Well that didn't quite work!

They'll etch that on my tombstone, if I get one, which I probably won't because who wants to be in a bloody tomb?
This took a morbid turn.
Anyway, I was referring to my attempt to get The Salvager published via the Inkshares crowdfunding publishers. I still think that Inkshares is a cool site, with many cool ideas, but it definitely relies on being able to build up a hefty buzz on the social medias, something I'm rubbish at. There also seems to be a fair amount of authors all funding one another so it's hard to judge how it will all work out.
My next attempt will be to submit it to Angry Robot Books, who are running an open submission period from the 15th of December through to the end of January. It's a long shot but, well, what isn't a long shot when you're trying to get a book out there into the world?
Here's the link if you're interested - http://angryrobotbooks.com/2015/09/announcing-a-new-open-door-period-at-angry-robot/

NaNoWriMo is going on! Normally I'd have been all over this but I was helping my dad install a new kitchen in my house so I completely forgot about it - I'm a solid eleven days behind now but I'm going to see if I can still do it. It's the sequel to Heroes Wanted that I'll be working on, because writing a sequel to a book that hardly anyone bought is a guarantee of success. I proved that with Sorrow's Herald.
That was sarcasm, just in case you didn't pick up on it.

Outside of writing based shenanigans, I'm still playing a load of Heroes of the Storm (and glaring at the empty space on the BattleNet launcher where the Overwatch play button ought to be - c'mon Blizzard, please invite me to the beta!) and Elder Scrolls Online on the PS4.
Also got the Heart of Thorns expansion for Guild Wars 2 but I've not managed to put much time into it yet.

That's it for now. I'll leave you with a pic I did to try (unsuccessfully) to promote The Salvager on Inkshares - it's the main character, Aimee Westmorland, in a poster that is probably familiar to you.

View fullsize

Until next time,
Al

Share My Ink!

An unusual battle cry, to be sure, but relevant in this case!
It's only been a little over a month since Sorrow's Herald was released to literally no fanfare but already we move on to the next one!
Allow me to introduce you to Aimee Westmorland, THE SALVAGER!

A new, light hearted sci-fi adventure about mechs, friendship, booze, mechs and evil big businesses. And also mechs.
Did I mention the mechs?

Anyway, the reason for the odd heading is this: rather than my usual method of self-publishing, I'm trying out the relatively new Inkshares site. They're a crowd-funded publisher - you list your book on their site and people pledge a pre-order (no money is taken yet), if the book gets enough pre-orders then Inkshares publishes it in much the same way as a traditional publishing house would, including providing editing, proofing and cover designing services at no expense to me (I like this bit in particular).
Right now, there's also a co-promotion thing running with the Nerdist which could be pretty cool.

So here's the begging bit (you knew it was coming, right?). I need people to pre-order The Salvager, and then get their friends to do the same.
I should note that you get $5 credit just for signing up to Inkshares so if I do manage to get enough pre-orders it'll barely cost you a bean! You can earn even more credits by using the links on the project page to refer people - in fact you might even end up getting it for free (for more details see the page for The Salvager)!
It would mean a huge amount to me to get that kind of help.
You can expect me to bang on about this an obnoxious amount over the next couple of months, to the point where you might even get sick of it. I've tried very hard to avoid being a spambot on all the social medias but if that's what it needs then, well, that's what I'll do. Whatever it takes! Performing monkey mode: ACTIVATE!
Seriously though, nothing's off the table here.

While I'm abandoning what little dignity I have left (there are people who know me who laughed out loud when they read that) and begging, I'd love to see more (some?) reviews for Sorrow's Herald and Heroes Wanted on Amazon or Goodreads. Good reviews, for preference, but I'll take what I can get.

That's it for now. Still decorating (I am sooooo slow at it), still writing, still playing daft games, still wading through the masses of hair that the dog's shedding. All good fun!

Until next time!
Allen