Hey everyone!
While I don’t plan to deluge you with posts related to the current Schoolbooks & Sorcery Kickstarter, I did want to say that so far, after just one day, we’re doing quite nicely, and I’m feeling optimistic. With 31 backers as of right now, and $840 pledged, we’re 14% towards our first goal.
So let’s talk a little about what I want, what I really really want.
I want this project to succeed for the wonderful authors who’ve stuck with me for -years- as this anthology lurched its way towards this point. I want to be able to reward them for their faith, dedication, and amazing work.
I want everyone out there to be able to read these stories, and lose themselves in the struggles, heartache, triumph, and magic of the characters as they deal with problems both mundane and extraordinary.
I want you all to know about bees and ghosts and djinn and kitsune and healing and so much more.
And I really want to be able to reach out and maybe find just a few more stories to add to this collection, because I know they’re out there.
So pledge. If you can’t pledge, spread the word.
Thank you for the support you’ve all shown already.
And to end this, a brief excerpt from a story that I think a lot of people are going to love.
“I can’t decide whether that’s really sad or not.” Rosemary rested her head on crossed arms and looked at me doubtfully.
“Maybe it would be really sad for somebody who isn’t me, and they should be lucky I got this gig instead of them.”
“Don’t get me wrong, school’s horrible, but there’s people to go to the diner with, and go to the movies with, and — you’ve just got goats and bees and all these stars and nobody to dance under them with.”
“Have you got somebody to dance under the stars with?”
“Well, you know how it is. This is Nowheresville and I’m pretty damn gay.”
“I’m pretty damn bisexual,” I said, giving her a daring-myself look, a going-in-the-beehive-without-the-smoker look. “Which should be easier, in theory.”
She grinned. “Twice as many options for a date on a Saturday night doesn’t actually help when there’s nobody around but bees, huh?”
–From “The Delicate Work of Bees” by Emily Horner.