Ask the Author: J.-F. Dubeau
Answered Questions (11)
J.-F. Dubeau
Yes! But also... it's currently only a first draft on my computer. I'm starting to edit/rewrite it once I'm done with this season of Achewillow. Then my full attention goes into it until I can hand it in to my publisher. The hope, I believe, is a Halloween 2025 release. Or something along those lines.
I feel bad about the delays, but only being able to be an author part time slows down the work. Especially if I want to maintain quality as much as is within my capabilities.
I feel bad about the delays, but only being able to be an author part time slows down the work. Especially if I want to maintain quality as much as is within my capabilities.
J.-F. Dubeau
That's the question that wakes me up at night.
The long and short of it is that there have been delays, mostly on my part. The current status of the book is that it's in the final stages of editing. I'm still hoping for an October 2019 release (which is already a year later than I would have liked) but a lot of that is in the hands of the publisher and distributor.
There's a long and ultimately boring story about the difficulties of writing a satisfying sequel, working full time, meeting reader and publisher expectations along with my own failures as a writer, but it would just be making excuses.
The bottom line is that the book is getting done. It'll either publish in Fall 2019 or early 2020, but we're aiming for the former.
I hope you stick it out, I think it's going to be worth the wait. Either way, I thank you for pre-ordering. Readers don't alway realize how much of a hero move pre-ordering a book is.
The long and short of it is that there have been delays, mostly on my part. The current status of the book is that it's in the final stages of editing. I'm still hoping for an October 2019 release (which is already a year later than I would have liked) but a lot of that is in the hands of the publisher and distributor.
There's a long and ultimately boring story about the difficulties of writing a satisfying sequel, working full time, meeting reader and publisher expectations along with my own failures as a writer, but it would just be making excuses.
The bottom line is that the book is getting done. It'll either publish in Fall 2019 or early 2020, but we're aiming for the former.
I hope you stick it out, I think it's going to be worth the wait. Either way, I thank you for pre-ordering. Readers don't alway realize how much of a hero move pre-ordering a book is.
J.-F. Dubeau
There's two answers to this.
The typical writer answer would be to brag about how much I've read on the subject. I've been fascinated by criminal pathology, serial killers and true crime for about a quarter of a century. I've been reading on the subject and going over notorious cases for ages. I also go to seminars and conferences on the subject. Especially those that focus on helping writers get it right. I avoid tv procedurals as they tend to be terrible with accuracy. Finally, I ask questions. If I'm looking at a scene and I'm not sure how it would play out, I ask around. People love nothing more than talking about what they love and if you find a cop or expert that wants to chat with you, you can get a lot of answers.
The second answer, the one a lot of authors won't tell you, is that we tend to fudge things a little. I don't mean get things wrong, though I'm sure I did here and there, but rather focus our research in the specific areas that are relevant to the scenes we write. I can go into details about chain of evidence, but I haven't looked into (until very recently) proper arrest procedures. I just never had to write about it and it's not something that gets covered much in true crime. There's also a few backdoors to excuse mistakes here and there. Since I don't know how far in the book you are, I won't risk spoilers, but I do leave myself a bit of wiggle room. Another example is leaving a few things vague. That helps both for pacing (I could stop the book for five pages to talk about decomposition, but that would do nothing for the narrative apart from allowing me to brag about how much I've read on decaying bodies) and it allows me to hand wave explanations I don't feel equipped to deal with.
Finally, there's also the grey area where things are never 100% clear anyway. I live in Canada and the procedures I refer are Canadian procedures for the most part. But I have to water that wine, so to speak, because it might read weird to my mostly American audience.
So it's a mix of thorough research, leveraging a passion of mine, asking questions and making hard decisions about where to be super accurate and where to keep it fuzzy for the story's sake.
I hope that answers your question and I hope the confusions about the book resolve themselves (for the most part) as you keep listening to it.
The typical writer answer would be to brag about how much I've read on the subject. I've been fascinated by criminal pathology, serial killers and true crime for about a quarter of a century. I've been reading on the subject and going over notorious cases for ages. I also go to seminars and conferences on the subject. Especially those that focus on helping writers get it right. I avoid tv procedurals as they tend to be terrible with accuracy. Finally, I ask questions. If I'm looking at a scene and I'm not sure how it would play out, I ask around. People love nothing more than talking about what they love and if you find a cop or expert that wants to chat with you, you can get a lot of answers.
The second answer, the one a lot of authors won't tell you, is that we tend to fudge things a little. I don't mean get things wrong, though I'm sure I did here and there, but rather focus our research in the specific areas that are relevant to the scenes we write. I can go into details about chain of evidence, but I haven't looked into (until very recently) proper arrest procedures. I just never had to write about it and it's not something that gets covered much in true crime. There's also a few backdoors to excuse mistakes here and there. Since I don't know how far in the book you are, I won't risk spoilers, but I do leave myself a bit of wiggle room. Another example is leaving a few things vague. That helps both for pacing (I could stop the book for five pages to talk about decomposition, but that would do nothing for the narrative apart from allowing me to brag about how much I've read on decaying bodies) and it allows me to hand wave explanations I don't feel equipped to deal with.
Finally, there's also the grey area where things are never 100% clear anyway. I live in Canada and the procedures I refer are Canadian procedures for the most part. But I have to water that wine, so to speak, because it might read weird to my mostly American audience.
So it's a mix of thorough research, leveraging a passion of mine, asking questions and making hard decisions about where to be super accurate and where to keep it fuzzy for the story's sake.
I hope that answers your question and I hope the confusions about the book resolve themselves (for the most part) as you keep listening to it.
J.-F. Dubeau
It's always a thrill to learn someone enjoyed the book. I can't tell you how much that means.
One of the biggest mistakes I made when publishing A God in the Shed was not making it clear that this is a trilogy. It's not cool to the readers and makes the ending of the book feel a little incomplete.
The good news is, the second part of the trilogy comes out in October of this year (in theory). It's titled Song of the Sandman and can be pre-ordered on Amazon or, if you want a signed copy with bookmarks and all that jazz, directly from my publisher here: https://www.inkshares.com/books/song-...
I'm also working on a few other projects in the same genre that I hope will see the light of day in 2019. With any luck I'll be able to announce what those are by the end of 2018.
I guess the short answer would be "Yes. Yes you can."
One of the biggest mistakes I made when publishing A God in the Shed was not making it clear that this is a trilogy. It's not cool to the readers and makes the ending of the book feel a little incomplete.
The good news is, the second part of the trilogy comes out in October of this year (in theory). It's titled Song of the Sandman and can be pre-ordered on Amazon or, if you want a signed copy with bookmarks and all that jazz, directly from my publisher here: https://www.inkshares.com/books/song-...
I'm also working on a few other projects in the same genre that I hope will see the light of day in 2019. With any luck I'll be able to announce what those are by the end of 2018.
I guess the short answer would be "Yes. Yes you can."
J.-F. Dubeau
Hi,
One of the mistakes I feel I made when publishing A God in the Shed is not making the fact that it's the first part of a trilogy more obvious. So the short answer is 'yes', there is definitely a sequel coming. Two in fact.
That's the good news. The better news is that I'm working on the sequel pretty much as we speak.
On a separate note: I'm so glad you like Venus and Penny. They're a blast to write.
One of the mistakes I feel I made when publishing A God in the Shed is not making the fact that it's the first part of a trilogy more obvious. So the short answer is 'yes', there is definitely a sequel coming. Two in fact.
That's the good news. The better news is that I'm working on the sequel pretty much as we speak.
On a separate note: I'm so glad you like Venus and Penny. They're a blast to write.
J.-F. Dubeau
I don't really have a first language between the two.
Chronologically, I learned French first from my parents, but at the age of four they sent me to an English preschool. I then spent my youth bouncing between French and English schools. Listened mostly to English television while speaking French to my parents. I read mostly English books and I've worked in both French and English environments. The vast majority of my friends are also bilingual.
I'm proud to say that I've lived a bilingual life and consider myself as such.
Chronologically, I learned French first from my parents, but at the age of four they sent me to an English preschool. I then spent my youth bouncing between French and English schools. Listened mostly to English television while speaking French to my parents. I read mostly English books and I've worked in both French and English environments. The vast majority of my friends are also bilingual.
I'm proud to say that I've lived a bilingual life and consider myself as such.
J.-F. Dubeau
Most of the science fiction I imagine comes from a single idea, usually an extrapolation or exaggeration of what I envision the future to be, to which I attach a story. In the case of The Life Engineered I tried to envision a different way humanity would come up with artificial life than what we've seen in fiction so far. Initially it was supposed to be a web comic, but I quickly realized the scope of the story was too broad and it would have taken me too long to draw.
J.-F. Dubeau
Music mostly. Music is one of those things I can't wrap my brain around. It might as well be sorcery. This is probably why I find it so compelling and in turn, why I can't help but come up with stories as I listen. My mind can't help but try to build scenes for the music to score.
J.-F. Dubeau
I'm currently working on a sequel to The Life Engineered. I've had so many positive preliminary reviews and I find the universe of the book so compelling to write for that I couldn't resist going back there for another story.
J.-F. Dubeau
The surprises. I used to make fun of the concept that a book you write with characters you create can surprise you, but now I know that they do and I know how and I think it's amazing. Sure I come up with the scenarios and characters but it's not until I throw them together that I can decide how they'll interact and it's when the results aren't what I predicted that I'm truly happy to be writing.
J.-F. Dubeau
I do one of two things: Either I go for a walk, music blasting in my ears and no particular destination in mind, or I switch gears completely. I'll write a different scene or work on an entirely different project.
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