Read "Hellwatch"

[ysabetwordsmith]

While hunting for resources for this weekend's Crowdfunding Creative Jam with its "Disabled Characters" theme, I stumbled across a splendid new crowdfunding project. "Hellwatch" by Larime Taylor is a supernatural horror novella series, initially crowdfunded through Kickstarter. The structure resembles that of a television series, which is a cool approach for serial fiction. The first episode can be downloaded free; the next two, funded by the Kickstarter project, will appear in January and February. More are planned.

What makes this awesome? The characters. I fell in love with them just from the descriptions, and tracked down the story based on that. They are Ester Vasquez, a hacker-come-demon hunter in a wheelchair; and Sammy Lutui, her live-in care provider and assistant demon hunter. Ester's ancestors came from Chile and Sammy is Samoan. Sammy is also gay. Together they kick much ass. They have guns and knives and metaphysical science. Illustrations are in the article, and they are vividly evocative. Accurate characterization is guaranteed on account of the author/artist being in a wheelchair (with a more severe version of Ester's condition) and living with other disabled folks.

I really enjoyed the pilot episode. It's a bit slow to start, as the first couple pages of the story introduce the characters and a lot of background information. (You know how the first few minutes of a pilot go.) Once the conflict is introduced -- a demon possessing a young boy -- both the pacing and the tension pick up considerably. The author makes good use of the novella length, laying out a vigorous double-peaked plot with a major confrontation first in Mexico and then again at home. The description is detailed and gripping. I particularly admire the rendition of demonic entities: ruthless, suave, devastating, atavistic, and generally creeptastic. The hairs on the back of my neck gave them a standing ovation. Highly recommended.

So, go read the scary story with the awesome heroes. See the nifty art. If you can spare it, send a donation -- details for that are on the art FAQ page.

Read "Hellwatch"

[ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com]

While hunting for resources for this weekend's Crowdfunding Creative Jam with its "Disabled Characters" theme, I stumbled across a splendid new crowdfunding project.  "Hellwatch" by Larime Taylor is a supernatural horror novella series, initially crowdfunded through Kickstarter.  The structure resembles that of a television series, which is a cool approach for serial fiction.  The first episode can be downloaded free; the next two, funded by the Kickstarter project, will appear in January and February.  More are planned.

What makes this awesome?  The characters.  I fell in love with them just from the descriptions, and tracked down the story based on that.  They are Ester Vasquez, a hacker-come-demon hunter in a wheelchair; and Sammy Lutui, her live-in care provider and assistant demon hunter.  Ester's ancestors came from Chile and Sammy is Samoan.  Sammy is also gay.  Together they kick much ass.  They have guns and knives and metaphysical science.  Illustrations are in the article, and they are vividly evocative.  Accurate characterization is guaranteed on account of the author/artist being in a wheelchair (with a more severe version of Ester's condition) and living with other disabled folks.

I really enjoyed the pilot episode.  It's a bit slow to start, as the first couple pages of the story introduce the characters and a lot of background information.  (You know how the first few minutes of a pilot go.)  Once the conflict is introduced -- a demon possessing a young boy -- both the pacing and the tension pick up considerably.  The author makes good use of the novella length, laying out a vigorous double-peaked plot with a major confrontation first in Mexico and then again at home.  The description is detailed and gripping.  I particularly admire the rendition of demonic entities: ruthless, suave, devastating, atavistic, and generally creeptastic.  The hairs on the back of my neck gave them a standing ovation.  Highly recommended.

So, go read the scary story with the awesome heroes.  See the nifty art.  If you can spare it, send a donation -- details for that are on the art FAQ page.

Hello All

[the-borgqueen.livejournal.com]

I was pointed to this community by miintikwa. I do a bit of several things. I read tarot, I blend herbal teas, am a certified hypnotist with a past life regression "add-on" and I've started dabbling with wood and leather burned craft work after leather carving didn't work out. I used to do jewelry and was trying to learn leather carving by my hands no longer cooperate with those crafts, but the burning is a little easier.

I joined as I'm hoping to be able to spread the word about my ventures, though the majoriy of my focus at the moment is the tarot reading as I need a way to be able to help the household out financially--a good deal of our troubles come from my various medical bills and the fact I'm unable to work in a "regular job" to help pay those off. However I also have a fair amount of various herbal teas that I can offer in return for donations as well. I'm still compiling the information about those into a few posts on the site.

I appreciate any suggestions or word-spreading. I have a page set up on my website: To Get a Tarot Reading from Catriona. I also hope to be able to spread the word for others and eventually contribute once we're a bit more financially stable.

Check out Peerbackers

[ysabetwordsmith]

Peerbackers is a crowdfunding hub site that does fundraising for multiple project types.  This is the first one I've seen that gives creators a choice  of what to do after the fundraiser closes:
* If the project meets its goal, funds are released to the creator.
* If the project doesn't meet its goal but can fulfill the promised rewards, it gets whatever funds were raised.
* If the project doesn't meet its goal and therefore can't fulfill promised rewards, no funds are released.

This is different because the vast majority of hub sites are all-or-nothing, like Kickstarter.  If you don't make your goal, you don't get any funds at all.  IndieGoGo and a few others will pay out partial funds, but then sometimes the donors don't get anything for their effort.  I think Peerbackers has the right idea, because some projects are all-or-nothing while others are get-as-close-as-we-can.  It's more flexible and yields better results for both creators and donors.  I'll definitely keep an eye on this site in case I decide to launch a fundraiser -- the kinds of things I have in mind would really benefit from this flexible structure.

Introducing myself to the community.

[p-m-cryan.livejournal.com]

ysabetwordsmith has recommended that I let people know who I am before listing my crowdfunding venture, so here's a little bit about me. Sorry that it's so cut-and-dried CV-style, but I'm not always the best at describing what I do.
Patty Cryan

Owner / Annie's Book Stop of Worcester, located in Worcester, Massachusetts USA

Patricia M. Cryan is, by turns, a retailer who never sleeps, a walking library of children’s literature, a fan of hard science, harder science fiction, and literary horror tales, and a freelance editor who makes strong folk cry at regular intervals.

She has been active in bookselling since 1987; her first bookstore job was at Reader's Market, a discount outlet for the Waldenbooks chain. From June 1990 until September 1996, she worked at Children's Book World in Guilderland, NY, and then relocated to Massachusetts. She became the Children's Department Head in October of 1996 at Tatnuck Bookseller & Sons. She transferred to their Purchasing Division in May of 1999, where she remained until February 2003, when she chose to pursue a career in freelance editing. She maintained a keen interest in bookselling and kept abreast of the field through contacts in the book trade.

Patricia began volunteering at her local Annie's Book Stop in August of 2008, and took over its existing operations in November 2010. Since then, she has expanded its focus beyond the traditional used books and trade-in traffic it had previously relied upon.

She has been a member in good standing of The New England Children’s Bookselling Advisory Council and the New England Independent Booksellers Association since 1999.

Since 1986, she also has also served [and continues to serve] as General Partner for Mike’s Comics - http://www.mikescomics.com - a mail order and Internet company established in 1976, which carries comic books, audio dramas, science fiction and fantasy books and collectibles, roleplaying game supplies, fantasy greeting cards, and much, much more.

Questions may be directed to Patricia via e-mail at anniesbookstopworcester@gmail.com.

I am currently running a fundraiser on Peerbackers.com to help keep my bookstore afloat. We support many local authors, and host creative events like a weekly textile craft-and-audiobook social called Spinning Yarns.

More details in my next post. Thanks for reading so far.

---pmc2

Check out Peerbackers

[ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com]

Peerbackers is a crowdfunding hub site that does fundraising for multiple project types.  This is the first one I've seen that gives creators a choice  of what to do after the fundraiser closes:
* If the project meets its goal, funds are released to the creator.
* If the project doesn't meet its goal but can fulfill the promised rewards, it gets whatever funds were raised.
* If the project doesn't meet its goal and therefore can't fulfill promised rewards, no funds are released.

This is different because the vast majority of hub sites are all-or-nothing, like Kickstarter.  If you don't make your goal, you don't get any funds at all.  IndieGoGo and a few others will pay out partial funds, but then sometimes the donors don't get anything for their effort.  I think Peerbackers has the right idea, because some projects are all-or-nothing while others are get-as-close-as-we-can.  It's more flexible and yields better results for both creators and donors.  I'll definitely keep an eye on this site in case I decide to launch a fundraiser -- the kinds of things I have in mind would really benefit from this flexible structure.

The Bookstore That's Bigger On The Inside Needs YOU!

[p-m-cryan.livejournal.com]

Thank you to Ysabetwordsmith for letting me post this. The notion for me to raise money for my bookstore via crowdfunding started in the comments of this post, back at the end of September of last year.

http://crowdfunding.livejournal.com/344022.html

At that time, we had just come off a four-month period where the most direct road to our store was closed due to bridge construction. While online sales kept the basic bills paid, there was no way for me to do as I had planned... to hire on the volunteer staffers who had helped us become a destination ever since I took the store over in November 2010.

We've had a solid holiday sales season, and are planning book signings and other events well into the future, but due to that catastrophically-timed bridge closure, we have a lot of ground to make up from where I expected we'd be by now.

The link to our Peerbackers.com fundraiser can be found here.

http://peerbackers.com/projects/the-bookstore-thats-bigger-on-the-inside-needs-you-1853035663/

Half of whatever we raise towards our $20,000.00 goal will go towards a dedicated account for payroll for my staffers. The other half will go into purchasing books for inventory, with our particular concentration in speculative fiction. We already carry many presses' titles on consignment, but I'd love to be able to pay publishers outright for their marvelous books.

EVERY PERSON PLEDGING WILL RECEIVE A THANK YOU GIFT, whether we meet our goal or not. Pledges start at $5.00, with other plateaus at $10.00, $25.00, $50.00, $100.00, $250.00 and $500.00. Thank you gifts are listed under each pledge level, starting with a personalized thank-you note with artwork by graphic novelist Bret M. Herholz.

I appreciate any support you can render, and my volunteers will, too. Let's not lose yet another independent bookstore; let's not lose a venue for authors to have someone discover their works; and let's try to create some jobs on this weakened economy. Your contributions will help us meet all these goals.

Very truly yours,

Patty Cryan
http://www.anniesbookstopworcester.com

New Crowdfunding Project: My Starz! Astrology

[ysabetwordsmith]

Recently clare_dragonfly mentioned on crowdfunding that it would be nice to have a crowdfunded astrology project. Well, my partner Doug does astrology, so he is developing a crowdfunded project. Go check out my_starz for an introductory post. There will be some short essays about astrology in general and his thoughts on the art and science of it. Later there will be opportunities to see astrological charts of famous people and to get your own chart done. A supporting website is also in development.

Please visit my_starz to keep an eye on this project. Commenting, friending, and boosting the signal will speed the development and get more essays posted sooner. If you have thoughts on what you'd like to see in a crowdfunded astrology project, input is encouraged.

New Crowdfunding Project: My Starz! Astrology

[ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com]

Recently clare_dragonfly mentioned on crowdfunding that it would be nice to have a crowdfunded astrology project. Well, my partner Doug does astrology, so he is developing a crowdfunded project.  Go check out my_starz for an introductory post.  There will be some short essays about astrology in general and his thoughts on the art and science of it. Later there will be opportunities to see astrological charts of famous people and to get your own chart done.  A supporting website is also in development.

Please visit my_starz to keep an eye on this project.  Commenting, friending, and boosting the signal will speed the development and get more essays posted sooner.   If you have thoughts on what you'd like to see in a crowdfunded astrology project, input is encouraged.