Kickstarter

Hi I’m Dina and I write a blog called Bureaucracy for Breakfast, which is a comedic look at my experience being laid off and unemployed. It was recently picked by Chelsea Handler's Borderline Amazing Comedy as a featured blog. Maybe you’ve read it – if so that makes me happy. If not here you go: http://bureaucracyforbreakfast.tumblr.com/

Click here to read the specific blog post that inspired this crazy adventure: http://lostinasupermarket.com/2010/11/bureaucracy-for-breakfast-vol-xi-do-what-scares-you/

So the reason I’m here on Kickstarter is the reaction to the blog has been really great, and my goal is to turn Bureaucracy for Breakfast into a real, tangible book you can hold in your hands. You don’t have to have been laid off or unemployed to relate - my goals for the blog and for the final book are to make you laugh, and to maybe inspire you to get off the couch or out of the cubicle and follow your passion, no matter how daunting – and make it happen, DIY style.

I know I could self publish an e-book, but I’m a reader and an old-fashioned book lover. I want this to be a book you can pick up and read, even if you’ve read it before I want it to be the kind of thing that stays on your bedside table, that you can pick up again and read a chapter and laugh if you maybe had a crappy day or just want to giggle a little.

So to make this DIY project happen I really need your support – and I want to make you feel as involved in the project as possible. The final book will have chapters that won’t be published online, it’ll have an original and very awesome illustration for each chapter, and the very last chapter will be about my experience facing my biggest fear: diving with Great White sharks. Why am I ending with such a random experience, when the book is about unemployment? Because this whole saga of unemployment has taught me to embrace life, face my fears, and to do what scares me. Plus sharks have to keep moving or they die – which is kind of what you have to do when you’re jobless and adrift. Keep moving and make something happen.

I plan to do the dive with Great White Adventures, who have been very supportive. The dive is this summer, and it involves me getting into a cage with several huge, freaky Great White sharks swimming around. They toss a bunch of bloody chum in the water to attract the sharks - hooray. There are big, gaping holes in the cages which doesn't ease my fears but I'm doing it anyway. There's a surface cage that's pretty enclosed, and there's also a cage that's 40ft below the surface with only 3 sides. ONLY 3 SIDES. So that means you're pretty much out in the open in the middle of the ocean with Great Whites. I may have to get in that one too. And then hopefully live to write about it.

In the meantime, I'll continue to write about my saga of unemployment and spend the next few months turning Bureaucracy for Breakfast into a book that combines humor, hope, great artwork, and random tales about me oh, say, trying out for a Jerry Springer show or braving a three hour meditation class or debating whether I should give up this whole writing thing and become a phlebotomist.

Like I said, to do this I really need your support, so your contribution, no matter what amount it is, is greatly appreciated! I have forty days to raise the money here on Kickstarter, starting now!

No contribution is too small! Thanks so much for your time and your support!

Dina