It's the last week of the Sword & Laser Collection contest. I'm both nervous and exhilarated. What a ride so far.
Unfortunately, I'm not one to stay idle, hence on this day I bring to you two things:
1. You can now read the prologue to The Life Engineered and get a small idea as to the back story of why Capeks inherit the galaxy.
2. I've started work on a model or prop of Koalemos, a fan favourite character in The Life Engineered. I do three things well; write, draw and model. If this model turns out well, I'll be raffling it off to supporters. What does Koalemos look like? Like that drawing below. I also tossed in two shots of the model being worked on.
As always; thank you for your support.
JF
Koalemos
Good day gentle readers,
It's a strange balancing act that I do today as we are getting ever closer to the end of the Sword & Laser contest but also getting farther ahead in the campaign to get The Life Engineered published. On one hand I'm positively awash with gratitude for your support. I know it gets trite to repeat it so often, but there's something awesome about people actively standing behind my work. Thank you.
On the other hand, I come to you asking for more. Not more pre-orders. You guys have been incredibly generous already. I need you to spread the word and help me find more science fiction fans who would enjoy The Life Engineered.
I don't come to you empty handed however. I come bearing gifts and promises of things to come.
More to come as we enter the home stretch for the Sword & Laser contest. Again, thank you so much for your support. You folks are awesome and the reason why I write fiction that has a more positive spin on the future.
JF
Good day everyone,
Hello followers and beautiful contributors,
I'm not saying that those of you who are still on the fence about pre-ordering The Life Engineered aren't beautiful; I know you are. However, the act of placing a pre-order means you are a supporter of the arts and that gives you a 10 to 12% bonus to good looks. It's just science. In fact, "I support independent, aspiring authors." is rated as one of the top three most effective pick-up lines in libraries. Just below "Hi, I'm Neil Gaiman."
Kidding aside, I had this awesome update prepared where I would debate my book trailer and show it off to you guys but as it happens, making a book trailer that isn't objectively terrible and makes the world just a little bit worst simply by existing is kind of hard. So instead of releasing a sub-par video I decided to hold back, rethink my approach and come up with a more palatable book trailer.
I still wanted to touch base with you and since I don't have a book trailer, I figured I could give you guys a little something extra for taking the time to keep up with me. One of the challenges in promoting The Life Engineered has always been what to say and what to keep secret to avoid spoilers. There are a lot of neat plot devices that are more fun to discover while reading the book but they would also make great hooks since they tend to set the story and world apart. Well, if you click here, you'll be able to read Chapter 1 of The World Engineered which should give you a little bit more context regarding the sample already available.
It should tide you over until I get that book trailer done and maybe convince those who are still hesitating to take the plunge and pre-order their copy(ies).
With gratitude,
JFDubeau
P.S.: Have a robot
Hello,
It's me again. Don't worry, I don't plan on making this a daily thing. The last thing I want is to be remembered as a spammer. I just have a quick, dumb gift for you guys.
This campaign is very stressful. Most of you have probably already heard me bellyache about how bad I am at self-promotion and how I don't handle the pressure and competitive nature of this particular effort with much grace. While I was undergoing a routine panic attack, one of my friends said something that I thought should be a poster. Wanting to take my mind off of things and having some illustration I'd worked on that would be acceptable for the purpose, I made the poster and now I'm making it available to you. Click here and you'll find what is becoming a fleshed out 'extra content page' for The Life Engineered.
I hope you like it and again, always, thank you for your support.
JFDubeau
Hi everyone,
Two posts in two days? I’m sorry, that’s the nature of being in the last week of this contest. I’m going to be ‘pestering’ people. However, I can’t just send messages begging for support and asking for you to spread the message in my name. I have to give something in return.
One of the most entertaining yet challenging parts of writing The Life Engineered was breaking out of the standard ‘Android’ envelope. If you’re going to be over a millennia in the future and have advanced technology at your disposal, you’re not going to settle for two arms, two legs and a head attached to a torso. Especially if that form doesn’t suit what you intend to do with your existence.
So I had to come up with different forms for the robots in The Life Engineered and I thought it might be fun to introduce you to a couple of the more interesting ones.
Leduc Class Capeks: Let me get this one out of the way first. The Leduc Class of Capek is where you’ll find your standard android form factor. You’ll also find some quadrupeds and other recognizable shapes. What makes a Leduc however is a design made to work on a human scale within a gravity well. Everything else from there depends on the purpose of the Capek.
Sputnik Class Capeks: These are my favourite. The Sputnik Class of Capek are designed for travel within the Milky Way. Usually equipped with faster-than-light engines of one sort or another, Sputniks either carry passengers, cargo or simply information either too sensitive or to complex to be transmitted otherwise. They are characterized by a love of freedom and an addiction to the vacuum.
Von Neumann Class Capeks: A very popular design according to my readers of far. The Von Neumann Class of Capek can take many form but are distinct for their having multiple bodies for a single mind and personality. Each Von Neumann can have between three and a hundred or more bodies, all collectively housing their memories and cognitive function. This Class of Capek is best suited to construction and demolition as they can coordinate with themselves with unprecedented efficiency.
These are three of the types of robots you can expect to read about in The Life Engineered. I hope it helps you understand my fascination with the future of artificial sentient life and why I want to revisit this world again and again to tell it’s stories.
The best way to allow me to do that is to support this campaign as best you can, either by pre-ordering if you haven’t or by encouraging your Science Fiction loving friends to do so as well.
Thank you,
JF Dubeau