5th place.

It’s a question of ’conversions’.

At least that’s what my bare-bones marketing training and experience tells me.

I spend an unusual amount of time thinking about how to get more readers. How do I convince people to take a chance on ‘A God in the Shed’? Should I do character sketches? Another video? A giveaway?

While these are all good methods and have their merits, I think I need to get back to basics and stick to what’s important.

This is going to be a good book. 

‘A God in the Shed’ has gone through a few revisions already and been in the hands of several test readers and the response has been overwhelmingly positive. I’ve been told it doesn’t need it, but the story is going to get another re-write and with the experience I have working with editors and Inkshares I know they won’t let me get away with anything less than an excellent novel.

The characters are compelling.

What I love about ‘A God in the Shed’ is the cast of characters. The core group is a few ordinary kids that deal with the extraordinary events of the book. Venus is a genius level girl who’s spent her whole life as a fish-out-of-water, either because of her intelligence or eccentric parents. Penelope is a fiercely independent and ambitious young woman who has difficulty with her set life plans being interrupted by the supernatural happenings. Donald is the kind of guy who’s always had it easy in life but still managed not to let himself be spoiled by things while Abraham has maintained a facade as the strong-but-dumb kid, caring for his ailing father. 

Surrounding them is a second layer of main characters, mainly the families of the young cast. Venus’ uncle is a bizarre man with strange secrets while the village idiot, Sam Finnegan is quickly revealed to be a layered onion. First affable, then a monster but then a victim again.

The magic is fascinating.

The gods have their magic but so do mortals. Either by using loopholes in the functioning of reality or by creating pieces of Art so convincing as to trick the universe itself, old disciplines have opened up the door to strange magics. Not to mention that objects and people touched by gods are irrevocably changed.

There’s a tight majesty to how magic works in St-Ferdinand and the world of ‘A God in the Shed’.

Mainly, it’s a story about beauty.

I use the expression ‘a story about terrible beauty and beautiful terror’ and I mean it. ‘A God in the Shed’ is about that place in between horror and majesty where you can’t be sure what is light and what is shadow. It’s from that doubt that the ‘horror’ of this fantasy tale comes from.

I’ve added Chapters 7 through 9 to the project page. I’ll try to give out more information about the setting and about the story, without too many spoilers, as we get closer to the end of the Nerdist Collection contest.

Help make this book happen. Talk to your friends and family and get them on Inkshares. They’ll get 5$ credit just for signing up and if they use your reference link, you’ll get 15$ of credits yourself!

Support the arts. Support my dream. Pre-order ‘A God in the Shed’.

And if you’re already a supporter: thank you. You’re the kind of person who makes things happen.

JF

Good day sentients!

Oh it is a good day. I have so much to share... Let's start with a fresh new cover? Behold! The final layout for the cover of The Life Engineered!

Thank you Elsie and Eric who both contributed their artistic talent (layout and illustration respectively) for this. It looks amazing. Notice the little starburst there? Awww yeah...

Now for something more serious

Friends, let's take a look at the gears and wires of things. What some would call the 'inside baseball' of the situation. What follows is my publication calendar as it stands today:

You have The Life Engineered, releasing in late February/early March and then two mystery books in 2017 and 2020 (I'm so eager to be able to talk about those!). Still, this looks a little empty doesn't it? Here's what I want my calendar to look like if things go well:

If I can fund A God in the Shed I'll have enough momentum and confidence to start funding the sequel to The Life Engineered (tentatively called Arch-Android). I'll also be in a position to look at getting the sequel to AGitS funded and published as well. This leads us to what I dream my calendar could look like:

This version implies that I can spend more time writing either by doing it full time or having it allow me to work less hour at the day job. Obviously this is a pipe dream but this is a 'go big or go home' industry. You'll notice that Arch-Android gets a much earlier release and that three other books are added to the list. These might be another sequel to The Life Engineered or other projects I have in mind. I might also move the sequel to A God in the Shed earlier. I love looking at this version of the calendar. It hums at me like a  well tuned ion thruster.

Of course, to get to calendar 2 or calendar 3 I need you help. There are over 400 of you guys following The Life Engineered and each of you is amazing for your support. Many of you have already backed A God in the Shed and that is awesome. However, if we want to fast track this train to the second calendar, I need your help. The Nerdist Collection contest is a shortcut to part of that. All I need is for more of you to pre-order a copy of A God in the Shed.

I know you're getting a lot of these updates with those kinds of requests. I'm aware this must be getting tiresome. However, I'd be remiss if I didn't at least try. I have a lot of cool things planned for the future and I want you guys to be a part of it. Go pre-order A God in the Shed. It'll be awesome.

Thanks again for your continued support.

JF