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Get a Free Signed Copy of “Inkbound”

By Jeff Coleman / October 2, 2020 October 1, 2020 / Announcements, Books, Promotions

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Every now and then, I run a promotion to drum up support for my work on Patreon. It’s been a while, but this month, I’ve decided to give away free signed hardcover copies of my 2019 novella, Inkbound.

Ordinarily, through my online store, it would cost $11.99. But between today and October 18, I’m willing to send you a free signed hardcover copy.

Here’s the deal.

I’m not a well-known author, which means I don’t sell very many books. The only way to increase awareness of my work is through advertising, and advertising is expensive. Like, ridiculously expensive. To illustrate the point, book sales and existing Patreon pledges pull in between $200 and $300 per month. Meanwhile, I spend almost $2,000 per month on advertising and hosting, which means I lose at least $1,700 every month (right now, I’m spending more just to promote this campaign.) It’s impossible for me not to advertise; if I didn’t spend money to promote my posts, you probably wouldn’t see my weekly flash fiction in your feed.

I’m not complaining. My art is a labor of love and money isn’t my primary motivator. Nevertheless, it’s my dream to build a full-time business around it, with my mission being twofold: 1) To spend as much time as possible crafting stories, and 2) To get those stories into the hands of as many readers as possible.

To do that, I need your support, and in that spirit, I’d like to propose a deal:

If you pledge to my Patreon campaign at the $2 level or above, I’ll send you a free signed hardcover copy of Inkbound.

You can cancel at any time.

If you change your mind after receiving the book, you’re free to cancel your pledge, no questions asked. I believe most people are honest and won’t take advantage.

By pledging, you’re also entitled to other perks. For example, the $2 level gives you access to free copies of every e-book I’ve released, as well as every e-book I will release for as long as you’re a patron, and the $5 level not only allows you to decide which of my flash fiction pieces I should turn into a longer short story but also entitles you to a free signed hardcover copy of every print book I release. Whatever you can give, it will help me immensely on my journey toward becoming a full-time writer.

There are only three rules.

1. You have to have a shipping address in the United States to be eligible. I would love to include Canada as well as other parts of the world on this, but I’m sending these myself from a US address and international shipping costs are prohibitively expensive.

2. You must become a patron at or above the $2 level on or before Sunday, October 18, 11:59 PM Pacific Standard Time.

3. You must be a new patron. Unfortunately, former patrons aren’t eligible (But if you’re already a $5 or $10 patron, don’t worry! You guys automatically get signed hardcover copies of every new release.)

That’s it.

Once you become a patron, I’ll send you an email requesting your shipping address, then sign and ship you a copy as a gift (if you’d like me to personalize what I write, feel free to include those instructions as part of your reply.)

To become a patron and get your free signed hardcover copy of Inkbound, click the “Become a patron” button below.

Please note that Patreon pledges are recurring monthly charges. I post four paid pieces of flash fiction on the platform per month, which means a $2 pledge amounts to $8 per month. If that’s too much, you can make a $2 pledge, then set a lower monthly limit so you won’t go over your budget.

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©2020 Jeff Coleman. All rights reserved. For reproduction rights, please contact the author (who happens to be a kind and eminently reasonable man.) Unless otherwise stated, images are copyrighted by various artists and licensed by Shutterstock.

Inheritance

By Jeff Coleman / September 30, 2020 September 29, 2020 / Fantasy, Flash Fiction, Magic

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Falling, plummeting, hurtling like a meteor toward Earth. Jennifer waited for her heart-pounding date with gravity to near its inevitable end, then spread her arms like a bird. Unseen wings unfurled, and catching an updraft on the way down, Jennifer rocketed back up, higher and higher, until she was soaring, gliding, sailing across the clouds once more.

So, she thought, this was what it felt like to fly. She used to wonder about that when she was little. Now that she possessed her mother’s magic, she could do so anytime she wished.

Her mother.

A sharp pain lanced through her at the thought, and for a moment she faltered, her invisible wings withering with grief.

An hour ago, Jennifer had gone to visit her mother, who lay in a hospital bed with her eyes closed, tubes and electrodes attached to her arms, face, and chest. The now emaciated woman had beaten cancer once; she hadn’t been so lucky the second time around.

An hour ago, Jennifer hadn’t cared the slightest bit about magic. Indeed, all she’d known of it was the little she’d gleaned from books and fairy tales when she was a girl, and besides, there were more important things to worry about, like the fact that this was probably the last time she would see her mother alive.

When the woman spasmed without warning, Jennifer rushed to her side and held her in her arms, a stunning reversal of roles that might have given her pause were she not so stricken with grief.

“I love you,” she said, knowing this was their final moment together.

Then, without warning, her mother’s eyes opened.

“Child,” the woman said, the whites of her eyes now cobalt black. Terrified, Jennifer pulled back. But her mother’s hand had clamped onto her own like a vice so that she couldn’t move. “Child, it is time you received your inheritance.”

An unseen power filled her, a wild storm of energy and momentum that flowed from her mother into herself. Like a thousand volts of electricity, it raced across her veins, her nerves, surged along the length of her spine, then up into her brain, where it lodged itself and set an irreversible transformation into motion.

“The power of your ancestors belongs to you now,” Jennifer heard her mother say, not with her voice but inside her head. “Use it well, and know that I am always with you.”

When her shock wore thin and Jennifer looked down again, she saw a lifeless body, eyes closed for the last time.

Grief consumed her, but also astonishment and wonder. A special gift had passed from mother to daughter, one Jennifer had known nothing about, and it promised to upend her entire world.

“I love you,” Jennifer said once again. She gazed down from her place among the clouds, then turned and headed for the sun.

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