Hello once again my friends.

This has been a very, very long week. This time last week we were in the top three, Now we’re trailing behind in fourth by 22 pre-orders. But it was 29 pre-orders this morning! We gained a lot of ground today, and that’s something I think all of us should be proud of. We can’t stop yet, though. We can’t even pause.

Less than three days remain in this contest. The victors will be decided on Tuesday, and I aim to be among them. 22 pre-orders is both so little and so much. So little because it is definitely, absolutely possible for us to get them and catch up to where we were; at the beginning of this contest, we were able to get that many in just a single day, and a few days ago we were able to get 18 all in one day. But...it’s so much because that was then and this is now. That was before I called upon everyone I know for help. That was back when I had enough money to run a couple ads, that was before most of the people I knew I could count on had placed their orders. Right now...I don’t know where those 22 orders are going to come from.

So once again, I’m calling out to you all for your support. If you haven’t yet, talk to your spouse about this. Talk to your parents. Talk to your siblings. Your best friends. Your coworker who’s always reading during lunch breaks. Talk to anyone you can think of; if there’s one thing I’ve learned from this campaign and the one for Tantalus Depths, it’s that you absolutely never know who might be willing to help you when you need it.

The odds are not quite in our favor right now, but I insist on optimism. I must proceed as if victory is a forgone conclusion. If I try as hard as I can and fail, I will be content. If I give up when I could have won, I’ll never forgive myself. So I take the path of positivity, just like our final highlighted character, Katie Salvador.

Katie Salvador

When civil war divided the crew of The Somnambule, it was the first true conflict ever witnessed by the third and fourth generation crewmen. To the naive and isolated descendants of The Somnambule’s original crew, the terrors of battle and mutiny were an awakening, a loss of innocence. For most noncombatants, the mere notion that their fellow crew members were killing one another in the mid-decks was enough to crush the youthful optimism fostered by a lifetime of security. Not so for Katie Salvador.

A fourth generation member of The Somnambule’s crew, Katie was a constant source of positivity and optimism, sharing her excess of cheer with every member of the ship’s crew she encountered. Like everyone else born on the ship, Katie was selected from a young age to fulfill a set of specific roles within the ship’s hierarchy. Katie was selected to join the ship’s medical staff, and while she took to her assigned job with the same zeal she applied to the rest of her life, her natural desire to help others led her to voluntarily pick up additional responsibilities in the ship.

By the age of twelve, she was already spending much of her free time in the hydroponic farms on the ship’s inner decks, taking great pleasure in tending to the various crop plants and helping them grow. She continued with this side work into her teens, even while she began to work full shifts in the ship’s infirmaries.

When Marion Krieg led her rebellion in an attempt to seize control of the ship, Katie pulled double shifts in the infirmary to treat the wounded, and continued to do so until the conflict resolved to a tense stalemate when Krieg’s rebels retreated to the lower decks.

Though the loyalist members of the crew had successfully thwarted Krieg’s initial rebellion, it had come at great cost. Many members of The Somnambule’s security force were killed in the battle, and with the conflict remaining unresolved, new recruits had to be drafted from the ship’s civilian population to replace them. Seeing a new opportunity to serve, Katie volunteered to take up arms and join the security force.

Training under her father, the head of the security force, Katie quickly learned the basics of combat. Her extensive medical training saw her fit well into a support role as a combat medic. Though still only 16 years old, Katie served as a vital member of the loyalists’ makeshift militia, not only for her skills as a healer, but for the warmth of her personality. Katie provided her brothers and sisters in arms with an endless supply of positivity in a time when morale could not have sunk lower...

Let me paint you all a very pretty picture:

That’s right, Proteus is still sitting firmly in the top three, and only climbing higher. There’s plenty cause for celebration for coming as far as we have, and I owe everyone who’s supported it so far a huge debt of gratitude. But there are some significant impending challenges ahead as we gear up to enter the final two weeks of the contest. What obstacles are those, you ask? One word: syndicates.

Syndicates are groups on inkshares that collect contributions from their members and pour all of them into one book every month. You may remember that Tantalus Depths received support from many syndicates during the last campaign; in fact I’d venture to say the campaign could not have succeeded without support from the syndicates.

So why are syndicates a problem for Proteus? Well, most of them more or less make their decisions about which book they plan to back at the beginning of the month, or even earlier. Some of the bigger ones are already narrowing down their choices to one or two options, and they’ll make their final choice within the next week or so. Because I launched my campaign for Proteus as late as I did, most of the syndicates who might have considered supporting it had already turned their attention to other books in the contest. Some of these syndicates are large, and if they pick a book I’m competing against, that book will instantly jump ahead by twenty or thirty orders all at once.

Long story short, it’s unlikely any syndicate will pick Proteus, and it’s highly likely some will pick competing books. One already has, in fact. This means we can expect some of the books we’ve already passed in the leaderboard to instantly leapfrog over us if we can’t get some more traction and build up a buffer between Proteus and the rest of the leaderboard. Since we can’t count on syndicates, we have to push forward the old fashioned way: one order at a time. So even though we’re doing really well right now by making it to the top three and holding our position, it’s crucial that we keep pushing as hard as we can to increase our numbers.

Remember, please tell all your friends and family to pre-order, and keep sharing our posts to boost our visibility. Victory is in sight, but it’s not within reach yet, and it’s going to take all of us to get there!

Support for Tantalus Depths is surging again! We’re now at 213 pre-orders and climbing rapidly. I have no doubts whatsoever we’ll hit Quill soon, probably within the next week. Remember, if we get there by the 5th, I’m giving everyone a free short story right then and there. 37 pre-orders in two and a half days is a bit of a long shot, but it can be done if everyone really pushes for it!

I’m in the process of figuring out a more consistent kind of update schedule, delivering certain kinds of updates on certain days. I’ll have more on that later today once I get it worked out.

Also! It’s come to my attention that I don’t think I actually linked this here on inkshares back when I first posted it (naturally, I posted it everywhere else, but forgot to put it in the one place it matters most).

Back when the Geek and Sundry Hard Science Fiction competition was in its latter days, some of the top entrants were asked by Inkshares what their dream movie cast would be for their books. I wasn’t asked, but I took it upon myself to come up with a cast anyway. If you’d like to see my personal cast picks for a big-screen adaptation of Tantalus Depths, and get a bit more information on some characters you haven’t seen much from yet, you can check them out on Tantalus Depths’ blog here!
 

Lore Update!

Here we take a sneak peak under the hood of The Diamelen and learn the basics of superluminal drive technologyin Tantalus Depths.

Also, Tantalus Depths has just passed 400 pre-orders! Thank you all so much for the continued support, this is really moving thanks to your tremendous help. Keep it up, and keep spreading the word!

Time for the Wednesday author spotlight update!

This week I’d like to shine the spotlight on The Test, by Tabi Card.

Here is a story that fits right in with current YA hits like The Maze Runner and Divergent, but the writing is handled far more exquisitely than the genre typically offers. Her characters are well-rounded and complex, rather than seeming like simple archetypes drawn out of a genre-approved list. Her world-building is extensive and fascinating.

The test creates a palpable tone of tension and miasmic uncertainty that perfectly intimates the central characters state of mind to the reader. You feel as if you are present in the events, that they are happening to you. Even so, Nik is very much her own character, and as readers we cannot help but feel her struggles.

Definitely give The Test a look. This book is going places, and you’ll want to be a part of that.

Also, of course, please consider pre-ordering Tantalus Depths, if you’ve not already done so. (Had to throw that in there somewhere)

Story Update:
The crew of The Diamelen is equipped with all manner of sophisticated mining equipment on their mission to Tantalus 13. One such piece of equipment is the EM probe deployment gun. It gives them the ability to see detailed three-dimensional images of the composition of the rock beneath them. On a mysterious world like Tantalus 13, these probe guns will give the crew their first glance at what lies below...and may need to see a less conventional use later on...
  

The crew are well-equipped, but is it enough for the dangers that await them? Find out when you place your pre-order for Tantalus Depths today!