Dear Everyone –

You’re awesome.

As of now, the Scheherazade’s Facade Kickstarter Campaign has been live for just over five full days.  We’re currently sitting at $3168 of $5000, or approximately  63% with 25 days to go.  Believe me when I say, this is AMAZING.  The response so far has been phenomenal.  121 people have pledged, saying that in essence, they believe in this project, that they want this anthology, that they want us to succeed.  I don’t even know how many others have taken a minute to blog, Tweet, Tumblr, or otherwise spread the word, and I appreciate everyone who’s done so.  Just knowing you care warms me inside.

Obviously, we have a ways to go, and over three weeks left in which to raise the remaining 37%.  I know we can do it.  I have faith.  (My wife would disagree – she thinks I’m a neurotic mess who needs to go mow the lawn, cook dinner, and change the litterboxes.  No respect, I tell you.  You think Shakespeare changed his own litterboxes?  That’s what street urchins were for.  But I digress.)

I feel like I owe it to everyone to give you a little something special.  A treat to whet your appetite, a gift to engage your senses, an appetizer to prepare you for the main course.  At first, I figured more cat pictures might do it, but then I decided to show you why I fell in love with these stories.  Some are slow burning, their secrets and treasures unfolding after a few paragraphs, luring you in.  And some were so strange, so beautiful, so evocative, that I was captured by the very first sentence.  So here then are the first lines from seven of the twelve stories.  You notice that not one begins, “Once upon a time…”

“Khshayarsha had been given a royal name – but that was the only gift that he had of his family.” – From “The Secret Name of the Prince” by Alma Alexander

“There are only so many things you can do with mutilated hands. ” – From “The Daemons of Tairdean Town” by C.S. MacCath

“My skin hangs on the wall, petrified, a warning to all of my transgression.” – From “Driftwood” by Tiffany Trent

“They hated each other. It would be true to say, they had fallen passionately in loathe from the first moment of meeting.” – From “Keeping the World On Course” by Tanith Lee

“Naryati numbers her days like the days in a dream, knowing them to be more numerous than the grains of rice in a harvest: every hour slowly bleeding into the next, every evening as grey and featureless as the skies overhead.” – From “A Bitter Taste” by Aliette de Bodard

“JoJo wants a mermaid’s face. He tells me this while I’ve got one hand inside his dress, feeling around for his fake boob. ” – From “How to Dance While Drowning” by Shanna Germain

” For starters, honey, I don’t believe in Hell–that’s just some old man’s way of telling me reasons why I can’t be me. Like “biology is destiny” means I have to be a boy.” – From “Lady Marmalade’s Special Place In Hell” by David Sklar

As for the other five stories?  Their treasures are hidden just a little further in, and I’ll do something special with those later.  Intrigued?  Interested?  You know what needs to be done.

(All credits and copyrights as appropriate to the original authors.  Used for publicity reasons. I make the Ward vs. Lawyers.)

(And I promise I’m not going to do this every day.  I really just wanted an excuse to share those first lines.   Who says I’m not generous.)