(A detailed list of expenses is included at the end of this post.)
Hello, everybody, my name is Edward Lorn, and I’m the author
of multiple novels, novellas, and short stories, including: Bay’s End, Life After Dane, and, most
recently, the serial novel Cruelty,
which is why we’re here today.Everything’s
been going really well on the Cruelty
homefront. As of right now, the series is up to episode five of ten. You can purchase
these on Amazon in individual installments (all for $0.99) or altogether in the omnibus
edition, Cruelty: Episodes One – Five (for the discounted price of $3.99). The
final five episodes are complete and awaiting editing. And therein lies the
problem.
On July 1, 2014, I presented to the hospital with right leg
paralysis, as well as bowel and bladder incontinence. These were both signs that a condition I’ve
suffered with since 2005—cuada equina—had
returned. Nine years ago, I injured myself while lifting a patient at the
hospital, where I worked at the time. The man had expired in the night. I called a code, everyone flooded in, but no
one would help me get the CPR board under him, so I lifted him by myself. We
ended up not saving him, and I was forever ruined for a job I truly loved to do. Doctors
would later call what happened to me a “catastrophic spinal event.” Basically,
disc L5 at the S1 nerve root exploded, sending bony shrapnel into the bundle of
nerves above my coccyx. Nerves were pinched, some permanently damaged, and I
loss the use of my right foot for six years. In 2011, Dr. Flotte, a neurologist
with Coastal Neurological Institute in Mobile, Alabama, did a decompression wherein he removed a mass of
scar tissue and calcification roughly the size of a soft ball from my spine. I regained the use of my right foot, and, since then, I’d been doing better, so much so that I was able to control my pain with capsaicin extract alone
(that’s the oil found in hot peppers that give them their heat; its also a
natural anti-inflammatory drug). Fast forward to July 1, 2014, and me in the
emergency room, once again paralyzed on the right side from the waist down.
This was my fourth surgery for the same issue. My previous three operations (all hemi-laminectomy discectomies of L5 at S1) were in May 2005, July 2008, and June of 2011. Yep, that’s every three years,
almost to the month. Fun times were had by all. The sarcasm drips from the page...
So, how can you help me? Well, first, you need to know that
I’m what the publishing industry calls a “hybrid author.” Meaning, I’m self-published
as well as traditionally published (Red Adept Publishing is responsible for the
publication of Life After Dane, Hope for
the Wicked, and Dastardly Bastard).
Cruelty is one of my independent releases,
and although the serial sells rather well, nothing creates revenue as well as a
new release. I have plenty of money for me and my family to live on, but I had
to use my publishing budget (all five grand of it) to pay for in-patient physical therapy, some
rather outrageously-overpriced pain medicine, and odd electronic treatments. In summation, I don’t have enough
left over in my budget to pay for editing and proofreading, two things that are aboslutely mandatory in my eyes. Secondly, you should know that royalties from my published works is my only source of income. I don’t
have a “9-to-5”, unless you consider me sitting around talking to myself all
day everyday a “day job.” Trust me, I realize how lucky I am to call my favorite
pastime a career. Thirdly, I’m obligated to finish Cruelty. My fans have been good to me, and they deserve to know how
this story ends. So I come to you today to ask you—beg you, really—to help fund the publication of A Final Act of Cruelty.
I’m available to answer any and all questions you have. I am
also willing to offer free copies of Cruelty:
Episode One to anyone who requests one, but the series doesn’t really hit
its stride until Episode Three. In
other words, the first episode, while essential to the plot, is not the episode
I would judge the entire series on. The rabbit hole goes much, much deeper.
Please, do not
hesitate to contact me with any questions and concerns you might have. Hopefully, together, we can
see the end of Cruelty.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
E.
Rundown of Expenses:
Professional Content and Line Editing: 90,000 words at a rate of $0.01 a word = $900.00
Proofreading: Three rounds of proofreading at $60 a pop =
$180.00
Professional Formatting: $200
Total: $1280.00
Any amount over the goal of $1280.00 will go toward the formatting costs of the final hardcover omnibus edition,Cruelty: The Complete Novel, and publishing
two other completed projects I have waiting in the wings: Fog Warning (A Novella) and
Others & Oddities (A Short Story Collection).
