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Spacers is a generic term applied to individuals who live the majority of their lives someplace other than a major planetary body (i.e. in orbital stations, on asteroids, or in interplanetary space). While Spacers are passionate toward self-reliance and personal freedom they also value organizational structure. The majority of Spacers practice a philosophy of neo-Taoism and have a tendency for nostalgia.
Spacers are organized into several collective bodies referred to colloquially as Spacer Families. Originally these were groups of individuals with similar backgrounds, be they nationalistic, ethnic, or philosophical. During the early years of space colonization fatal accidents were numerous. This resulted in a large number of orphaned children without a civic infrastructure established to care for them. As the various Spacer groups started caring for these children their organization changed to a family, or kinship, structure.
Through breeding, training, and attitude Spacers are known to be the best low and zero gravity workers in the system, although they can be difficult to work with at times.
Family names do not indicate a genetic relationship. All members, regardless of heritage, adopt the same last name. The Family names were chosen for various reasons although many experts will suggest that not a lot of time was spent thinking about them. There are currently five recognized Major Families:
Minor Families – Over time smaller Families have disappeared or been absorbed into the larger groups (e.g. the Goddard and Gagarin branches). Still, a number of small groups continue to reappear over time (e.g the Bakers). It is not clear if the Spacers currently living in new colony systems will remain as sub-branches of the Major Families or eventually split off into their own groups.
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Hello all! Today marks the final day of the contest.
First of all, I want to congratulate the top three winners of the contest:
The Punch Escrow by Tal M. Klien
After Man by Brian Guthrie
The Pirates of Montana by Erin S. Evan
They are all deserving authors and all three have already passed more than 250 orders. I’m a firm believer that you can never have enough books, so check them out and pre-order if you are so inclined. Although I would have loved to be in the top three, I’m happy and humbled to have finished eighth out of over a hundred entries!
Now that the contest is over, it’s time for the real funding process to begin. In case you haven’t noticed, the book has until September 1st to reach its funding goal. That’s 107 days from now. It’s currently 25% of the way to Quill.
PS. Congrats to Michael Haase who won the T-shirt contest! Your shirt is on the way.
The Geek and Sundry Hard Science Contest is over and I want to send HIGH FIVES and "YEAH MAN!s" to winners Tal Klein for The Punch Escrow, Brian Guthrie for After Man, and Erin S. Evan for The Pirates of Montana. Each of you offered beautiful, polished work. You set a fine example and a high bar for the rest of us. A big congratulations from the bottom of my heart!
I also want to thank Jeremy Thomas and the Inkshares team for organizing these contests. I see them as a win-win-win all the way around! We are truly fortunate to share this space with the likes of Chris Hardwick’s Nerdist and Felicia Day’s Geek and Sundry. These awesome people help open this platform to the movers and shakers of popular culture. I’m impressed!
Peace to all!
Ferd. :-)
Greetings again sentients!
Sorry for the radio silence. I don’t want to brag but I’ve been busy. I don’t know why that would qualify as bragging but it certainly has been taking away from my slumber. The good news, if you’re into the Horror/Fantasy genre, is that I’m but a few days away from handing in my manuscript for A God in the Shed. Even if you’re not into that genre and you’re right this moment screaming into your monitor "Make with the robots Dubeau!" then you’ll be happy to know that as soon as A God in the Shed is in the magical hands of editors I will be going back to finishing the first draft of Arch-Android. In fact, you should probably follow the page for Arch-Android on Inkshares immediately as things will start happening there soon (like beta reader selection).
As things are progressing on my side that doesn’t mean I still don’t need your help. I’ve recently been able to witness first hand the impact getting to 100 reviews on Amazon does for a book and it’s impressive. As of this writing, we have 83 reviews. There is no rational reason we couldn’t get to 100 in a very short amount of time. So if you’ve read The Life Engineered, don’t waste another minute; go write a review. Doesn’t even need to be long or complex. "I liked it." is enough.
I’m also hoping for a nomination at the Dragon Awards, so if you haven’t done so yet, consider nominating The Life Engineered for Science Fiction Novel and perhaps some of my friends from Inkshares in some of the other categories (Ageless, Asteroid Made of Dragons, An Unattractive Vampire).
Finally, I want to share with you my updated writing schedule. What you see on the graphic above is the estimated release dates of my books. These only show books that I plan to fund on Inkshares along with the two books I’ll be writing for the Ed Greenwood Group. Obviously, this is subject to change. If books fund faster or slower than anticipated, or the production schedules don’t line up with my estimates, etc. However it gives you, and especially me, an idea of what I have to look forward to. Immediately when I look at it, I want to get a better distribution of publishing, but that’s something I can course correct on the way there.
I’m especially looking forward to some of the plans and ideas I have in store right now. A God in the Shed is planned as a trilogy so that will end with the third book, but The Life Engineered is more of an anthology format with recurring characters and an overarching story to tell, so I’m less sure how many books will be in that series. I have other ideas but they’re in the pre-planning stage so it’s hard to tell if they’ll be Inkshares projects or not.
As you can tell, I plan on this journey I’m taking with you to last for quite a while and I hope I’ll have your support for the duration. So far, it’s been a pleasure to travel with you and I see rough but exciting seas ahead of us. Stick around and gather your friends; the next leg of the odyssey begins soon.
Extra notes:
Thanks again,
JF
Hey, readers!
I know this is pretty unexpected, but I needed to upload Chapter Three: Theory today to eliminate any tardiness I might have if I wait for Wednesday. I’m going to be busy this entire week since I’m graduating, but I’ll be updating you all on our 3rd Detective Sunday still. I had to scramble and go back over the chapter because I made a hugeeeeeee mistake that every author hates. I ended up not saving my chapter and had to go back over everything that was perfect, but I believe it all went okay in the end since I got my point across in this chapter and covered everything. I’m just missing minor visual details between the conversations. Well, enjoy the chapter and let me know if you liked the suspense. Have a good afternoon/morning wherever you are, and sorry for the unexpected update.
Until next time, Sixth.
What’s up fishes!
I literally had to pinch myself at 12:01 pm today. I’m so pleased to announce that Pirates of Montana placed 3rd in the Inkshares/Geek & Sundry contest, and will be fully published!!
On January 1st, 2016, after I kissed my family in celebration of the New Year, I turned to my husband and said that my New Years resolution for 2016 would be to write and publish my book. I’d been talking about it for several years, and knew that I’d probably go the self-publishing route. And when I saw Geek & Sundry’s post in early April, I knew I had to enter.
Crash forward to today, and its actually happening! By 12:30 pm today, I was banging my head with a book in disbelief (mostly due to my toddler’s antics, but events were coinciding).
Congratulations to Tal Klein (The Punch Escrow) and Brian Guthrie (After Man)!! You both ran fantastic campaigns!! I cannot wait to read your books!
A HUGE THANK YOU to everyone that pre-ordered the book. I am so fortunate, and it’s entirely because of you. Your support, your encouragement, your help, your tolerance with my dinosaur meme obsession -- you are my cheering squad, and I’m grateful for it.
A enormous THANK YOU to the Break the Bechdel of Strong Female Characters Syndicate. I was shocked to be nominated and felt exhilarated to win for the Month of May!!! Your support means the world, and I will do you proud! Molly Tanner will do you proud!
Words cannot express how thankful I am to find the community of Inkshares. Several of you have reached out to me for support and advice, and I’m grateful for it. I look forward to many more discussions!!
Thank you Mark Nassi, Tom Steele, Bryan Steele (my Quill purchaser!!), the Evan family, and my wonderful husband Adam. You are my biggest supporters, and I love you all.
I will be keeping you all posted on the book’s progress weekly, so stay tuned!!
Now, all we have to do is wait for Geek & Sundry’s decision on May 25!
It’s the final countdown!
