First of all, my latest guest post for the Bringing Stella Home blog tour is up at The Villain’s Worst Nightmare. In it, I discuss where I got the idea for the Hameji, and how I world-builded (world-built?) their culture from the ground up. Good stuff; you can find it here, along with another giveaway of Sholpan.
I just submitted a proposal to Kickstarter for Desert Stars. I hope to raise at least $500 to help pay for editing and cover art, but the experience running the campaign should be useful too. I’m a little bit nervous, but we’ll see how it goes.
One of the things they asked for was a description of the project, which is funny, because this week’s Writing Excuses was about pitching. There’s a lot of good stuff in that episode, in case you haven’t heard it yet. I don’t have a good blurb worked out for Desert Stars just yet, but this is what I came up with:
The short version
A tale of homecoming, intrigue, and romance on the fringes of an interstellar empire that has forgotten its holiest legend: the story of Earth.
The longer version
Jalil Ibn Sathi Al-Najmi wasn’t born in the desert; he fell from the sky when he was just a little boy. Now that he’s grown, he wants nothing more than to find his true home among the stars. But when the tribe that raised him conspires to shame him into a marriage that would keep him at the camp forever, he has to choose between honor, family, and the girl he loves.
Yeah, they both need work. The short one isn’t short enough, and the long one has absolutely NOTHING about Mira, even though she’s arguably got the stronger character arc. For those of you who’ve read the novel, what do you think it needs? And for those of you who haven’t, does it interest you to read more, or not?
In other news, I revised through almost 15k words yesterday. Man, it’s so nice having time to write again. I’ll have to polish up my resume and start looking for work again sometime next week, but I’m glad I took the time off to work on Desert Stars. I’m on track to finish this draft by the end of next week; after that, it shouldn’t need much more than a quick run-through before sending it off for the copy edits. Needless to say, I’m excited. 🙂
At the risk of sounding rude (and digging too deep into your personal life), do you really feel fine asking for money after you turned down a full-time job?
My wife works full-time and I work part-time (though I’ll be moving to a graveyard full-time hopefully soon) and I am fully aware that in order to sustain my hobbies and possible career choices I’m going to have to bite the bullet and actually spend most of my day at a desk job.
I only ask because, from my perspective, it seems a bit like…being a mooch. If people want to pay to support you that’s fine, but asking random strangers for money after turning down a job that could have helped pay for that seems pretty messed up.
I have no doubt that I made the right decision in turning down the job offer; it did not bring me any closer to my long term goals, it was not teaching me any useful skills or abilities, and it was not in a field where I wanted to pursue a professional career. Before leaving, I saved up enough money to support myself for a couple months, and while I haven’t actively applied for any other jobs yet, I have been checking job boards and online postings.
A kickstarter campaign is not a charity fundraiser; it is a way for people to invest in creative projects and receive returns from their investments. I’ve come up with a number of rewards for people who choose to contribute, so it’s not like I’m “mooching” or begging for money: I’m providing goods and services for payment, just like any other business. And if I fail to raise the necessary contributions to do the project, nobody pays anything. It’s very professional.
One of the main reasons I quit the job, in fact, was because I knew that if I had continued to work there, I would not have had the time or the energy to complete this project on the schedule that I wanted. It’s not just about money, after all; it’s also about time. And believe me, I’ve been using that time wisely; if I were just being lazy, I would not have revised over half my novel in the past ten days.
On your longer version, it’s fine up until the last sentence, I think. That one needs tweaking.
On your short version, the sentence starts off ‘meh’ but I like your punch ending.
Sorry I can’t do more than point out where I think the rough areas are. ^^; Anyone else?