DRAGON IN THE POST IS 71% FUNDED, WITH 17 DAYS TO GO AND ENDS ON AUGUST 27TH!
So, back to some wordsmithery and just writing about being happy in Hampshire. Not Philip Larkin’s ‘long slide into happiness‘ kind of happiness but just being in the country, with great people and not worrying too much about a crowd funding project to change the face of modern publishing! Which means exactly what I decided some time back, namely rather than suffering through the exposure and potential failure of a public crowd funding campaign, with a railing or indignant spirit, instead trying to share an adventure with folk, perhaps inspire a bit and use my writing to prove I’m not just asking for money, but some mutual spirit and trying to give something back.
That has brought disappoints, frustrations, a silly and pointless spat with The Hampshire Chronicle and lovely times too, in the powerfully restoring countryside. That electric storm, the ice pure water of the Itchen, unusual discoveries like Jane Austen’s house or the numinous ruin of Titchfield Abbey, along with odd times trying to go metal detecting and an amazing flight to Sandown airstrip on the Isle of White. The problem with an artist trying to crowd fund is most people expect a finished package, a ‘product’ a novel is always more than to the writer and the readers who enjoy it, and it brings the obvious scepticism, from people who don’t really know the history of why I had a terrible battle with both my friends and publishers and why this is such a personal fight too. Naturally the quality of a story is what really counts, or should do, but this is about something else too, the problem being I don’t especially want to share that with strangers or go on about it any more either.
So to the South Downs Way again, which will take some re-training for and the decision to set off on Monday August 18th! That will give me time for a fairly leisurely pace and also have me back 2 days before the project ends, on August 27th, for a last countdown to whether we can make it and what we’ve really achieved. I’d love you to enjoy that too, so each day I’ll be finding a place to transmit and blog my adventures.
If you want a signed, First edition hard copy of Dragon In The Post, with your name listed in the front among the brave backers who made something happen, or some other perks too, then why not CONTRIBUTE TO DRAGON IN THE POST
DCD – PA PRESS