Dear Friends and Readers,

On July 1^st, I’ll be diving headfirst into one of the craziest things I’ve ever done: I’ll be conducting a Kickstarter campaign to fund the publication and marketing of my upcoming novel, A Chair Between The Rails.

If you’ve read The Tower of Babel, you probably have a lot of questions about what happened before that story. A Chair Between The Rails will answer some of those questions. If you haven’t read The Tower of Babel, the new book is the best place to start for getting into the series. Though it is being released after The Tower of Babel, it is Book I of the Vaulan Cycle, and The Tower of Babel is Book II.

I am fronting some costs of publication myself. However, I would like to run ad campaigns for the book on the websites of three major national magazines. These are magazines whose readerships will enjoy the book. A project of this size requires capital, but it should produce a return that will help get Ripening Books (my publishing company) closer to self-sustenance. Hence the invitation for you, my readers, to participate in building the Vaulan Cycle into something that is nationally known. The Kickstarter campaign will be crafted around donation levels that are not financially burdensome to backers, but which provide great value in gifts. There will be 8 gift levels total; but for now, I’ll draw your attention to two:

For $35, you’ll receive:

• A digital copy of the book in your choice of format,
• A thank you by name in the published print and digital versions of the book,
• A print copy of the book, and
• A digital copy of The Victorious Airborne’s new album, Come, My Tired Machine.

For $75, you’ll receive:

• A digital copy of the book in your choice of format,
• A thank you by name in the published print and digital versions of the book,
• A print copy of the book, signed by the author,
• A digital copy of The Victorious Airborne’s new album, Come, My Tired Machine, and
• A sneak peek of material from my non-fiction project We’re All Singing Now: Making Art In The 2010s, which is currently in the development stage.

I can’t tell you how excited I am about this project. I’ve worked for months on the text of this novel. From nights where I stayed up too late editing, to mornings where my eagerness to work on the book woke me up too early, the process has been a great personal struggle. The greatest battle has been with anxiety: a gnawing fear that the book will not reach the readers it deserves. While I know intellectually how to deal with this fear, mastering it emotionally has been extremely difficult. I guess I’m all in with this one.

A Chair Between The Rails was born from a singular vision, a belief that life begins only when we surrender to forces that are greater than us. For me, the writing, editing, and production of the book turned out to be a lesson in that principle. Now, I want to turn that structure inside-out. I want to turn the book over to an audience larger than I could ever create on my own. I want the people to grapple with this book.

I invite you to join me July 1^st, 2013, as I launch my Kickstarter campaign. Your donation will help get A Chair Between The Rails in front of over 400,000 web visitors distributed across three major sites. I look forward to your participation, and I thank you ahead of time!