Update! Make that $661 $577 $492 $417 $422 $342 $192 $172 NEGATIVE $127 more to go!
To be clear, the Negative $127 thing means I MADE IT. Provided, of course, that all of the credit cards clear at 8:06 Pacific on March 16.
OMFG I am a nobody practically speaking and I PULLED THIS OFF.
Explainer for $417/$422 bit: Sometimes you lose backers for whatever reason. I was warned about this ahead of time by others who have used Kickstarter. That it happened to me is no big deal. More on this in the wrap-up post to come.
This information I planned to share only once I got to 75% funding in my Kickstarter effort. Since that happened sometime Saturday while I was at work,* time to spill the last of the beans!
As you know, Bob, at any donation of $25 or above you get a gorgeous letterpress show poster created by Amos Kennedy Jr., on the back of which I will write a custom story just for Your Beautiful Self based on either one thing you tell me about yourself, or a 3- to 5-word prompt you will provide.
Thing is, these will not be entirely random stories.
My Secret Plan from the start has been to take however many micro-stories I needed to write for the $25 (and above) Kickstarter backers and stitch them into one complete narrative. I do this not because I am Insane (no matter what you've heard), but Because I Can! I am a writer, and a good one. This big-story-created-from-random-Kickstarter-input is a challenge I very much want to meet.
I don't know what the story will be about. I need to first get the data from all of my backers once this effort ends, see what I have to work with, and let it flow from there. I also haven't yet decided if I'll release the complete work to backers via the restricted-access production diary, or if I'll simply tell them that each story segment on their individual posters is but one part of a whole and let them Suffer wondering how their prompts play into it. You know, kind of like how Michael Bay hired an asteroid expert from NASA and then completely ignored him, which is my fave commentary track on the Criterion edition of Armageddon.
All I know is that you will TOTALLY want to be in on that, but the only way you can is if you hit up the Kickstarter page and donate at a level of $25 or above. As much as I want to create the ultimate story, I also know it will not happen unless I close the final gap of $966 to get ! Death 40-Feet Tall ! to the finish line.
That said, every single penny counts with this Kickstarter effort, which is why my incentive offers below the $25 level are cool. Below the $25 level I'm offering postards from Kennedy and downloads of John Boswell songs. We live in times of recession-fueled economic scarcity, which is why I very much appreciate any little bit someone throws into my project. My incentives are structured so that even if you have only $5 to spare, you will get something quite nifty.
I am only $966 worth of donations from reaching the goal a.ka. I'm 25% out from complete funding. OMFG.
Kickstarter is all or nothing - you come up $1 short? You don't get any of it. Over this past month I have done Absolutely Everything I can think of behind the scenes to successfully cross that finish line (deets of which I will discuss in a post once this is over - not matter the final result). I believe I can get there, but the practical side of me is fully aware that whether or not I do is partly out of my hands. It's up to you reading this, or the Signal Boost notes sent on my behalf by an astonishing array of folks, for whom I am Grateful.
Here is my Kickstarter page. Here is a video of me telling a geekly Christmas story from childhood to demonstrate my Live Storytelling skills. Here is an FAQ answer to a common question about that video, and related to the effort. Here is the background on that video shot last month. Here is the FAQ answer about the posters.
Whatever you can or choose to do, I appreciate it muchly!
---
And now I go back to nursing my wounds. I got attacked by a neighbor's crazy dog while walking back from the grocery store this morning, and dealing with the fallout from that delayed the writing/uploading of this entry.
On the upside, I now have rather impressive (if still bleeding) fang punctures in my thigh, which I can turn into a more interesting story than what actually happened! Downside, that dog ruined the one pair of jeans I have that fit perfectly!!! I got those jeans at the FiDM scholarship store downtown, they are alleged to be designer jeans** and they only cost me $5!! The way FiDM stock turnover works I will not be able to replace these jeans. #$%^$#$%^!!!!! I'm going to try and repair them, but the damage has been done.
Further upside (now that I think about it typing-from-top-of-head), I'm glad I have quick reflexes and a calm head when in crisis. Once I realized too late that the Crazy Dog's gate was open for some reason and he was racing through it right at me, I flung Moiself back as he lunged, which is probably why he left only punctures in my thigh instead of taking out a chunk of my flesh. I also KONG yelled and swung my canvas grocery bag at him during the attack, chasing him back into his yard/Territory, closing the gate after him. Then I let the family in the house next door to the House Of Problem Dogs that witnessed it all provide post-attack help, even though I was three houses away from my own and already knew what I was gonna do to tend to Moiself. (Sometimes it's nice to let somebody similar to your Mom fuss over you.)
Once home I cleaned the wounds and made a compost from aloe plants in the yard and vodka in the freezer. Lathered that onto a gauze and taped it onto my leg with duct tape. Within two hours the Not Insignificant swelling was gone.
And yes, I did call the Dog Police - aka animal control - to report the attack, but as suspected that call was futile. At this moment of posting it is just over 9 hours since the attack and despite their claims of We're On Our Way, nobody from the dog police has shown up.
But since it's been over 30-years since there's been a case of dog-related rabies in Los Angeles, at least I'm not worried about having to put up with rabies shots.
* I found out I'd hit 75% via a text from The Goddess who monitoring my page. I didn't fully comprehend what she was telling me remotely until I got home in the wee hours and could see for myself.
** Like I know from designers. I'm taking the word of the student salesgirls that the jeans are designer. All I know is that they fit PERFECTLY.
