Campaigns to think about…

So, after making a rambling comment on Twitter about not being sure how to meet our first stretch goal of $600 to pay my editor Tara for her work on Thicker Than Blood, we got ANOTHER $100 contribution. That’s 3 so far, for those not keeping score at home. Because of these ultra-generous fans, all backers will be getting a new ARC in their incentive packages, Fangs, Humans, and Other Perils of Night Life. This is a sequel to A Boy and His Dawg, which has been getting some good reviews over on Amazon after being free for a week. (Have I said woot yet? No? WOOT!)

I’m not 100% sure if the ARC will have a cover or not, but I have already contacted the artist who worked on the first book, D.B. Harris, and he’s willing to do the second cover too. Which is good, cause that way they’ll have a consistent style. I have all of April and part of June to scrape together funds to pay D.B. So I want to say that of course I’ll have a proper cover on the ARC for you. But I won’t promise this because I don’t want to lie to you if things don’t work out. But, for sure, I will be using a lot of this extra time to edit the book, and as ARCs go, it should be a relatively clean copy. (I edit because I love you.)

I said on Twitter that I’d have the incentive package out in April, but this is a math mistake on my part. Our campaign still has 36 days left, and so the packages won’t get out to you lovely peeps until May. The book will release in June, and this is another way of me saying thanks to you for preordering. I had plans to release other books before Fangs, but since I’ll already have it finished with a cover, I suspect it will be my July release. One of the joys of being an indie punk is, I never met a schedule I didn’t ignore to do what I wanted. (^_^)

Anywho, have I said recently how awesome my fans are? Because they really are. I may not have as many as the bigger authors, but da-yum, my fans know how to show the love.

Instead of signing off with butt smooching, I want to bring a couple of other campaigns to your attention, which I have no affiliation with, but which I still think you should check out. The first is a new party card game called Widget. The game maker asked me to check out last night. I did, and the word nerd in me went “Oooh! This has potential!” So I retweeted the link they sent, and then I chipped in a $10 to help nudge the game closer the stretch goals for expansion packs. The game has already met the minimum goal of $4,000, but if they can make $4,500, we’ll get vampires and zombies added to the mix.

But what is Widget about? The basic idea is making up silly gadgets with two types of cards. One card type has pictures on them of various creatures, and the other has words. The object is to link these two cards to make silly widgets, or devices meant to amuse your friends. Like, I might make an electric steamroller for pressing platypus tails, or a magic neon garlic extractor for feeding pizza to vampires. The devices are all voted upon by the other players, so the object is to find the silliest widget to amuse your friend, not aiming for a concrete point total. It’s not so much a competition as an excuse to use your imagination. Obviously, you can see why this appeals to me.

This is a great idea for a party game for many players, and rounds can go by pretty quickly. It won’t require a lot of heavy thinking, and you can whip Widget out at an adult party or at a birthday party for little kids with equal success. So, if you like playing silly party games, do give this project a look. As of this writing, they have 9 days left and $4,300, so it’s very close to the vampire and zombie expansions, which I’d love to see.

And finally, I’ve already mentioned this project, but the campaign to make survival kits for the homeless is down to the last 4 days. Donations have slowed down a lot since the campaign reached the minimum goal, so I want to point out that additional donations means more people will get help. You don’t have to toss in a lot to help, either.

This morning, a friend on Twitter tossed in a $5 and then apologized for not sending more. But I told him thanks, and that every little bit helps. The same goes for anyone willing to chip in a similar amount. It really does help, even if all you can spare is a fiver. So if you haven’t contributed to this cause, please think about it before time runs out. And if you have, please share the link and politely poke your friends to chip in a little.

Any of us can end up homeless, and when put in this place, we all need a little help to get back on our feet. When I was homeless, I might have died from hypothermia if not for the kindness of others, so I always try to remember that and help others who have stumbled to that level of life. If you’ve been there too, do think about helping. And if you haven’t, well you could be there one day, and you’ll want help out. Storing a little karma up with a donation now couldn’t hurt, right? Right.

And that’s it from me for now. Tune in tomorrow, when I bitch and complain about something at random. You know, SSDD.