Kickstarting the Furlough Tour

I don't think I've been more nervous about anything since I started this wacky writing thing! But here it is: the Kickstarter for the Furlough Tour.

You can read all the details at the site, but the shorthand is: I'm being furloughed. A week off unpaid isn't much compared to the trials some of my colleagues have had to endure; I'd rather a furlough than a layoff. But that doesn't mean my family can easily absorb losing a week of my salary.

But I'm going to turn this gut-punch into an advantage: I'm hitting the road for the Furlough Book Tour. I'm going to drive from St. Louis to New York and back. I'm going to stop in all those places that people have asked me to visit, and I've always had to say no because airfare isn't free and I couldn't be gone from the paper for more than a weekend. Suddenly I've got a lot of time on my hands.

This comes just as we are about to launch the reimagined edition of Dreadmire! If you're a reaaaaaally devoted fan, you might remember that fantasy adventure through the swamp I wrote about five years ago. It's been resurrected, so to speak, in a wonderful new edition by Inkstained Succubus Press.

And that secret novella I've been working on? It's going to be released first to the people who donate to the Kickstarter.

Now, it turns out I don't know all that much about Kickstarter. As I was dithering and preparing and researching and all that stuff, I didn't realize that there's a 14-day waiting period between the end of the Kickstarter and actually getting the money. That meant by the time I was ready to launch this week, I could only have a 10-day pledge period to raise the funds. That's why it's so short. :( As it is, I will probably have to begin the tour with the money still pending. So I sure hope sales are good at the next few events I'm doing before the tour!

(That would be the Strange Folk Festival and Archon, by the way.)

I've never done a Kickstarter before, so I'm pretty sure I've made seven or eight critical errors. And I'm rather nervous about it, because it's asking you all, my dear readers, to help me rent a car and drive across the country. That's a lot to ask, particularly in this economy.

But I'm also excited about it. I think it'll be delightful fun, and I'm hoping to get to meet a lot of my dear readers who have only been names on emails and posts up until now. I want to see places I've never seen, and maybe introduce my writing to some new folks.

So here's the part that isn't in the Kickstarter Plea O' Cash: Where would you like me to go? Some folks have already asked me about coming to Allentown, Harrisburg and York in Pennsylvania (geez, Pennfolk like me!); Baltimore; South Bend, Ind.; New York City and other points east. Are you anywhere along that route? Would you like me to come to your town? Tell me, and I'll see if I can make it happen!

Wish me luck! I'm gonna need it...

Note: For those reading this live, I'm going to be in a Google+ Hangout for the next hour or so answering questions and chatting. Drop by and say hello!

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