Ladies and gentlemen.

It is now the first week since I set up shop with Inkshares ... well, the first week since I've been serious about it; my account's been around for I don't know how long now. Some of you might be interested in the general state of affairs as we begin, so here we go.

The manuscript for "Murder at the Vet" is essentially complete.  It has been "essentially complete" for a while now, but every revision makes things better. Some of you may have noticed the rather major changes made to the opening chapters posted on the site. I think the new Prologue (unnecessary though it may be in terms of telling the story) adds a bit of suspense to the mood, and the revisions to Chapter One reduce the sense of it being an Expository Info-Dump. There will probably be revisions to the unposted chapters as well.

I'm impatient to begin the pre-order sales campaign, but perhaps some caution is called for. I know that I personally would probably not put down money on something that failed the first time around, and so I imagine that everyone else is the same. As such, I very much want the first push to be a successful one.

So, when that happens, I'm going to need everyone's support. I'm going to need as much support as I can get. If I can get your grandmother's support and your dog's support and your grandmother's dog's support, I'd take it and no questions asked.

BUT, that hasn't happened yet. Right now, it's about building up a following in various places. I will be applying for membership both at the Quebec Writers Federation and at Crime Writers of Canada. I will be testing the waters at Goodreads. I probably will not move on to pre-order sales until I have established my footing with the QWF and the CWC.

Now, most of you may be familiar with Faith (hi Faith!) who is the author of "Death of an Archaeologist". I expect that most of you are already following that book; and if you're not, please do. The two of us appear to be the only people writing in our setting and genre (1920s "golden age" detective fiction) and we expect to have near-identical readerships. So anyone interested enough to back "Murder at the Vet" will probably be interested in backing "Death of an Archaeologist", and vice-versa. Any support I get should consider supporting her; and I hope that the reverse will hold true.