Hi everyone! Sorry for the radio silence, I've been busy catching up on other deadlines and also doing the second revisions on the manuscript -- just finished going through my own paper MS like "ugh can I even English" and next week I start incorporating Editor Scott's notes. (Scroll down to bottom to see what a 500-page paper MS looks like.)
Here's a funny story about that, before I get to the stretch goals announcements. I've been going through the MS, replacing all the instances where I wrote an actual hour of the day (eg 5am) with the proper canonical hour (eg Lauds), because in 1333 that's how people told the time. The church bells would ring the canonical hours, starting at dawn (Lauds), then Prime (1hr after dawn), Terce (3hrs, etc), carrying through to Vespers (sunset), Compline and (around 2am) Matins. That got me thinking about dates, too, and how most major dates would be known as a saint's feast day (eg the Feast of St Martin, marking the beginning of Advent) rather than a calendar day. So on a whim, I looked up the saint's day for October 9, which is the date in 1339 when King Edward III finally invades France on the premise that he, not Philip of Valois, is the rightful French king and officially kicks off what we now call the Hundred Years War. Which leads me to discover that our man Eddie specifically chooses to invade France on the Feast of St Denis. St Denis is the patron saint of Paris and of the French people. That is some SHADE. The meaning of choosing that date (not the 8th! not the 10th!) after they've been dicking around on the Franco-Belgian border for almost two years, is MASSIVE.
Anywhoo, shade existed in the 14th century, my friends.
STRETCH GOALS!
Please keep sharing The Scottish Boy on your social media. We can continue taking pledges right up until we print the book, and the more you pledge, the less expensive the book's production is, and also I start to make actual money off it. Which please, it would be nice. To tempt in new backers and incentivise you to keep sharing, we're announcing FOUR stretch goals that will benefit ALMOST EVERYONE who pledged for the book. They are:
125% GOAL: Digital art reward by Maichan and Tsuminoaru! Six full colour artworks illustrating various points in the story. They're all done, already, and the above composite is a sneak peek (to avoid spoilers)!
150% GOAL: Two more illustrations by Trungles! Which will make the book have two illustrations per each of its four sections, and that pleases my symmetry-loving heart. Also, in what world is more Trungles art a bad thing?!??
175% GOAL: 5,000+ word prologue story about Harry as a squire, that takes place before The Scottish Boy!
200% GOAL: 5,000+ word epilogue story about Things Happening After The Book Ends!
*everyone* will get these rewards, And for the stories, I'll do audio versions of them too.
So yes, let's keep this going. Oh, and I promised you a glimpse at what Manuscript Hell looks like. Taken in my Tuesday morning coffeeshop writing / drawing sesh, my pal Darryl (creator of the webcomic Secret Garden ) is sitting across from me:
