Category Archives: Environment

FLOUNDERING PHOENIX KICKSTARTER TURNS TO FACEBOOK AND AUTHORS!

12_001

Milton, would’st though were living at this hour, Phoenix hath need of thee!

Hello, not to get too poetic but after an appalling weekend the howl goes up again about Light of The White Bear and failing pledges too. But now a reader and kind pledger, Jonathan T, has kindly begun to instruct me on how to use Social Media and especially Facebook. So I have just been blocked for sending out so many Friends invites, including to a great many Young Adult and Adult authors! I’ve sent a message to the Zuccerbergers (some mistake? Ed It’s Hamburgers) asking if we have turned into Turkey and surely they can chose or not to be chums.

It seems appallingly opportunist to mix new friendship with asking shamelessly for support at Kickstarter to publish a long delayed novel properly (meaning real and well designed books) and yet, like Wordsworth calling on Milton during the French Revolution (see above), needs must! I rather cynically fell off my lonely chair when someone suggested I actually turned to writers for support, since Gor Vidal said something like when I see a friend succeed a little bit more of me dies, but actually I don’t think I was ungenerous in my long lost heyday and the landscape has changed so much too, that we all wonder who the successful publishers are. Let alone the best parties! So perhaps we can all test if we are locked in our boxes, with worried or impressive tag lines line ‘New York Times Besteller‘, or can test Kickstarter and spread the love.

I must say there is a fight too which wrestles with this being just about story and the book itself, or something bigger, like planet and species saving, including saving endangered authors. Because I was one of those idiotic authors who, wolf like, bit the hand that fed him in New York City, fought internally for two years, exposed corruption, raised an eyebrow at appalling internal cynicism and then sued in the New York Supreme Court. Um, the judge refused to let me social network and the complaint was too epic for her to even pick up. Much less painful, fighting back, then when I threw down my pen in the terrible conditions that developed out of betrayed friendships and loves, and said I hadn’t become a writer for those kind of values! But some of the pledges involve not just the specific project of the novel, but involvement here at Phoenix Ark too.

You can see the project, spread the word or, more wonderfully PLEDGE (pretty please) by CLICKING HERE

Thanks for listening (again!)

Warmest wishes, David Clement-Davies x

Leave a comment

Filed under America and the UK, Childrens Books, Community, Culture, Environment, Fantasy, Publishing, The Phoenix Story

KICKSTARTING WALL STARTS TO CRUMBLE? LIGHT OF THE WHITE BEAR JUMPS TO 20%

Yeah, with a superb pledge today a project jumps to 18%, and with another promised pledge in the background in London too Light of the White Bear on Kickstarter has technically reached 20%. So still alive and kicking! Thank you Darren, and look forward to working with you here.

To celebrate crossing that Grand sticking line and to thank Kelly too, a fan and young ecologist, for the very first pledge and a charming email, another talk to fans goes up tomorrow, a reading, a little dig at Tim over spirit and a talk about travel journalism too at Phoenix Ark Press.

Things seem just breaking through, so now’s the time and you can see and Back the Project by CLICKING HERE

Or pasting the URL https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1159695087/light-of-the-white-bear

DCD

Leave a comment

Filed under Books, Culture, Environment, Fantasy, The Phoenix Story

KICKSTARTING HITS BRICK WALL, SO WE GO OFF BOOK TO TALK ABOUT PHOENIX ARK STATISTICS

12_001Never the gloomy, negative or doom ridden(!), like that IPCC report in the Independent about melting ice caps and global mayhem, but today the Kickstarter project on Light of The White Bear has hit a serious brick wall! Did I say 15% in a film or here, that came from someone else, it’s 14%?

So, a little tediously for readers or fans who love talking about story, and not in his chat to camera (Blanche puppet and all), David drops all the fronts and posts details in the new project text of Phoenix Ark Press visitor statistics, talks about business practicalities and publishing models and how it has already been a thrill to engage about things like publishing back into America, where a novel was billed by an editor as the break through book. Carpe diem!

You can see the whole project by CLICKING HERE

Have a great day.

DCD

Leave a comment

Filed under America and the UK, Books, Culture, Environment, Fantasy, The Phoenix Story

PHOENIX ARK ADOPTS A MOTTO AND ANTHEM FOR THE LIGHT OF THE WHITE BEAR KICKSTARTER CAMPAIGN

Via a friend, over to a song for the campaign by CLICKING HERE and a wonderful end line “We may be fighting a losing battle but we’re gonna have a lot of fun trying…”

Then to a new video up today on Kickstarter today by CLICKING HERE

No, those links don’t quite work, so for the film you have to copy and paste https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1159695087/light-of-the-white-bear

Good Night dear readers…sweet dreams

DCD

Leave a comment

Filed under Books, Community, Culture, Environment, Fantasy

LIGHT OF THE WHITE BEAR AND THE IPCC!

One of the ironies of good fiction is that it should not be messaged based. So previous novels about animals, myths and story are more about the experience of being alive. If one fan and pledger to Kickstarter though can write “There are only two authors that I can say that have had a profound influence on my life and you are one of them.” then it was worth it anyhow.

On the other hand, look at the headline in The Independent in the UK today: Leaked draft of second IPCC report predicts Global Warming will cause violent conflict, displace millions of people and wipe trillions of dollars off global economy.

Perhaps then a novel involving such themes can have some real impact and Light of the White Bear will have a wider meaning and purpose. But not if the pledges do not rise quickly THIS WEEK! You can see a new talk about it by CLICKING HERE

Thank you.

DCD

Leave a comment

Filed under Books, Community, Culture, Environment, Fantasy, The Phoenix Story

KICKSTARTING AUTHOR HAS ANOTHER GO AT BAD READERS, EVIL PUBLISHERS, SOULESS EXes AND EDITORS, HOWLS LIKE FELL AND WEARS A SILLY HAT!

screamcoverpdf_page001

Well, Phoenix Ark Readers you’re doing it again! The stats and so the readership are leaping up, no doubt with all the personal stuff, but the PLEDGES are still limping along, like wounded or drowning polar bears. Despite that most fantastic jump yesterday and just now, thank you, Adam, Martin and Yasmin, which proves it can happen. Would you like your life though, work, art or blogs to be a nasty spectator sport, much the world sport nowadays on the bad mirror of the Internet and Facebook?

What a wonderful comment by Yasmin though, below – “There are only two authors that I can say that have had a profound influence on my life and you are one of them.”

So please don’t just LIKE, though that’s great too, but really support and if you can’t afford anything, spread the word too. Moving towards a Grand THERE IS STILL A VERY GREAT CHANCE but since a fan worked out this Kickstarter effort needs around £274 a day (though experts say it hots up in the last ten days), THIS IS THE WEEK THAT COUNTS, the week of making, and YOU ARE THE PEOPLE WHO WILL MAKE IT COUNT OR FAIL. Here’s looking at you, kids.

So again I go on camera and talk about personal things, books being very personal, wear a silly hat with the badge of the Chitral Scouts, read, howl, tear up contracts as bad and ruthless editors did, while serving their careers alone, explain this serious fight against the system and attempt to communicate through the awful wall of non-communication and isolation all over the Internet. But also talk about why I am NOT BEING NEGATIVE either, out of a six year not 30 days battle, just not really being quite heard yet, and am trying to find some warrior spirit again too. After all, Light of The White Bear is both about planet saving and Warrior Storytellers!

You can see all the embarrassment by CLICKING HERE

Thank you.

DCD

Just to note there is a REMIND ME link at Kickstarter (Thanks to Shiela at Wands and Worlds)

2 Comments

Filed under America and the UK, Books, Community, Culture, Environment, Fantasy, Publishing, The Phoenix Story

KICKSTARTER AUTHOR GOES HORRIBLY POSITIVE BUT ATTACKS READERS TOO – THAT’S SOME OF YOU!

12_001

Dear gentle Readers,

can you explain why two hundred and fifty people from around the world have visited this blog in just the last two days, clicked LIKE or joined up as followers of a cultural blog, yet only three people have been kind enough to TAKE THE PLEDGE, on a vital Kickstarter project for Light of The White Bear? (I bless them for keeping the fire going and some with no money at all.)

Do you all just enjoy the humiliation though, like some ghastly spectator sport, not agree that we all float around the internet not really connecting and not really caring either, are you seeing how it’s not done, or are you just too mean?! Perhaps we are all a bit sheep-like, instead of Polar bear-like, and only support in following herds or flocks? Sorry to be frank, my dearly beloved and gentle, noble followers, but we all have passions and feelings, though few had their livelihood and voice stolen away like I did. It really wasn’t fun and neither was losing the girl! But this is as much about whether or not anyone can fight back against a system anyone can fall foul of. If you cannot afford to help I so understand and thank you so much for spreading the word instead but would you have a more serious think too, please?

Since the ice melting sun is shining so bright in old London town though, I’ve decided I can take the pressure of a mere three weeks humiliation, as opposed to six tough years of fighting back, and so to go quite disgustingly positive too, with another short film on the TOP TEN reasons to get involved that you can see by CLICKING HERE

Or pasting the URL https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1159695087/light-of-the-white-bear

Sorry to be needy, friends, dare I say a little angry sometimes, but an author and Phoenix Ark Press really do need YOU, not then but NOW! Thank you.

DCD

ps it even uses humiliating hand puppets in the awful sell and has another go at my friend Tim too, Mr Art himself!

Leave a comment

Filed under Books, Childrens Books, Community, Culture, Education, Environment, Fantasy, Publishing, The Phoenix Story

KICKSTARTING, QUITING, GRIPING OR JUST TRYING TO SPEAK SOME TRUTH?

For that friend called Tim, who tried to lecture me about ingratitude or claiming the ‘right’ to be an artist, somehow going on about some abstract suffering too, bigger than others, I’d like him to know that two new backers, with £7 and £20, are quite as important as £199, or £6000, and have edged me forward too.

Thank you so much, because whatever you can afford is precisely the energy I was talking about. The minimum pledge is £1, but if it was 10p it is a kind of listening too, or that’s how I can at least know! Another way is simply to write to this blog. You see, just words from fans very literally kept me alive a long time ago, so I have a little more experience than Tim. Just as, if people think that raising an eyebrow after only 5 days is giving up, they should know that what I’m talking about is really trying to communicate over six years, not just 30 days.

I’ve done a slightly different thing today then and as well talking to Cynthia Kern at the New York Supreme Court (who I’ve emailed in, bless her cotton socks – go on Cynthia – take the pledge and make up for your rank act of injustice!), or about Michael Jacobs, Mr so-called anti-censorship in New York, I’ve done a little reading from Fell and also speak about good or bad friends too, that became such a monumental issue, in the isolation of it all. But why this was a very hard fought battle and the opposite of some lazy gripe or sob story. The eloquence of stories are the things that should make us sob or laugh, or shout with joy, the need for art, fantasy, drama, catharsis and a mirror to real lives too. But TS Eliot said the artist must separate out the suffering man from the work and maybe that is just a process. Why it was so difficult becoming the story, or that coal face between words and facts, fantasy and reality got far, far too close, with astonishing results.

Never surrender, Light of the White Bear will come out this year at least to ebook! But Tim, a precious friend, is damn well wrong if he thinks this is just complaining, or that I did not earn the right to be an artist. I did and in contract and in humanity my publisher, people I knew very well indeed, had a duty to honour it all. Politics became the driving force instead and it was exploited shamefully.

I don’t know, I am just trying to talk and be heard and you can judge it by CLICKING HERE

Leave a comment

Filed under America and the UK, Books, Childrens Books, Culture, Environment, Fantasy

KICKSTARTER PROJECT STUMBLES, SO AUTHOR USES FILM TO TELL THE TRUTH!

Hello all,

failing to hit even a 10% target (!), I’m afraid this never quite famous author is throwing in the towel, or at least throwing it at the camera and using Kickstarter and film to try and speak, to tell some truth about writers, human beings, publishing and the Internet too, even Kickstarter. I’ll still keep my promise to publish just to ebook this year.

You can see what I hope are just some frank words now though by CLICKING HERE.

Kickstarter’s tag line is “It’s Not Just A Project. It’s a story”. What could be truer at ‘The Storyteller’s publisher’ too, Phoenix Ark, which sadly and very stupidly stopped (or was made to stop) telling stories?! Much the problem of crossing the lines of fact and fiction and never become the story yourself!

So to a refusal to beg though and to the back story behind Light of The White Bear too and this attempt here, which, to use an appropriate arctic metaphor, for a long delayed novel about polar bears and melting worlds, is the very tip of the iceberg! To thoughts of what real gratitude is too, any ‘right’ to be an artist or succeed but out of the most basic attack on principle and a person by a major New York Publisher.

Words then to Michael Jacobs, now the Chairman of a campaign against American censorship(!), when this story epitomizes the very meaning of censorship, bullying and ultimately injustice too. I mean that most specifically about a story that could and should have stopped years ago and was not in some spy world, or the US military, but a world of supposedly human values, in books and publishing. I told them long ago Americans always use a hammer to crack a nut.

Words also directly to ‘Justice’ Cynthia Kern of the New York Supreme court too and why she so failed in her job early last year.

Thanks for listening and so many thanks to those you opened their hearts! Never lose the girl, and be nice to each other.

DCD

PHOENIX ARK PRESS

1 Comment

Filed under America and the UK, Books, Childrens Books, Culture, Environment, Fantasy

KICKSTARTER AUTHOR GOES WILD AND STAGES OWN BOOK BURNING ONLINE

12_001

Hello all,

Well just two days into Kickstarting and fantastic first pledges! THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH. Private thanks will come to everyone but a special word to Miss Baker who has ever started the ball rolling.

If we can raise it to 10% by tomorrow though then we’ll be on a certain course. Which is to ask all those who have read free articles here, poems, stories and blogs and especially if you have ever clicked LIKE button to think about going to Kickstarter and clicking PLEDGE instead. I guess it’s not to promote yourself very well to suggest that will not cost a thing if I don’t hit the target, but at least that ensures if you pledge something, then there will be rewards and a certain finished book.

In the meantime my good friend Kate in Chile suggested I didn’t say enough in a first video. So I have just gone mad and burnt one of my own novels online, Nazi book burning style, as a tiny act of protest but certainly to convince all of a hot read! If this appalls you then I quite sympathize, do let me know if you think I should change it, while if you would rather eat polar bears than make a pledge it would be really wonderful if you could spread the word instead. Thank you all again.

You can see my sill face and the appalling act of self immolative book burning
by just CLICKING HERE

Leave a comment

Filed under Adult Fiction, Books, Childrens Books, Culture, Environment, Publishing, The Arts, The Phoenix Story