“Birthright” Kickstarter is Live!

I am proud to announce that as of yesterday morning, the Birthright Kickstarter campaign is live and online.

And it is going great!

In under 24 hours, we have already raised right at 15% of the total goal for Birthright. 15%! That’s crazy talk! I’m so excited about this I can’t even put it into words. You guys and gals are awesome–that’s all there is to it.

But as amazing as that 15% is–and it is amazing–there’s still another 85% to go. Which means I need your help. Share the campaign with your friends and family; post it on Facebook or Google+ or on Twitter; even head over to reddit.com/r/kickstarter and vote up the link. If you’re feeling really frisky, it would be super-cool if you added the Kickstarter page to StumbleUpon.

Wait, What is Birthright?

Doh, silly me! Birthright is the first novel of The Technomage Archive, a hybrid-genre SF/F trilogy (Matt Forbek used the term techno-fantasy). Think “Ender’s Game” meets “The Lord of the Rings,” and you’d be on the right track.

The back-cover blurb reads like this:

Damien Vennar used to be a god. As a technomage of the Charonic Archive, Damien had the power to create entire universes. Then, five hundred years ago, he gave it all up. He suspended the nanites that made up his bloodstream and began to age—and eventually die—like anyone else. For centuries, Damien has lived among those who once worshipped him, his real identity fading into myth and legend.  

Hundreds of years later, when Ceril Bain finds Damien’s old sword buried in his grandfather’s garden, he is put on the fast-track to follow in Vennar’s footsteps. Over the next six years, Ceril trains as a technomage aboard the Inkwell Sigil, a ship with the ability to travel between dimensions. Just as Ceril is preparing to undergo his Rites and finish his training, the Inkwell Sigil loses power. Stranded in space with no way back home, Ceril and four of his classmates are given their final assignment: go into uncharted territory, find a way back home, and bring back the one person who can fix the ship—Damien Vennar himself.

While away, Ceril and his team find themselves in a predicament when they confuse an attempt at first contact with an attack and kill two of the world’s winged inhabitants. They are shortly captured and imprisoned, and the only thing keeping them alive is their angel-like captors’ belief they may be the subjects of an ancient prophecy about a group of magic-wielding messiahs. But that’s impossible. Isn’t it?

What’s in it for me?

I like to think that the rewards for pledging your support to the campaign are kind of awesome. You can find the full list on the Birthright Kickstarter page, but here’s a brief summary.

• DRM-free ebooks in .mobi, ePub, and PDF formats
• Signed and personalized softcovers and hardcovers
• Naming a character in one of the books of the trilogy
• ebook copies of all drafts of Birthright leading up to the release (this is a personal favorite of mine)
• a Technomage Archive short story, about the character of your choice, written just for you

On top of all that awesomeness, if we reach various goals along the way, the second and third books in the trilogy get unlocked and included as rewards, too.

Awesome, right?

Right! We have until July 11–29 days from now–to make this a reality. And with your help, I know we can do it. If you know someone who’d be interested, send them my way.

Thank you all for your support in this. One day, I’ll figure out how to repay you.