Talking Out Loud: Le'enle Collection Kickstarter
The modest success of the Ai-Naidari Conversations books has made me think about similar volumes I could put together, and in particular, of collecting stories in the same setting. Looking through my archives of "lost" shorts, I've discovered that there are five Le'enle stories that I keep handing out erratically via random patron or newsletter gifts. When I tossed them together, the paperback would be a slim 66 pages, which makes it longer than the Aphorisms but not by much.
Given this, and about the fact that I'd like another small Kickstarter soon, I have thought of adding the same kind of worldbuilding information I used in the Conversations: conlang stuff, doodles, background information on each of the stories. Plus, as a stretch goal, I could write another short; I have an outline for one, and I think it might make a nice capstone. So the table of contents would look like this:
Author Intro
Standalone Story - Breaths Long as Years
Standalone Story - Useless Tears
Standalones Author's Notes
Bits of Trivia/Illustrations
Related Short - For the Love of Mortals
Related Short - Not Now, Not Ever
Related Shorts Author's Notes
Bits of Trivia/Illustrations
Conlang Section
Possible Section about the challenges of writing immortals
Stretch Goal Story - Unicorn Kiss (working title)
About the Author
For the Kickstarter, I have a bunch of bookmark designs from way back that might make intermediate-on-the-way-to-new-story nice stretch goals... I haven't made a bookmark in a while and I include new ones in every order I send, so I do use them. (I included some of my designs down there). It would also be fun to do stickers/pins, if Stickermule coughs up a deal during the funding period.
The new work I'd have to do would be:
1. The stretch goal story (I am assuming we'll hit it)
2. Cover painting (if I don't like the way any of my existing finished Le'enle art looks; I've attached the most likely cover background)
3. Writing the intro materials
4. Looking up and scanning or transcribing art/old notes
While not ready-to-go immediately, this is still less work than writing a whole new book. It would give me a Kickstarter to promote, and a new book to add to my lineup while I'm writing the draft of Dragons' Fealty. And it would finally collect some of my straggling short stories in a volume that I think might be fun, because background material and drawings.
Anyway, those are my thoughts, which I've written down as much to order them in my head as anything else. Your suggestions are always welcome. Help me make it better, if you can think of ways I could. :)