Ooh! I should make an update! That should happen!

A lot of you already know this, but in my excitement, I neglected to make an official update about it, so here I am, finally doing that.

WE MADE IT!

Proteus is now completely funded! We reached our goal of 750 pre-orders, and the whole project has shifted into production mode. I’ve already been congratulated by Inkshares staff, and they’ve sent me some of the paperwork I’ll need to do in order to launch the book into the production process. It’s really happening!

So what happens next, in terms of Proteus? Well, as any of you who have ordered Tantalus Depths are already painfully aware, the production process takes a very long time. Also, since Tantalus Depths was my first project and people have been waiting the longest for it, it is still going to take most of my attention from now until it launches, so Proteus is something I will have to be working on in the background as I prioritize Tantalus Depths.

My plan is to get Proteus into the editing process shortly before Tantalus Depths is released. The whole intent behind launching my Proteus campaign when I did was to ensure that my second published novel came out no more than a year or two after my first, and my goal is to try and release new books on a yearly or bi-yearly schedule, consistently. Inkshares has finally given me a tentative release date of winter 2019 for Tantalus Depths. It’s much later than I thought it would be, but the delay is necessary to accommodate some new ideas that Inkshares’ CEO has in mind for it. It should be a particularly strong release next year, and Inkshares is showing a lot of confidence in it, so the delay will be worth it.

In the meantime, I’m not going to be idle. I have a surprise project I’m working on that should come out later this fall, to tide everyone over as we wait for Tantalus Depths. I also plan on building myself a proper website, which I’ll be loading with all manner of content related to the universe I’ve created, the art of writing, and the community we’ve formed. Now that the burden of campaigning is over, hopefully for good, I finally feel free to devote more of my time and energy into the parts of this process I actually enjoy: the writing, the creativity, and sharing my work to the world.

For now, I’m taking a week off, ‘cause by golly, I’ve earned it. But after that, work starts anew. We’re going to do great things together.

Hey everyone. Its been a while hasn’t it? We’re so excited to announce our audiobook narrator; Emily Smith. A voice actress and internet marketer, this will be Emily’s first Sci-fi narration. We can’t wait for you to hear her stuff! Stay tuned for more announcements!

https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fkingswriter.net%2Fnoble-theme%2F2018%2F8%2F28%2Fthe-amaranth-chronicles-audiobook&h=AT0fgbP2d4E8xzPgU2eYjabcbR8kXTIvmC89fTi8tZOYFHzbT7cHzoTjG9ihNvWhjkkgptsqMFMZ0jj20TK64OFLuBG_IwPSxXe2n4nFl36m400XQd8s4nCJ97ojKNmVYOk42iPJyXqpIJzKX7wVPKO8

Fifty-six pre-orders! FIFTY-SIX! That’s all we need now for Proteus to receive its full publication deal.

Fifty-six is nothing. We can absolutely get fifty-six. I’m incredibly confident in this.

Not so confident that I’m going to get complacent, mind you. It’s not time to celebrate yet, not by a longshot. But we could absolutely get that many orders in the next day. It’s not even an unrealistic goal, at this point.

Let’s go for one more big push. I would love nothing more than to have my very next update be the big “we did it!” update. We are so, so incredibly close.

So let’s have at it!

If you haven’t yet pre-ordered your copy of Proteus, now is absolutely the time to do it. You could be one of the last 56 people it takes to see this book become a published reality. If you have already ordered a copy, please consider picking up a second, or even better, grab a friend or family member and get them to order one. It only takes 56 more, which is a paltry number compared to the 694 orders we’ve already brought in.

Either way, I’m intensely grateful for all the support that’s already come in for this book. Your generosity and dedication to the success of my work is the greatest honor I could ever hope for. I literally couldn’t have gotten this far without all your help. As far as I’m concerned, this isn’t even “my” book. I’m just writing it. It belongs to “us.” You’re all as integral to the process as I am.

Anyway. Enough rambling from me for a bit. I’ve decided to treat you to another lore update, ‘cause why the heck not?

If I hadn’t made it abundantly clear already, Proteus is a war story. But how does warfare actually work when the “battlefield” is a city-sized starship? To partially answer that question, let’s take a look at one of the main weapons being used to fight this war: the Rivali V-780 submachine gun.

It’s almost disgusting how close we are to being done with this campaign, you guys.

Seven days. That’s it. Not even seven full days, more like six and a half. That’s how long it is until the deadline for the full funding goal. We only need 65 more orders to get there. That’s ten a day, if we don’t mind cutting it reeeeeally close. This is getting intense. It’s like the end of a sports movie, where the end buzzer goes off just as the ball sinks into the hoop, or like an action movie, where they defuse the bomb with two seconds left on the countdown clock. We’re cutting this very, very close. But I’m supremely confident we can do it.

I would just as soon not cut it quite that close. There’s nothing stopping us from getting the remaining 65 pre-orders tonight, or tomorrow. I’ve mentioned this before, but it bears repeating: when we funded Tantalus Depths, we got more than 80 pre-orders that last day. We can do it again.

Whether we hit our goal tonight or at the last possible second, we WILL hit that goal. I’ve campaigned for more than a year on this project. I’ve had a passion for this story for almost a decade, and I won’t fall short of the opportunity to have it told now, not when I’m so close. I’ve sacrificed a lot in this past year to get to this point. We are finishing this.

I don’t like going too many updates in a row begging for help without actually giving something back, so here’s another little lore update. Jacob Sicarius is no stranger to sacrifice: his intense dedication to the mission has cost him dearly, but it was a price he too was more than willing to pay. Let’s have a look at the technology that not only put Jacob back into the fight, but made him an even more formidable soldier.

For more information on how the Expansionary Coalition views the subject of cybernetic enhancement, you can check out this previous update here:

Also, I feel I deserve some mad props for not making a single “cost him an arm and a leg” joke.

Great news, friends!

Proteus has had the honor of being supported by its third syndicate! Today, the Great SciFi for the 21st Century and Beyond Syndicate selected Proteus for their August pick. They previously supported Tantalus Depths as well, and it remains as big an honor now as it was then. They’ve supported many excellent books over the past few years, and it’s humbling to have two of my books on the list.

Thanks to them, and a large outpouring of support from many, many amazing people, Proteus has also achieved a second milestone today: we’ve passed 650 pre-orders! We now have less than a hundred orders remaining before reaching that coveted full publication goal. I have been waiting so eagerly to see those numbers go down to double digits for the past year. I can hardly believe we’ve made it this far.

But we haven’t made it all the way, yet. 100 pre-orders is still a lot, and we now have only 12 days to get them. Stay vigilant! Keep spreading the word! The finish line is in sight. We could hit our goal by the end of the week if we really push for it, and I, for one, am pushing as hard as I can.

Time to check in with an update, like it or not.

We’re down to the last 19 days in Proteus’s funding period, and we’re just shy of the 600 pre-order mark at 592. In the past ten days, we’ve brought in 34 pre-orders. Which is impressive, and I could not be thankful for every single one of them. You guys rock.

I have to be honest, though. At this rate, it won’t be enough.

We need to get 158 new pre-orders in the next 19 days, or Proteus won’t happen. Averaging that out, that’s a bit over eight pre-orders a day. That’s more than I can handle on my own. I’ve gone to everyone I know and explored as many other avenues as I’ve been able to find, but the well is running dry. This is where I start getting truly desperate for help.

If any of you are on the fence about ordering, or have friends or family who said they’d be interested but haven’t yet come through, now is absolutely the time. If any of you can manage to support Proteus directly with a second pre-order of your own, I’d be forever grateful.

We CAN do this. I know we can. We’ve done it before. But the key word there is “we.” Proteus will be written thanks to me, but it will only exist as a published novel thanks to you. It’s going to take an army to get this thing done. So it’s time to rally the troops.