I have recently returned from a week-long trip to Alaska's Kenai Peninsula with my dad and brother, where we did an absolutely extraordinary amount of fishing for salmon and trout. It was the first time that far north for all of us, and I cannot overstate the scenic beauty of the place—absolutely breathtaking!
We fished a ton, and we even caught a few...
My life in the lead-up to the trip was packed with activity above and beyond trip planning, prepping, and gear buying, which meant that after spending much of July and early August winding up my Kickstarter campaign, my engagement had to wind-down pretty hard and fast. But for all that, and despite how exhausted we were at the end of every day after 5 to 9 hours standing on boats, plane floats, or knee-deep in glacier-fed waters, the trip itself was surprisingly, blissfully relaxing.
Despite coming back from such serenity, it has taken me a few days to recover and re-acclimate to the hustle-bustle of my normal routine. But now I'm back in the thick of it and reengaged with my various labors of love.
I've just published a Kickstarter update with news and a peek at the paperback cover—including this little tidbit, which is the moment I got my first look at it...
As I mention in the video and as I've probably said here before, this is one of my favorite parts of this whole author business—holding the book in your hands and really feeling all the work you've put into it turned into something concrete and real.
And now, we're continuing to ramp up to the launch of The Severed Sky—first as a Kickstarter campaign, then here and on to the wider retail world.
To that end, I've been running some test ads on Meta (Facebook/Instagram) to see if I can find any potentially interested sci-fi readers like yourself. I hate running ads (because I hate seeing ads) and I hate how the ad game works nowadays with tracking pixels and user retargeting and all that. That's why you won't find those things on this website or newsletter, or on my Kickstarter campaign page (at least in as much as I have control there).
But, because I don't track users across the web in that way, it leaves the campaign page follower count as the only means I have of gauging interest and determining when it's time to launch.
So, if you've not gone over there to check it out yet, please consider visiting the pre-launch page and clicking that "Notify me on launch" button so that I know you're on board. Likewise, if you know anyone who enjoys grounded, post-apocalyptic hard sci-fi, please pass the pre-launch page link along to them and encourage them to do the same. Your personal recommendation will beat some lousy ad algorithm every day and twice on Sundays—and it'll help me make a real connection with someone new.
As always, I am so appreciative of the fact that you're here, and want to thank you again for the opportunity to share my work with you.
Finally, I'd love to hear from you! Have you been to Alaska, or somewhere similarly picturesque? What's your favorite getaway or adventure to share with friends or family? What's your favorite fish you've ever caught? Did you ever fall in a river with chest waders on soaking your clothes and filling your booties up to the ankles with ice-cold glacier water? No? No, of course not. Me either.
... ahem ...
Back to the word mines!
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