Our Broken Eye Books fiction Kickstarter just launched!
This has been a long time in the making. Do you enjoy the writings of folks like Richard Pett, Clinton Boomer, Dave Gross, Elaine Cunningham, Erik Scott de Bie, James Sutter, and Shanna Germaine? Well, they and many others are involved in this.
Won't you join us for a crazy ride?
I seriously hope this funds. I really want that signed, hardcover of "Crooked."
Seconded. These books sound just like up my alley. Gotta do the math again once I'm not dead tired...
Video of Boomer getting excited about his upcoming retro-post-apocalyptic novel Soapscum Unlimited.
I'll support it. I just need to figure out what level to support.
Dito. I think a summary of what one gets per level would help - as provided, the rewards are a bit confusing. Questions is the only book that doesn't interest me - and, as far as I can tell, there's no level just for Crooked, Hole Behind Midnight, Bad-Burn City and by Faerie Light in print - though that's what I'd be going for. Another note - the 20 bucks international shipping - do they cover all the books or one? Do international customers get the books as they are released or do they have to wait for all and get them in one shipping?
Dito. I think a summary of what one gets per level would help - as provided, the rewards are a bit confusing. Questions is the only book that doesn't interest me - and, as far as I can tell, there's no level just for Crooked, Hole Behind Midnight, Bad-Burn City and by Faerie Light in print - though that's what I'd be going for. Another note - the 20 bucks international shipping - do they cover all the books or one? Do international customers get the books as they are released or do they have to wait for all and get them in one shipping?
Sorry for any confusion! We tried to make it as straightforward as we could. If you're interested in four prints, then "DEADTREE DELUXE III" might be what you're looking for. (Yes, unfortunately it's $20/book for international backers because you get the books as they're released.) You can also use the Add-On system to add individual books to other tiers.
Hope that helps! Let me know if you have other questions. :)
Thanks for the clarification, Scott! I tend to prefer to ask in the case of KS with "all of tier X +"-formulas. Regarding shipping, well I gotta consider that very well... You don't happen to have an alternate print distribution in the UK, do you? Lightning Source is only $4 for me and that's much easier to justify than $80. What about bundled shipping, is that an option? Paying $40 bucks for two shipments and waiting longer for them would be easier to justify...
Probably not, but it never hurts to ask and since these books are right up my alley, I figure I'll better ask all the questions I can...
Thanks for the clarification, Scott! I tend to prefer to ask in the case of KS with "all of tier X +"-formulas. Regarding shipping, well I gotta consider that very well... You don't happen to have an alternate print distribution in the UK, do you? Lightning Source is only $4 for me and that's much easier to justify than $80. What about bundled shipping, is that an option? Paying $40 bucks for two shipments and waiting longer for them would be easier to justify...
Probably not, but it never hurts to ask and since these books are right up my alley, I figure I'll better ask all the questions I can...
Drop me an email, End. It'll be easier to talk that way. :)
Dropped you a mail via the Broken Eye contact. :)
I'm sat just outside your house now End, do you want your Crooked delivered now?
Knock, knock.
Mnarrrrrrrrrrrrr
You're standing in front my door? Gotta talk to that evoker - seems he's forgotten casting his daily imprisonment I usually have for my prison dimension... Damn. At least this way, my copy is not lost in some netherworld...
Now how do I avoid melee?
Enjoyed the Kickstarter page and the video! How about a sample of the writing?
There will be a sample up tonight! :)
The latest update has a 3-chapter preview and a video of Rich reading from Crooked.
Awesome sample! Now I want Crooked even more!
Huzzah! Crooked is more strange and twisted and disturbing than anything I've ever written, glad you enjoyed the sample End, I really hope we get that kickstarter funded, spread the disturbance if you can...
Rich
It's tough, but I'm avoiding reading the sample of "Crooked." I want the full effect when I get the hardcover.
Rich, I enjoyed the video- I could totally see you playing a Lannister in HBO's Game of Thrones (and I mean that in a good way!).
Ha! Thanks John - I think.
I borrowed a friends 16th century townhouse for the vid, it's an awesome spooky old spot so if there are any extra creaks and groans they aren't special effects.
Fingers crossed it funds.
Rich
Okay, I'll join - can't resist my Pett and Boomer-fix...
Huzzah! My surgeon-artists need to slither from the shadows and into the light...
I have pledged, I'm still looking at the budget to figure out what level I'll settle on. I'm at least getting some digital content. I would like a hardcover, but I'm not sure if my wallet can take it.
In for 4 books. :)
Huzzah! Buythehardbackbuythehardbackyouknowyouwantto:)
Thanks you two, the kickstarter is moving along nicely but please keep spreading the word to anyone you think might be interested in a tale of a city powered by sweat and muscle and carcasses that is haunted by surgeon-artist killers and things that slit your reflections throat...
Rich
Yes, I indeed want to, but the level I pledged at already stretches my thin resources to the edge, so I unfortunately will have to settle on the softcover. Still, I'm extremely stoked to see my copies when this funds.
I also just posted about the KS and provided a link on my site, in case some people who'd be interested in it don't know about it.
Cheers!
Huzzah, good work my fine End.
Thank you kindly.
Rich
Hey all! Just wanted to drop in and say how excited I am to be part of BY FAERIE LIGHT! The list of authors is stellar, and I had a blast writing my own story, which is called "New Growth"--it's a creepy/naughty story about a dryad and a lumberjack. I really enjoyed getting a chance to go inside a dryad's head and show how fundamentally *alien* fey can be.
Also, needless to say, I'm really proud to see Rich Pett coming out with his first novel, and Boomer is always a pleasure to work with! I can't even imagine how much craziness must be contained beneath those covers. (The covers of the books, I mean...)
Anyway, if this is the sort of thing that interests you, I hope you decide to check it out and snag some of the books!
Okay, I'm in for Weird Love. I'd like a hardback, but I think I'll settle for just the 1's and 0's.
Contributor
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As another reader who lives outside of the US, I too balked at the dead-tree versions, much as I'd have liked to have them. The WEIRD LOVE level is a pretty great deal in that regard, and maybe I'll pick up some of the physical books at a convention when the authors are present to deface them for me.
The extremely talented Colin McComb has been saying some lovely things about Crooked and the other kickstarters in the project. If you're on the fence at all, please check out his recommendation.
http://colinmccomb.com/?page_id=87
We're getting very close to the home stretch for both funding and the kickstarter now, any help you can give us will be much appreciated, and thanks to everyone who's supported or promoted the project amongst their friends. Keep up the good work, thank you.
Huzzah!
Rich
Seriously! Fiction! As if his adventures weren't eyesore enough!
Who would back this!??!?!
I certainly would NEVER!
Certainly not at PETT-AGEDDON level. Nope. Not a chance.
AAAAAAND!
I definitely wouldn't be looking to up my pledge higher in the next few days, even if I had backed it!
I mean, that's just ludicrous!!!
Keep back now, nothing to see here, just a deluded madman and nic louge.
I've had him barred from the kickstarter site.
Pett
Seriously! Fiction! As if his adventures weren't eyesore enough!
Who would back this!??!?!
I certainly would NEVER!
Certainly not at PETT-AGEDDON level. Nope. Not a chance.
AAAAAAND!
I definitely wouldn't be looking to up my pledge higher in the next few days, even if I had backed it!
I mean, that's just ludicrous!!!
Ludicrously ridiculous awesome! Must go now and shovel more baby unicorns into the fire (ie, up my pledge)to bring about the Pettageddon.
Huzzah! Stoke that furnace...
I spoke with Ray Vallese and Colin Moulder-McComb at Gen Con Indy 2013 about their work on Broken Eye Books projects. They had nothing but praise for Scott and his efforts. Here's the video.
We've hit the 70% mark on finding with just 7 days to go, hoorah! For those who haven't visited the kickstarter, please do, there are some awesome writers over there and some great projects.
For those who don't know, Scott is offering a free signed hardback copy of crooked to the person who takes us over $7500, and we have some new stretch goals offering professional critiques of your work.
And if you're on the fence about crooked, I can only say its the most strangely twisted sweaty fleshy and repulsive thing I've ever written. I'd love to have you with us at the start of something that has the potential to birth further horrors.
Thanks everyone again for your ongoing support and good thoughts.
Rich
I'm not a professional critic. However, this morning I started reading the 3 chapter preview of Crooked.
The Introduction is pure poetry.
In the spirit of Star Wars, Alien and Neil Gaiman, Richard Pett drops us into a world that we don't fully understand. He doesn't explain how things work, they just do, and we get to figure it all out through the narrative.
I was walking along thinking, "What the H311 is going on here? Undead Horses? Empire? Waterwheels? A city built below sea level? Where does the water go? I want to read more and find out!" I got to work and didn't want to get to work, I just wanted to read the rest of the preview!
I haven't even finished chapter 1 yet and I want to read the rest! I really hope that this Kickstarter funds. I want to read all these books.
-Aaron
Thank you Aaron, that's one of the nicest compliments I've had on these fine boards, and I've been very lucky to have had some kind things said over the years.
For me feedback - good and bad - does two things; enables a reflection on what's been written, providing an invaluable and honest report on how things work or don't work for people, and when something new is tried - like this- it's great to know what has made me smile and scratch my head and doubt my sanity comes through in reading.
Thank you again.
Huzzah!
Rich
I'm definitely excited to see some Pett and Boomer fiction, I've backed it!
Last night, while giving my infant a bottle, I was reading Pathfinder Chronicler II on the iPod touch (great way to read while feeding a baby), and I reached the "Wishtwister" story by Clinton Boomer. My thought process:
"Oh! I didn't know there was another Wishtwister story! Nice! I really liked the one in the first Chronicler."
"Clinton Boomer. Where do I know that name from?"
?:| ...
o_O ???
O_O !!!
"Holy Sands of Kessel, he's got a book in the Crooked Kickstarter! This Kickstarter just got better!"
-Aaron
...last weekend everyone, shout, shout and shout again!
Last few days for our Kickstarter, everyone!
For stretch goals, there's a wonderful map of the impossible city of Brine from Richard Pett's new novel Crooked. It's by Jonathan Roberts, who did the amazing Cassdega map for Kobold Press's Sunken Empires book.
There's also new short stories by Clinton Boomer set in the world of his The Hole Behind Midnight.
And Erik Scott de Bie, who's written 5 Forgotten Realms novels for WotC, just joined the crew with a brand new twisted fantasy novel.
Lots of great stories to choose from. We'll keep you in fiction for the next year! ;D
For those who haven't read any of the extracts yet, here's the first page of CЯOOKED, hope it whets your appetite, we're into the last 4 days and things are getting very close.
The sickly sun falls behind ochre clouds, almost apologising for illuminating the final moments of the day. In its embers, the evening air boils with insects, screaming as the shadow of night falls upon their countless billions.
A crow takes to the air, disturbed by movement in the ridge hive of chimneys and gables and spires. Lice dance upon the sickly bird, feasting as it soars over this fractured city. Below, streets are lashed by wire and chain-ferry, countless bridges rotting in the acrid air—a cat's cradle of structures gazing downward. Brine, they call this city, but it has many other names. Stitched. Hive. Sweat Town. Despair.
The crow picks its way warily over the shrouding cliff towns of the Crucible, a cauldron of shantytowns staring petrified into its own dark depths. The crow flies swiftly over the canker-shrouded factories, fearful of being drawn into the poison choke, like the waters of the sea, which plummet into the lightless depths below, grinding a thousand, thousand waterwheels into furious screeching toil twice daily.
Rain falls, slithering over the makeshift dwellings of the upper city along the causeway—the levee between sea and Crucible. The bird's gaze blurs as it sees the goliath Capitol towering above the river beyond, a broken hill of gables and spires and gargoyles rising into the clouds above. The Capitol ruptures as it threatens to fall into the sea, the cliffs broadening into the welcoming maw of the city. Iron tentacles grope blindly at the stacks around this grinning mouth, cranes and rusted piers and iron buildings piled one on another on another. These fangs are drawn from the Wall—the docks of this vast metropolis—and out across the river toward the sea, where the spires rise in their thousands, stacks of rotting stone and rust that call a mocking farewell to those brave enough to fish the waters beyond.
The crow roosts in rooftops lashed or spat or prayed into being by people desperate for shelter within a city dancing upon its own grave. Buildings on buildings on buildings, towering upward and outward like cancer. Growing, always growing. Someday, they say, a wren will settle upon a gable, and the whole city will collapse.
Has it already collapsed, rotted from within by its peculiarity and serendipity? Everyone knows the tales: a street takes an impossible turn, a shadow falls the wrong way as light enters an alley, revealing glimpses of things that have never seen the sun. People vanish or appear, followed or taken by others without shadows. Occasionally, a reflection in a puddle of water draws the two places together, and a new street is found, an alley returns back upon itself, or a whole district vanishes. No place is safe in this rupture. The fangs of other predators gape and hunger at the sight of men and their children looking from their burrows into the dark.
Brine is an outpost, a place on the frontier of two places. Ask the old people to name of the other place, and they will blanch, anxious to avoid their own reflections in the windows of shops and the puddles of water at their feet. They know that endless incursions have left open wounds between, leaving a city in two places. "Between," they spit. "Be careful not to dream," they add, desperate to scratch away the verdigris of rot and time and return to the beautiful city of their childhood.
The crow aims for the cloven spire that is its scavenging guide, but its homeward dive is suddenly halted, its flight crippled by the suffocating embrace of a colossal web, cast by one of the gable spiders that make their home away from the stares of men and the strange hungers of the scrimshaw gargoyles above.
The crow struggles as it tries to escape, but the more it moves, the more it coils within stinging webs, which slowly begin to bite into its flesh. In a moment, the dislocated, spastic thing that wove the web will appear, and in the hours and days to come, weaver and prey will become one.
The light fades as another story begins in the city in a broken mirror.
2 days left, 85% there. My flayed nerves may never recover, thank you everyone for contributing and spreading the twisted slimy stitchness, one last push and we may birth something horrible:)
Mnnnnnnnnnaaaarrrr!
I feel queezy, this can't be good for your health.
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I think I speak for all of us when I wish Rich, Boomer, and the rest the best of luck in birthing their horrible, slime-covered abomination...
Huzzah! Thanks James :)
For those who haven't read any of the extracts yet, here's the first page of CЯOOKED, hope it whets your appetite, we're into the last 4 days and things are getting very close.
On 08/28/2013, I posted that the Introduction is pure poetry.
You can all see what I consider "pure poetry." I stand by my words.
90% funded. I will restate my hope: I really hope that this Kickstarter funds!
-Aaron