‘Woo hoo’ was what a reader cried, as she just took us to 95% funded and woo hoo indeed! THANK YOU. We now need just a couple of hundred pounds in the next 24 hours to take us across that finishing line to success. Not just for me but for everyone involved in the project and then perhaps to open a door on something bigger. How I realise this target, this real achievement through the boxed world of Social Media, is and has been such an important psychological barrier and how the reason is really belief and self belief. In fact not really being able to live in a world without a bit of magic, the kind of magic great stories are made of, the kind of challenge to how the world ‘has to be‘, that does make poets and writers the unacknowledged legislators of the world and always will, until the algorithms or top heavy power destroy us.
It’s been one hell of a fight and it ain’t over yet, not to mention having to conjure story, but at the most profound level this has truly happened because I spoke up and then because young fans and unexpected friends stood up for me. That’s a story worth telling itself. The wound in New York went so deep no one can know, but this is part of the turning it all around. So can we do more, in what this is about, quite as much as money, a spirit, a fire and of course a wider constituency too? That’s what it’s about – writers and readers and only them. Do more by bringing on more backers, by spreading the word of a true little fight back against the system? If we cross that line today, of course the whole project will stay up there in the ether and people can order a book in the post via Indiegogo.com. We have another bonus too and that is because of time differences – why not say, since we’re telling stories, like Phileus Fogg having crossed that international date line in the race back to the Reform Club (?) – the project does not end until early Thursday morning in the UK, August 28th. But it’s important too for me to know why this has happened and so to share three messages that came in last night on the internet:
“So happy to help fund one of my all-time favourite author’s next big adventure! Excited to be a part of this and can’t wait to meet you.”
“Hello Mr. Clement-Davies, I’m sure that you get plenty of fan mail every time that you turn around, but I’ll write you this message anyway. I knew the minute that I saw the copy of Fire Bringer in my high school library that I was looking at something special (That book this project is helping to protect too). In fact, I walked clear across the room straight to where it was sitting on its display. I’d always been a fan of the Redwall series of books by the (sadly) departed Brian Jacques, so I was expecting about the same quality. What I didn’t expect was how much the books you have written would mean to me, not just then back in 2001, but also today. I just wanted to thank you for providing me with some of the most important, fond memories I have of reading (and also for writing about my favourite animals – wolves). I can’t express how special your books are to me. Thanks for the great times and many hours of enjoyment your books have given me.”
“I’ll give you my first impression of your books and you tell me what you think … I’m at the time an art student age 18, high school, lover of fiction and deeper meaning: your covers are beautiful, stories deep, unique use of research and pride in literary skills usually abandoned haphazardly by others. I place you in my head among my favourite authors including Shusterman, Giaman, Asimov, CS lewis, and they all have one thing in common: perfection of the use of real knowledge and revelation in visually stunning imaginary worlds!”
Thank you all again, beginning with a Street team, and we are nearly there! You can join the adventure right now too by going to Indiegogo.com and ORDERING YOUR SIGNED COPY OF DRAGON IN THE POST!
DCD
Phoenix Ark's Blog 