The Sword and Laser discussion

On March 1st we're interviewing J-F Dubeau about his book The Life Engineered the first to come out in the Sword and Laser collection!

What should we ask him?

In The Life Engineered, you limited yourself to the view point of Dagir. In the teaser for Arch-Android, we see through a new character for the chapter. Will you be changing viewpoints in Arch-Android? If so, any chance we get a part through the mind of a Von Neumann?

I'm curious about the entire Inkshares process and how it compares to traditional publishing, although I don't think he's traditionally published. Was it hard to sort of switch gears from basically a sort of Kickstarter self-promotion to working with a full team? Would Inkshares handle any future sequels/stories in the same universe if The Life Engineered gets enough popular notice?

Basically Inkshares could very well be a disruptive model for publishing and I am personally keeping a very interested eye on it. Was excited to receive both my ebook and physical copy, although I haven't started reading it yet.

I found the lack of human bodies a sort of interesting relief - no worries about Dagir suffocating, no need for any of the Capeks to experience physical pain if they so chose, and no distractions due to sex. I had to completely reorient my expectations and it was really fun to read... but it got me thinking: if Capeks are the final personality produced by many reincarnated lives, wouldn't there be a disconnect between their 'lived' physical experiences and their Capek reality? Why isn't that disconnect dangerous?

This line of thinking has lots of implications, but I'm sticking with one question:

I already know sex is out of the picture, but what about platonic or romantic love?

How many lives have you went through at this point? Have you reached Nirvana?

Note sure why it didn't post my entire comment but I will try again.

How many lives have you went through at this point? Have you reached Nirvana?

I've actually read the book now and I have another question. Has J-F actually been to Somerville MA? Of course, (view spoiler)[the Somerville MA in the Matrix, I mean the Nursery, might not resemble the real Somerville MA in any meaningful way, (hide spoiler)] but the description from the book did not jive with my impression of the place.

There's some very quiet and interesting gender/identity discussion in the book. Will this be a more central concept moving forward in the series?

Was there real life inspiration for the character of Dagir? Aurendevel? Jonathan?

Joanna wrote: "I'm curious about the entire Inkshares process and how it compares to traditional publishing, although I don't think he's traditionally published. Was it hard to sort of switch gears from basically..."

Last summer I wrote a rather in depth article about my opinion of Inkshares at the time for SF Signal. While a few things have changed since, I think the crux of my point of view remains relevant. You can read the article here:

http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2015...

As for whether Inkshares would keep publishing books from the series, that's an interesting question. Obviously, if I meet the funding goal for each book, they'll keep publishing and I personally have no problem keeping this series at Inkshares. In fact, if I can keep them in the Sword & Laser Collection, if only to maintain brand continuity (it looks better on a bookshelf), I'll do that too.