Fellow sentient beings, it’s been an exciting week.

There’s a lot to talk about, so let’s get started.

Nerdtacular

I was in Salt Lake City, Utah over the weekend for the Frogpants Podcast Network’s Nerdtacular event. While I won’t bother you with what I do during my vacation time, I think there are a couple of details that might be of interest to you. The best part was meeting the handful of fans (feels weird writing this) that dropped by. I wish I had more time to chat with each of them and I hope I didn’t come off as too standoffish. If I did, I apologize. I’m of a shy nature.

Koalemos, the model

I was finally able to showcase and award the first copy of the Koalemos model I created. This is the first of eight of these models and while it didn’t come out perfectly and was an absolute disaster to transport, I think the end result was worth the effort. I look forward to building the second model and raffling it off to the people who pre-ordered The Life Engineered.

The first model, which is numbered ‘8’ for reasons all my own, was given to Hammond Chamberlain, host of the Beyond the Playlist podcast. Hammond is one of the 13 people who dropped by my table and I entered is name in a drawing for the model. Mr. Chamberlain is local to Salt Lake and I won’t pretend that I’m not relieved Koalemos wouldn’t need to be shipped. I’m honoured that Hammond set up the model in his home with other prized possessions.

The Sword & Laser podcast

Before Nerdtacular, the good people at Inkshares put me in contact with the inimitable Tom Merritt who invited me to sit for a brief moment on the Sword & Laser panel at Nerdtacular. I wish I could say that the brief interview was the highlight of the panel, and make no mistake, it was a lot of fun and I had an awesome time (Tom and Veronica are absolute pros) but the segment that followed was an absolute blast. I knew the hosts of Sword & Laser were good hosts and interviewers but I had not realized they could be such hilarious improvisational actors. The whole panel is amazing and you can watch the raw footage here.

Editing

This morning I sent out my edited manuscript. Only five days late! There are still eight days before the final draft needs to be sent to the copy edit department and with Nerdtacular behind me I’m confident we can hand this off on time. There were a lot of little changes and a few larger ones but all in all, no cataclysmic reworking of the story and narrative. I’m very impressed by how well my editor ‘got it’ and the quality of the work he handed me. It’s humbling when another human being can look at your writing and understand a character so much as to notice when you fail to stay true to it. The changes are subtle, but this is a much better book now. I don’t know how much more editing remains, but I’m confident we’ll have a very decent product for release day.

I’m also eagerly waiting to get the new cover for The Life Engineered and can’t wait to show it off. Judging from the feedback we gave the illustrator (Eric Belisle) and the sketches we’ve seen so far, it’s going to be amazing.

Thanks again for your support.

JF 

Good day thinking machines, biological or artificial!

In this update I want to talk about editing, but first; a message to fellow Nerdtacular attendees.

NERDTACULAR 

If you’re attending Nerdtacular in Utah later this week, seek me out. Come shake my hand. Be one of the first to see the first finished model of Koalemos, one of the main characters from The Life Engineered. More importantly, if you pre-ordered your copy before May 31st, drop by the TadShop to get your free, signed robot art print and bask in my awkward show of gratitude.

On Editing

I’m currently in the middle of developmental editing. This is usually the most ego-punching step in getting a book to print. It’s at this stage that I have to listen to the suggestions and directions of a seasoned professional and accept his recommendations with detached professionalism. No matter what he tells me, I have to keep in mind that we’re both working to make this into a better book.

So far, my editor, Cleete is knocking this sucker right out of the park. I agree with almost every recommendations he’s made so far and everything reads better after I’ve applied his changes. What makes this a process both difficult yet rewarding though is that I’m learning a lot that will make me a better writer for the next book.

In case you’re thinking that the edits are just a long list of ‘change this’ and ‘this isn’t right’, let me show you a sample of what the first page looked like.

As you can see, it’s not all bad. Not only do I learn what not to do but just as importantly, I’m learning what to do more of.

I already love The Life Engineered but once I’m done with this process, I think we might have an excellent book for you guys and gals to enjoy.

Thanks again for your support.

Oh… before I go; just received the first sketches for the new cover of The Life Engineered. Already it looks better than the current cover. Very exciting stuff. 

 JF 

Happy Monday fellow sentients, 

 I had every intention of writing an update filled with optimism and ‘joy de vivre’ this morning. Things were looking bright and the world had nothing but sunshine and chocolate in store for me. That is, alas, until half of what I had been working on all weekend literally came part in my hand.

However, I refuse to admit defeat. I will remain optimistic and will focus on the positives and they are plenty. If you want to know what went wrong, scroll down below. I want to update you guys on what’s going right.

• We’re getting a new cover! My friend Eric Belisle has agreed to create an updated version of the cover art for The Life Engineered. Not only is Eric an unreasonably talent artist who’s worked for the likes of Paizo Publishing and Wizard of the Coast but he was one of my original test readers on the book and was a fan from the first draft. He gets it and I have no doubt he will do the story and mood of the book justice. Seriously, go check out his work here. Also, hire him. Or just throw money and compliments at him.
• Editing is going at a steady pace. I get to improve the existing material but also add in a few new things like a glossary and a couple of descriptions here and there that will help flesh out the universe better for you, the reader.
  
• The model for Koalemos, aside from the issue described below, is moving along. I’ve started painting the main body and though it’s till rough the results are promising.
  
• Nerdtacular is coming quickly. In a little less than a week and a half, I will be flying to Salt Lake City to attend this little convention. A lot of you guys are from the Frogpants community and many of you will be at Nerdtacular. Seek me out and I’ll have a little something for you. Indeed, not only will you get a signed print of some robot art, but you’ll get a chance to win the model I keep referring to in these updates.
  

Before I go into the negatives, let me thank all of you once more for your support. I want to extend a special thanks to those who have recently pre-ordered The Life Engineered. It’s humbling to see people be this interested in my work.

JF

So what went wrong?

I spent a good part of Saturday sculpting the legs on this model of Koalemos that I’ve been working on. It’s been a difficult task but i got them to look somewhat as I envisioned they should. I painstakingly assembled said legs and set them to make molds. This is a two part process that takes a lot of work and requires a lot of attention. I even took the time late last night to verify that the process was going well and satisfied, I went to sleep.

I am not defeated. If trying to be a writer has taught me anything, besides how to write, it’s not to quit. Perseverance, repetition and pig-headedness are all part of the process. Each time, I learn a little more. Each time I grow.

EDITING AND MODELING

Hello friends! 

Let me tell you a story. Don’t worry, it’s a short one. This is the tale of how I got my first set of edits from the fine people at Girl Friday Productions and the weird emotional process that goes with it. 

I’m no stranger to having my writing criticized, but this is the first time I’m doing so by a professional who is paid to do just that and not a friend or acquaintance doing me a favour. As you can imagine, when I first got the email from my editor with two attachments; one a letter explaining the broader lines of suggested changes and the other an annoted version of my manuscript with comments for each recommendation, I was intimidated. It took me a day to build up the courage to open the letter and go through its content. 

My editor did an amazing job first by spotting some changes I already wanted to make (expect a glossary) but also by couching other criticism in a positive context. There is nothing in his letter that should be perceived as negative. Yet, despite all of this, some of the content triggered my self doubt. It took yet another day and another reading of the letter before I stopped feeling like a fraud and accepted that every writer must go through this, especially those who, like me, are on the first steps of their journey. 

Here’s the good news however; now that’s I’ve gotten over myself and I have a more collected point of view of the modifications and changes that are suggested to me, I’m really excited. 

I like The Life Engineer. I love the world and characters that populate it and I want to play around in that universe some more and everything my editor has given me to work on will make this book better. I’ve already received glowing reviews and criticism from people who have read my book about robots and these improvements will make this an even better read. I might even graduate from being happy with myself to being proud of my work. 

Best of all; I love how much I’m learning. 

In modelling news; I’ve cast the second large piece of the main body of the Koalemos prop I’m building. I’m sorry to report that it’s not a perfect cast. The good news is that the uneven results are easy if tedious to fix and the portions that worried me most came out looking perfect. So I have to patch a few holes and sand some surfaces. Big deal. Assuming all goes well I’ll be painting the main body this coming weekend. 

Between the editing and modelling I’ll hardly have time to do anything else and frankly, that’s how I like it. 

JF

There are a lot of imperfections to fix on this. A lot of putty and sanding.

However the bottom vents came out looking sharp and neat.

Hello sentients!

Let me start with the standard expression of gratitude for supporting The Life Engineered. Whether you supported the book from the start or are still pondering if you want to pre-order it or not, I'm glad you're along for the ride.

Three things I want to hit on today to keep you up to date:

1. With July I have begun writing the second half of the sequel to The Life Engineered. It's a bit strange writing a book and putting in many long hours into a draft that I already know I'll be tearing apart and rebuilding from it's ruins the moment I'm done. As I'm laying the story down, I'm discovering things I want to do differently and making copious amounts of notes of things I'll want to go back and adjust. It's a fun process and part of what makes writing so interesting to me; that feeling that I'm being told the story as well.
2. Speaking of process, let me give you a glimpse at the behind-the-scenes situations I'm faced with as an aspiring Science Fiction writer. You see, there are two things that have been frustratingly in conflict while I write both The Life Engineered and it's sequel. The first is my desire to create an emotionally satisfying tale that allows for fantastic set pieces, thrilling plot points and imagery that fires up the imagination. The second is remaining true to the 'science' portion of Science Fiction. More often than not, the science has to bend into uncomfortable positions to allow the story to be interesting for the kind of tales I want to spin. However, with how scathing critics and celebrity scientists such as Neil Degrasse Tyson can be when liberties are taken with science, it can be intimidating to toss a story that is less than scientifically accurate into the world of literature. (Note: the day Neil Degrasse Tyson says anything about my book, no matter how scathing and derisive, I'll know I've made it.) These two elements have long been something I've hated having to balance but I think in the past week, as I delve back into the world of The Life Engineered, I've decided to accept that this battle, this clash of accuracy against narrative, is good. It's what keeps me from making the story less believable or the science push the story into the back seat. While it's frustrating having to sometimes disrespect science in favour of writing a compelling story or adding some exposition to justify events that might be too fantastic for the setting, the conflict is what allows me to keep a good balance and I think I've come to terms with that.
3. I've had a stressful weekend working on the prop I want to raffle off. One of the two large molds I need to cast the pieces has been completed and I've cast my first half of the model. I say the weekend was stressful because the birth of this mold and the piece it spawned was not as smooth a labor as I would have preferred. That being said, you can see below that progress is being made. I will have one model done and ready for a convention I'm going to at the end of the month and then a second one ready to raffle off by the end of August. After that there will be six more copies made before I destroy the molds and the masters.

Thanks again for your support. Feel free to follow me on Twitter (@jfdubeau) where you can ask me questions and maybe even get answers!

JF

This is the nightmare mold. It's a nightmare mold because the release agent that was supposed to allow the two halves to separate smoothly didn't work and I had to cut the mold apart. Thankfully, it still works fine.

Here you can see the piece I cast out of solid resin (alongside the masters for the two body pieces and EL wire because EL wire looks cool). It has some cleanup to go through but will work out well in the end I believe.

Finally, a close-up of the piece so you can see imperfections. Imperfections that will either be part of the character of the model or be removed before the painting stage.

Greetings friends!

Here are a couple of shots of the main body but with a plastic overcoat. See how the coverage isn't perfect? Don't worry about it. This piece is meant as a master to be cast into a silicon mold to make copies.

Hello my fellow biologicals!

Hello friends!

Hello sentients,

I'm going to keep this short: we did it. 

You did it.

The Life Engineered, my little book about sentient robots in the future and their impending civil war came in fourth place in the Sword & Laser Collection contest. That is amazing.

I'm ashamed to admit that I make a very poor writer as I can't find the words to explain the amount of overwhelming gratitude I feel for you guys. Friends, family and even complete strangers came together and because I said : "I have this crazy dream of winning this contest." they turned that fancy into a reality.

The Life Engineered is getting a legitimate publishing run. I even have a publishing schedule. It is fancy.

Right now, on my smart phone device thing, there is a list, backed up to the Cloud, with all of your names, email address and contribution level (Standard Construct or Advanced A.I.). This list will stay with me until the day the machines take over or that they put me away. This list is your permission slip to come over to me at a con, a book signing, whatever and shake my hand. No matter what, from this point on, you are my friend and I will always find a moment to recognize what you have done for me.

Also, signed prints of robots. Because I promised. 

I'm going to finish my model and raffle it off. Expect update photos on that progress.

As my vision blurs with tears of gratitude, I'll leave you with the only thing I can come up with no matter how inadequate it feels: Thank you.

JF