Finally! We're done with that slap-dash-I-need-a-bright-image-I-own-so-I-can-enter-this-contest-NOW "cover" that was never meant to be a cover. ENHANCED is now wearing a new, eye-popping, hopefully eye-grabbing cover that fits it like a glove, thanks to the skills and dedication of my son, Brylan. lmL

We'd love to know what you think.

Hey, everybody! Chapter Two is up!

TL;DR: Yay! Diversity! Chapter Three is coming! I get mushy and thank everybody at least twice.
 

I'm really proud of this chapter, and I hope it conveys the diversity within Aurum, and how absolute boned Albicon is in joining the constabulary. He fellow recruits are a motley bunch, and I love them all dearly. Yes, that includes Duvane, even if he is a sniveling arse.

As a member of the LGBTQ+ community, I was often frustrated with the lack of representation in speculative fiction, or the terrible caricatures that many past writers have relied on. I can not stand a sniveling, effeminate villain or a butch barbarian who hates all men. Some of the characters orientations are more obvious than others, and it does not detract from the story as a whole. At some point we all talk about our partners, bad dates, and failed romances.

Reveling in diversity is important to me. I hope as readers you'll revel in it with me.

Chapter Three is on deck, and I will uploaded it soon as I am happy with the revisions. After that, we can talk about what I should upload next. I have some things percolating in the back of my head to help bring awareness to the crowd funding campaign. I always welcome feedback and suggestions, so please don't hesitate to send them my way.

I want to thank you all for following me, with special thanks to those who have backed me already. I've devoted most of the past four years to writing this book in particular. Far too many said there wasn't a market for fantasy humor. That there weren't enough readers out there for it to be marketable.

After finishing the sixth draft, I hadn't touched A Beast Requires in over a year. If it wasn't for getting blasted with emails about the Nerdist Collection, I wouldn't have even touched it. Since I started writing I fell into the psychological, faraday cage of questioning my ability to tell a story. Was I fooling myself by going after the one thing I've wanted to do since I was a kid?

Last night I cried. 47 of you like this book enough to back it. 47 of you want to see this book published. 47 of you think that I don't totally suck at this writing thing. There's a long way to go to reach the magic goalposts, and it's sure to be an interesting ride. From the bottom of my heart, thank you for all your support.

Hi, everyone! This has been an incredible week - what a jump in readers, after such a lull! Thank you, all who have taken the leap and committed to this journey with me - because it is a journey. This book won't be in your hands for a while... and that means you get to see part of the creation of a novel that many readers don't get to see.

That's the real value in perusing works on Inkshares, I've realized: we might get to be part of the first planting and nurturing and growth of the next Harry Potter, or Dune, or Discworld. And even if none of our books reach those books' kind of market success, one of them could mean just as much to someone as those books do. Isn't that incredible?

BUT enough of this sappy stuff!

I hope you new people are ready for an incredible bonus, because it's all coming together and it's going to be incredible.

It's not just an idea anymore... it's becoming real.

Seriously. You guys have no idea how cool this thing is going to be.

This Monday, every one of my readers will receive in their email the Inkshares Authors Showcase Coloring Book and Activity Pages, Nerdist Contest Edition, featuring art and activities to draw you into the worlds of:

Blood Dawn, by John Robin.

Prophecy of the Stars, by Melissa Berg (also an illustrator for the book, and the creator of our cover)

Asteroid Made of Dragons, by G. Derek Adams (winner of the Swords and Lasers publishing contest on Inkshares)

A Beast Requires, by Jay Lockwood

Witches Undercover, by Rochelle Germano

Tournament of the Stars: Arbitration, by Victor Powell

Ageless (also winner of the Swords and Lasers contest) and Motor City Chronicles: Transgressions, by Paul Inman

Rune of the Apprentice, by Jamison Stone

Shadow of the Owl, by Amanda Orneck

The Seventh Age, by Rick Heinz,

and of course...

She Is the End, by Me

You'll get to travel through mazes, challenge yourself with crosswords and word searches, search and find hidden things, create a tournament patch that might be used in Victor's book, and color characters whose adventures you'll definitely want to read. So, if you haven't already, go pre-order these books!

It’s a question of ’conversions’.

At least that’s what my bare-bones marketing training and experience tells me.

I spend an unusual amount of time thinking about how to get more readers. How do I convince people to take a chance on ‘A God in the Shed’? Should I do character sketches? Another video? A giveaway?

While these are all good methods and have their merits, I think I need to get back to basics and stick to what’s important.

This is going to be a good book. 

‘A God in the Shed’ has gone through a few revisions already and been in the hands of several test readers and the response has been overwhelmingly positive. I’ve been told it doesn’t need it, but the story is going to get another re-write and with the experience I have working with editors and Inkshares I know they won’t let me get away with anything less than an excellent novel.

The characters are compelling.

What I love about ‘A God in the Shed’ is the cast of characters. The core group is a few ordinary kids that deal with the extraordinary events of the book. Venus is a genius level girl who’s spent her whole life as a fish-out-of-water, either because of her intelligence or eccentric parents. Penelope is a fiercely independent and ambitious young woman who has difficulty with her set life plans being interrupted by the supernatural happenings. Donald is the kind of guy who’s always had it easy in life but still managed not to let himself be spoiled by things while Abraham has maintained a facade as the strong-but-dumb kid, caring for his ailing father. 

Surrounding them is a second layer of main characters, mainly the families of the young cast. Venus’ uncle is a bizarre man with strange secrets while the village idiot, Sam Finnegan is quickly revealed to be a layered onion. First affable, then a monster but then a victim again.

The magic is fascinating.

The gods have their magic but so do mortals. Either by using loopholes in the functioning of reality or by creating pieces of Art so convincing as to trick the universe itself, old disciplines have opened up the door to strange magics. Not to mention that objects and people touched by gods are irrevocably changed.

There’s a tight majesty to how magic works in St-Ferdinand and the world of ‘A God in the Shed’.

Mainly, it’s a story about beauty.

I use the expression ‘a story about terrible beauty and beautiful terror’ and I mean it. ‘A God in the Shed’ is about that place in between horror and majesty where you can’t be sure what is light and what is shadow. It’s from that doubt that the ‘horror’ of this fantasy tale comes from.

I’ve added Chapters 7 through 9 to the project page. I’ll try to give out more information about the setting and about the story, without too many spoilers, as we get closer to the end of the Nerdist Collection contest.

Help make this book happen. Talk to your friends and family and get them on Inkshares. They’ll get 5$ credit just for signing up and if they use your reference link, you’ll get 15$ of credits yourself!

Support the arts. Support my dream. Pre-order ‘A God in the Shed’.

And if you’re already a supporter: thank you. You’re the kind of person who makes things happen.

JF