Launched the #Kickstarter at http://kck.st/RaifStory Come Support the new #SciFi #Novel in the #PhoenicianSeries

At long last, the Kickstarter Project for Raif's Story has launched! You can come join the fun by clicking here. There are multiple pledge amounts from which to choose but they'll all do the same thing: help make Raif's Story a reality!

There are multiple pledge levels but the idea behind crowdfunding is simple: even if everyone only pledges small amounts ($10, $25, $60), if there are enough people in the crowd pledging support, the project gets enough funding to move forward.

My project goal amount is $5,500. Within moments of launching, one supporter had pledged $10. That leaves $5,490 for you--well, less, actually, because a couple of others have already pledged, too.

I plan to write to several of you directly, asking for your help, but I really need help getting the word out to people I don't already know. If you can retweet, reshare or reblog this post, I'd really appreciate it. And that won't cost you any money at all!

Then again, if you're rich and really believe in the Phoenician Series, you can pledge one of the highest levels of support and get written into the book! For a pledge of $1500 you can be Redshirted. That is, I'll name a Proctor character after you and then kill you, just like a member of the Away Team's Security on Star Trek.

I have the scene already written and just stuck some placeholder notes in there for myself, using "[unnamed Proctor]" to indicate where I still need to decide what to call the poor blokes who'll die so that Shayla might live. You'll die a valiant death for her sake, I can promise you that. I can even offer to collaborate with you to some extent on which one of the planned Proctor deaths will be yours. Only one death is already written: Lawrence, Raif's friend and bunkmate. You cannot be him. Unless your name is Lawrence? ^)^

Since not everyone is rich, there are plenty of "in between" pledge tiers you can choose from, too. I'm offering T shirts and posters of the cover art and bookmarks and even coffee mugs.  Click through to see what kinds of rewards I dreamed up or better yet, pledge however much you can and request a new reward on the comments page for backers. You never know if you don't ask, but I might be willing to define a new reward based on readership demand.

Kickstarter has presets for the rewards based on what I dreamed up but you can also just write in your own amount if you like. All that really matters is that you pledge your support--even if it's just $1 it'll make a difference (to me!)

Thank you!

-Friday
@phoenicianbooks