap for a day or two.

On the actual book front - in my spare moments I am perfecting the backstory (a never ending process as the news shifts from day to day), but the rest of the manuscript (all but approximately 10 pages) is finely tuned to my liking and ready to hand over to Inkshares for developmental editing as soon as the campaign portion of the programming is complete. I am eager to start the process that will get this book in your hands, so keep in mind that the sooner 750 is met, the sooner the making of the book can begin!

Until next time!

-Jacqui