Thank you for funding the Kickstarter!!

Well, what can I say...you guys are the most amazing backers ever!  I truly thought it would take pretty much the entire allotted time to fund, but you did it in 47 hours and 26 minutes!

Guess I'll have to get going on the stretch goals ;-) That's an amazingly short period to raise $26,000.

We are already on our way to becoming one of the most successful fiction Kickstarter projects ever.  How cool is that?  Here's how we are stacking up against the other fiction based projects that have been created in the US:

• The highest number of first-day backers (559 - next closest was 406 backers)
• The second highest first day-pledges ($23,179 - highest was $33,185)
• Already the 33rd highest funded project
• #1 most popular project in fiction AND all of publishing
• #1 in "New and Noteworthy" for all of publishing (out of 656 projects)

It's doing even better than Hollow World, which I thought was a huge success. In fact, we already have 77% of it's members and are running about 400% higher in contributions on a day-to-day-comparison.

I'm so very happy that we'll see "the boys" in a hardcover edition. Thanks again for the amazing support and I'll get some additional stretch goals up soon. If you are just learning about the Kickstarter, you can join the party at this link.

Fully funding also means the short story contest is opening, and here is everything you need to know to enter:

• Create two word files
• Query - single spaced preferably 1 page (If you are unfamiliar with writing queries, this resource should help.)
• Short Story - double spaced, 1" margins, 12 point font (Times New Roman Preferred, Courier discouraged), Page number in footer, Name, email, and word count in header, maximum word count 7,500.
• Email them to: sullivan.short.story.contest@gmail.com with subject of SUBMISSION
• In the body of the email include the following:
• Name (please use an actual name, not an Internet "handle")
• Age
• Short Story Title
• Short Story Word Count
• Short Story Genre
• Has this story been previously published? (Yes | No)
• If yes, a brief indication of where and how
• Which best describes your previous publishing history? (None | Self | Small-press or Magazine | Big-five, More than one on list)

If you are not familiar with the contest, you can check out the "Helping Author" section of the Kickstarter (it's at the very end). Basically, I'm going to bundle in a short story with my novel and pay the author more than twice the going professional rate.

• Emailed submissions must arrive before 7/16/2015 12:00 midnight EST.
• Pay rate: $0.15 a word for up to 5,000 words, and yes, shorter works are perfectly acceptable. 5,000 words is not a "preferred" length; it's the size I picked to budget the prize amount.
• The story may be a maximum of 7,500 words, but the payout will not exceed $750.
• While I'll consider any work regardless of genre or style, it should be noted that the audience who will be reading the story will be fans of my work. So, to capture THEIR attention it may be best to submit something that you suspect my readers would enjoy. What does that mean? Well, I write light, fun, classic fantasy with a bit of humor. If you aren't familiar with my work, you can ask for some free samples via this sign-up form.
• The author retains all rights. NOTE: If the work hasn't been previously published, you'll lose first-publication rights, but there's nothing I can do about that. Bottom line, you'll be able to publish the work elsewhere and earn whatever income you can outside this contest.
• The contest is open to people regardless of locale, who will be responsible for taxes based on their country. US residents must provide a tax identification number (social security or business FEIN). A 1099-MISC form will report income to the IRS.
• The contest is open to all writers regardless of past publishing history.
• While I would prefer a never-previously-published piece, I'll consider all works.
• You do not have to be a backer of the Kickstarter to participate in the contest, although I would appreciate you telling friends or loved ones about the project if you think they would be interested.

If you have any questions about the contest, you can send an email to sullivan.short.story.contest@gmail.com. Robin will be watching it and responding every other day or so.

Good luck with the submissions -- and thank you all for the amazing Kickstarter support.