Meet my new friend Kickstarter

Image Source: Theproducersperspective

Happy Friday, fans! It’s been a few days since I sprung my latest endeavor on you: The upcoming launch of a Kickstarter campaign to get my book edited and out to publishers.

So far, I've gotten a lot of positive feedback, but also some questions about what Kickstarter is and how people can help with the campaign. I'd like to take this opportunity to tell you all more about what Kickstarter is and why I'm using it to help complete The Evenarian.

Kickstarter is an online funding platform for a host of creative projects, from films, books, and music to art, design and technology.

People interested in funding creative projects create a campaign on the website and encourage people from all over the country (and the world) to support their cause. But unlike many donation-based services, the only way for a Kickstarter campaign to see any of that money is by reaching their funding goal. Otherwise, no money is received.

In other words, if you pledge to support my Kickstarter but I don’t make the goal of $5,000 within the allotted timeframe, you don’t get charged anything. But on the flip-side, the project remains unfunded.

This campaign runs for just 30 days (the month of November) so that means it is crucial to get support on DAY ONE. You can help by making your pledge on that day.

Also, Kickstarter promotes campaigns that get an early wave of donations (whatever the size) by putting them on their front page. This exposes campaigns to a huge number of prospective backers.

For The Evenarian's campaign, there are different levels of support, from a single dollar up to $3,000. Each contribution leve comes with its own rewards (think the totebags PBS gives out during pledge drives). Who doesn’t love rewards? And for those of you who can’t spare much, know that a bunch of supporters giving a dollar apiece can still make a huge difference!

You may be asking: What else can I do to help?

Until the Kickstarter campaign goes live on November 1st you can join the Kickstarter Facebook event page and pledge to donate on Nov. 1! Also, “like” The Evenarian's Facebook fan page to get updates on the campaign and the novel's progress. And don't forget to read the author's blog, comment, retweet and pledge!

Thanks so much for all your continued support!!!

Talking politics

One of the greatest challenges a fiction writer faces is whether or not to include references to current events in one's work. If your story is set during a recent historical event, that's one thing.  It's also par for the course to include familiar sites and cultural touchstones to guide the reader and give them a sense of place. But what if you're crafting a world out of thin air?

There are many major works of literature that contain veiled references to contemporary political issues and cultural figures. F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ayn Rand's books come to mind, and they weren't always straight-up allegories either. Those works can be appreciated if you don't understand the references, but reading through their entries on Sparknotes certainly fills in the gaps.

But in a few years (let alone 50 or 100), who's going to care about a spot-on caricature of a society matron or a send-up of an obnoxious political operative? Why risk future readers conflating an interpretation of the author's time with a message for all time?

Also, some authors who tackle political analogies in their fiction don't always get a warm reception. In A Dance With Dragons, the most recent installment of ASOIAF, George Martin was accused of modeling one of the book's subplots on the U.S.'s recent involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan. He denied drawing inspiration from those wars, but the perceived parallels made the already shaky subplot even more unpopular with readers.

That's he conundrum I've been wrestling with lately. So far, I've come up with one answer. Shoehorning in pop culture references is a sure road to irrelevance, but there's always interesting people in the world, no matter what era you live in. If those people have something equally interesting to say in your world, maybe you should let them in.