Guys, I am so excited to be able to say that we hit $500 in pledges on the Holidays at the Toy Store pre-order campaign! This pre-order period has been rough. I've been fighting getting sick again (I was diagnosed previously with copd), running the oldest around everywhere, and working. On top of that, the campaign itself is just moving slow. I've had my ups and downs with it, but I've never given up hope that we'll make it. Today, that hope has been rewarded!

Hi, everyone! We're almost a week into the pre-order campaign and we've raised 20% of the total needed to bring the book to print. I'm super excited! Only about $1200 more to go. I have total faith that we can do it. Remember, this is for our very first coloring book as well as Holidays at the Toy Store.

It's up! Eric did a smashing job and finished 95% of the graphics. The others will be done soon and inserted, but that was enough to get it up and running. It will launch on January 31st, but if you want to be notified when it happens, I'm going to share a link with all of you. You just click that and then click notify and you'll get an email when I hit the go live button!I can't wait for all of you to see this book! I'm super excited about it. Remember, if you want to be notified, just click the title of the book here: Holidays at the Toy Store

Guys, it's happening! After months of trying to figure out how to make it happen, it's happening. I've spoken with both Maxx and Eric and they've agreed to take payment from the Kickstarter campaign! That means that instead of me worrying over where to find the funds to pay them, I just get to gush about how awesome this book is and raise the funds to not only pay them but to take the book to print. 

Whew! I almost didn't get a post up today. I had a doctor's appointment, went shopping, came home, and after lunch took a three hour nap. Then, tonight, I was on a livestream to help promote an awesome anthology called Cthulhu Invades Neverland. It's currently on Kickstarter. If you're into either of these fandoms, you should check it out.

If you've been around me very much, you know that I love a few different things when it comes to backing Kickstarter campaigns. I've already showed you our first set of stickers and today I'm going to show you one of my other loves...pins! 

So far, I've shown you sneak peeks of stories from Cobalt's Castaways and even early art that will be a stretch goal (something everyone gets if we reach a certain dollar goal). I hope that they're getting you as excited about this book as I am to share it with you. Today, I want to share another stretch goal with you...stickers! If you're anything like me, you love stickers. 




Aren't they great? If the campaign raises at least $1750, everyone will get a selection from these stickers. I'm in love with them and I can't wait to be able to give them to everyone. If you'd like to be notified when the campaign goes live, head on over to Kickstarter and click the notify me on launch button.

I have the best thing to share with all of you today! It's art that's going to be used for the Kickstarter and is done by the amazing Martha Schwartz. She's a wonderful artist and I'm honestly honored that she agreed to do this piece for me and the campaign. When I gave her Mac's story to base her drawing on, I never imagined she'd come back with something this awesome. Heck, it's not even done yet...this is just a sneak peek for me that I'm passing on to you! 

There isn’t a time in my life that I can remember where I wasn’t playing a sport. From the time I was little, my dad and I would go into the backyard and either throw a football or a baseball back and forth. Sometimes we would kick a soccer ball. It was a lot of fun and as I grew older, I got to play things like kickball in gym class. If it involved a ball, I wanted to play. That hasn’t changed, even though I’m an adult now.

I played football and baseball when I was in high school. I was pretty good at both of them. During the summer, I played soccer with my friends. It seemed like if I wasn’t doing homework or in school, I was on a field somewhere. I loved it.

Then, I went to college and had to decide which sport I wanted to play. I couldn’t play football, baseball, and soccer anymore. There just wasn’t enough time with classes, homework, and hanging out with my friends. In the end, I decided that I wanted to play baseball. It was my dad’s favorite sport and one that I had always loved. I wanted to make sure that he was proud of me.

I did pretty good in college. So good, that after I graduated, a professional baseball team wanted me to come and play for them! I couldn’t believe it. Instead of managing teams, I was going to get to keep playing for one!

I remember my very first game. My family and friends were in the crowd, and I was really nervous. What if I struck out? What if I hit the ball, but tripped and fell while I was running? Before I knew it, it was my turn at bat. I’d been so worried about what might happen that I didn’t even notice that the batters in front of me had all gotten onto base and it was now bases loaded.

I swallowed hard and made my way to the batter’s box. I could hear my family cheering me on. I closed my eyes for a second and then stepped forward to show that I was ready. I took another deep breath and waited for the first pitch. When it came, I swung at it, but missed. The same thing happened with the second pitch.

I stepped back for a moment and adjusted my hat. The crowd had gotten really quiet. I glanced up and saw my dad sitting in the stands. He nodded at me, and it reminded me of all the times we had played catch in the backyard. I smiled and stepped back up to the plate.

This time, when the ball came, I was ready for it. I took a deep breath, swung my bat, and heard the crack of the ball as it hit it. I watched as it went soaring and my teammates started running. I started running too and before I had made it to first base, I heard the announcer yell, “Home run! Salem has hit a grand slam at his first time at bat!”

As I rounded third base, I looked up into the stands and there stood my father, yelling and cheering with the rest of the fans in the crowd. His eyes met mine and he smiled. He was proud of me, and you know what? I was proud of me too. I had done something that some players only dream about and even if it never happens again, it happened to me that time. 

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Kickstarter is this really cool platform where you can pre-order my book, along with other goodies, and get it up to six months before it will be available on Amazon. The goodies may be available at shows, but are of a limited quantity and won't be available places like Amazon. You pledge the amount that you want and no money is charged to your card until the end of the campaign and only if enough money is raised. In this case, I'm looking to raise at least $1000. That money goes to pay for the printing of the books and to pay the amazing artists that I work with. 

If you like what you've read here, please share it with others using these buttons:

If you like what you've read here, please share it with others using these buttons:

Guys, we're live! We've actually been live for a few days now, but life has kept me away from the keyboard. Our goal is $1000 and that will go to pay for the art, covers, and my amazing blurb writer. It will also go for the rewards and shipping everything out to everyone. I'm so excited to be sharing Apo's Army with all of you. It's a great book of 20+ stories about cats and their secret lives that we're not aware of. 

So much has happened and I've been slack in updating everyone! For this book, I brought on a new artist. Her name is Maxx and she's fabulous. Let me show off a couple of her pieces:
Aren't they smashing? I love the little fish in that second kitty's mouth. She takes the time to really add personality to each drawing. I can't wait for all of you to see the rest of the pictures that she's done. She's also doing keychains and little figurines for the Kickstarter.