What can I say?

In the past few weeks I've written so many variations on 'thank you' that I'm running out of ideas. Yet, it's today that it seems to be the most important time to express my gratitude. Today or tomorrow. I'm not sure. Either way, today's important. Today is the last day of the Sword & Laser Collection contest on Inkshares. To most of you all I can say is thank you again, as inadequate and insufficient as it may feel. You've all contributed to some degree or other, either by pre-ordering books or by helping me spread the word. It doesn't matter what you did; I owe you.

To those last few of you who are following the progress of this book, I want to also thank you. For your interest and curiosity but also for taking the time to read my newsletters. I also want to thank you for pre-ordering The Life Engineered as I'm sure you will within the next few hours, before the contest ends.

I leave you with a reminder that I'm working on a model of Koalemos, a favourite character from The Life Engineered. There will be 8 copies of this model. I'm putting a lot of effort into making these and I want one of you guys to have a copy. I'll be raffling off one of the models when they are done and if you think I'm kidding, look below for a shot of the work in progress. It's going along pretty well.

JF

(Here is again a drawing of the finished robot)

Hello Standard Constructs, Advanced A.I.s and potential recruits!

I come to you bearing tidings of things to come. As I sit here, typing these words, there are a little more then 41 hours left to the Sword & Laser Collection contest. We are now in sixth place as the competition has gotten more aggressive. However, I see the future clearly and my vision is clear; you guys are going to help me back into the top five and we are going to celebrate come Monday morning. 

Here's how:

• You've pre-ordered the book already but are so caught up in wanting to see it published that you pre-order a second copy. In fact, if you haven't done so already, I foresee you'll upgrade your contribution from Standard Construct to Advanced A.I. (1 copy to 3 copies) just to see your name in print on the 'thank you' page. Because that's awesome.

• You've pre-ordered the book but don't want to commit to it financially any further. I get that. Money doesn't grow on trees. It's barely printed anymore. It's all digital these days. That's fine. You'll alleviate the the vague sense of guilt by talking one of your friends into pre-ordering a book. It's okay. They'll love it.

• You haven't pre-ordered the book because you're on the fence about it. I have good news. In my prophetic vision of the future, I see that when the inevitable robot uprising occurs in 2018, those of us with copies of The Life Engineered will be spared. Trust me. You'll be safe.

All kidding aside (except for that robot uprising thing. That's legit.), this is a very important opportunity for me. I thank you for bringing me this far and I feel bad for asking more of you, but I need that last little bit of help. If you think that your one book order won't matter in the end or that it can wait until Monday, I'm afraid you are incorrect. Every pre-order matters and they matter more before Sunday, midnight PST.

You guys have been amazing. Only two more days of being amazing left, then we can all go back to being just cool.

JF

Hello readers!

Hello friends,

Hi everyone,

Two posts in two days? I’m sorry, that’s the nature of being in the last week of this contest. I’m going to be ‘pestering’ people. However, I can’t just send messages begging for support and asking for you to spread the message in my name. I have to give something in return.

One of the most entertaining yet challenging parts of writing The Life Engineered was breaking out of the standard ‘Android’ envelope. If you’re going to be over a millennia in the future and have advanced technology at your disposal, you’re not going to settle for two arms, two legs and a head attached to a torso. Especially if that form doesn’t suit what you intend to do with your existence.

So I had to come up with different forms for the robots in The Life Engineered and I thought it might be fun to introduce you to a couple of the more interesting ones.

Leduc Class Capeks: Let me get this one out of the way first. The Leduc Class of Capek is where you’ll find your standard android form factor. You’ll also find some quadrupeds and other recognizable shapes. What makes a Leduc however is a design made to work on a human scale within a gravity well. Everything else from there depends on the purpose of the Capek.

Sputnik Class Capeks: These are my favourite. The Sputnik Class of Capek are designed for travel within the Milky Way. Usually equipped with faster-than-light engines of one sort or another, Sputniks either carry passengers, cargo or simply information either too sensitive or to complex to be transmitted otherwise. They are characterized by a love of freedom and an addiction to the vacuum.

Von Neumann Class Capeks: A very popular design according to my readers of far. The Von Neumann Class of Capek can take many form but are distinct for their having multiple bodies for a single mind and personality. Each Von Neumann can have between three and a hundred or more bodies, all collectively housing their memories and cognitive function. This Class of Capek is best suited to construction and demolition as they can coordinate with themselves with unprecedented efficiency.

These are three of the types of robots you can expect to read about in The Life Engineered. I hope it helps you understand my fascination with the future of artificial sentient life and why I want to revisit this world again and again to tell it’s stories.

The best way to allow me to do that is to support this campaign as best you can, either by pre-ordering if you haven’t or by encouraging your Science Fiction loving friends to do so as well.

Thank you, 

 JF Dubeau 

It's the last week of the Sword & Laser Collection contest. I'm both nervous and exhilarated. What a ride so far.

Unfortunately, I'm not one to stay idle, hence on this day I bring to you two things:

1. You can now read the prologue to The Life Engineered and get a small idea as to the back story of why Capeks inherit the galaxy. 

2. I've started work on a model or prop of Koalemos, a fan favourite character in The Life Engineered. I do three things well; write, draw and model. If this model turns out well, I'll be raffling it off to supporters. What does Koalemos look like? Like that drawing below. I also tossed in two shots of the model being worked on.

As always; thank you for your support.

JF

Koalemos

Good day gentle readers,

It's a strange balancing act that I do today as we are getting ever closer to the end of the Sword & Laser contest but also getting farther ahead in the campaign to get The Life Engineered published. On one hand I'm positively awash with gratitude for your support. I know it gets trite to repeat it so often, but there's something awesome about people actively standing behind my work. Thank you.

On the other hand, I come to you asking for more. Not more pre-orders. You guys have been incredibly generous already. I need you to spread the word and help me find more science fiction fans who would enjoy The Life Engineered.

I don't come to you empty handed however. I come bearing gifts and promises of things to come.

• First, I have an easier way to get 10$ credit to pre-order on Inkshares. If you click here, you'll get access to the Sword & Laser secret 10$ credit sign up page. Spread the word. This is a free book. Doesn't get any better then that.

• Also, I've made more phone wallpapers. This time of the robot I drew for my book trailer.

• If you like the robots I've been drawing, how would you like to get your very own, custom drawn and signed print of a Capek? At the end of the campaign, I'll randomly pick amongst my readers who've referred The Life Engineered and the lucky winner will get to collaborate with me on a drawing which I will print, sign and send his way.

• Not enough? On May 1st I will take a snapshot of those who have pre-ordered The Life Engineered. I always need beta readers and I will give you guys right of first refusal to become beta readers. Now, if that list becomes to big I might have to come up with a random draw to keep the list to a reasonable size.
  

 More to come as we enter the home stretch for the Sword & Laser contest. Again, thank you so much for your support. You folks are awesome and the reason why I write fiction that has a more positive spin on the future.

JF

Good day everyone,

  

Hello followers and beautiful contributors,

I'm not saying that those of you who are still on the fence about pre-ordering The Life Engineered aren't beautiful; I know you are. However, the act of placing a pre-order means you are a supporter of the arts and that gives you a 10 to 12% bonus to good looks. It's just science. In fact, "I support independent, aspiring authors." is rated as one of the top three most effective pick-up lines in libraries. Just below "Hi, I'm Neil Gaiman."

Kidding aside, I had this awesome update prepared where I would debate my book trailer and show it off to you guys but as it happens, making a book trailer that isn't objectively terrible and makes the world just a little bit worst simply by existing is kind of hard. So instead of releasing a sub-par video I decided to hold back, rethink my approach and come up with a more palatable book trailer.

I still wanted to touch base with you and since I don't have a book trailer, I figured I could give you guys a little something extra for taking the time to keep up with me. One of the challenges in promoting The Life Engineered has always been what to say and what to keep secret to avoid spoilers. There are a lot of neat plot devices that are more fun to discover while reading the book but they would also make great hooks since they tend to set the story and world apart. Well, if you click here, you'll be able to read Chapter 1 of The World Engineered which should give you a little bit more context regarding the sample already available.

It should tide you over until I get that book trailer done and maybe convince those who are still hesitating to take the plunge and pre-order their copy(ies).

With gratitude,

JFDubeau

P.S.: Have a robot