We're so close now to this book being in your hands! This week we're approving the final the internal layout of the internal pages (fun fact: it clocks in at 341 pages) as well as the covers of the hardback and paperback editions. So I'm excited to be able to share with you now the final cover design, complete with a lovely endorsement from the great Hugh Howey! This image also includes the front inside flap. Check it out!
Thank you all for your continued support of The Future of Men. We are getting close to our funding goal with a little over a month left! I need your help to get our crowdfunding efforts over the top.
Continue to invite your friends, family, and colleagues to pre-order The Future of Men at futureofmen.com. Please also show your support by liking The Future of Men on Facebook and following the project on Twitter. Even this small act is a huge help as we move forward with publication.
To thank you and get you excited about The Future of Men, I’ve posted a new chapter on futureofmen.com, called “The Beer Commercial: A Barometer for Sexism”--a piece especially relevant after Bud Light's recent advertising blunder. How has advertising both promoted gender stereotypes and reflected changes in societal norms? Check out the chapter by clicking the link and share your thoughts on the discussion page or by using the hashtag #futureofmen!
A few of the Squires have asked me about the overall continuity of AMOD - where it fits in with my first two books, do they need to read the first two books beforehand, and why are you laughing quietly in the corner? Are you crying?-- they ask.
The short answer is NO! I write episodic fiction - each adventure is designed to be enjoyed on its own merits, the reader is supplied with the information and equipment they need. To me, feeling the strange history of characters extending off into the ether only adds to the enjoyment - and you don't really need to know much about what happened last week, when Rime is frying half-ghost pirates with lightning bolts, now do you?
But - and of course there is a quibble - there is a longer answer. And a longer story, one quietly being told in the shadows of each adventure du jour. I wrote a blog post about it a few months ago - thought I'd share it here for all the new followers who are just now realizing the strange and absurd predicament they have inserted themselves into.
Continuity - spell-sword.com - 11/19/14
I get asked this question a lot: How many books are there in the Spell/Sword series?
Well, not a lot. Eleven times, tops.
People ask because they want to know what they’re getting into, I suppose. Or just figure out how many years they have to deal with me explaining my fiction with wild-eyed elan. On the site so far I have three titles listed: Spell/Sword, The Riddle Box [PREORDER IT OH MY GOD PLEASE IT COMES OUT ON THE 26th], and Asteroid Made of Dragons. These are reasonably set in stone – first one is out, second one next week, and I reference the title of the third book IN the second book so those are visible within the Narrative Fog of War. But, as I’ve always said – this is not epic fantasy, I’m not writing a trilogy. The story doesn’t end in the next book ( though you can safely consider AMOD as the end of an arc, or more correctly, the end of Disc One).
So, how many books will there be?
I should really only ask rhetorical questions that I know the answer to.
More than three, obviously? Seven seems like too many, but five might not be enough. BUT who writes a six book series?!? Is that a hexology? Wait, that kind of sounds badass, maybe it will be six books.
See, you would think I’m in charge of these things. But I’m kind of not. I know the tale I’m telling, I know the end. But the path to get there — there’s still plenty of shadows and fog, which is the way I like it. I’m a ‘pantser’, a ‘discovery writer’. I ‘don’t know what I’m doing’. I don’t know what I’m doing. Is there anything more wonderful or grand than that statement? I just point my antenna towards Aufero and pick up the broadcast and try to type fast enough to keep up with it — at least for the rough draft. Part of me wants there to be 10 books, because the last one is so sad.
Let’s pretend. Let’s pretend there are going to be ten books. Here’s what they will/could be.
* There will be a year ‘in-world’ gap between the events of AMOD and Paper-Thin Harry Potter Parody
** I think this is the one where they get Bird!
Shit, maybe I will write 10 books. I need to hurry up and become famous so I can write these faster and stop wasting time ‘feeding and clothing’ myself.
[Hope that obfuscated the matter completely! Thanks for the support as always. Squires, you have kitchen duty tonight - Wild Mages please stop making it rain jelly beans inside the men's lavatory, I slipped on a pile of Green Apple and sprained my ankle.]
Hello readers, whether you are human, android or sophisticated computer AIs.
Let me begin my extending my thanks for your interest in The Life Engineered. It's been a stressful couple of weeks getting to understand how this crowdfunding thing works and how to grab people's interest without pestering them too much. This campaign is a work in progress as I try to add incentives and benefits to backing my book while keeping up with the demands of finding new readers and grabbing their attention.
However I don't want to forget those who've already committed to the cause or who are keeping an eye on my progress for now. As I currently work to add a book trailer to the campaign page, I find myself sketching out several robots in order to have a few visuals in the video. One of these seemed pleasing enough to my friends and I ended up making an iPhone wallpaper from the illustration. You can find versions for iPhone 5, 6 and 6+ by clicking here. I will be looking at adding Android versions in the future.
Again; thank you for your support. If you haven't pre-ordered yet, please consider doing so soon and if you know anyone for whom a book about sentient robots fighting to protect their civilization from slipping into civil was would be interesting, please point them in my direction.
Regards,
JFDubeau
