Number 1 in US Kindle genre!

Passage to Redemption is the most downloaded High Tech Science Fiction book in the USA - It's official!

Ranking = 343 overall and 1st for it's genre.

Kindle downloads have gone through the roof as hundreds accessed the free promotion in just the first few hours and it's still going on. The Kindle promotion for Prime Members runs for 5 days, so it will be fascinating to see where the ranking ends up.

To check out the story, or get your free download, visit the website at www.passagetoredemption.com

Out now in the USA!

Passage to Redemption

The first release of Passage to Redemption is now available from Amazon for worldwide distribution.

It's been a massive effort by all those involved in the project and the result is a first class story which is already flying off Amazon's shelves!

You can get your copy here www.amazon.com/Passage-Redemption . Soon we will follow up with a Kindle version and other eBook formats, as well as Amazon.co.uk and other on-line stores around the world. With a project team from all over the world, we are already getting some great feedback internationally.

Thank you for your interest and we will keep you informed about the latest progress.

On behalf of all 'The Crew'

Pete

A June Deadline!

Things have been going on behind the scenes on the project and a few months ago we set ourselves a June deadline to make some important decisions. The good news is that June is here and we are now preparing for the next and final push!

Passage to Redemption remains on track to be released before the Climate Conference in Mexico this year. Watch this space for details!

The Crew

Success !!

The Book project achieved it's target this week, just a few days before the deadline !

More than 11 man (and woman) years in the making this novel has proved that a group of complete strangers from all over the world can labour together for a common cause creatively and produce a first class work of literature.

As the Copenhagen climate conference draws to a close and focus begins to turn to Mexico in 2010, the timing could not be more appropriate for our novel. As we reveal more about the story you will appreciate why!

Over the next few weeks we will create a website with information about our story and the search which now commences for a publisher. So please bookmark this Blog to keep up to date with the news.

Pete
(On behalf a tired, but very satisfied Crew!)

Reduce Greenhouse Gases to Pre-Biblical times, or else ...

What would the world leaders meeting in Copenhagen do if they had a stark ultimatum;


'Get atmospheric CO2 down to pre-biblical levels within 3 years or face the destruction of the human race'

What if the evidence of this impending disaster in 3 short years was beyond doubt?

Would they be up to it? Could anyone pull it off? What could individuals and governments do NOW to ensure survival?

Time will run out, there will be no second chance, delay is not an option.

Passage to Redemption is now days away from completion and promises to be a block buster of a novel.

The Crew have been working non-stop around the world for almost a year and the deadline of 31st December, 2009 is rapidly approaching.

When the pen leaves the final page, a publisher or agent will be needed to get this important eco-thriller out to the public. They will need to be good, time is running out !

Pete
The Crew

www.amazonclicks.com/portal

Just 24 Days to go!

The team have been working for almost a year now and it's just 24 days to the deadline for The Book!

Will we do it?

My guess is we will just about make it although it will be very close. The first draft of the final chapter has been completed and the first 16 chapters have been veneered and edited.

It has been a huge challenge and everyone is keen to meet the objective of completing a manuscript worthy to send to potential publishers or agents by December 31st 2009.

The story itself has exceeded our most optimistic expectations and will not only make a great read but, given the world meeting about to start in Copenhagen this week and the likely activities resulting over the next few months, it is also extremely timely.

Pete

Latest News!

The collaborative novel remains ahead of schedule and we have now completed a complete 'read through' of all the chapters written to date. We did pick up quite a number of 'typos' as you would expect from the editing process and there are some tweaks to be made but nothing major.

This leaves only the final chapter and our creative team is now working on the conclusion to our story.

We were relieved to hear from our writer in Manila after the severe storms in that part of the world. When this is all over, we should draw up a list of the catastrophes that have affected our writing team through the course of one year on this great planet.

Pete

Chapter 15 Already!

The read through is going well.

Already we have 14 chapters under our belts and tomorrow we focus upon number 15. So far, I have been mainly interested in how the story as a whole hangs together, how readable it is and how I would feel about it if I had purchased The Book.

I'm delighted with the result, which you only really appreciate when you do stand back from the keyboard and read it through afresh.

Others in the team have been very focussed upon the editing tasks - thank goodness ! So they have been spotting any errors or typos, as well as looking for continuity.

This exercise has proved extremely worth while and I feel when we reach our penultimate chapter, we will have achieved a more useful perspective on the best way to deal with the final chapter. That's the plan anyway!

Pete

September and the climax!

With 23 chapters under our belt, the final '24' is now under way and it promises to be a real cliff hanger!

One or two of the team are waning - it's been a long hall - but the others are picking up the workload and driving on to the end. It's been a fantastic effort and when I read the manuscript I can't believe it's been created by so many hands.

Over the coming weeks our entire focus will be on finishing and then going over our work to ensure we haven't missed anything.

Then the next stage begins and we will start to look earnestly for a publisher!

Secrets Revealed & Your Chance to Meet the Authors!

As The Book moves into it's final phase, our team is planning a 'Webinar' for all those who are interested in this collaborative project.

Over the months, several Universities and academic institutions around the world have contacted our team to ask about the project and some have even launched their own internal collaborative works within their English literature faculties.

A wide range of literary professionals have also been in touch for information, in addition to past project members, writer's groups and forums and the many people who are close to the authors themselves.

There are many questions about how we have managed this ambitious project as well as why we did it. When you talk about collaborative writing, most people think that one person writes something, then someone else and so on. This is what I refer to as 'serial collaboration' and there are a number of examples of this on the web.

The Book is not a serial project and I will explain our approach in more detail during the Webinar.

We have also, as you will imagine, been asked lots of times for information about the story (so far a tightly guarded secret!). What kind of story will be worthy of such an effort? How do we maintain a consistent style?

All this, and much more will be answered during the Webinar.

So what is a 'Webinar'?

It's a meeting - but a meeting on the Internet with people from all around the world. Our Webinar will include audio so you will hear us talking and you will be able to submit questions via your computer keyboard into a dialogue box.

We will start with a brief presentation about the project - how it came about and who is in it.

Then we reveal our big secret ...... what the story is about and what we plan to call it! (if the publishers agree!)

From the beginning you will be able to ask questions and these will be logged throughout and answered in turn after the presentation.

So when is this going to happen?

This September!

We will deliver the webinar in each of three major time zones within hours or days of each other. The Western zone will accommodate our audience predominantly in the USA and Canada. Central will cover Western Europe including Great Britain and Ireland, Spain, Holland, France, Germany and those countries in the region. The Eastern zone will address our audience from Eastern Europe through to Australasia including Turkey, India, Malaysia, The Philippines, Australia and New Zealand. You can attend any or all of the sessions if you wish, although the presentation will be the same each time.

What do you need to do to attend?

All you need is access to a computer and the Internet, whether that is a PC or a Mac. You don't need any special software but you will need sound or earphones.

To register and receive an invitation with confirmation of exact times and dates, please send an email to webinar@amazonclicks.com .

We'll look forward to welcoming you in September!

Pete

Almost Half Way !

The end of June marks the official half way point for our novel and the progress has been exceptional.

Well over half the writing has now been completed and initially edited. We are all very proud of the story so far!

It has always been our intention to keep the details of our story under wraps but as we move into the final months a few hints will be given and the first is to announce that although we are writing fiction (and cracking fiction at that!) there will be an environmental theme to our story. That's all I can divulge right now but one or two more 'teasers' may be released in the months ahead.

Here in the British Channel Island of Guernsey the sun is out and my own writing time is having to compete with a strong desire to be out sailing! But the beat goes on and there will be no let up from our team as we plough forward with this unique project. Around the world the writing continues 24 hours a day in different time zones and the interaction between writers in our online forum is as busy as ever. An average of 370 page views every day between the dozen writers!

June will see our Reader's Circle casting off their identities and becoming strangers to the writing team as they imagine they have just purchased 'The Book' and must now review it!

Later in the month, I will post a message that I think you will all find very interesting ........! :)

Pete

Some interesting stats from our project!

Would you believe that in the seven months (yes, just seven months!) since we first started this project a staggering 76,731 page views have taken place in the forum alone. Unlike open websites every one has been about our project!

There have been a total of 4,301 posts in 221 topics and, on average, 360 page views take place every day.

It might also surprise you to know that an average of 20 posts take place every day.

The one interesting stat I don't have at hand is how many hours in total have been spent online working on The Book, but I can reveal that just under 1,000 hours (933) have been dedicated by the top ten contributors alone! That's the equivalent 25 full-time working weeks so far.

And this is just the Forum so work offline researching, writing, editing or in the Wikis isn't included in these numbers!

What a truly splendid effort and little wonder that such a brilliant manuscript is being created.

Just another 8 1/2 months to go!
Pete

The Book Takes Shape

It's funny how at the start of the project, on this small island close to France, I thought I could see most of the steps that would be needed to gather an international community and write our Novel.

I hadn't really considered the environments our writers would be living in whilst they participated, only their participation. Now, when I read of the storms across Tennessee, or the Volcano in Alaska, or the new job GC has taken in Kuala Lumpur that means she has to rise very early and travel for hours, or how hard it is for some of our writers without access to their own computers, I realise the true commitment going into our book.

Our writers have coped with family and personal illness, financial hardship, and the strains of being creative every day whilst holding down a full time job. Then we have retired and more secure writers who live in worlds a million miles away from those in hardship but who invest enormously to keep the pace for all of us.

We have a spectrum of beliefs systems bubbling under the surface from Atheist to Christian to Muslim to, who knows what, because it isn't something we need to wear on our sleeves. Strange but with this diversity, the moral cores are remarkably similar.

Oh yes, back to the steps! Just lately we have crossed a chasm from the purely conceptual to the delivery of a tangible work of literature. The ideas are now connected, the thoughts mostly aligned, our writers are producing chapters and our planners are ensuring they fit together. Our researchers inform and our editors quality control our output.

It is a great story being written by great people.

Irene continues to find these wonderful people (thank you Alpha!) to support us and it will not surprise me at all if she succeeds in persuading Oprah to invite all of us from the far corners of the planet to meet for the first time on her show!

So it is fitting to end this update with another kind person Irene has convinced from her home in the Philippines to include our Press Release - she puts the rest of us to shame!

http://blog.joelchua.com/

Pete
Guernsey in the British Channel Islands

Doc forced to leave

One of the stalwarts of our project team and a site moderator, Doc, has been taken ill and forced to leave at least for a while. Doc has made a huge contribution to both the writing and the management of our project.

We are all hoping he gets better soon and is able to rejoin us, but it was serious and he will need to rest and recover his strength.

Pete

2009 and the writing gets underway!

Even during the seasonal break some of our writers were hard at it working away on the story. As the rest of the group returns, our focus is upon the initial chapters for each story thread.

Most of the 'high level' story has been agreed and we are now filling in the gaps as well as developing all the characters. This work should be completed by the end of January.

One of the problems we have encountered is that with so many creative people, there are lots of really good ideas! It makes it quite hard to decide which to incorporate into our story. Still nobody said it would be easy!

Come back soon!
Pete

Early Start to the Project!

Writers participating in The Book project held a 'virtual on-line' meeting to discuss a number of topics and one result was a change in the schedule.

Rather than continue recruiting new writers until the end of 2008, they opted to close the door on November 30th and just have the team agreed on that date.

This will now be a smaller team but as we already have wide geographical coverage, the project aims are intact.

The last month of 2008 will be dedicated to choosing the story and preparing for the writing to begin in 2009. This will be a fascinating stage of the project and one we are all keen to begin.

With the forum doors closing and no more public access, we will keep you up to date on this Blogg and a new website that will be created in the months ahead. In the meantime if you want to contact anyone on the project team, please send an email to thebook@amazonclicks.com .

Thanks for dropping by!