The Bright Spot fulfillment begins... yesterday? + CUTE KITTY AND PUPPY PICTURES
Yep, sorry for keeping you all in the dark. It's been a very hectic month.
The physical paperbacks for the Bright Spot arrived, and they look PHENOMENAL! See pics b...
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Redmatter Creations
4 months ago
The Bright Spot is Finally 100% Complete
You heard it correctly. I am done. The Bright Spot is complete. This probably comes as a surprise to you because it was for me. I hadn’t expected to be done so soon. My e...
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Redmatter Creations
4 months ago
Verify your shipping address for The Bright Spot!
Shipping Addresses will be locked in soon. On November 1, your card will be CHARGED for shipping, and you won't be able to change your address after that. So make sure you ge...
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Redmatter Creations
5 months ago
The Bright Spot Draft 4 finished | Read for Free | Book 2 news | Shipping update
Goodbye Draft 4, Hello Draft...5?
Well, here's to another huge milestone. Last night I finally locked in and edited nearly a third of my novel, pushing it past 100%. I know ...
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Redmatter Creations
6 months ago
The Bright Spot Update | Draft 4 | Physical Copies
The Latest Draft
I wanted to give my beta readers a bit more time to fully experience the Bright Spot as well as get their thoughts down for me to review and an...
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Redmatter Creations
8 months ago
The Bright Spot Update: Blight Eater, Kings and Beggars, New Neon Signs
I forgot to send my previous major update to my email list. If you wanted to read that first, go here.
The Bright Spot Update: Blight Eater, Kings and Beggars, New Neon S...
Yep, sorry for keeping you all in the dark. It's been a very hectic month.
The physical paperbacks for the Bright Spot arrived, and they look PHENOMENAL! See pics below
I started fulfillment as soon as they arrived. Had everything ready to go, stickers, bookmarks, oracle cards, bubble mailers, and a label printer. Some of you may have already received your books. Others are still being sent out. I dispatched the last batch of books today.
Soon, I'll send out the rewards for the Oracle card tier (if you didn't back the physical paperback). Walmart didn't have envelopes for some reason. Working on it, though. Keep an eye on your mailing inbox!
The Backerkit editions are also ARC Copies. Meaning there will be typos and misprints. If you notice one, never assume I know about it. Please email me at [email protected], with a page number and/or a picture of the error.
Blight Eater update
Blight Eater, Book 2 of The Bright Spot is 47% finished. I'm projecting 100k words, (10k more than TBS). But I wouldn't be surprised if it ran 10k over. I think you're gonna like this one. If you have questions, this book will answer.
Animal showcase
Since this will likely be the last update for my backerkit buddies, (until the campaign starts for Blight Eater) I want to showcase some of my furry friends.
Hank
Hanky might be the greatest kitty of all time. Think of the best kitty you know and multiply that by 10. If you have been reading The Bright Spot, you may notice Hank shares some similarities with Beef Iron Mutilator. While not visually the same, these two cats are spiritually the same.
Nicknames: Hanky, Hammy, Hamoney (H$)
Oppenheimer
Oppie is a big rottweiler. He is as vicious as he looks. Which is not at all. He has a huge heart and a very small brain.
Oppie was born with Holoproscenephaly. (Forgive me, neurologists, if I misspell or if my information is incorrect.) Basically, he was born missing a chunk of his brain. Most of his cerebral cortex. When this is not controlled, Oppie will have violent grand mal seizures. This was very scary at first and was really, really hard. We've only known for about a year as I'm writing this, and his medication isn't getting cheaper. If I'm correct, we spend over $350 dollars a month on his medication alone. He takes twenty-six pills a day to mitigate this: 13 in the morning, 13 in the evening. Of course, he had to be a large breed with this condition. Good thing insurance exists!... wait.. insurance doesn't cover pre-existing conditions? Oh. Okay.
Besides his rare seizures, Oppie lives a normal life, running around and interacting like any other bouncy dog. He still wakes us up in the middle of the night to go potty. He loves playing with the kitties. And he loves going for rides in the car.
Ceiling Fan is our latest addition to the family. We got her before we knew about Oppie's seizures. She is the biggest troublemaker of them all. She'll purposely provoke Oppie to knock things over and trample us if she doesn't get what she wants. I've lost countless cables to her antics. She snatches food off the counter, chewing through bread bags, knocking over and destroying an expensive computer monitor, and, of course, biting our toes at night.
Her markings make her look like an evil super villain. I love how her colors create a white mustache and a black goatee. She is, by definition, a freak.
You heard it correctly. I am done. The Bright Spot is complete. This probably comes as a surprise to you because it was for me. I hadn’t expected to be done so soon. My editor returned with her copy edits on October 31. I thought it would take me two weeks to do draft 5, the final draft, but it only took me two days.
I had everything else ready, formatting, cover art, etc etc all finished beforehand. All I needed to do was hit publish.
I figured, why wait? I’m happy with where it is, and my beta readers + editor agree. In a jiffy, I formatted it for e-book reading, zipped it up, and sent it to my backers who backed the E-book or a bundle with an E-book included. You may have been jumpscared by this in your inbox last night. If you did NOT receive your E-book. PLEASE reach out to me at [email protected]. I’ll get it fixed right away.
The manuscript is off to the printers. Backerkit Editions are being printed as you read this and will be at my ‘warehouse’ Mid mid-November, where I’ll sign and number sixty copies. This will likely be the only printing of the Backerkit edition. So try not to spill coffee on it as it COULD be worth quite a bit in the future
The Bright Spot is Bigger
In other news, the physical print is going to be bigger by about sixty pages. However, there isn’t much new text.
Sorry that you’ll have less room on your shelf, taken up by the glory that is The Bright Spot. See image below for an idea on the new length of the novel.
Sorry to my wallet who has to pay to print all those extra pages.
I’ll be printing sixty Backer Kit Edition copies for all you. That means a total of 3600 extra pages will be printed. Thats like three Oathbringers. Better watch your six, Sanderson.
Why?
It’s mainly a quality thing. There are quite a few pages I added in the beginning, as well as the end. Table of Contents, About the author, content warning, etc etc. I also readjusted the margins to better accommodate the text. Pressing the book flat to read whatever is written in the middle, sucks. Unfortunately, that fix added a ton of pages.
Draft 5
Draft 5 starts today, October 31. Fingers crossed this is a quick pass where I only make a few changes. I want to have Draft 5 done by Nov 14. But I’m also bad at predicting timeframes. I can’t even read a single book in that amount of time. But, if I can get it done, I can quickly send it to the printer and have US orders shipped by Christmas. Crunch time baby.
I had this written out on Friday. It’s no longer relevant.
Of course, don’t forget to review it when you are finished!
EBooks
I’m always forgetting about this one. So here I am, remembering it for you E-book users. If you backed the project and pledged for the E-book, you will receive the files on the same day I send the files to the printer. That way you can read The Bright Spot before anyone else in the world has a chance to.
Edit: This was also typed on Friday. If you are a backer, you should have your E-book by now. Enjoy!
Shipping
Sorry to all who didn’t back a bundle with the E-book. You might need to wait a bit longer to hold it in your hands. But that’s okay! I’ll be uploading the first ten chapters to my website for you to read right away. shawnraben.com/the-bright-spot and scroll all the way down until you get to the preview chapters.
Now if you’re a backer, your cards should have been charged with the shipping cost. Soon your addresses will be locked as well. If you need to make changes, email me!
Everything is looking like you all will get your copies before Christmas. AWESOME! I’ll start shipping to all backers late November. Trust me I’m going as fast as I can.
Sticker Pack and Bookmarks
These bad boys came in the mail and look freaking awesome! All of the addon items are finally done! If you backed the bundles or had these as addons, they’ll come with your book.
Yuck my fingernails! I wouldn’t blame you if you burned your copy of my book after seeing that.
Now What?
I’m not sure. I assume most authors would go on a vacation to celebrate this huge achievement. But I guess most (successful) authors have money to do so. I’ll spend my vacation behind a desk, celebrating my accomplishments by answering calls.
You can help pay for my next vacation (Or more likely my dog's seizure medication) by preordering The Bright Spot here!
I guess the sequel book is due. Almost 40% done with that one’s first draft. Next September or so, I’ll have a Backerkit campaign for that one!
Shipping Addresses will be locked in soon. On November 1, your card will be CHARGED for shipping, and you won't be able to change your address after that. So make sure you get that changed if you've changed addressess, since last October (I know I have).
If you are seeing this too late EMAIL ME at [email protected]. It's only too late once I ship. Backerkit has their own order of operations, so I must have addresses locked and funds collected before shipping.
To give everyone full transparency, I'll be (hopefully fingers tightly crossed) shipping out everyone's rewards late november, early december. There's a chance it would go into January, but the book is pretty much finished. If you missed it, The Bright Spot will be released worldwide on February 2, 2026.
Well, here's to another huge milestone. Last night I finally locked in and edited nearly a third of my novel, pushing it past 100%. I know I'm a month late on this deadline, but a few breaks were needed throughout this. In each draft, I noticed that the first half of the book is a nightmare. Usually, because each time I have to learn a new editing style I'm not familiar with. Once that 50% mark is hit, things fly by quite quickly.
The release timeline is still looking like Q1 2026, BUT there's a good chance I can get it by Christmas. A line editor will review my manuscript over the next 4 weeks. Then I'll determine if I need (or can afford) a copy editor and a book format editor for printing. Though I feel like Draft 3 ARC came out very well, formatting-wise, I might not even need one.
I'd really like an updated map, since the one available is one I created using Inkarnate. I unfortunately have zero geographical knowledge on how rivers flow and how mountains form, so if I can get a hold of a real map designer, that would be epic. If you or someone you know makes maps, email me at [email protected].
Read The Bright Spot for Free
One thing I've been thinking about for a while is the availability of The Bright Spot. I've accepted that it won't be on store shelves or in most bookstores. People would have to order it from Amazon or some other retailer in order to read it. To me, people actually reading and experiencing my book is more important than money. Which is why I'll be releasing the entirety of The Bright Spot on my website for free.
Now, to not lessen the exclusivity for my backers, the novel will be posted one month after fulfillment. This will also be a web exclusive, that way if people want to check it out without forking over $25 for a paperback, they can read it. If they like it and want a more convenient option, the paperback and ebook will be available for purchase on redmattercreations.com and other online retailers.
The Bright Spot Book 2
As you may know, The Bright Spot is the first in a series. I wanted this novel to be a standalone, but its ending demanded a sequel. Blight Eater, book two of The Bright Spot series, is in production. More than likely, I will do another crowdfunding campaign to help fund the development of that book. However, I will not run the campaign as early as I did with the Bright Spot. I'd like to have finished draft 2 or draft 3 by the time I start the campaign. That way, I can get the book to you all quicker. No one likes waiting a year for their items to come in the mail. (Can you believe I thought I'd have the book in your hands by Christmas of last year? I truly had no idea what I was getting myself into.)
Shipping
I should remind you all that I'll be preparing for fulfillment soon, so if you recently moved to a new location, you'll need to update your BackerKit shipping address. Email me at [email protected] for help, and I'll get you updated. Once the orders are locked and we are preparing to ship, your cards will be charged for postage. You'll receive a few pre-emptive emails from Backerkit before this happens.
I wanted to give my beta readers a bit more time to fully experience the Bright Spot as well as get their thoughts down for me to review and analyze critically. This short delay has been extremely beneficial because my readers found things I may never have noticed. Things like inconsistencies in the writing, fragments of a previous draft, confusing explanations, and lack of clarity. As of August 11, I am about 20% August 19, I'm about 33% through Draft 4, finishing up Part 1. I expect this process to find its feet and speed up around the beginning of part 3, as it usually has for my previous drafts.
Physical Editions
Because I'm an impatient son of a gun, I really wanted to see what my book would look like in my hands. I started writing in May 2024, and couldn't stop thinking about a physical version. Of course I didn't want to publish an unfinished copy, so I found Barnes and Noble Press. They allow you to print and bind anything, as long as you have the rights to it. So I created a Draft 3 ARC (Advanced Reader Copy) for my beta readers.
And... of course... it looks freaking awesome
These are not available for purchase. Though I may put ONE copy up for sale, like I did with Draft 1 and Draft 2
Slight Cover Update
When I formatted the document for publishing, I had to edit the cover slightly to fit the parameters required. I decided to update a few other things like sizing and readability.
Left: Old. Right: New
Let me know what you think!
I'm trying to think if I have any more updates, but it's been quite slow. Let me know if you are interested in Draft 4 preview chapters and I'll post them on my site. Otherwise, I'm hoping to have draft 4 sent to a copy editor by mid-September. That way, I can play Borderlands 4 without worry.
There will be another update when draft four is finished!
