The Thrilling Tales project is a lot like a web comic – the content’s available for free on the web or for purchase as printed books. The biggest difference is that because the stories aren’t linear I can’t post updates a couple of times a week. And going by Trapped in the Tower of the Brain Thieves, those updates will be months apart.

For that reason I’m planning to add linear illustrated stories with updates once or twice a week. Although that will delay the big updates even more, it’s about the only way the site can build up its readership.

Of course… that means that the next Toaster With Two Brains update will be even later than it would have been otherwise. And on the practical side I’ve been supporting my many months of work on the Thrilling Tales with nothing but the sales from my web sites. Out of the nine months beginning in July 2009 there was just one month when I worked on anything else.

So here I am, gearing up for the next illustrated story – which now is two stories, one interactive, and one linear – while the web site is still percolating across the web and trying to draw an audience. This is where a corporate startup would look for what’s called "bridge financing" – investment to tide the company over until it grows into its market and can walk on its own tentacles. I’m not a corporate startup, of course, and so I’m rolling out a fundraiser at kickstarter.com.


Kickstarter works like a fundraising drive for Public Broadcasting. A project’s creator sets a funding goal and offers rewards for pledges. If the funding goal is met, the pledge money is transferred and the rewards are shipped to the contributors. If the funding goal is not met, though, no pledges are redeemed and the fundraiser has failed.

So it’s an all or nothing proposition. If enough people pledge then the project gets its funding and the backers get their Fabulous Prizes. If the promotion falls short by a single dollar, everyone sits sadly in front of their monitors and dreams of What Might Have Been.

Now one way or another I intend to continue The Toaster With TWO BRAINS, and I intend to create a linear illustrated story for the Thrilling Tales site to run while I’m working on the next big update. I’m not holding a gun up to a puppy’s head and issuing an ultimatum here.

But….

I won’t pretend that it’ll be easy. In fact I’m not quite sure how well it’ll work out. It’s an adventure. So I’ve set up a fundraiser at kickstarter.com. The fundraising goal is nowhere near enough to finance this next stage in development – whatever else happens I know that it’ll mainly be coming out of my own pocket. But it will definitely help, and possibly help a lot.

The rewards for my Kickstarter backers include copies of the first Thrilling Tales book, "Trapped in the Tower of the Brain Thieves"; archival prints of one of the illustrations for that story, redone at a much higher resolution; and exclusive T-shirts for Kickstarter backers.

One thing about the Kickstarter system is that a project doesn’t just stop when it hits its goal: if people keep contributing, the funds keep accumulating. So though I’ve tried to set the bar low enough that the fundraiser will succeed, there is no ceiling. That means that if it’s successful it might raise much more funding than I’ve set. Which, you know, would be nice for me and a heck of a boost for the Thrilling Tales.

But of course if we don’t meet the goal then nothing happens. So if you think that this project is worth supporting I hope you’ll consider becoming a backer and spreading the word. On the project’s Kickstarter page there are easy ways to promote the fundraiser on Facebook, in forums, through Twitter and Tumblr, and in other ways. The more the merrier!

[tags]thrilling tales, retropolis, kickstarter, fundraiser, sf, science fiction, sci fi, art, illustration, interactive fiction[/tags]