Well, I’m fairly excited about that! The generous support of several international backers overnight has tipped the Steam Highwayman project into the green-light zone: no longer just a plan or an intention, it is a funded publishing project. Fantastic!
I’m just as overjoyed to have gained the support of several gamebook authors along the way, chiefly Jamie Thomson and Dave Morris, who posted a feature on Steam Highwayman last night on their Fabled Lands Blog. The write-up means a lot to me, but I also hope that it will allow me to find out, like my dad said, how much steam this project has in it…
The process is pretty busy for me now. I’ll be green-lighting the first batch of illustration work with Ben May and sending him a brief I prepared the other day. I’ll also be looking for another round of proof-readers soon to make sure all the text is free from errors. I have to prepare some costume, too, as I’m hoping to make a couple of appearances in character to get the project some exposure at Steampunk events.
Please continue to share the project! I would love to meet my stretch goals, which will allow me to invest in Ben’s talent more significantly, as well as giving me a little breathing space to settle down to Volume II. I was world-building yesterday afternoon to distract myself from facebook and kickstarter: the next volume promises some new concepts, new plotting mechanics and lots of new characters to interact with.