Hey there friends,

Yesterday was the last day of funding for Arch-Android. As you can easily guess, we’ve not met our funding goal. To be honest, as excited as I am for this book, I could never find the time and energy to put into the campaign. I’ve never been comfortable asking people to buy things, especially if I’m going in for seconds, which I felt was the case.

There was also a lot of work to be put into marketing and promoting A God in the Shed along with writing the sequel, Song of the Sandman. All while keeping a nine-to-five job and a somewhat normal life.

Essentially, Arch-Android became the victim of my success and lack of success at the same time. Doing well enough to consume my time, but not quite to the point where I can free myself of the 40 hours a week I spend at my day job.

So what does that mean for Arch-Android?

1. Including Arch-Android I am currently sitting on three unpublished manuscripts that have no attached publishing future. I plan on finding a place for all of them by the end of 2018.
   
2. My focus is currently on making Song of the Sandman the best version of itself as it can be. I’m learning a lot about how to best structure a sequel, mostly through trial and error. I intend to apply these lessons to Arch-Android as I re-edit it.
3. Then, depending on where my publishing career stands I will either commission all the necessary work (editing, cover design, etc.) and self-publish Arch-Android. I’m also toying with the idea of giving out the story for free or, if I feel that it is something I can accomplish without sacrificing too much, I may very well attempt to fund through Inkshares again.
4. Unfortunately, this leaves you, the reader, in a place where all you can do is wait and I’m sorry for that. There are characters and events in Arch-Android that I hunger to share with you all. Hopefully, I’ll get the chance to do so in 2019 or 2020.

I can’t thank you enough for the support you’ve provided me. It stings that this very support that many of you have supplied is the reason I’m tied up in other projects to the point where I can’t do justice to Arch-Android with a proper campaign. I hope that, if I do come back asking for help again, you’ll be willing to give it one more time.

Cheers,

JF Dubeau

Happy New Year my friends!

Well, 2017 won’t be accused of being uneventful. I think it’s safe to say that it will go down as a year with many bitter memories for some. I lucked out however and, form me, 2017 turned out to be an awesome year. I owe it all to readers and book lovers exactly like you. My horror novel, A God in the Shed got published sold over 5300 copies and we’re now staring down the barrel of the sequel going into production and all of it is because someone like you took a chance.

So I"m asking the same thing again: will you trust me to bring you another great story?

Arch-Android is still funding on Inkshares. It’s an indirect sequel to The Life Engineered titled Arch-Android. It’s the story of our robot descendants and how they’ve lived without human interference for centuries, but now, as signs of humanity making a comeback start to appear, they have to decide how best to prepare sharing the galaxy with us once again. If you haven’t yet, check out the sample chapter and please, consider pre-ordering a copy (or more!). There are some familiar names and places in Arch-Android and if you enjoyed The Life Engineered, you’ll love this book too. 

Again, thank you so much for your continued support. Great things are coming in 2018 and I’m looking forward to sharing that journey with you.

 JF

Well hello there,

So? How was your summer? Mine was busy. Too busy to run a book funding campaign properly. I started funding Arch-Android around the time of Nerdtacular in late June. It got a good start but soon after I got caught up in going to other conventions like Necronomicon and DragonCon along with promoting A God in the Shed after its June 15 release.

I dropped the ball.

But I’m back!

Inkshares was good enough to grant an extension to the Arch-Android campaign. Let’s get 750 pre-orders as soon as possible and get this over with. The faster this funds, the faster you can read the final product and I am so eager for you to read this one.

Here’s what you can do to help:

• If you haven’t, read The Life Engineered (it’s only 0.99$ on Inkshares right now)
• Pre-order one (or more) copy(ies) of Arch-Android
• Encourage your friends and family to also pre-order by lending them your copy of The Life Engineered

What do you get for helping?

• Every pre-order and reference gives you an additional chance to win a KOBO Aura ebook reader with original art by me on the back
• 3 or more pre-orders gets your name in the acknowledgements in the back of the book
•  All physical copies are signed and come with an exclusive bookmark
• Participation in any further promotion I may add as the campaign progresses
• My eternal gratitude

So there you have it. Expect more updates and more previews and information as this campaign progresses. The campaign ends on December 7th.

Above: The KOBO Aura ebook reader  

Thanks!

My dear androids and gynoids,

Thank you.

Thank you for following this project and thank you for pre-ordering if you already have.

We had a really strong start because of you. It’s been almost too good. Made me lazy. But I’m getting back on the horse. I don’t want to pester you, but I need you on my team.

Now, I get it, there’s so much time left! No hurry, right? You can get to it later. But there’s a few reasons why maybe you shouldn’t? 

You all live busy lives and as the months fall off like so many cartoon calendar pages the deadline might slip by you. 

1. The faster we get to ’funded’, the less stress in my life and the less begging I have to do.
2. If this gets funded fast enough and with sufficient enthusiasm, we can look forward to a swift production schedule and an earlier release date! 
3. And remember, if you pre-order and if you refer others, you are automatically entered to win a brand new KOBO eBook reader with original art on the back! 

Sentients, the bottom line is that I need your help. I need you to be my army of ambassadors and to go forth across the known galaxy (y’know... Earth) and spread the word about Arch-Android. I can only reach so many people and yes, if every single one of you got one book we’d be all set instantly, but that’s not how the space station spins. 

Thank you for your support so far and thank you for any help you bring in the future. I will be thinking up and adding more rewards and goodies as the months go by. 

Let’s make this book happen! 

JF Dubeau  

Dear sentient machines,

Did you guys know that my debut novel, The Life Engineered, prequel to Arch-Android, was recently nominated for a Kobo Emerging Writer Award? It was!

What’s better is that Kobo was awesome enough to send me a Kobo Aura reader. Just like that. But I already read all my ebooks on my iPad. So instead of letting this neat little device gather dust, I decided to give it to you fine creatures. (a 100$ value)

Well, one of you anyways.

So here’s how this is going to work. I will be raffling off the Aura to those who pre-order Arch-Android before the end of the funding campaign.

• Each pre-order at the ’ROBOT’ and ’CAPEK’ levels gets you one ’ticket’.
  
• Pre-orders at the ’ARCH-ANDROID’ (3 copies) level gets you four ’tickets’.
• Every pre-order of any level that is a result of a reference you made gets you one more ’ticket’.

To make this prize even more unique, I will draw a Capek on the back of the device and sign it.

So if you haven’t pre-ordered Arch-Android already, maybe it’s time to get on that. Share your referral link with all your science-fiction loving friends too. Win that eReader!

Thank you my awesome friends,

JF

(here’s a Capek I drew. It’s Eremiel from The Life Engineered)

Good news Sentients!

After a few false start, the campaign is now officially up and running. (Thanks to Thad at Inkshares for helping me fix whatever was going on there. You’re the best Thad!) I can already see some pre-orders rolling in and it makes the pump that moves blood around in my veins soar with joy. The pump is equipped with artificial emotional algorithms

So here we go. Arch-Android is now funding. Pre-order your copy(copies) and tell your friends. Let’s get this campaign over with so we can get on with the business of making a book.

Thanks again for supporting this project.

JF

Hello friends and other assorted sentient beings,

If you’re getting this, then it’s entirely likely that you’ve also received an email or two (or three) announcing that the sequel to The Life Engineered, Arch-Android, is now live for pre-order! Exciting!

Except that it’s not.

"Aww..."

No, don’t be sad! Or be sad. Practice your human emotions. That’s okay too, but rest assured that this was not a mistake. I fully intended on having Arch-Android be taking pre-orders today. Unfortunately, there’s a problem with the system and being the weekend, it’s a little difficult to ask Inkshares to fix it post-haste.

They’ll get to it though and we’ll repair the machine and we’ll be up and running soon enough. I’ll send you an update just like this one once we’ve tamed the code that is preventing us from moving forward.

Thank you for your support and I’ll be talking to you real soon.

J-F. Dubeau

I’d love to claim this was somehow related to Karel Čapek’s work, but I only use his name in homage. To get a better idea of the story and themes, may I recommend picking up The Life Engineered right here on Inkshares? It’s the first book in the series and while not necessary to enjoy Arch-Android, it’s a good primer for the coming book.