Coat hangers

 

Kickstarting a Novel: Ghost Hand by Ripley Patton

I've heard of Kickstarter before. I know a few people who have crowdfunded projects. Today I decided to back a project set up by Ripley Patton to self-publish a YA novel called Ghost Hand:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/553002528/ghost-hand-a-young-adult-novel

Why this project? Because Ripley is an awesome, talented, community-minded writer who has given a whole heck of a lot to the NZ spec fic community. Because her series of blog posts about her self-publishing process has been really interesting to read:

http://www.ripleypatton.com/
http://www.ripleypatton.com/2012/07/my-kickstarter-is-go-and-you-could-win-something/
http://www.ripleypatton.com/2012/07/crowdfunding-what-it-is-and-why-it-matters/
http://www.ripleypatton.com/2012/07/hands-on-kickstarter-12-things-i-learned-by-building-a-project/
http://www.ripleypatton.com/2012/07/mansfield-with-monsters/

And because a good friend of mine, Morgue, once agreed to buy something Debbie and I had made without a thought, without hesitation, without wanting to see it first, because he trusted us and because he wanted to support creative people doing good stuff.

I'm backing it because Ripley is good people.

I was pleased by the ease of use - as long as I didn't mind linking together a couple of accounts I didn't have to type in anything but existing passwords. Just sign into Kickstarter using my facebook account, pay with my amazon account. Boom.

 Go check out the project. It looks good. And back it if you can :-)

Mansfield with Monsters Launched

Our book, Mansfield with Monsters, which features 17 Katherine Mansfield short stories adapted to include a variety of monsters and alien creatures, was launched yesterday. It's available from www.steampress.co.nz and also from amazon.com if you live anywhere except the EU :-)