Congrats to the Inkshares Nerdist contest winners! Sorry for the radio silence on my end this week. I've been a bit preoccupied with my own brand new creation - I gave birth to my son on the the morning of September 29th after a very. very long labor! I'll be back at home this weekend and I'll provide a more substantial update when possible. Thanks everyone for your continued support. I am going to continue my journey towards publication however I can and I can't do that without all of you!
Sincerely,
Erin
Hi guys! We're in the closing hours of the Nerdist contest now. I just wanted to say good luck to all of you near the top. Very exciting stuff! If you haven't chosen one of the top contenders yet, you might want to do so now. It looks like the battle for fourth and fifth place will be a tough one.
I'm going to keep it short, end it there and conserve further marketing efforts until later in the week when the madness has ended. Good luck and good night!
- Landon
https://www.inkshares.com/projects/monkey-business
https://www.facebook.com/landonwrites
Hellooooo awesome readers and supporters! It's been an exciting 24 hours since my last update, and here's even more to add to the pot.
1. The Fable Hunt is in 9th place! Let's keep it that way by asking the person sitting next to you at work to buy 1 copy of it today!
2. Tomorrow is the FINAL day of the contest. It ends at 12pm PST or 3pm EST depending on your timezone. It's super important to get as many individual human beings to pre-order 1 copy as possible. If you have a husband, wife or person who lives in your household that has $5 to spare, please please ask them to buy 1 copy even if you've already bought one. It's all about the individual buyers rather than the total number sold until tomorrow afternoon.
3. Holy crap 292 of you have already ordered 408 copies of my book. My heart has swollen to Grinch proportions on Christmas morning. HOWEVER there are 335 of you receiving this email so if you're one of the 43 people who has followed but not pre-purchased, please do so immediately. I am counting on you!
4. I've uploaded Chapter 4 of The Fable Hunt for you to read! It's a short chapter but it's very much closer to a whole bunch of fairy lore that you're going to love so eat it up.
Right now The Fable Hunt is 72 readers behind 8th place, 172 readers behind 5th place, and only 17 readers ahead of 10th place. That's a lot of hurdles to keep in mind, but I know we can do it!
In a fascinating turn of events, it was also brought to my attention yesterday that I am the only female writer in the Top 10. How amazing would it be to be in the Top 5? I will pre-purchase a copy of a book from the first 5 female writers in this contest who tweet at me today in support of other lady projects. Please send me links!
The cool thing about this contest is that if we can push The Fable Hunt into the Top 5, Inkshares guarantees publication of my book. That means after tomorrow, you can look forward to only hearing from me with awesome story updates and perks rather than me begging for you to tell your friends to buy a book. So lets work together to make it happen! Tweet! Email! Call on phones! Post on Facebook! Ask in person! Send up a smoke signal! Maybe try Morse Code?
Annnnd that's all I've got for now.
Rachael
Evidence that I continue to write away:
Hello to all my supporters.
In my area, the leaves are about to turn and fall. School is back in session and to me, the year is terrifyingly close to the end. Most of you were introduced to this work mid-year when the rollercoaster of funding started, but back in January this work began with a simple goal, publish a book in 2015 by any means necessary.
I could not know where this would all lead me when I started, but it's been an adventure, at times stressful, at times incredible and illuminating, and I'm glad you've all come along on this experience.
With happiness and relief, I say to you all that the book is nearly ready to be handed off to the capable hands at Inkshares. In the next month, I am reading the book, smoothing out the lines, and making sure the content is in the best shape I can put it in before the editors get it. To see the novel in the condition it is now is very inspiring, and I am excited for you all to get your hands on it.
I'll share more chapters with you, but not until I'm certain I don't want to tweak them much more. For now, here is a passage about thirty percent into the book. In this version, I've altered out any spoilers, so you can read it without fear.
Snow fell in heavy sheets and blanketed Hammond Bay all in white. Rooftops took on an icing glaze and the coverage blurred the divide between the walking paths and roads all but for the fire hydrants, little red markers with white caps in a row. By way of the heavy grey clouds in the sky and how light cast itself against the fluffy covering, the days looked much like the nights except for the way the shadows moved. And when the darkness did come, it came so gently that eyes did not perceive it until the there was a calm moment to look around and take in your surroundings.
Along the road a taxi carefully crawled, leaving fresh treads, two long lines to mark its path. It moved along the roads in the district where the buildings once stood. The roughshod buildings replaced by with solid foundation, infrastructure, electric strung along the lines above, a network of webbing that brought modern convenience to a place where there was once none. The taxi stopped in front of a social club, The Turned Coin, and idled in its place. The engine hummed with soft revolutions.
After a moment, Duke stepped out from the taxi, snow already collecting, little flakes that clung to his shoulders and hat in speckled spots. In this time, the place he knew as a child had become unfamiliar. The dramatic collapse and reimagining made this a foreign place and as if anything, he was a stranger now.
I hope you like what you've read, and if you haven't pre-ordered, please consider doing so. I promise you will want to get comfortable with the characters and a place of Lost Generation.
P.S. I'd like you also to consider pre-ordering Andrew J. Ainsworth's These Old Bones. Click here to check out his book. Andrew has survived two Inkshares contests and is currently in fifth place. Your pre-order helps him cement his position and ensure publication. There are many talented and deserving writers in the Inkshares system, but Andrew has run the gauntlet and put himself out there so many times that he deserves a spot on the published list. Give his work a chance.
Thank You! More Soon!
Only a little bit of time left in the Nerdist Collection Contest and I can't believe I hit 600 readers! At each milestone I hit I'm continuously shocked by the outpour of support from everyone, and even saying 'thank you' 600+ times doesn't seem like enough to convey what you've all done for me. There is still some time to go though, and hopefully we'll be bringing Welcome To Deadland to even more hands.
As per tradition, I'm including another photo to celebrate, this time I wanted to show my writing space where Welcome To Deadland came alive. I've spent countless hours in this chair and at this desk planning, writing, editing, and rewriting to make Welcome To Deadland what it is, and I know I still have countless more until it's exactly what it needs to be for all of you.
(Rick, I see your photoshopped mustache from 400, your abundance of dinosaurs at 500, and raise you a writing space and an abundance of mustaches.)
Shout out to my homegirl, JK Rowling, for giving me the courage to write and the inspiration for my creative space. Without the impact of Harry Potter in my life, Welcome To Deadland might not have ever come to be what it is.
As we gear up for the final few moments of the contest, I say thank you once more. We're nearly there, but for now, we press on.
-Zac
