We had hoped to reach postcards or even the audiobook, but this was a great achievement, and I'll take it. Not only did we take in almost $9K to help pay our authors and defray other costs in the book, but also a hundred and eighty people backed and another hundred bookmarked the campaign. Which means that over two hundred fifty people liked it ... and probably ten times as many looked at it. Mission accomplished!
Next up, finishing the ARC (the preliminary version of the book for industry and sensitivity reader review).
Onward!
Pictured: Graphics from the Kickstarter, which were not only fun to do but taught me a lot, and an Old Fashioned from Select restaurant in Greer.
Yay! The Neurodiversiverse Kickstarter funded, with two and a half days to go! And it has been amazing, after a month of slow but steady growth, that the Kickstarter continues to now rapidly fund even as we're trying to publicize it! A shoutout to Cat Rambo, who graciously let us do that guest blogpost! Let me shout back, with the story card we came up with for Cat's story, "Scary Monsters, Super Creeps"!
Now that we've met our funding goal, we've announced our stretch goals, which include cool things like bookmarks and postcards and, if we really stretch, an audiobook of the anthology.
Airtable is a system that looks a lot like a spreadsheet, except it's actually a database under the hood, enabling you to build different views of the same data; a Kanban board is one such view, with rows turned into "cards" organized into "stacks" by a given field - and as you move cards about in the stacks, the field changes with it. This helps visualize the flow of, well, many things - including stories in the editing pipeline, or stories in the table of contents; I'm even using it for tracking the writing of new stories. But for now, the most important thing is that it enabled us to put together this:
We're proud of the table of contents - but also, pleased with the process that got us there, and hope other people find it as useful as we did.
So please, go check those posts out, and maybe even help spread the word so we reach our stretch goals!
It's been a long day dealing with a whole sequence of guff, so here I present to you Loki, taking a nap after his hard work on reconciling large language models with classical symbolic artificial intelligence.
In it, I talk about the aliens in science fiction, the origin of The Neurodiversiverse, about neurodiversity and representation, and about some of the cool stories that we are featuring in the anthology!
Cat is not just an author in The Neurodiversiverse, she's also the author of the space opera You Sexy Thing and lots of other cool stories and novels. Thanks to Cat for the opportunity!
So Liza and I have been working on the upper reward tiers for The Neurodiversiverse Kickstarter (we're so close! almost 85% of the way there!) and we think we have a solution for producing the limited hardcover edition. Unfortunately, the bindery that produced Thinking Ink's limited edition of The Hereafter Bytes has gone out of business, but we found a few similar options (and may even be able to reduce the price). Above is a mockup of what it might look like, and below was the actual original for The Hereafter Bytes:
Hopefully some people will buy this reward tier - it is pricey on purpose, in the hopes that backers will back this because they want to support the project (and just in case something goes wrong with the printing costs). Just a few of these will take us over the top, so please pledge ten of them! :-D
Hacking away at publicity for the Kickstarter for the Neurodiversiverse, which is at +80%! But that means we have almost a thousand dollars to go, and we're really far from our stretch goals. So I'm working to publicize it further with guest blog posts and such, as well as pushing further on social media.
You can support it as simply as pledging for a book or an ebook (or a sticker or pin or even $1 for no reward). But you can also get reward bundles that have lots and lots of Thinking Ink Press books in them:
Or an awesome tote bag and pins and stickers and such!
And if you REALLY want to help us out ... you can get your name in the book. Just sayin'.
Huzzah! The Neurodiversiverse Kickstarter is 2/3 funded! This is fantastic news and we're still at roughly the halfway point in the campaign. Even better, we were selected as a "Project We Love" by Kickstarter:
Woohoo! The Neurodiversiverse Kickstarter is 50% of the way to our funding goal! We've added reward tiers for the enamel pins (not that we forgot to in the first go-round or anything) and will announce our stretch goals shortly.
Very exciting! Please check out the campaign at neurodiversiverse.com , which links through to the Kickstarter for the duration!
Mostly flying back from Clockwork Alchemy today (and catching up on wordcount on CITADEL OF GLASS, which I am now thinking is going to be titled THE WATCHTOWER OF DESTINY).
A long day. Regular posts resume tomorrow.
-the Centaur
Pictured: Artwork in the Greenville airport, and a glass of iced tea from One Flew South.
Likely out all day today hiking with my wife, so just a quick post for you.
I missed the big dance show at Clockwork Alchemy because I was, frankly, exhausted after the Author Guest of Honor events (and the de-briefing that my co-editor and I had after the con where we tried to figure out what went wrong, what went right, and what to do next). But even then, late late late Saturday night, there were still music acts going - I believe this was Unwoman, who has definitely still got it.
-the Centaur
Pictured: um, I said it, the dance floor at Clockwork Alchemy Saturday night at something like 11:45 pm. In previous years it's been more hopping super late, but now the concerts start earlier at 6:30.
Crashed out after finishing my Camp Nano wordcount for today; full debrief on Clockwork tomorrow. Zzz....
-the Centaur
Pictured: A crow, or perhaps raven, or just a sculptural cartoon average of the two, which is supposed to be a lampholder, instead serving as a book card holder, because his little light was too darn bright.
Friday was slow, but Saturday was a pretty damn good day at Clockwork Alchemy. I have wordcount on Camp Nano and a late night event to attend, so I'll give a fuller update tomorrow.
-the Centaur
Pictured: the "Louie", a very nice variant of an Old Fashioned unique to the San Mateo Marriott "Craft / Code" bar, which is going out of business next week as the hotel is closing.
So we had a great first day at Clockwork Alchemy! I got a great Guest of Honor banner for my table, and we had a delightful Tea with the Author Guest of Honor in the con's amazing Tea Room!
My co-editor for The Neurodiversiverse, Liza Olmsted (far left on the picture below), was on an #ownvoices panel, which was very informative! I particularly liked her quote:
The world is so much more beautiful with intersectionality ... everything is so much more nuanced."
Liza Olmsted
"Intersectionality" is a funky word for the simple concept that people aren't a single attribute, like "black" or "women" or "gay" but that each person is a combination of all these things - and discrimination isn't just additive, but can compound in interesting ways. In one famous court case, for example, a court ruled that a group of black women weren't discriminated against because the company had hired a lot of black men (in a factory setting) and a lot of white women (in an office setting) thus improving the percentage of blacks in the factory and women in the office - but the point was, the women were being discriminated against for being black and women at the same time, and the court was essentially arguing you couldn't be one or the other. But, if you acknowledge that people can be more than one thing, you can take their distinctive appearances into account into how you treat them, rather than sweeping it under the rug.
Neurodiversiverse author Clara Ward dropped by and left us a few of her new book, "Be the Sea", which is (as I gathered from discussions) a climatepunk story featuring neurodiverse and nonbinary characters. I worked with Clara before on Doorways to Extra Time and we're excited to have her back for this one!
We hope to see you tomorrow at the con! Next up, Steampunk Vehicles, Bringing Anthologies to Life, and the world premiere reading of "Jeremiah Willstone and the Choir of Demons"!
Woohoo! We're well on our way, and only a few days in! Like, share and back us, folks, so we can bring this project to life and maybe even reach our stretch goals to do a second anthology!
"Off we go towards Clockwork Alchemy ... there we'll have tea with all of our fans." I'd say "sung to the theme of 'Wild Blue Yonder'" but I actually don't remember the words to that other than the first line - and it's relatively hard to parody something you don't know all that well.
Regardless, we'll have books, and panels, and the debut of Jeremiah Willstone and the Choir of Demons!
-the Centaur
Pictured: an accidentally blurred shot of my book stock, and a fortuitous super closeup of the books that I had taken pictures of at the Kickstarter.
SO! Our Kickstarter for the Neurodiversiverse is live at neurodiversiverse.com (which just links through to the Kickstarter page for the duration of the campaign). And I'm proud to say that we are number one of projects if you search for neurodivergence!
For this project I had to create about fifty images in Photoshop - mostly by remixing other imagery we had, admittedly, but sometimes it took a bit of cleverness to make everything work out, as in this physical picture of most of our books and flash fiction postcards - not all of which I had on hand for the picture, and some of which don't even physically exist yet, like the softback of The Neurodiversiverse:
Liza and I (with the help of Betsy and Keiko) put a lot of time into this and I'm proud of the result:
So, please check it out and back us ... we have reward tiers everything from $1 for token support, to early bird ebooks at a discount, to the book and the ebook themselves, all the way up to getting your name listed in the acknowledgements at the back of the book:
And, while I hope to get in some real drawing today, I am unabashedly using this as my Drawing Every Day post, because I spent hours and hours on art today and that should count, dang it.
Hey folks! This is a "sticky" post up for the next week or so to remind you that I will be Author Guest of Honor at Clockwork Alchemy - and that we're running a Kickstarter for The Neurodiversiverse! Please check out the Kickstarter - and click to be notified when it goes live, I'm told that helps "the algorithm" when it launches.
I was selected as Clockwork Alchemy GOH not just because of the Jeremiah Willstone steampunk series, comprising one novel and a dozen stories featuring the rayguns-corsets-and-aliens world of Victoriana, but also because I've been involved in Clockwork Alchemy since its inception. Please visit us at the con!
At Clockwork Alchemy, I will be joined by my Neurodiversiverse coeditor and friend Liza Olmsted. Our schedule at the event is the following - including a Tea with the Author on Friday and the debut of the audio drama "Jeremiah Willstone and the Choir of Demons" on the anthology panel on Saturday:
Friday, April 19
Own Voice Stories - 2:30pm / Synergy 5 - Liza Olmsted, M.D. Neu, Sumiko Saulson, Emily Flummox Why promoting and celebrating 'own voices' stories is imperative!
Tea with the Author Guest of Honor - 4pm / Synergy 2-3 - Anthony Francis Come have tea with me! Ask your questions. I don't promise enigmatic answers!
Author Signing with Anthony Francis - 6pm / Convene Lobby Come get your books signed!
Saturday, April 20
Steampunk Vehicles - 1pm / Inspire 1 - Anthony Francis and Michael Tierney We'll talk about airships, land walkers, behemoths, and time machines!
Author Signing with Anthony Francis - 4pm / Convene Lobby Buy more of my books in Author's Alley, and I'll sign them too!
Bringing Anthologies to Life - 5:30pm / Synergy 5 - Anthony Francis, Liza Olmsted and Dover Whitecliff We'll discuss the challenges of bringing anthologies to life, and debut the very first Jeremiah Willstone audio drama, "The Choir of Demons"
Sunday, April 21
Favorite Steampunk Books - 10am / Synergy 5 - Anthony Francis, Madeline Holly-Rosing, Dover Whitecliff What are the greatest steampunk books and series? We have opinions! And will share.
Author Signing with Anthony Francis - noon / Convene Lobby Buy more of my books in Author's Alley, and I'll sign them too!
Author Signing - Last Call with the Author's Alley - 4pm / Convene Lobby Buy more of ANYONE's books in Author's Alley, and we'll all sign them! Or sign our own. Whatevz.
Finally, for the duration of the campaign, neurodiversiverse.com will link through to the Kickstarter! We're campaigning to get enough funds to pay our authors full "pro" SFWA rates, and if we surpass that, the funds will go to the planned second book in the series: The Neurodiversiverse - Binary Stars! Back and share, folks!
Alright, one more not-drawing drawing while I am scrambling to get ready for Clockwork Alchemy. If you're not using the Internet in its most basic form, it resembles a countryside where roads to infrequently-visited towns frequently get torn up and you have to either reroute - or build your own.
Case in point, link shorteners. Google used to have one called "goo.gl" - used to have, before Larry Page took over at Google and led it through the Google Plus debacle, where Google really started to get the reputation for killing products that ultimately led to it being called the Google Graveyard.
But, before they killed it, I used it on the book cards that I hand out at conventions! I had been using that shortlink to point to my Amazon "Anthony Francis" author page, but I don't trust link shorteners anymore. So I created a new link, dresan.com/blog/books, which has all my books on it (now in the top menu):
But, that means my book cards needed to be updated. I of course updated the link, but also took the time when I was in there to enhance the contrast on the top title so it was more legible. Hopefully these cards will arrive in time for the Clockwork Alchemy convention next week, where I will be Author Guest of Honor.
Drawing (or graphic design) every day.
-the Centaur
Pictured: the back of the "book cards", and the "book page" which also shows the book card fronts.
So! I'm back at Dragon Con once again. So good to be back in Atlanta after almost a year! (Well, actually, I was down here a month or so ago, but that was swinging through just for the day zip zap zop to see a little movie answering to no-one, but that's not a real visit in my mind).
The fans are already starting to gather, and so are the curious onlookers, pouncing with questions if you wear a Dragon Con shirt! (Ask me how I know).
This year, I'll mostly be at the Writer's Track, except for my reading on Friday:
Welcome to Writers' Track 2023 - Thu 08:30 pm - Embassy EF Hyatt Join us for an introduction to the best Writers' Track ever! Let us give you a hint of what's coming up for Dragon Con 2023 - and get you started on your way to becoming a professional author, if you aren't already. Panelists: Yasmin Bakhtiari, Anthony Francis, Vanessa Guinta, Nancy Knight(M), John Robinson
Reading Session: Anthony Francis - Fri 02:30 pm - Learning Center Hyatt This will be me reading from my books and essays. Panelists: Uh, the me.
Social Media: Your Friend, Enemy or Frenemy? - Sat 02:30 pm - Embassy EF Hyatt Description: Social media can boost your career or torpedo it. What's a writer's best approach to all the social media, both old and new? How do you develop a strategy that makes sense for your career? Panelists: Gail Z. Martin, Venessa Guinta(M), Anthony Francis, Bob McGough, J F Brink, Noel Plaugher
AI and What It Means for Writers - Sun 11:30 am - Embassy EF Hyatt Hearing a lot about the 'takeover' of AI? Let's dispel some of the myths, while we confirm some of the truths. Panelists: Anthony Francis(M), Rich Gatz, Andrew Greenberg, Amie Stepanovich, D.J. Bodden, Phillip Pournelle Note your beanie: possibly the most apropos panel I've ever been on.
Career Advice: WHAT? - Sun 01:00 pm - Embassy EF Hyatt People give advice freely. How to raise your children, save money - they even want to tell you how to develop and maintain your writing career. Who should you listen to? Listen up for some great advice from people who've been there and done that. Panelists: Greg Keyes, Bill Fawcett(M), Anthony Francis, Esther Friesner, Jeanne C Stein, Drew Hayes
How to Be a Professional Writer in One Easy Lesson - Mon 01:00 pm - Embassy EF Hyatt What's the difference between a professional writer and a hack? Let's draw some boundaries… Panelists: Trisha J. Wooldridge(M), Anthony Francis, Mel Todd, Ryan DeBruyn, Richard Lee Byers, Jeffrey L Kohanek
Hope to see you all there!
-the Centaur
Pictured: A view from the Hilton Garden Inn, a pretty good hotel to stay in at Dragon Con if you don't mind a walk and if you missed signing up for a closer hotel, Francis.
