Welcome to February everyone! By now, hopefully everyone has gotten their books. Some of you, may have started reading by now. So I’ve come to bring you artwork;

This is an image of a hairless squirrel cat rodent rat demon thingy that steals tacos and eats pizza. His name is Sparkles. 

Say Hello. Brandwyn did this wonderful little critter, and is working on another demon that will be revealed later. You can find more of her artwork here. 

Now this brings us to reviews! If you’ve read the book (liked or disliked) I would very much appreciate it if you left me a review. Rankings, Algorithms, Search Engines, are all based on reaching bench-marks of reviews--so the more reviews I get, the better chances the book has out in the wild. 

Audible: (For those Audio Folks:): Click Here

Amazon: Click Here. 

GoodReads: Click Here

Barnes and Noble: Click Here. 

Pick your flavor of website. Hell, pick all of them if you really are feeling ambitious. 

Finally, I just want to say thank you to everyone for all the support. The book is finally out! From here on out, I’ll be posting updates through here maybe once a month. Based on new artwork, con news, or other progress updates on the sequel. I’ve also got a short story about Akira I’ll be bringing out this year as well. 

Gah! ~Rick. 

Meet Saghan. A venomous viper, hailing from the distant swamps of Drakora. A slithering, green-scaled assassin with little care for life - whether those of his victims, or his own. A slave. A self-aware puppet who knows he can never break the invisible strings of the all-powerful puppeteer.

I commissioned this concept of Saghan about a month ago, and while I received a couple other pieces in the meantime (including this amazing one of Maxan, if you haven’t already seen it), I am so utterly impressed by artist Nic Morales’ interpretation of my character that I’ve sent him to the front of the line. Saghan serves as a foil to Maxan. Whereas Maxan makes choices informed by his sense of right, Saghan has no choice, and has given up on the idea of deciding his own destiny. And yet, we have a fox, and we have a snake... Both creatures known for their cunning, their guile, their deceptive natures. Maxan and Saghan are more alike than they know.

This right here… This portrait… THIS is EXACTLY what I saw in The Animal in Man. Make no mistake, this world is brutal, full of beasts, full of killers.

I truly wish I had more news in terms of the book’s publication date, but no movement has been spied on that horizon just yet. Please continue to be patient, as I am. And in the  meantime, I will continue to post new pieces of concept art as they come in. Thanks as always for your continued support, my dear Animals.

The Animal in Man is done. I can hardly believe it. No one doubted that this day would ever actually arrive more than me, I assure you. After months of what I called Radio Silence, I’m back - fingers trembling - to send out this reader update.

So what happens now? Well, I’ve sent all 350+ pages to Inkshares just an hour ago, and from there they’ll put together my production timeline and all the other wonderful things they provide. I’ll collaborate with them to nail down some ideas for the final cover design. In the months that follow there will be edits… load upon load of edits. The more meticulous work, you see, is really just starting.

I’ve never finished a project this massive in all my life, and yet, it’s not entirely finished. Still, I can’t contain my excitement. This is a turning point for me, and I couldn’t have done it without all the follows, all the interest (all the pre-orders!) for The Animal in Man. I just wanted to thank you all for your continued support. You’ll be hearing from me on the reg from now on!

(“Natural Collapse” - Design by Diogo Hornburg via threadless.com)