Hello horror fans!

There’s so much I want to talk about today, but for simplicity’s sake, I’ll keep it to two thing and both of them are a plea for help.

Please, if you can, review A God in the Shed on Amazon and Goodreads. There’s a long list of reasons why you should do this. Some are marketing, some have to do with the television option, but mostly, you want to win the leather bound copy I’m raffling off when we reach 100 reviews on Amazon.

Wow... for a second year in a row, one of my books is nominated for a Dragon Award. That’s right, A God in the Shed is nominated in the horror category. You can turn this nomination into an actual victory. Just head over to the voting page and fill out the form and when the voting ballot comes in please vote for A God in the Shed.

NOTE: If you don’t know how to fill out the rest of the ballot, here are some suggestions!

• Horror Novel: A God in the Shed, by J-F. Dubeau
• Science Fiction: Rise, by Brian Guthrie
  
• Young Adult/Middle Grade: It’s All Fun and Games, by Dave Barrett
• Apocalyptic Novel: The Seventh Age: Dawn, by Rick Heinz
• Fantasy Novel: Dangerous Ways, by R.R. Virdi (a friend of mine)

Thank you again for your support. I fail as a writer because I can’t conjure the proper words to tell you how much your help has meant.

JF

Dear friends and followers,

It’s been a very long time since my last update. My apologies for that. On the book front, we’re now in developmental edits ... basically arguing with an editor over just how much of the novel needs to be rewritten from the ground up. A couple of chapters are going to be juggled around, but I should probably not say too much beyond that. We’re at a point where Change is an unchanging fact of life.

For most of the past year as well, I’ve been buried neck-deep in writing something else: "The Hero Unmasked!", a CYOA-style game for Choice Of Games.

It’s a superhero story, as you might have guessed, and very different from "Murder at the Veterans’ Club". The game was just released on Steam, Apple, and Android last Thursday, and I’ve pretty much spent the past couple of days grinning madly as the reviews roll in.

Is there anything else of note? Yes.

Landon Crutcher, author of "Monkey Business", has begun his campaign for "Black Cloud". I remember enjoying "Monkey Business", and I expect "Black Cloud" to be an even better outing. Crutcher’s writing this time about something he knows intimately from his work, and that always adds a certain special something. Like James Herriot writing about veterinary practice.

Ryan Smith has decided to publish his novel, "Goodbye, Angel", via Amazon instead. I’ve purchased it and read it, and I’ve found it an engrossing and enjoyable read, especially if you love the "hard-boiled" detective genre. I’ve recommended this before, and I continue to say ... Highly Recommended.

Until next time, being aware that "next time" could be A Long Time Off ... have fun, and keep reading.

Another art update!

Here’s the next stage of the Dax painting, sent by the artist Jessica R. Van Hulle. (theladyjessica.com)

First color layer is down. Per Jessica, this is following the technique of Boris Vallejo, classic fantasy artist and creator of such epic movie posters as Barbarella and National Lampoon’s Vacation. Ahhh it’s looking so good!

More to come!

-Tony

Hey there readers!

Well, I said I’d have some updates coming for you soon. So guess what? I got updates. :)

If you haven’t already spotted me plastering these all over social media today, here are some progress photos of the artwork for the book!

These come courtesy of the artist, Jessica R. Van Hulle, who is in fact creating AN ORIGINAL OIL PAINTING for the book cover! Why? A) Because she is fantastic, and B) Because I am a crazy person and decided "go big or go home". She is without a doubt creating something that truly captures the old-school fanciful sci-fi spirit that I hoped for with Dax. Can’t wait to see the final piece! You can check out more of Jessica’s work at theladyjessica.com.

Also, while we still do not have an exact publishing date for the book, the editing team says we may likely be looking at sometime in October. I will keep you all posted as soon as I have more to share.

Until next time!

-Tony

So, I’m officially published!!!!  My book will soon be available via Amazon, Barnes & Noble and ebook!  Thank you all for your continued support and please check out To Save a World on Amazon if you would like to see what happens next in the story!

Glorious news! The Walls are Closing In has begun developmental edits.

I received a thorough twelve-page document with insights, as well as several notes within the body of my manuscript, from the Head of Story Development at Inkshares, Matt Harry.

I was so pleased to read Matt’s feedback and suggestions, as he certainly seems to understand what I am striving to accomplish with this novel. I know that he and the rest of the team at Inkshares will guide me in strengthening the story, ensuring that all of you receive the best version possible.

Matt has worked on Tal Klein’s Punch Escrow, which recently signed a deal with Lion’s Gate, and JF Dubeau’s recently released A God in the Shed, optioned by Skydance. Matt’s own book, Sorcery for Beginners, will be out in October.

Check out a recent video with Matt Harry, discussing the development of A God in the Shed.

https://player.vimeo.com/video/224256631

Over the next several weeks I will be hard at work incorporating Matt’s suggestions, and then I will send the revised manuscript to him for round two. It also sounds like Inkshares has started kicking around some ideas for the cover. I will keep you posted on all fronts.

Until next time,

Jacqui

This is a short but very important update, so please take a moment to read it:

Because of some complications owing to particulars involving the unique glue required to bind the amazing foil cover we’ve designed for The Punch Escrow, I won’t be able to sign the books in time to get them to you before the July 25 publication date. So, I need to know if you guys would rather have the books early and unautographed or slightly late and autographed. By "slightly late" I mean I’ll be signing them on July 24th and Inkshares will ship them out that day, so you’ll still get your book on publication week, just not on publication day. But it’s up to you. And by "you" I mean the collective "yous." We’re going to make this democratic with a survey. You can fill out the survey here, and whatever the majority decides 24 hours from now will be the way we do things for everyone who pre-ordered the autographed books.

Here’s the survey: https://www.surveymonkey.de/r/ZBBDCQF

More news soon!

-Tal

Hi there friends,

Tony here. I know you haven’t heard from me in a good long while. You may have even completely forgot that you helped crowdfund a book nearly 2 years ago and have yet to see it. For that, I apologize. I assure you that these long delays have been out of my control. And more importantly, NO THIS BOOK HAS NOT BEEN ABANDONED, and YES, IT IS STILL COMING.

"Why the long silence, Tony?"

Well, frankly, I grew a bit tired and embarrassed of sending updates with no real news to speak of. I’m sure you may have grown tired of it as well, so I figured I’d lay low until I could come back with something real for you.

"Why the delays?"

Inkshares is a small publishing team with limited resources, and business decisions resulted in my book being put on the back burner for a very long time. It’s been unfortunate and frustrating, but there it is. The plus side is that I’ve had plenty of time to edit and revise. So the book you’ll be receiving is better than the book that would have been published a year ago.

"So what’s going on with the book now?"

As of a few weeks ago, I was assured by the Inkshares team that they should be able to get my book published and into your hands "by the end of summer". I have submitted the updated version of my manuscript to them and am currently waiting to hear back on the next steps of production. The book has been polished with the aid of beta readers, a professional dev editor, and my own neurotic nitpicking. I even added  a bonus prequel short story while I waited. Inkshares will assist with copy editing (sentence structure, punctuation, making sure things make sense, etc), formatting, slapping on the cover art, and it’s off to the printers. Again, hopefully, in an expedited fashion from here on.

"So when exactly is the book coming?"

I wish I had an official date to give you rather than "by the end of summer", but that’s all I got for now. I will let you know as soon as I have more.

"How about that cover art?"

Not that anyone asked, but I am excited to say the final book artwork is in progress. And if the concepts I’ve seen are any indication, it’s going to be something special. So whether or not you enjoy my writing, you will at least have a very pretty book to display on your shelf. ;)

All right gang, that’s all for now. Thanks again for your patience. I hope to have an official date and/or some art to show next update. See ya!

-Tony V.

Dear sentient machines,

Did you guys know that my debut novel, The Life Engineered, prequel to Arch-Android, was recently nominated for a Kobo Emerging Writer Award? It was!

What’s better is that Kobo was awesome enough to send me a Kobo Aura reader. Just like that. But I already read all my ebooks on my iPad. So instead of letting this neat little device gather dust, I decided to give it to you fine creatures. (a 100$ value)

Well, one of you anyways.

So here’s how this is going to work. I will be raffling off the Aura to those who pre-order Arch-Android before the end of the funding campaign.

• Each pre-order at the ’ROBOT’ and ’CAPEK’ levels gets you one ’ticket’.
  
• Pre-orders at the ’ARCH-ANDROID’ (3 copies) level gets you four ’tickets’.
• Every pre-order of any level that is a result of a reference you made gets you one more ’ticket’.

To make this prize even more unique, I will draw a Capek on the back of the device and sign it.

So if you haven’t pre-ordered Arch-Android already, maybe it’s time to get on that. Share your referral link with all your science-fiction loving friends too. Win that eReader!

Thank you my awesome friends,

JF

(here’s a Capek I drew. It’s Eremiel from The Life Engineered)