Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls of all ages...

...it’s crunch time.

In little less than two weeks we will be seeing the end of the ’A God in the Shed’ campaign. It’s great news as this sort of self-promotional effort does no good for my anxiety and self-worth but not as good when one notices we are still a little over 200 pre-orders away from our goal.

I’ve already gotten in touch with those of you who follow the book but haven’t ordered. Thanks for indulging me and double-thanks to those who have decided to pre-order as a result. If everyone who’s still on the fence like this pre-orders we’ll be funded in no time as there are over 300 of you.

For those of you who’ve already ordered, don’t think you’re off the hook. I know it’s asking a lot from someone who’s already benefiting from your support and generosity but I need your help just as much. Here’s what I want you to do:

1. Look at your friend list or around you. Find that person you know who loves a good horror story or is really passionate about crowdfunding or being part of the early crowd for cool projects. I know this is likely yourself but see what you can do.
2. Send them an email or if possible show them the project page in person. Tell them why YOU pre-ordered a copy and show them the parts of the project that hooked you. Share your passion.
3. Get them to pre-order. Don’t allow them to tell you they’ll do it later.
4. Have them use your reference code for the book so that you get credit for it (important so you can get more books and so that you’re counted for more entries in my raffle to win a bit part in the book).
5. Enjoy the glow of knowing you’ve done something for an aspiring writer and pat yourself on the back for being a patron of the arts.
6. Message me that you’ve done it. I want to do something special for my last minute ambassadors.

Thank you everyone for paying attention to this project and for the support you’ve shown. I have other treats planned over the next few days that I hope I have time to put together. I feel very strongly about showing my gratitude.

Regards,

JF

Campaigning is hard.

Either you’re spending all your time working to find new backers or you’re worrying non-stop about not knowing where to look for new backers. I’m currently in later. One thing that is consistent however is the constant stress.

That being said, sometimes you get to do some fun things. Last week I was interviewed by the always charming Alicia Smock of Examiner.com about A God in the Shed. Being able to chat about the project with someone asking interesting questions about the book and story has reignited the fire of working on this story more than anything in recent memory. Check out the article for yourself. There’s some fun revelations about where I come up with some things and why I made some of the decisions for the story.

As always, if you know someone who might be interested in A God in the Shed, sit them down, look them straight in the eyes. Stare them down like you’re trying to see the color of their very soul. Look at them until they stop giggling and asking you what this is all about and instead start getting nervous. Then, tell them about how awesome supporting fantasy-horror books from independent publishers is and how A God in the Shed deserves their support.

Before I leave you, allow me to recommend a few books from friends on Inkshares: 

• A.C. Baldwin’s ’The Traveler’s Cup’
  
• Tom Merrit’s ’Pilot X’ 
• Christopher Huang’s ’Murder at the Veteran’s Club’

Thanks for supporting me and other independent writers.

JF

Greetings friends,

Orders are trickling in, slowly crawling towards the ultimate goal of 750 and full publication on Inkshares. Now, we don’t need these to come flowing in. That would be greedy. However it would be better if they were streaming in.

We’ll get there, I’m sure. Making noise about this project is an ongoing effort and I’m nowhere near done ramping up.

But I’ve been asking a lot of my supporters and backers without offering much in return. The time has come to give back a little.

MAGIC!

If you’re hyper-sensitive to spoilers, you might want to skip what comes next. Go bully a friend into pre-ordering instead. However, if you don’t mind knowing a little more about the world in which A God in the Shed takes place, here’s your chance to learn about how magic works. I like to think that the backdrop of the world is just the set on which the play unfolds and it’s the story and characters who make the novel, so knowing how magic works won’t ruin your experience but instead might enhance it. That’s not for me to decide though, so consider yourself warned.

Reality

Before explaining how magic works, you need to understand something about reality in A God in the Shed. The greater world in which the story takes place is more than what we perceive it to be. Reality is infinitely complex and layered. So much so in fact that one could almost consider it sentient and self-aware. Reality is also composed of an unfathomably long list of rules. The laws of physics, causality, and so forth.

The three types of magic

Tricks: So named because of their very nature, Tricks are the closest to traditional magic found in A God in the Shed but in a very important way they are the least magical of activity. Reality, like any complex system, has gaps and loopholes. Errors in the code and flaws in the pattern. Through luck and experimentation over thousands of years, these gaps have been discovered and documented. There is no practical reason why they work and most of the effects are subtle but they all rely on a glitch in the fabric of reality. Like using cheat codes in an arcade game. The downside is that, like toying with a bug in some software, there are occasional side effects to exploiting errors in the code.

Divine Magic: Here’s a bit of a real spoiler; the god in A God in the Shed is an extra-dimensional entity. This means that it exists outside the laws of Reality. What is perceived as god-like power is in fact an immunity to the laws that regulate how the world works. This doesn’t mean the god is omnipotent. It has it’s own rules to follow, some of which might seem arbitrary to us. However, the god is powerful, so much in fact that simply interacting with it will change someone on a fundamental level. You can’t expect to stare into the eyes of a creature from outside reality and remain unchanged, to touch their skin without consequence. These ‘gifts’ are random and while occasionally powerful they may also come at a cost.

The Art: Have you ever listened to a piece of music and had your mood altered? Or looked at a painting and seen ideas blossom in your mind that you didn’t know the seeds were there to begin with? That’s art. It influences who we are and how we perceive the world. Now imagine that power pushed to its extreme expression. Music so perfect that it changes the world. A drawing so flawless that it become real. That, is Art, with a capital ‘A’. It is the more subtle magic in A God in the Shed but it’s the most powerful. Difficult to achieve, it depends on making something so perfect that Reality itself can’t distinguish that it’s artificial and starts treating it as real. Cooking a meal so good that it heals wounds or a dance so enthralling that gravity starts to forget to hold onto the performer. Art is almost impossible to perform and some will spend their entire lives trying to make it work without even flirting with success.

So there you have it; magic in the world of A God in the Shed. It’s simple and elegant, at least I think so. More importantly, it’s not a super-power. Magic is hard work and dedication. It’s knowing the right secrets and how to apply them. The only shortcut to magic is to literally touch the face of a god, an act that can have repercussion of biblical proportions. A God in the Shed is the story of how fragile humans, everyday people with their real, human problems, deal with a universe that is more vast and deep in it’s complexity while being utterly uncaring about their petty problems and lives. It’s terrible and beautiful and only the first part of a trilogy that I want to share with you guys.

Thanks for your support. Without you I’d have a very hard time getting this story out there.

Cheers,

JF

"God dammit JF..." 

 I'd like to thank everyone who was polite enough not to point out this stupid, stupid mistake. 

 I'm nailing it. 

 JF

Dear readers and supporters, friends,

The day nears! In about a month’s time The Life Engineered is going to launch. While I thank you with every breath I take these days there is no time for lengthy speeches about gratitude. Indeed, the time is for action! My friends, in the next weeks I need to drum up as much interest in The Life Engineered as I possibly can and I’m kicking it off with a bang.

On February 4th, 5th and 6th I will begin San Fransisco. My mission? I want to personally sign each and every copy of The Life Engineered going to supporters. All of them. Like a maniac or some kind of machine.

While I’m on the West Coast however, I might as well try to hang out with a few of you that are in the area. So on Saturday February 6th I will be hanging out at Borderlands Books. I don’t know if that’s going to be an official event or just me sitting at a table drinking all their coffee. I’m still working out the details. All I can tell you is that starting at 3pm, maybe earlier, I’ll be at Borderlands Books in San Fransisco. I’ll probably have prints or at least papers and I’ll answer questions about The Life Engineered, Inkshares, why I think robots are awesome, I’ll tell the story of my car accident and why the top of my feet tickle all the time (the secret is nerve damage).

As I get more details I’ll send out more updates but I’ll also be Tweeting about it and posting to my writer’s Facebook page, so why don’t you follow me on these platforms?

Guys, gals, sentient machines masquerading as humans… there is some cool stuff down the pipes and I really want you to be involved.

 Cheers, JF

There’s no other way to describe 2015 other than ‘eventful’. I’m still reeling from the chain of events that have brought me to this point. From entering the first Sword & Laser Collection contest, becoming a runner up and being chosen for the collection, it’s all been an insane ride. I’ve discovered the near-euphoric joy of working with a good editor, had my book read and reviewed by a plethora of people, got an awesome cover blurb and will soon be seeing my book in the hands of readers. Started Paul Inman and I’s podcast, WriteBrain. Most of all though, I’ve been able to forge relationships with people I admire as well as meet so many new and awesome people that it’s hard to keep track of everyone.

None of this would have happened without your support. The silver lining of 2015 is completely your doing, and I'm forever grateful for that.

But, it wouldn’t be January 1st without resolutions. Like everyone I have the standard weight loss, increase in physical activity and maybe yelling a little less about robots in public places, but I have some creatively driven goals that I think might be interesting.

• Finish my first book for The Ed Greenwood Group (as per contractually demanded) 
• Get A God in the Shed to 750 copies by April 1st and get it published
• Finish the sequel to The Life Engineered and start the funding campaign for it 
• Write another book (I have ideas) and start giving it out to beta readers
• Write four short stories (I’m not good at short stories. I need the practice)

What are you guys looking forward to in this new year? Apart from more robots that it.

JF