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Posts Tagged ‘kickstarter’

Priorities

Look. I am glad for The Gamers: Hands of Fate. I am glad they met their fundraising goal, and that they also hit the stretch goal that means AEG (the company behind L5R) will be producing a card game based off the one they invented for the film. This is fun and exciting and cool, and I wouldn’t have linked to the project before if I didn’t want it to succeed.

But.

The Gamers has raised $384,264.

Pe ‘Sla: Help Save Lakota Sioux Sacred Land has raised $341,526.

According to the last update, they’ve managed to get a seat at the negotiation table. That’s good, and I’m sure it’s due in part to the money they’ve been able to raise. But I have no idea how much of the land they’re going to be able to buy with that money. All of it? I’d be surprised. They wouldn’t have set their goal at one million if three hundred grand was enough to do everything they needed.

The Internets are a great place. But they are also a place where people will stump up more money for a movie and a card game than for helping the Sioux Nation regain control of one of their most sacred sites.

I’m not surprised by this, mind you. But I do think it shows some wrong-headed priorities. There’s thirty-seven hours left on the Pe ‘Sla project; I hope they can bring in more before it’s done.

a couple of Kickstarters (or Indiegogo)

It’s going to be interesting to watch how well crowdfunding fares over the next few years. I’m getting more and more pleas to donate to or help promote various projects — enough that I’m very much having to pick and choose which ones I go with. You guys have been great about supporting the ones I’ve mentioned here before, but I don’t want to burn out your goodwill.

So, with that in mind, these three are all projects I actually have a personal desire to see succeed:

Pe’ Sla: Help Save Lakota Sioux Sacred Land — this one was launched when a sacred site in the Black Hills was put up on the auction block by the landowner. It’s since been taken down from auction, but according to the updates, the Great Sioux Nation is in private negotiation to buy as much of the land as they can. This is a Flexible Funding campaign, which means they get the donated funds even if they don’t reach their goal; it’s also worth noting that the crowdfunding is in addition to the money being put up by the tribes themselves. So the project helps take some of the burden off them/expand how much they can purchase and protect. Given the history in this country of fucking over indigenous groups by taking their land, this is a nice, direct way to help do the right thing.

The Gamers: Hands of Fate — on a less serious and political note . . . but only partly, I guess. I linked to this one before, but as part of a link dump, with very little explanation. To go into more detail: as described in this update, the filmmakers are actively concerned with and interested in doing something about the problems with gender in the gaming community. I quite enjoyed the first two movies in the series (the first on in particular is a hilarious tour through all kinds of good ol’ bad tropes in D&D), so I’m hoping this one gets the last bit of funding it needs to happen.

Electric Velocipede — finally, a small one for the magazine Electric Velocipede, which published my short story “Selection” some years back. They’re a quirky little market, and about halfway to their goal, which will fund them for the next four issues (i.e. a year).

last call for Clockwork Phoenix 4; also, a short story

There’s just under a day left on the Clockwork Phoenix 4 Kickstarter. If you wanted to pre-order a copy, this is a way to do it. 🙂

Also, the latest issue of Apex Magazine is live, containing my (very) short story “Waiting for Beauty.” (This is one of my darker fairy tale retellings, though less Lovecraftian than most in that set.) I haven’t yet had a chance to read the rest of the issue, but it looks absolutely smashing, with stories from Genevieve Valentine, Kat Howard, and Nir Yaniv, as well as nonfiction from Lynne M. Thomas and jimhines, and an interview with Genevieve.

The Best of BCS, Year Three

Scott Andrews at Beneath Ceaseless Skies is running a poll to choose the final story for the third-year “Best of” anthology. I’m in the running, with “Two Pretenders” (which is peripherally an Onyx Court story); I am, however, up against some stiff competition. BCS publishes good stuff!

You can vote in the poll until midnight Friday, Pacific time — I’m not sure if that means eleven and a half hours from now, or thirty-five and a half. Vote now, vote often! Wait, no. Vote once. In this round, anyway. Then vote again in the run-off. (I’ll post a heads-up when that happens.)

In other short-story related news, Clockwork Phoenix 4 will be paying pro rates! Many thanks to everyone who contributed. There’s still time to get in on the game, too, and one more stretch goal to aim for.

link dump

Two more on gun control:

American gun owners are under siege

The Second Amendment and the fantasy of revolution

Several on gender:

Kickstarter project for another Gamers movie (which is going into this category because of this update)

Rundown on the Readercon debacle

Finding That a “Dynamic” Pose is Defined by Gender (comic books, and not surprising, but the redraws really help hammer the point home)

Victoria’s Secret vs. Dove (a very striking contrast)

Just Another Princess Movie (an interesting analysis of Brave, that says it is not just another princess movie)

Awesome photos:

Imgur set

National Geographic set

Music humour:

“Early one day, a C, an E-flat, and a G go into a bar . . .”

The truth about oboes

And now my browser can stop weeping for mercy.

another Clockwork Phoenix update

The Clockwork Phoenix 4 Kickstarter project has hit the first of its stretch goals. It’s less than $1400 away from the second stretch goal, with nine days to reach that target.

I can’t say anything in encouragement without it being kind of self-serving. The purpose of the stretch goals is to let Mike Allen (time_shark) pay the authors more money for their stories; if the project brings in $8000, he can pay five cents a word, which is the baseline professional rate. Since I intend to send him a story, I have a vested interest in seeing the project hit that target. But it’s broader than that, I promise you: the CP anthologies have been really good, and are the sort of thing for which authors in general deserve to be paid professional rates.

Mike has added a variety of new reward packages, so even if you’ve already pledged, you might want to check it out and see if there’s anything else you want. And if you haven’t, now is a dandy time to start.

Monday assortment

Belatedly, I am over at SF Novelists again this month, posting about why failure is good for you.

Also belatedly, I am in another Mind Meld at SF Signal, this one on the topic of monarchies in fantasy.

Clockwork Phoenix 4 is a go! Now it’s a matter of hitting the stretch goals. $6500 will allow Mike Allen to pay contributors four cents a word (instead of three); $8000 will allow him to pay five cents a word, which is the baseline for professional rates in science fiction and fantasy. There are still sixteen days in which to make those happen . . . .

Gorgeous sculptural book art by Guy Laramee. I think the first is my favorite — that hidden canyon.

Really clever designs for Avengers-inspired evening gowns. Not just the major heroes, either: it hits Iron Man, Hulk, Thor, Captain America, Coulson, Nick Fury, Maria Hill, Black Widow, and Hawkeye, though I had to go hunting to find Loki separately. (Full group shot here.)

Clockwork Phoenix 4 . . . ?

I’d like to take a break from fielding comments on my last post to announce something very exciting:

Clockwork Phoenix 4.

Or rather, a Kickstarter campaign for it. You may recall the first three Clockwork Phoenix anthologies, all three of which I was very pleased to have a story in. The anthologies did quite well, in terms of both recognition and sales . . . but Norilana Books, the publisher, has fallen on hard times due to non-business-related issues, and can’t do a fourth. Since the small press is a very precarious world — and anthologies are even more precarious — Kickstarter is the best way to go about continuing the series.

As you can tell by the fact that I’ve been in all three books so far, I really like the CP anthologies, and would love to see them continue. (Full disclosure: yes, of course I intend to submit something. And given my track record so far, I have high hopes of success.) So take a look at the project page, and if you see anything you like in the rewards, pledge a few bucks. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that we can make this happen.

update on the New Tarot

I have to admit, it warms the cockles of my heart that in the day or so after I posted about my friend’s Kickstarter Project for the “New Tarot,” it gained something like seven hundred dollars in pledges. I have no way of knowing how much of that was due to my post, but given that it had been semi-stalled for a little while before then, I’d like to think I had something to do with the boost.

Which is why I’m bringing it up again. See, the project has not reached its funding goal. There are six days to go, and it needs a little less than two grand to cross the line. It would be sad to see the thing come so very close and then fall short, so I thought I’d post a reminder, and encourage you all to spread the word to other people who might be interested. I’d like to see this one hit its mark.

more tarot coolness

I’ve been meaning to post this one for a while: another friend of mine is also doing a tarot-oriented Kickstarter Project, for a “sequel” of sorts to the traditional deck. I have to say, I find the approach of this one rather shiny:

The Major Arcana of the Tarot proper are often understood as the way-stations of a “Fool’s Journey” towards self-knowledge and self-mastery. The Major Arcana of the New Tarot are meant to encapsulate a second and more outward-focused leg of that journey, in which the newly enlightened Fool steps out into the world to explore and to make his dreams a reality.

I especially like the new suits and their meaning. It’s a fascinating act of symbol-creation, that really makes the ears of my inner folklorist perk up.

The project is over halfway to its goal, but still has some distance to go, with eleven days left. Head on over and take a look. As with the Urban Tarot, you can lend your visage to a card, or pick from a variety of other rewards. Help get this one over the line!

ANHOD giveaway, Urban Tarot, and Jim Hines’ fundraiser

My thanks to everyone who sent me a title suggestion for the second book of Isabella’s memoirs! I received comments here, on Twitter, on Goodreads, by e-mail . . . the whole gamut. Give me a little while to sort through them, and then I’ll announce a winner.

Speaking of winners, Jim Hines’ fundraiser for rape crisis centers is less than $200 away from hitting the benchmark that tosses a signed copy of With Fate Conspire and a signed ARC of A Natural History of Dragons into the prize pot. There are new rewards, too, at levels up to $4000, and some of them are very shiny.

And finally, we’re in the last days of the Urban Tarot Project. $375 dollars more there will mean embroidered bags for everyone receiving the deck! And there are still signed copies of With Fate Conspire available there, too, so if you want one of those (along with all the other parts of the reward package), you have 71 hours left in which to get it.

Excelsior!

Urban Tarot update

I’m very pleased to say that with ten days to go, the Urban Tarot deck is just over a thousand dollars away from being fully funded. Close enough, in fact, that the artist Robert Scott has started making plans for what to do if he overshoots his funding goal.

The full updates (here and here) have more details, but the short form is that if the project goes $3K over the original total, he will add in custom silk spreadcloths for every donor above $65, and if it goes $5K over, then every donor receiving a deck will also get an embroidered velvet bag.

Also, Rob has added a second offer of the “Hermit and the Leviathans” reward package, which is the one where you get a personalized tour of the Fossil Halls at the American Museum of Natural History from one of the deck models, Chris Hall, who is a docent there. Why a second offer? Because the first one got snapped up in record time, and I can understand why. if I didn’t live on the other coast, I’d consider going for that option myself! (As it stands, I went for the option of being a card model instead. No, I’m not telling you which one. You’ll have to wait and see.)

And speaking of things that went fast . . . we’ve added five more to the “Marie Brennan” package, in which you get a signed copy of With Fate Conspire, along with my signature on the guidebook — which, if you recall, will include a short piece of introductory fiction from me. So if that tempts you, head on over to the project page and donate.

The Urban Tarot — now with bonus content!

I mentioned before that a friend of mine is doing a Kickstarter project to raise the funds needed to complete his Urban Tarot Deck, right?

Well, I got to chatting with him. And after a bit of behind-the-scenes scheming, I have a bit of news for you all.

If the project gets funded, the guidebook for the deck will include a short piece of introductory fiction, written by yours truly.

But wait — there’s more!

There is also a new reward level: the Marie Brennan Package. One first-edition numbered deck, the tarot guidebook signed by both me and Robert Scott (the artist), AND — specific to this package only — a signed hardcover copy of With Fate Conspire. (This is, after all, an urban tarot deck, and that is decidedly the most urban of my novels.)

I’m really stoked to be a part of this project. As I said before, I’ve been hoping for years to see this finished; well, as of me posting this, Rob is halfway to his goal, and there are still three weeks to go. If you already have With Fate Conspire, check out the other reward packages; you can get the guidebook (and therefore the fiction) at practically any level of backing, or splurge and enjoy the talents of one of the deck models. Alas, Chris Hall’s guided tour of the American Museum of Natural History has already been claimed, but I can personally vouch for the awesomeness of Jessica Hammer’s knowledge of game design, and the deliciousness of the food at Tse Wei Lim’s restaurant. (In fact, if you live in the Boston area, you should go to Journeyman at some point regardless.)

Head on over and take a look. And if you’ll be at FOGcon this weekend, I’ll be bringing some flyers with me, to spread the word far and wide.

Pick-a-mix

I had a bunch of things I meant to post yesterday, but ended up getting all political instead. (I am heartened, though, by the news that at least some organizations are seeing a funding surge. And there’s at least one doctor advocating for civil disobedience when the law would threaten the rights and well-being of patients.)

But! The point of this is to post the other stuff!

I neglected to mention this on the 16th, but I have my usual post up at SF Novelists, talking about audience expectations, and whether it’s better to be wrong or right about where the story is going.

Next, I’d like to point you at a friend’s Kickstarter project, for The Urban Tarot Deck. The existing art for this is pretty awesome; I own a print of the Princess of Swords, and kniedzw has the Magician. I’ve been hoping for years that he’d be able to finish the deck (and must confess to a hope that if this project is a success, he’ll finish his Silhouette Tarot, which I like even more). So mosey on over to take a look, and if you like what you see, send a few bucks his way.

(Okay, full truth? I am sorely tempted to shell out silly amounts of money to be on one of the remaining cards. A bunch of the models for the existing cards are friends of ours, and I love what Rob did with them; it would be nifty to see what he’d do with me. But, um. Kind of silly amounts of money, for something I cannot even pretend is a business expense.)

Third, cogent analysis of why John Carter tanked. I confess that if anybody ever makes a movie of my books, I would love to have control over various aspects . . . but then I see what happens when somebody with no distance from the subject gets to run the show, and I reconsider. I’d like to believe I would be sensible enough to listen to other people’s advice, but who knows? I might be just as short-sighted and detrimental as Stanton was.

Fourth, fellow geeks of a certain stripe may be interested in the trailer for a live-action Rurouni Kenshin movie. I have to admit, watching it breaks my brain a little; I’ve been a fan of the anime for (ye gods) nearly half my life, and Suzukaze Mayo is the voice of Himura Kenshin. The guy in the trailer . . . is a guy. (When a friend told me they were filming a live-action movie, I asked, only half-joking, whether they were going to cast a woman as Kenshin.) But there are things flashing by in the trailer that have me bouncing in my seat; does that gatling gun mean we’re going to get Aoshi and the Oniwabanshu stuff? I must watch and see. 🙂

And, to make five (non-political) things, I leave you with The 25 Most Awkward Cat Sleeping Positions.

a saga of ye gods and little stick figures

I know some of you read The Order of the Stick, one of the oldest and best D&D parodies on the web. But whether you do or not, I have to direct you, with suitable awe, at the saga of its Kickstarter project.

Creator Rich Burlew set out to raise $57,750 to get one of the collections, War and XPs, back into print. He blew through that goal in less than twenty-four hours. As I write this post, he has raised $868,072 — and that number will certainly have gone up by the time I hit “post.”

You can follow the tale via the project updates. Scroll down to the bottom to find the first one, and then do the same for the more recent ones. It is, I think, an amazing testament both to what Kickstarter can do, and how to do a Kickstarter project well. Burlew has done an excellent job of adapting to the overwhelming success of his fundraiser; not only did he rapidly set new goals (reprinting other out-of-print books, increasing print runs, covering the increased expenses for all the rewards packages), he found a lot of clever ways to reward people for their support. And throughout, he’s been highly transparent about the entire process, so that nobody is going to walk away thinking he’s put their money to a use they didn’t expect. (If anybody is displeased with what he’s done so far, they’re still free to cancel their support: nothing is final until the fundraiser ends.)

It’s a marvel in a number of respects. And if you have any interest in this kind of crowdsourcing model, his experience is worth studying.