16Sunsets – Kickstarter Cover

I’m working on a special Kickstarter cover for those who pledge any of the dead-tree versions. Opinions? Click to embiggen:

Kickstarter (Almost)

I’ve sent the third revision of 16Sunsets off to my editor today, so I figure I should launch the Kickstarter campaign as soon as I get home and record a video. I’m excited that you all got to see the story as I wrote it and were able to comment on each installment. I had a lot of feedback from several communities: Inspiration Monday, 52-week Flash Fiction Challenge, Sunday Photo Fiction & Friday Flash. Of course, Chuck Wendig was intregal in the story starting with his own weekly flash fiction prompts. If you want to read some good flash fiction, check out these sites. Submit your own while you’re visiting.

Kickstarter Finale

It’s been an interesting (almost) thirty days! Thank you to all my week one and week two backers. Unfortunately, it’s not looking like we’ll reach our goal of $1000. No worries! The book will still be out in February. As a special thank you to those of you who backed the project, I’ll be sending you a free eBook of Escape. There is still time for the project to succeed and I’ve heard there could be a big influx of pledges in the last hours, so I guess there’s still hope. Anyway, thanks again for you all believing in me.

Final Kickstarter Week!

No new backers in the last seven days. ::sad panda:: We need to drive the last $425 home in this, the last week of the campaign. I’m making Paradox free on Amazon for the last five days of the campaign, so look for it July 9^th through the 13^th. My next short story, Escape, will be out Saturday, July 26^th. Once the project is funded, all backers at any reward threshold will have the option to receive an advance eBook of Escape free of charge.

I can’t stress it enough: If the $1000 funding goal isn’t met, the campaign fails and no money changes hands. Also, it’s not a donation; you’re pledging and will receive the reward matching your pledge threshold. Let’s get the word out and finish this goal with time to spare.

Week Two Recap

The Kickstarter campaign is creeping along slowly but surely. Shout outs to my backers thus far. It’s also incredibly humbling to know that almost half of the funding goal is the result of three special backers. Anyone who knows someone in the publishing industry probably knows how insecure we authors really are. We agonize over publishing our stories and worry we’re not good enough. A funding campaign like this truly is a writers’ greatest validation. Forget about awards and sales rankings – The fact that you all believe in my work enough to pledge means a lot to me.

Champion Standing is now 57% funded. As an added incentive to pledge, anyone who pledges any amount (including $1) get a ‘thanks’ in the Champion Standing acknowledgement page. I’ve updated the rewards to reflect this update. Keep getting the word out – Facebook, Twitter and blogs. There’s only $470 to go and two weeks to get it done. I’m perfectly happy with 470 pledges of $1.

IBR Interview

Arrington Flynn of Indie Book Rebels interviewed me today. It was a fun two hours and the time flew by. I read excerpts from Paradox and Champion Standing. We talked about Forlorn Hope and my flash fiction. Here’s the link to listen:

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/indiebookrebels/2014/06/24/indie-book-rebels-8–mark-gardner

For the next 24 hours, if you pledge $10 or more to the Champion Standing Kickstarter Campaign and send Arrington an email with the name you pledged under, I’ll send you an eBook of Body Rentals with the bonus stories, Pithos, Tyrant, Busted and an unnamed Body Rentals story.

Week One Update

The first week has been awesome! (People say I use the word ‘awesome’ way too much.) I’ve had a few emails asking about my writing style. There’s a bunch of flash fiction here, but also check out these specific posts:

Warrior’s Blood – This is an early flash I did for Chuck Wendig’s weekly flash fiction prompt. It tells the story of two main characters on a spiritual journey.

Fabia’s Mission – Another flash fiction piece for Chuck’s prompts. This story is not part of Champion Standing, but tales place during the first chapter of CS.

I’ve posted images of the limited edition “green” cover before, but I wanted to show it again:

The Kickstarter campaign is the only way to get the “green” cover.

I wanted to specifically give a shout out to my $250 backer. Dude, you’re the kick start to my Kickstarter campaign. Thanks! (I didn’t want to name him because I didn’t specifically have permission to do so.)

I’ll be interviewed by Arrington Flynn of Indie Book Rebels on Tuesday, June 24th @ 3PM Arizona and Pacific time. It’ll be a great opportunity to hear me talk about Champion Standing and for you to ask questions about the book and campaign. Arrington has taken an active interest in the campaign and my writing – Thanks Arrington!

Begging and stuff

For Champion Rising, I knocked out about 600 words or so last night. Today I wrote about 2100 words. When I’ve written in the past, my daily goal was about 1000 words. With family, work and everything else going on, I suspect I may only get around 500 words written a day with the exception of Saturday, Sunday and Tuesday. I figure 2000 words on those days is a worthy goal. If I can pull off 6000 a week, then I should have the vomit draft of Champion Rising done in about two months. Of course that can vary radically based on the aforementioned obstacles. I still want to put a serious dent into The Afflicted. Moscow Mule has me excited about it again. I still want to start the audiobook for Paradox as well. You know the eBook is free on Amazon right now, right?

I feel like an Emergency room doctor. Dividing my limited time between multiple patients, assessing their worth and spending the time on whichever seems the most important. Like many authors, I yearn for the day when I can do this writing thing full time and it pays my rent, groceries, etc.

Speaking of money, I’m sure you’ve not noticed all my posts, banners and begging my friends to blog, tweet and facebook my Kickstarter campaign. Kick a buck my way. Make it a fiver and you will get an advance copy of Champion Standing. Feeling sassy? There are rewards all the way up to $250.

::sad anime eyes:: Please?

Kickstarter Progress

Opening weekend of my Kickstarter campaign wraps up with $290 of the $1000 goal. I was secretly hoping to have the whole thing funded already, but the realistic side of me told my romantic side to get bent. I knew it was unrealistic to hope, but hey… I write fiction, dig?

Please help get the word out via blogs, Twitter, Facebook and any other methodologies you deem good. Remind your peeps it’s not a donation, it’s a pledge and I don’t get anything unless the whole thing is funded.

Kickstarter!

The Kickstarter campaign for Champion Standing starts now! Remember, you’re pledging, not donating. If you meet any of the reward thresholds, you will get that reward. Spread the word – If I don’t reach the $1000 goal, I get nothing and the campaign fails.

I mentioned this on Saturday: Escape is pretty much done. I’ll agonize over it for a little while and release it in July at the earliest, August at the latest.

Paradox is free June 13th – 17th on Amazon. I could use some reviews, people!

In other news, fellow author and RPG designer, Todd Van Hooser owns the copyright on some beautiful line art by Joel Cotejar. I wanted it for the cover of Champion Rising. Todd gave his blessing, so I’ve created a rough cover concept for Champion Rising: