About this project
Will you learn my secrets?
There's lots of things a writer never tells anyone. What the awful first draft looked like. What his "trusted readers" thought of the second draft. How many times the story got rejected before it finally found a home. What the editors said when they rejected it. We don't tell our secrets.
Except to you.
I will write the first drafts of six science fiction or fantasy stories this summer. Eventually (over many months) I will revise them, re-revise them, and send them out for publication. Sooner or later, they will appear in print or on the Web. Maybe I'll get paid for them, maybe I won't. In any case, I won't be paid much.
All of my backers will get the inside story of the writing process itself, day by bloody day. Words written; obstacles met. Dragons slain. Dragons not slain. Dragons from whom I fled, shrieking.
With each successive level of backing -- Top Secret Clearance, Agent, Secret Agent -- you are let in on more secrets. The awful first drafts. The comments of my writer friends. The comments of the editors.
At the very highest levels, you are a Controller: You give me the "prompt" that becomes the kernel of one of the stories. It can be anything: An image, an idea, a theme, a metaphor, a question. I will take it and run with it and turn it into fiction.
This Kickstarter funding will defray the costs of producing these drafts -- basically letting me do less work in my day job to have time to write these things. And freeing me up to send them to whatever markets suit them best, without worrying whether they pay anything.
There's a complete list of my published and forthcoming fiction here. Find one of the stories that's available online. Or you can e-mail me for a confidential copy of one of my stories that's slated for publication but not yet released. If you like what I do, then I'd welcome your support.
FAQ
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Funding Successful
This project successfully raised its funding goal on June 22, 2010.
Pledge $1 or more
CONFIDENTIAL CLEARANCE: You get confidential daily reports: Which parts of which stories have been written, problems encountered, number of words written each day, etc. You also get a personal thank-you from me.
Pledge $6 or more
SECRET CLEARANCE: Just like Confidential Clearance, PLUS: Secret reports, as they become available, of submissions, rejections, rewrite requests, editors' comments on rejected stories, etc.
Pledge $11 or more
TOP SECRET CLEARANCE: Just like Secret Clearance, PLUS: You get PDFs of all six stories in their eventual published form.
Pledge $19 or more
SAFE HOUSE: Just like Top Secret Clearance, PLUS: You get an autographed copy of the magazine issue or anthology containing one of the stories, when it's published.
Pledge $33 or more
AGENT: Just like Safe House, PLUS: You get PDFs or locked Word files of the Awful First Drafts of all six stories.
Pledge $44 or more
SECRET AGENT: Just like Agent, PLUS: You get to see the mark-ups or requested changes from editors on stories they accepted. You also get an autographed copy of the magazine issue or anthology containing a SECOND story from the set, when published.
Pledge $55 or more
TOP SECRET AGENT: Just like Secret Agent, PLUS: You get PDFs or locked Word files of the Not-So-Bad Second Drafts of all six stories.
Pledge $66 or more
DOUBLE AGENT: Just like Top Secret Agent, PLUS: You get to see the comments (with names removed) of my "trusted readers" on the Not-So-Bad Second Drafts of all six stories. You also get an autographed copy of the magazine issue or anthology containing a THIRD story from the set, when published.
Pledge $77 or more
MOLE: Just like Double Agent, PLUS: You can send me your own comments on the Not-So-Bad Second Drafts of all six stories when they are available.
Pledge $88 or more
STATION CHIEF: Just like Mole, PLUS: I will name a character in one of the stories after you. You also get an autographed copy of the magazine issue or anthology containing a FOURTH story, when published.
Pledge $99 or more
CONTROLLER: Just like Station Chief, PLUS: Each of the TOP SIX backers in this category will provide the "prompt" that will be the starting place for one of the stories.
Project By
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Ken Schneyer's fiction has appeared, or soon will appear, in Analog, Clockwork Phoenix 3, GUD Magazine, Odyssey, Nature Physics, and the Newport Review, among others. He is a 2009 graduate of the Clarion Writers Workshop and a member of the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America.
During his strange career, he has worked as an actor, a dishwasher, a corporate lawyer, a college teacher, a clerk-typist, an IT project manager, and the assistant dean of a technology school. He returned to the writing of fiction as an act of desperation while waiting for home renovations in 2006. Born in Detroit, he now lives in Rhode Island with a houseful of performing artists, all of whom appear on his tax returns.
