The book. It is out. It is out officially and should, as of this writing, be in the hands of almost everyone who’s ordered it.

The launch party was small but fun. I’m thrilled by who managed to be there and sad about those who wanted to attend but were unable. It was a learning experience and I’m glad I got to try this out in a safe environment surrounded by familiar and supportive faces. Anyone who knows me is aware that I’m not exactly comfortable with some of the required self-promotion activities surrounding the publication of a novel. Amongst others, there’s reading from your own book which is helluva intimidating to me. However, it’s part and parcel of what I want to do and if it’s something readers want, I’ll do it.

First public reading: Done. The ice is broken. It wasn’t so bad. I think I’ll be fine doing it in the future.

For those who might have missed it; I was on Sword & Laser on the day of release of The Life Engineered and it was awesome. I really enjoy chatting with Tom and Veronica. I got to answer some questions from readers and I swear Veronica’s eyes lit up when I mentioned that sex between Capeks wasn’t impossible. Let me know if I hallucinated.

Speaking of Tom Merritt. I was a guest on his other podcast, Current Geek, hosted by Scott Johnson. Current Geek is the kind of podcast that sounds fun to be a guest on and it’s been on my bucket list of appearances for a while. Good news: Even more of a blast than anticipated. Give it a listen. Hell, go subscribe; it’s a hell of a good podcast.

That’s it for now. I want to thank everyone who was at the party, including fellow Inkshares writers A.C. Baldwin, André Brun and Christopher Huang. Check out their books. Now! I also want to highlight the efforts of Cara Weston who put together a Google Hangout so a few others could attend virtually. Check out her book too.

So what’s next?

• Hopefully more media
  
• Finishing the manuscript for the sequel to The Life Engineered
• Maybe another short story in that universe to bridge the two books
• Pushing really hard to get A God in the Shed to 750 pre-orders. Expect me to enlist your help very soon.

As always; thank you my fellow sentients. It’s a fascinating ride and I think there’s some really awesome stuff on the horizon for The Life Engineered. Never forget that you’re the ones who made it happen.

Cheers

JF

Oh hey - I know I just emailed you.

Okay, I’m calm now. Calmer. I know I should be more reserved, I’ve done this before but:

We’re only a month away. 

One month and the book you power-wished into being will be released onto an unsuspecting public. Rumors are spreading that the books are back from the printer and will soon be making their way into your hands. You’ll get to read it first, and a month from now it will be out in the wild, impossible to reclaim. I have become a pulsing anxiety-cluster.

Let us focus on something more crucial. A party.

Asteroid Made of Dragons Launch Party

Avid Bookshop - Athens, GA - April 5th.

I adore Avid - this is my home bookshop, and I defy you to find a better. They are clever, courteous, cultured, and cute.

If you can come you should come. No excuses. Book the flights, project yourself through the medium of the astral plane, piggyback on a passing underwear salesman. Get here. You have a month to figure it out. There will be music. There will be me in a wizard cape. There will be a 17 act play I’ve entitled ’Hubris Poignant: A Portrait of the Writer as a Nuclear Firestorm’. We’ll go out for drinks afterwards. Then I’ll tell you what I really think about Lev Grossman and The Magicians. I’ll only have a few hours to spare before the Rich and Famous Bus arrives with my Genre Authority Shoes and Internet Sage Scepter, so enjoy these fleeting moments of my mortality before I ascend into something quite akin to a small, mewling god-baby.

I mean, how could you miss all that?

Hello fellow authors and supporters,

I feel like we have not written anything in a while. Life has been crazy and hectic with midterms and life in general. Autumn and I have not given up hope on winning quite yet. WE are 13 days away from the end of the Contest and we are about 40 short of being in 30 place. I know some of you have not bought a book yet and if you have not we would really appreciate you doing so , and helping us make our dream a reality. We are so grateful for all the comments that people have given to us and all the advice. Thank you for all the love!!!

Abigail and Autumn

Greetings sentients,

This is the very last day before the official release of The Life Engineered. It’s an exciting but important time for the book’s release and would like to recruit you in helping make this as good an event as possible.

However, as your time is precious and you likely receive several of these updates every week, I’m compiled all you need to know in a tidy bullet list:

1. Most of you should have received your copies of the The Life Engineered by now and, if you’ve read it and enjoyed it, then it would be of tremendous help to the success of the book if you could write a short review and rate it on Amazon and/or Goodreads. Even something as simple as “I liked it.” with a five star rating can do wonders to get The Life Engineered in front of more readers.
2. Tomorrow, I will be a guest on the Sword & Laser podcast with Tom and Veronica and YOU can participate by submitting questions for the interview on the Sword & Laser Goodreads forum.
3. So far I’ve received three photos of copies of The Life Engineered in the ‘wild’. If you see The Life Engineered at your local book store, take a photo and tweet it to me @jfdubeau. Add the hashtag #scifiBook.
4. Keep an eye on my Facebook page for information on the various media mentioning The Life Engineered as well as any appearances and interviews I might be doing in the following day (including an interview on Beyond the Playlist with J. Hammond C, a review on Examiner.com, an interview on Examiner.com, etc.)
5. If you live in the Montreal area, you can join me for the official book launch party at Argo Bookshop at 7PM EST on March 3rd. I’d love to see you there.

As always, thank you for your support. This has been a great ride so far and I hope it can keep going for a long while. Next step: the sequel!

Regards, JF

So something pretty cool happened last night ~ "The Children of the Forest" hit its funding goal to qualify for Inkshare’s Quill! I’ve been completely blown away by the last-minute rally of fans, and I’m floored that in less than 7 days we managed to move over 50 copies of the book! 

Looking ahead, I’m still somewhat processing the fact that the book will be made. It’s been a long road to reach this point and I couldn’t have come this far without everyone in the Inkshares community who put their time, money, and opinions to use in helping me craft what has become "The Children of the Forest." 

I just wanted to offer a quick look at what to expect in the next few weeks, regarding the schedule for the novel.

1. As mentioned in another update, I’ll be releasing a companion booklet (Free) to all backers. Men’kai will only receive this as a digital copy, while Alethian+Wolf-Riders will be given soft-cover books.
2. I’ll be updating the Inkshares page during production on the rest of the novel. I hope to have at least 2-3 more sample chapters made available, along with a refined introduction, video, and more. 
3. I also have a short-story in the works that will be made available to all backers within the next few weeks. 

Most likely there will be more, but those are the major beats for now. Again, a huge thanks to everyone who backed my novel and made it a reality! I can’t wait to have the finished version in your hands  ~