Hello friend,

Sorry for the radio silence. I had forgotten how much work preparing a manuscript, even a fully written one, for the editorial process could be. The good news is; I’m but a few days away from handing in my manuscript for A God in the Shed. Even more good news is that once that’s done, I’ll be getting back to finishing off the first draft of Arch-Android, the sequel to The Life Engineered. 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:

• Huge congratulations to Amanda Orneck for getting her novel Deus Hex Machina into the Sword & Laser Collection. Your book looks rad Amanda, glad they added you to our ranks.
  
• I also want to congratulate Tom Merritt for fully funding his time travel book, Pilot X and getting it into the Sword & Laser Collection. I hear he has someone on the inside that helped with that.
• Finally, a shout out to my friend Paul Inman who officially launched his book, Ageless a few days ago.

Thanks again,

JF

You have requested a brief lesson on “Spacer Families” via the Wiki-Teacher service. By opening this message you have agreed to have your TSA account charged 2.25 credits.

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:

• Armstrong – The majority of the members have an association to North America. This is the most highly structured of the Families with many connections to asteroid mining.
• Korolev – While the founding members traced their ancestry to Eastern Europe the current demographics are more diverse. This family specializes in ship construction and repair.
  
• Shenzhou – The majority of this Family’s members trace their ancestry back to China or neighboring Asian countries. With diversified interests this Family prefers to work with space based agri-businesses.
  
• Rogers – A highly multicultural group whose members share little ethnic or national similarities. They are the Jack of all Trades of the Families.
  
• Gordon – The most eccentric of the Families. Prone to exaggeration this Family is nonetheless known for taking on challenging, near impossible, low gravity contracts.
  

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.

Do you have any further questions on this topic? Charges will apply.

Thank you for using the Wiki-Teacher service, your best source for information and educational lessons while in space. And remember, Wiki-Teacher practices a strict No Refunds policy. So don’t ask.

If you liked this update for Fortunes of the Space Sloth please let others know by writing a review, making a recommendation, or consider clicking that Pre-Order button now!  Thanks.

WE’RE ONLY 4 PRE-ORDERS AWAY!!! :D :D :D

Here is the concept art for our characters "Cade" and "Torque". They were both Lambda operatives stationed aboard the evil United Planets of Earth ship - Enigma.
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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. :-)