Which would you choose? Oh, wait! You don’t have to choose between the two, you can have both. But how? Read on.

Kickstarter

Kickstarter is a platform where readers can help authors create a project that both are proud of. My prettiest books came from Kickstarters that I backed.

How does it work? An author (or other creative/business person) sets up a project with different tiers or levels of involvement. Each tier has different products. Say ebooks, audiobooks, paperbacks, hardbacks, etc. You choose your budget (I wish I had more budget this month) or what you want.

The author sets a funding goal. Once the funding goal is met, then the project will come to you at whatever tier you selected. But that’s not it. The fun begins after meeting the goal. That’s when stretch goals come into play. It was stretch goals that allowed Well of Souls by Z. R. McCormick to have two more pieces of artwork, a vellum insert, city map, short story, endpages, and sprayed edges! It was stretch goals that allowed the boxed set of Dragon Courage to have colored chapter headers, 2 sets of art cards, a 3-D printed dragon, and more.

The Books

Things Passed Down

Set in the frozen dark north, Gamar City and Port Gamar lie upon a frozen sea. With dragon riders who control the city and dragons who keep the sea frozen, this area has created my most politically diverse land. Think Palestine in the first century with Roman overlords. A later book set in the same place ended up with my first ‘battle’ that wasn’t fought with swords or dragons but words!

Things Left Behind

At the oposite extreme we have Ostland. Wendel and his brother Winston enjoy their time gaming or building robots, but when they learn that a sliver of the moon Pikku is careeming toward their planet, they use their skills to help form their new world.

Special Editions

These are Bespoke editions with chapter headers hand-drawn by artist Hannah Muldrey. Gold and silver foil on the dust jackets and the case-laminate spines, as well as colored endpages.

How to get yours

You can nab your early ebooks, special edition paperbacks, or Bespoke special edition hardbacks at the Kickstarter.

Founders

Two stories. 
Two books. 
Two families. 
Without courage neither will have a legacy to leave to the next generation. What heritage will you leave for your family?

Two stories:
What happens if you have dragons and an ice sea? What if a young man is out for revenge–against dragons?
What happens when a sliver of your moon comes careening toward the planet? What will it take for a family to survive?

Two books:
Things Passed Down
Things Left Behind

Two families:
Giorgi Ioseb’s son is the last of clan Kori. He’s determined to fulfill his papa’s dying wish.
Wendel Vogt’s dad handed him the family ring as the sliver of the moon had entered their planet’s atmosphere. With it comes a responsibility to the family and to stand for what Dad stood for.

Courage:
Giorgi will need courage to go against his very nature to achieve the revenge he longs for.
Wendel will need courage to face a world tilted off its axis.

The Special Editions

Since both stories take place at oposite ends of the planet, I’ve used that to influence the color choice. Things Passed Down will be blue to represent the cold north, while Things Left Behind is orange for the sun. Things Passed Down has snowflakes in silver foil. Things Left Behind has the watch Wendel’s dad gives him in gold foil. The silver and gold will continue with faux metalic sprayed edges.

Inside will have special art for chapter headers. I’m still finalizing who and what that will look like.

How to Pre-order

Normally, to pre-order books, you go to retailers, pay them, wait until release day and then the ebook miraculously ends up on your device. I’ve started to change that up. Instead of the impersonal route of ebook only pre-order, I’ve started to use Kickstarter. This enables those who pre-order to receive the ebooks months before the book is available in stores and usually there’s something special about even the ebooks that don’t end up on regular stores.

Besides early special ebooks, this also enables special art to be commissioned. For Paskal’s Hope in Four Stars over Ardatz: Journeys duology, we have two character sketches added to the chapter art already in the paperback and hardback that won’t be available in retail stores.

Kickstarter enables the author and reader to connect through reader polls of what they want in the book, stretch goals, and direct messaging.

To sum up, Kickstarter is great because:

• you receive ebooks ahead of others
• you receive special edition ebooks
• you receive special edition paperbacks or hardbacks (yes, both physical and ebook)
• you get to vote in what makes the special edition ‘special’
• you have direct access to the author
• you get swag (either digital or physical)
• you get both books of the duology at once if you wish instead of waiting (for this and future Kickstarters for me)

If that sounds like something you want to be a part of, then follow the Kickstarter to get an email notification when it launches (early September is the plan.)

One of the tough topics that’s discussed in Four Stars over Ardatz: Journeys is sexual assault. This unfortunately is too often left undiscussed, especially among those who claim Christ. I think by taking a verse that says: “it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of [evildoers] in secret.” (Eph 5:12) We’ve given power to abusers and assailants. 

I know when I finally allowed my brain to unlock a sliver of a memory, I felt shame and guilt–not because it’d happened, but because I’d lied my whole life! Yet, by bringing it out into the open, by sitting with my mom and working through a secondary outcome, and by lots of prayer and Bible study, I was able to be freed of the shame and fear that assault had left in its wake.  

By having characters go through these horrific events (off the page) and walking through the healing process, I hope to bring about conversations, to provide a voice for those who feel as if they have no voice, and provide hope that there is a better outcome than what they’ve faced so far. 

How do you help those who’ve faced this? Remember last week’s post about how to talk about tough topics? The same applies here. The main thing you can do is provide a loving, nonjudgmental ear for them to share when they feel ready. If you’re a partner to a survivor of abuse, realize that things that had been fine earlier may now not be alright. Be patient with them and show love without touch.

A book, and even movies, make the process seem easy and/or quick. But that is as far from the truth as possible. Even if the healing comes relatively quickly (over the course of a year or so), years later triggers can arise that give fear a hold again. 

By speaking about this tough topic, we can free survivors of the shame that accompanies sexual assault and abuse. We provide them freedom and lift a burden that is too heavy for them to carry alone. 

If you’re a survivor and have no one to talk to, feel free to reach out. If you know a survivor, feel free to share either Kristjan’s Rise or Paskal’s Hope with them as books that may help them see that there is hope. Good resources for healing are The Wounded Heart by Dan Allender and Lord, Heal My Hurts by Kay Arthur. If you have troubles finding any of these resources, reach out to me, I can help you find them.

Speaking about hard topics can leave us feeling heavy and weighed down, but remember the goal is to shine light in the midst of darkness. To turn our scars into weapons of light.

Epic Fantasy with Magic

All he wanted was to prove himself a man.

All she wanted was to learn to use her new-found magic.

Neither of them knew the price of their desires.

A rope bound his feet together, and another held his arms at his sides. Each of his fellow captives was secured in the same way. His arms itched where the hemp fibers dug into them. He wiggled trying to reposition, to somehow scratch it.

The slave beside him gave a warning shake of his head. Slave. He’d been taken captive—by a jiddee’adar slaver. Weren’t the jiddee’adar supposed to be Jeeah’s protectors—advisors to kings or chieftains, using their abilities to serve? He shook his head. He’d seen how Olechario used his power.

Fantasy that Questions Your Core Beliefs

What if being who you were meant to be, meant you’d be trafficked, sent half-way around the world, and sold into slavery? Would you be able to see meaning from the despair? Or would you be like Paskal?

As the young girl came to a stop, her eyes widened, and she walked toward Paskal, her hand extended. “You’re a slave?” She reached for his hand and pulled him down to her, then traced the mark on his arm.

He wanted to hide, to have the ground open up and swallow him. Instead of the hatred and disdain that he’d grown accustomed to, though, she placed both hands on his cheeks and turned him to her.

“Jeeah loves you.”

The words struck him harder than the physical blow he’d expected. What did she mean? Of course, he knew about Jeeah, but since he’d woken in Olechario’s care, his faith that the god was good had dwindled. How could Jeeah allow him to be treated like he had?

Like a good slave, he didn’t reply. There was nothing he could say anyway.

Fantasy that Brings Hope from Loss

Paskal only wants to prove himself a man, but when he’s captured by an evil mage and sold down the Inferno Trail, he loses more than he ever thought possible. And yet, through the fire and pain he finds hope.

What would you do if faced with immeasurable loss?

Cover for Paskal’s Hope

Where to Get Paskal’s Hope

Instead of a pre-order on Amazon or other outlets, Paskal’s Hope is being released as a Kickstarter project. It’s currently in pre-launch which means you follow it to get notifications of when it goes live. The more people who follow it, the more Kickstarter promotes it.

Kickstarter is a crowdfunding option that allows you–the reader–to get early access to special edition books. Paskal’s Hope will have four different chapter headers that will correspond to his place in the story. The hardcover outside will match Kristjan’s Rise so the duology will look great on your bookshelf.

If you haven’t already purchased Kristjan’s Rise, you’ll have the opportunity in the Kickstarter to get both books.

• Settlers of Catan
• Ticket to Ride
• Arkham Horror: the card game
• Magic the Gathering
• Thanos Rising

You may wonder how in the world all of these games could be similar. Well, leave it to a gaming mom to figure out how to make one game that incorporates elements from all five of these games.

Gather Resources

Just like in Settlers of Catan, gather resources to build homes. You’ll need 10 homes for the 4-player game.

Draw from choices

Just like in Ticket to Ride, choose two cards from either face up or face down. Use your cards to build your homes.

Play Unique Characters

You may choose:

• Jorvar who gets to go first, swaps an event card with someone else, or in the last week chooses one player who doesn’t have to draw an event card.
• Arnor who can use 1 lichen and 1 water in exchange for 1 malachite, and can disregard one cave-in per round.
• Bergmund who can roll a dice and get ice rat, snow fox, lizard, or shkatad, and can draw one additional ice rat.
• Iuun who can clear the face up resources into the discard pile, drawing one from those instead of drawing her two resources. She can also choose to place her cards that are discarded from a calamity either in the discard pile or face down on the draw pile.

Just like in Arkham Horror: the card game you choose which player at the outset of the game, and then role-play or not as you see fit.

Lore Quotes

Just like in Magic the Gathering, each card has a quote from Kristjan’s Rise, the story that connects to the game premise.

Event Cards

Each round, draw event cards that make the game progressively harder like in Thanos Rising. And as the game progresses, you’ll shuffle in even more catastrophe events.

Drawing from elements my family loves to play, I created a game based off the origin story for Kristjan’s Rise. You’re trying to get the scientists through the first month after The Impact. 

Race against the clock, help each other, and have fun.

Kickstarter Details

The game is live on Kickstarter. The funds go to commission the rest of the art needed for the 4 more resource cards, the 6 more character cards, and the rest of the event cards.

Besides the game, you can get the t-shirt, a custom playmat, and a custom snow fox plushie!

But remember, the Kickstarter is only live until February 19, 2026! Unlike the books that’ve been on Kickstarter, this one needs the extra help to get the art. It won’t be available until maybe much later. Can we get it to fund?

But…

Once we’re aware, we then have an option of how to handle it. Last week we talked about remembering the times we’ve made it through. Did it help you? I hope so.

One way to help you remember is journalling. You can write down the events that happen and then go back and read them. But there’s another form of journalling as well.

This is what a chat group called writing for yourself. It’s the writing to understand where you’re at right now. What you’re thinking about a topic, or how you’re feeling. 

This type of journalling can help the mind games by giving you a glimpse into your thoughts. You can see if you’re not thinking right. You can understand what’s going on.

This week, when you find yourself uptight, frustrated, or just plain out of sorts, sit down with some paper or your note app or even a word processor and journal what’s going on.

I’m reminded of how the Rittider put on their armor as they go about their day. Or how Carryl made sure the dragons and riders had armor to fight against the turquoise dragon rider.

Unfortunately, our armor isn’t as cool looking as a leather breastplate. It’s moreso a way of life, a decision each morning as we wake up to gird up our mind to be ready for the attacks that will come that day.

How can we do that? Our first step is remembering.

This week, I was given some shocking news. The position I thought I was going to move into was given to someone else. My current teaching position is up in the air as I wait on insurance to decide on long-term disability. I began to panic. For the past three years, my income has sustained the household. 

At the same time, I knew I’d heard the invitation to come risk with God and pivot in my work focus. But how was that possible?

As I tried to grapple with all of this, I reminded myself that God has always provided. Always! But it took a conscious effort to remind myself.

Mairead goes through this as well in Divided. As she’s taking the crown, she must swear in her cannonsea, or captain of the royal guard.

“Kyeth, Rittider of Muintir, do you pledge your life to Mairead, Queen of Muintir?”

“Aye.” Kyeth blinked back tears, the emotion almost undoing Mairead’s resolve not to cry. “My blade belongs to my queen. My will is hers to command, and my life will be spent in exchange for hers. This I vow with Jeeah as my witness.” He paused before his voice rang out clear and strong: “Chay la Jeeah.”

Mairead fought for control. How could she do this? Lugh squeezed her shoulder, and she remembered Jeeah. Taking a deep breath, she stated the words she’d memorized at the jiddee’adar’s prompting. 

Our daily battles might not be as big as facing an evil mage, but our enemy is just as determined. The mind games are real. Will you remember how you’ve come through hard times in the past? Remember that you did get through them. That bad times pass, even if it feels like they won’t.

What memory do you need to recall? I’d love to hear how you got through a bad time–if you feel comfortable sharing.

That’s not what I have in mind. I’m talking about the mind games we play with ourselves on a daily basis.

Mind Games We Play

These are the ways we convince ourselves:

• our life is great–or not.
• the pain’s not too bad–or it’s terrible.
• others have better friends than me–or not.
• other kids behave like angels while mine are hellions–or not.

Focus is the Key

I’m coming to understand Lysander from Divided more and more. I never wanted to relate to an antagonist–someone who’s willing to do anything to get his end goal, even if it means hurting others. But as I’m coming up on two years of living with nerve pain, it’s starting to make more and more sense.

Yet, even Lysander had a choice, as do you and I.

He sighed and closed his eyes. “You have no idea how wonderful it is to not feel a thing. No pain, no aches, not even discomfort.” He opened his eyes. “Thank you, Mairead. I don’t deserve this.”

“Aye, you do. No one should live in pain.”

“Tell that to Jeeah.” He twisted the name as if it left a sour taste.

Her power receded as if recoiling, pulling back into herself.

“Why do you say that?”

He snorted. “He’s the only one capable of providing relief, and look at me. Every step, all I know is pain. Either I did something terrible to deserve this, or he has no feelings, doesn’t care a wit about what happens to me.”

“Nay, that can’t be. Jeeah cares.”

“Then why?” He lifted his chin. “Why doesn’t he show me he cares?”

She had no answer for that, but the empty space where a reply should have been made it feel like she’d committed a betrayal. She’d felt Jeeah’s nearness, his comfort. Why hadn’t Lysander?

Lysander chose to focus on his pain instead of on the solace Mairead found in Jeeah.

Your Mind Games

Your mind games might not be pain. They may be about your life circumstances, your family, or even friends. Whatever it is, know it is possible to win these mind games. We’ll dive in more next week.

The Characters

Kristjan Jorvarsson

This may seem obvious since it’s his name and face on the cover, but who’s Kristjan?

At eighteen, Kristjan has had many different apprenticeships–most of which have been cut short by his father due to the danger involved. Adventuring in the cold wastes of Toppur isn’t safe for the future chief. What about mining? Definitely not! He might get caught in a cave-in. The only safe route is to apprentice for the position of chief.

But…

Kristjan doesn’t want that responsibility. He’s not ready for any responsibility yet–especially not being betrothed!

And betrothals are coming in. Father’s already written four rejection letters, but now an elder is trying to match his daughter with Kristjan.

Geirfinnur Jorvarsson

Geirfinnur has been chief and single-parent to Kristjan for the past eighteen rotations (years). He has a strong sense of community, responsibility, and ethics. He’s watched as his relationship with his son has grown distant and mourns that. After all, he promised his wife on her deathbed that he’d not allow that to happen.

But…

Geirfinnur knows what only the elders know. Soon there’ll be more to worry about than betrothals or family relationships. Soon, the holdt won’t be able to survive.

A merchant left the holdt vowing to never return and to spread the word to others that it’s not worth braving the wastelands to reach them. Without merchants, they’ll have to scrounge for food with hunting parties, live off lichen and maybe, stars forbid, ice rat! It may keep them alive, but what about clothes to keep them warm? Sure they could stay in the holdt and its caverns, but then there’d be food.

Tinna Arnorsdotter

All of Tinna’s seventeen rotations have been lived identified by her father–Friðfinn, respected elder–and her mother’s hysterics. She’d rather fall somewhere in the middle–and not be noticed.

But…

Kristjan’s cousin, Bastian, has watched her as long as she can remember. At first she was flattered. After all, what girl wouldn’t love having the attentions of an attractive young man, and nephew to the chief to boot!

But…

When Bastian’s attention turns more physical, she’s left with guilt and feeling dirty. Now, her only hope is if she can hide what happened and get Kristjan Jorvarsson to agree to the betrothal her father sent.

Bastian Helgisson

At eighteen, Bastian has stayed in the shadows of his cousin, but he’s watched as his cousin has pleased everyone–or tried to. The problem is that pleasing everyone leaves others unhappy, and Bastian sees that. He could be a better chief than Kristjan; he’s even followed Uncle Gierfinnur around learning what it takes to be chief of Storeheltur.

But…

There’s one thing Bastian can do, and that’s please himself. So, every decision is filtered through the grid of what he wants. Whether that’s get a ring for Tinna or help the holdt survive.

Setting

400 rotations ago, Jorvar, Iunn, Arnor, Bergmund, Helgis, and five other scientists were given warning to flee to their shelter. When the shaking stopped and they dared exit, they thought their clocks were off. It was night–the two moons… That’s what was wrong. There were only two moons–Handi and Tsiki. Where was Piku?

As time progressed, they realized there was no day, only moonsteps. The moons told the passage of time. If they were to survive the climatic changes, they’d have to expand their shelter and dig into the rocks and caverns around them. Thus they created the holdt, Storeheltur.

Now…

Outside, it’s a barren, frozen waste inhabited near the caverns by shkatað, large white bears, snow foxes, and other creatures that use the thermal vents to survive and live off each other.

Inside, it’s a warm cavern system lit by minerals called yoma. Lizards and rats skitter through the caverns, and lichen grows abundantly.

But…

Storeheltur is the farthest northern settlement in the frozen wastes. They survive by merchants willing to brave the snow and ice to bring them supplies.

Jump into the Story

Intrigued? Then…

Still not sure? Then…

What is Kickstarter?

You’ve heard of gofundme. Think of Kickstarter as a gofundme with perks! The gaming community has used Kickstarter for years. The indie-published book industry has just recently hopped on board.

This crowdunding option, enables the reader to have direct access to the author. The messsage feature works well, and many times the author has the reader interact with them through polls.

Since Kickstarter has been around for years, they’ve figured out the ins and outs of how to vet projects, provide secure payment options, etc.

How Kickstarter works

The project will be live for 23 days. During that time, you have the opportunity of pledging and encouraging your friends to pledge and back the project. If it funds, and only if it funds, you’ll pay what you pledged and get your rewards.

Reward tiers allow you to choose how much you wish to receive and how much you wish to support a project.

If the project funds early, then stretch goals are implemented–these are things that brings more value to your product and the project. For books, it’s often character art, maps, special art to include in the book, bookmarks, stickers, deleted scenes, extra short stories, etc. The more people who back, the higher the project goes and the more perks everyone gets!

When the project ends, late pledges can be in effect. (I’ve set mine to last until I make a final order of books.) This means there will still be people who can get the perks, even if they were late to the party.

A week after the project ends, Kickstarter uses Stripe to charge your credit card. Then if your card has changed since you pledged, Kickstarter, and often the author, will reach out to get that fixed. I just supported one Kickstarter where those errored cards made the difference in what art we would receive in our books! I was so excited to hear it got figured out and everyone still was able to have that stretch goal.

Kristjan’s Rise as a Kickstarter

I learned a lot from Bonded Crowns as a Kickstarter, and that helps you out.

You’ll be choosing from several options.

The first level is “back because you want to”–you can add some extra change to support it without receiving anything or add more to your pledge because you believe in it.

Then there are ebook options–from Uprooted to Kristjan’s Rise months before it’ll be available on outlets.

Physical product: Every physical product comes with an ebook as well. You’ll have your choice of paperback or hardback or sparkly hardback. Let me explain.

Both paperback and hardback will come with chapter art headings. These look really nice in the proof paperback I’ve received. There are two different images–one for Geirfinnur (the dad) and one for Kristjan’s point of view.

In hardback, you’ll have two choices–regular and shiny sparkly. The regular one has a dust jacket with the cover on it, and on the book, just Kristjan and his thinking spot.

The Sparkly Hardback special edition:

Let’s work our way from the outside in. There is a gold-foiled dust jacket–the title and author name in gold foil. When you turn the book to the side, you’ll see the gold-colored sprayed edges. When you open it, you’ll see leather-look endpages. If you take off the dust jacket, you’ll understand why the endpages are leather-like. This cover is as if you’re opening a leather tome like Kristjan would have in the library. There is gold foil on the metal corner pieces. And then each chapter has the art.

Stretch Goals

Once we reach our goal of $500 pledged, we’ll be working toward art that will be placed in each book. There are a lot of art-worthy scenes in this story, and Moonpix Art is already working on pieces for the game that will go along with Kristjan’s Rise.

This scene is of the original founders of Storeheltur.

Besides art, there are many deleted scenes. My editor was even sad to see these go! So, I’ll be offering those up.

There are also songs in the story and as those who followed Bonded Crowns knows songs can be fun to have digitally, but can also take a long time to produce. This time, I already have the songs composed and written down for musicians to play. I’ve spoken with a harpist and she has access to two different studios and has recorded before.

So as you can see, these books, besides being available months before the rest of the world gets access, have the potential to be unique and an interactive experience.

Now What?

How do you get your own special edition? Hop over to the Kickstarter and click follow (or make a pledge) depending on when you see this. It will only be available from May 13-June 5. A few tiers will be available after that.

Did you hear about the game? I’ll have more information later about that, but think Settlers of Catan meets Ticket to Ride meets Arkham. You’ll become one of the Ancients, the original settlers of Storeheltur, and help them create Storeheltur in under 30 days. Each round is one day, so the clock is ticking.

In the meantime, follow the kickstarter to get in on the special edition. It won’t be availble until November otherwise, and the sparkly hardback won’t be availble until next year sometime! And then only on my website.