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Happy holidays, everybody!
Mike Mongo

It’s been far too long since I’ve been able to deliver news of any significant amount of progress with Tantalus Depths. I’ve had quite a few people approach me asking when the book is coming out, and I’ve regrettably had nothing to offer in the way of a satisfactory answer. I’m not sure I made it clear enough during my campaign last year just how long it takes to get a book through this kind of production process, but it can take a very long time.

Fortunately, today I finally have some good news. Progress has at last been made! Last night I finally received my development letter from Matt Harry, my development editor. Matt is the Head of Story Development at Inkshares, and his work has helped books like the amazing Punch Escrow succeed brilliantly during their production processes.

For those unfamiliar with how the publishing process works, all Inkshares books receiving the full editing treatment (such as Tantalus Depths) go through several waves of editing, each one focusing on improving a separate aspect of the manuscript. The development edit is the first, and it focuses on big picture stuff, such as focusing the story’s overall tone, message, and style. Basically figuring out exactly what kind of story Tantalus Depths is and how to make it the best example of that kind of story it can be.

Tantalus Depths has been read by quite a few beta readers and has gone through at least four rounds of edits, but this is the first time it’s been seen by a professional editor. Matt sent me eleven pages of advice on what sort of things I should consider changing to improve the book, on top of dozens of margin notes in my original manuscript for specific lines and sections I should change.

There’s a lot to work on here. The overall story isn’t going to change from the one I set out to tell; in fact, Matt was very clear that they want to make sure I get to tell the story the way I want it. The primary point of these notes is to focus the story properly, to trim out anything that doesn’t work so I can make the stuff that does work even better. Most of the notes he gave me deal with things such as keeping a consistent tone, improving character development, and getting more into the worldbuilding. I was actually surprised by that last one, since I’ve done a tremendous amount of worldbuilding but was intentionally holding back on including a lot of it, lest I get too carried away. Now that I’ve been given a green light to add more, I’m going to be having a lot of fun with these edits.

So, long update short, the wheels are rolling on Tantalus Depths once more! There is still no release date nailed down (I’m afraid there’s still going to be a decent wait ahead), but finally we’re fully into production mode now. I have a lot of writing and re-writing to be doing in the next couple weeks, but I am looking forward to it. We’ve finally gotten to the point where Tantalus Depths is making the transition from a simple manuscript to a proper Novel.

Stay tuned for more in the coming weeks!

Oh, by the way, my campaign for Proteus is still running, and I’m going to go back into campaigning mode as well within the next month or so. Stay tuned for that as well, and if you haven’t ordered a copy yet (or would like to help the campaign out even more by ordering a second one), please do so!

Time’s up.

If you haven’t voted for the DragonAwards yet, your last chance is nigh. Of course, what I’m hoping is that you’ll vote for A God in the Shed in the Horror Novel category, but obviously you can vote for whatever you want and I encourage you to do so.

So fill out the form and once you get the email, vote your heart out

Feel free to encourage others to vote too! The more the merrier?

Thank you

JF Dubeau

Friends... I have some really cool stuff to talk about.

But first, I need a favour. You get this from probably every single author you support, whether on Inkshares or on any other platform. Once we publish, we all become these strange creatures that seem to feed on one thing and one thing alone: reviews.

The arcane mechanisms that explain why reviews matter so much in books sales are difficult to explain and keep changing (thanks Amazon algorithms!) but they are always important.

So go review A God in the Shed on Amazon and/or on GoodReads. Smarter people than I say that 50 should be a good goal for now, so lets go with that. Can we do 50 reviews in two weeks? I think so.

So what other cool stuff do I have to talk about? Well, that’ll have to wait. I want to have photos.

"I have such sights to show you." - Pinhead, Hellraiser

JF

Happy Friday, all!

This is a short one, bc I don’t have much shareable news aside from what I’m about to share with you.

I was admiring my novel’s B&N.com page (we’ve all done it, don’t judge) when I noticed something there that I wasn’t anticipating.

That’s right, y’all. That is a starred review from the Library Journal. It’s not Publishers Weekly or anything, but I still had a mild panic attack when I saw it.

Enjoy your weekends, and happy Father’s Day to those who celebrate.

-J.

So it’s come to this... publication day.

To be honest, it snuck up on me. I thought the actual pub date was June 15th. Needless to say, I’m unprepared. 

I could bore you with a long text about how important your support has been, but instead, let’s take a quick look at what you were a part of accomplishing, shall we?

• We published a book. "Wasn’t that the goal?" Absolutely. But publishing a book is a huge deal, especially for the author. Of all the things we’ve done, 
  
• That book got great early reviews from CriptTV, Fangoria, the creator of Bates Motel and a few others who I had never dreamed of getting the attention of.
• Our book got optioned by Skydance to be produced by Akiva Goldsman. This is huge! (not automatic-tv-show-huge, but huge nonetheless) I’ve never even considered television as a medium for A God in the Shed, but obviously, others disagree.
• A God in the Shed is going to be an audiobook too.

All of that, and probably more in the future, because of Inkshares’ tireless work and your support. I know some of you had even forgotten you’d pre-ordered this book. That’s how long the road has been. Yet, here we are.

So what’s next?

• Well, hopefully you read and enjoy A God in the Shed. Perhaps even to review it on Amazon, Goodreads and wherever you can leave a review. Write one and copy/paste it everywhere.
  
• Get in touch with me on Twitter @jfdubeau and let me know what you thought.
• Or get on the mailing list for my newsletter at jfdubeau.com/books
• Brace yourself for my next projects. The Sequel to A God in the Shed is already being written, but in the meantime, why not follow the page for the sequel to The Life Engineered? I’ll be having some announcements regarding that one sooner than you might think.

So that’s it. You guys are amazing and you’ve done something amazing for me. Hopefully there will be so much more in the future and I’d be thrilled if every one of you were there for the ride.

Thank you. So much.

JF

IT IS OFFICIAL:
’THE AIM’ TV SERIES OPTION CONTRACT SIGNED SEALED & DELIVERED
The long-form contract for The Astronaut Instruction Manual tv series option by Legendary Entertainment (ie the studio behind such massive blockbuster films as Pacific Rim, The Dark Knight, Godzilla, Superman vs Batman, and Jurassic World) has been signed!

ENORMOUS THANKS to the Team who made this happen:
-Howie Sanders at United Talent Agency,
-Matt Tolmach & Tolmach Productions,
-the indispensable Brooklyn Weaver,
-my amazing lawyer Howard Abramson at Behr & Abramson,
-and most of all Inkshares and Adam Gomolin (!!!) who from Day One believed in The Astronaut Instruction Manual.

What happens next? As I understand there will be an announcement upcoming of the The Astronaut Instruction Manual series’ showrunner (television writer) about whom I’m sworn to secrecy.

(However, to "see what’s next" just do some networking and keep a lookout for someone worthy of adding daredevil to their credit. Got it?)

Stay tuned, the best is yet to come,
Mike Mongo