Crowdfunding: Connecting Creators and Patrons

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.

The October Poetry Fishbowl is now open, with a theme of "ghosts."  Please drop by and give me some prompts.

reannon plans to write a Christmas horror story to fund car repairs.  This is a clever application of crowdfunding!

This month's Poetry Fishbowl went zoom! I worked from 12:15 PM to 2:30 AM. After subtracting lunch and supper breaks, that's 12 hours 15 minutes of work. A big rush of prompts arrived early, with a few more trickling in later. I wrote 22 poems, mostly medium, with a few shorts and a few long or epic ones. Most were free-verse poems, a few were forms, and a few had specific verse structures but not rhyme or meter. Some poems used multiple prompts, but more of them were based on single prompts.

Participation this month was terrific! A total of 19 people posted prompts. Please welcome our seven new prompters: nekomata, i_id, wolfbrotherjoe, siege, allykat, synnabar, and kestrels_nest! You have them to thank for "Medusa's Daughter," this month's bonus freebie for participation. There were 68 comments including mine.

Noteworthy records from this month include several all-time highs and others that are highs for this year. I am particularly intrigued that last year's Horror topic also showed on the list, which inclines me to continue exploring this topic.

Most Poems Written: 22 (10/13/09 Horror: Shapeshifters); 23 (10/14/08 Horror)
Most Comments: 68 (10/13/09 Horror: Shapeshifters); 53 (12/9/08 Science & Its Stories)
Most People Sending Prompts: 19 (10/13/09 Horror: Shapeshifters); 15 (12/9/08 Science & Its Stories)
Most First-time Prompters: 7 (10/13/09 Horror: Shapeshifters); 7 (5/15/08 Speculative Fiction)
Most First-time Donors: 2 (10/13/09 Horror: Shapeshifters); 3 (4/26/08 Nature)

Another factor in this month's success was networking. Several people mentioned finding the Poetry Fishbowl via a friend's recommendation. I've had a couple more folks Friend me or drop by this week for the same reason. I hope that the audience here will continue to grow, and I really appreciate the networking assistance from friends.

The following fishbowl poems have been published:
“Building Suspense”
“The Calico Fox”
“Fat Moon Night”
“Felis dendrophila”
“Ghost Mittens”
“Medusa’s Daughter”
“Shadowskin”
“The Social Chameleon Speaks”
“ssessu”
“The Swan-Children’s Song”

Epic poem report:
This month we finished microfunding one epic poem and started another. I'm pleased to see continuing interest in the longer poems, and microfunding seems to be an effective way of making them accessible to more readers. (Although the SFPA has a long poem category for 50+ lines, many markets have a length limit around 20-30 lines. So these aren't always easy to sell.) I'm thinking I'd like to discuss the handling of epic poems, but I want to wait until Monday or Tuesday when more folks will be online to join that conversation. Meanwhile, you can enjoy these epics:

"The Cuckoo's Song" (finished microfunding 10/15/09)
“The Transformations of Terror” (began microfunding 10/15/09)

The donor perk post is up. All currently sponsored poems have been posted. The polls to direct general donations have been completed. This time it occurred to me to offer opportunities to direct general donations into epic verses, and in both cases the epic won! Voters first decided to finish "The Cuckoo's Song" and then funded three new verses of "The Transformations of Terror."

This month's donors are: ellenmillion, allykat, synnabar, minor_architect, dormouse_in_tea, janetmiles. A special welcome to new donors allykat and synnabar! Everyone's generosity is greatly appreciated. A couple of people mentioned how much they enjoyed seeing certain poems sponsored. With the power of the Internet and the cool new business model of crowdfunding, anyone can become an editor and introduce the world to awesome stuff.

The Poetry Fishbowl Project also has a permanent landing page.