My name is Jo and I'm a massive geek, horror fan and tabletop gamer, and goodness me, we've been funded!
In my time I've done a lot - became an IT Technician, taught Burlesque, performed Nerdlesque, became a D&D fanatic and Dungeon Master and had artwork and articles in the papers and in magazines like Cosmo. Anyone who meets me realises pretty quickly that I spend a lot of time making things, and those things are generally horror-related.
If I'm in charge of a tabletop game and the players don't seem to be quaking in fear or hiding in a corner then something is amiss and a good dose of eyeball stealing gnomes, screaming, decaying people and a city of flesh-made puppets is in order. As founder of the Tenebris D&D group and YouTube channel, I know that a huge amount of fun can be had by being scared witless and overcoming it. Or not.
Which brings me to this campaign. I just spent the weekend prior to launch in the presence of Doug Bradley (Pinhead), Kane Hodder (Jason Voorhees) as well as the stunning and lovely Emily Booth and Linea Quigley, real Scream Queens. Yes, I am name dropping, but these people are icons to me and I spent years watching them as I grew. HorrorCon UK is a great place to go and a real proving grounds for horror writers, directors and actors. The perfect place to test my collection of short stories (and have some creepy fun). The reaction was fantastic, people enjoyed them and asked for more, with requests for a book. Thanks to the help and support of wonderful people sharing and funding this campaign the book is on its way!
"Motherfuklet", a traditional style nursery rhyme but with more blood and bottoms.
This is the bibiggest step I've taken with my writing and I really want to go for it. I have more than enough short stories, as well as two novels I'm working on. Thanks to your generosity IvI've been able to cram more than I expected in. The writing and artwork has been done and I've found a printing factory who do good quality work at a very reasonable price, thanks to going to them directly. Not only that, by getting the book available for sale at conventions, online stores andspecialist markets we'll be helping the amazing services at Grace House Childrens Hospice continue their work with terminally ill and severely disabled kids.
So where will the money go?
All funds during the campaign will go towards an initial print run and anything we raise whilst part of Indiegogo INDemand will go towards the audiobook version and a tabletop game book. All the perks are still available and I hope to add more over the next year. Your help is massively appreciated - I really couldn't do this without you and every reward purchased is a boon! There's original artwork, plushies, copies of the book, one-off t-shirts and even the chance to be a story yourself so please take a look at the perks available. If you can't donate but want to help, please share this campaign anyway you can - directly to friends, through the Indiegogo sharing tools, by word of mouth, every share is worth my weight in gold! And I'm 9 stone so a lot of shares packs quite a weight!
What if you hit your goal?
Then the book will be printed, the rewards will be made and sent out, and I will possibly explode with joy. Oh, and it will be available to order directly online, through Waterstones or through Amazon. I've been busy.
What if you smash your goal?
That hasn't happened, as but there's still time! As well as the book itself, I will also be releasing a companion book pack specifically for people who want to play through the stories. I've converted several of the stories and so far they work with D&D, Pathfinder and Microlite and generally can be used with most others with only a little work. Any requests for others can be made and I'll do my best to accommodate them. The tabletop book will include pre-built custom character sheets for each game, description helpers, summary cards and maps - all you need other than that to play will be a pencil and some dice.
Only thing is though, we'd need to raise the same amount again!
It sounds great, but what if something goes wrong?
As the writing is already completed the biggest obstacle is printing. The printers I intend to use have more than 15 years experience and have worked to National and International scale. The equipment, staff and know-how are all in place. The timing, however, could be an issue. As this is a small job for them they can't guarantee that it won't get pushed back if a very large job crops up. So there may be a printing delay, but if it's going to be too late, I have a second printers lined up, just in case. I've been working my size 5 socks off to make sure that, even if the printing gets delayed, the other rewards WILL still go out on time.
Please have a nosey at the updates for news on our charity work, audiobook version and other exciting bits! Drop me a line through Indiegogo or direct at thejoymachine@comic.com and thanks so much for your time!