The Labyrinth of Flame Kickstarter has officially concluded! Final stats are $11,368 pledged from 323 backers. I still stare at those numbers and boggle. In a good way! When I launched, I was hopeful about the KS making the basic goal but at the same time totally nervous that it wouldn't. I was both thrilled and relieved when
The Labyrinth of Flame funded. But for the KS to go so high that I can pay for interior art as well as book production...oh goodness, I hardly dared dream of that.
Yet here we are! I'm excited to roll up my sleeves and dig into edits. Even more excited to see illustrations and maps when they're ready. Most excited of all for the day when the book will be all polished and shiny and beautiful and on its way to you...but there's a lot of work to do before then over the next few weeks and months, both on the production and administrative side.
So, I'll once again be posting infrequently here - which will feel weird at first after a month of posting every single day! But I'll be around on twitter, and I'll announce production milestones and other news here as well as in updates to backers. (First up will be the announcement of the
Ultimate Fan Reward Raffle winner on Friday. I'm going to include a collated list of the backer book recommendations, too. It's been really fun reading them, and I've already added a few new titles to my own TBR pile.)
In closing, I leave you with a few last mountain pictures from a trip that's a very happy memory: my first ascent of Mt. Sneffels, my favorite 14er in Colorado. A fitting way to celebrate a joyful publication milestone!
 |
| Morning light on Sneffels's lower slopes |
 |
| View from the ascent ridge |
 |
| I love southwestern Colorado's San Juan Mountains because they are far more rugged than the peaks near Boulder |
 |
| Looking back down the ascent couloir |
 |
| Scrambling up a v-notch at the top of the couloir |
 |
| Looking down at Blue Lakes Basin (I bet you can guess how it got the name) |
 |
| WOO HOO! This is just how I feel whenever I look at the completed Kickstarter. |
I love that word Sneffel. Seems like it should be a verb, as in: The dog put its nose to the ground and sneffelled about the yard.
ReplyDeleteGot curious who it was named after and lo and behold, it was named after the volcano Snæfell, in Iceland, which is featured in Journey to the Center of the Earth. Where the coded runes say, "Descend, bold traveller, into the crater of the jökull of Snæfell, which the shadow of Scartaris touches before the Kalends of July, and you will attain the centre of the earth."
Rather fitting that a mountain with such a sci-fi connection should be a favorite place for you.
And ooh, maps! I forgot we get a map! :-)
Ha, yes. The jokes about Sneffels are legion in CO. I think they should have stuck with the Icelandic spelling!
DeleteAnd you probably even get two maps! One country-scale, one a bit tighter in focus. Assuming the map artist can make sense of my chicken scratches.
Like Steve MC, I forgot about the map. Coolness!
ReplyDeleteThose pix are breathtaking, Courtney. Part of me thinks I'd love to get that kind of a view in real life, one day...aaaaand part of me thinks I'd faint or fall off the edge or something stupid. ;-) Still, as usual, great to see this stuff through your eyes, as it were.
Heh. When I hiked up my very first 14K peak (White Mtn in California), the friend I dragged with me took one look at the stunning view across the Owens Valley to the ramparts of the Sierra, and said sourly, "I could've seen this view out of a plane."
Delete(She was altitude sick and exhausted. I used to inspire a lot of these types of comments in my hiking partners, before I learned to go a little easier on them. Other favorites include, "I'd rather throw myself off this cliff than hike back up this trail." And, "I've decided I prefer nature walks to hiking.")
ROFL! Thanks, I really did laugh reading this....
Delete