Ladies and gentleman,

Tomorrow marks a very special day! That’s right, tomorrow is wonderful. Why, you ask? Because tomorrow is my amazing daughter’s BIRTHDAY! 14 years ago she blessed this world with her presence! She made me an honest man! I am proud of everything she does and I know she will change this world!

Also, tomorrow marks the beginning of NaNoWriMo (for those in the dark, National Novel Writing Month). I’ve never participated in NaNoWriMo, and thought I might test the waters a bit. I have two clear goals: 1) Write EVERYDAY during the month November, and 2) try to finish as much as I can on TIMELESS: The Life and Times of Eugene Trickens. 

Well holy moley. I’m in shock.

It looks like after spending a month and a half at the top of the CryptTV contest Weaponized has come out on top. By a hair, but damn, we did it.

Now: You can still order the book and I’m sending the manuscript off to Inkshares later today. The entire book is done and is looking rather polished after several rewrites over the last year.

Also: CryptTV will now select one of the top three to join the ranks of the CryptTV collection. Honestly, at this point that’s just icing on the cake. I know Weaponized will find a good home on the shelf next to Clive Barker regardless. 

Now excuse me while I go wonder if I’ve been dreaming for the last two months.

I have so much love for all of you right now. Thank you for making my dream come true.

Happy Monday morning beautiful people (or evening depending where on the earth you reside!)

Thank you for joining me so early on this journey with Loretta of the Lamp, it has blown my mind how quickly you’ve all jumped on board and given me support so loyally and selflessly. To those who have told your friends and family and passed on the message of what’s coming; thanks too!

There will be more updates coming as things progress, but first and foremost I want to make sure you get connected with me. For those of you who know me personally you’ll know I’m a fairly relational human being and the only reason I write and do what I do is because I believe we all have different gifts and talents that are waiting to be utilised, and we all have the ability to do some pretty amazing things in a world where people are looking for others like them, for people who understand them.

If you follow me on social media you may know that I’m inspired by a vast collection of quotes that I collect a little obsessively and pin to my wall (I have black sticky notes with a white pen; muahaha), and one of my favourite thoughts is from Abraham Lincoln, who famously said "He who writes the nation’s songs, shapes the nation’s souls."

I’m not a song writer, but I do tell stories, and I’m on a quest to tell stories that will be read by the ’nation’ and like so many writers before me, will inspire us to dream, to hope, to imagine, and to take action with the skills we have.

There’s my cheesy inspirational moment for the week, done and dusted! ^_^

Actions for you to take now; connect with me on facebook, instagram, twitter or wordpress if you haven’t already (go for which ever platform you use more), and let me know that you are connecting as a reader of Loretta’s story so I know who you are. I’m not looking for bumping up my numbers in social media, I’m looking to make sure I have the connection with you to keep you in the loop.

If we are connected already, don’t worry, I know who you are (insert scary laugh here).

Facebook.com/jrmanawa | Twitter @jrmanawa | Instagram @jrmanawa | Wordpress www.thissideofdarkness.com

With love from this side of darkness, J R Manawa (You can call me Jo, by the way).