Kickstarter

Hello Kickstarters,

Just a final note to let you know that the digital version of, Secret Cuts: A Very Cherry Mystery, is now available as a Kindle Single on Amazon, and as a printed chapbook through Amazon's print-on-demand provider, CreateSpace. YOU made this happen, so congratulations on being part of the newest trend in literature we have all been hearing so much about these days, e-publishing.

For those of you receiving a chapbook, I've ordered them from CreateSpace and they should be mailed to you within a week or so. If you're receiving a police report or cherry goodies,and if you have emailed me your mailing address, those will be included in the same package as the chapbook. 

I had two goals for this project when I began it way back in June; one goal that I did accomplish and one goal that I didn't; or, didn't accomplish completely, anyway.

I wanted to uncover who destroyed all of those young cherry trees and I wanted to experiment with e-publishing a piece of investigative journalism.

Did I name the person or people guilty of the destruction? No. But when you read the piece I think you'll agree that I uncovered information previously unknown to police as well as a pretty solid theory of the crime. 

I did get to experiment with e-publishing first hand though, and I believe that it provides tremendous opportunities for writers and readers not previously available within traditional publishing mechanisms. So that part was pretty darn cool.

Other people think so too; for example, the Grand Rapids Public Library. I'll be speaking at the main branch on Library Street on Saturday Oct. 13th at 10 a.m. The topic? Writers & Kickstarter. You are, of course, invited.

I hope you enjoyed being part of this project and that it might inspire you to fund other creative endeavors by Kickstarting writers, artists, filmmakers, etc.

All the best,

Mardi Link

Hi Kickstarters,

Check your email -- I just sent out the final draft in PDF form of the investigative project YOU helped fund!

Thanks SO much for your support of my work and of cherry farming in northern Michigan. Please feel free to drop me a line after you've read the piece. I'd love to hear your reactions to it.

For those of you who will receive a printed chapbook, a police report, and/or a pie or other cherry treat, please just send me your mailing address.

All the best,

Mardi Link

We've all heard the expression, "Do the math." It conveys the idea that meaning sometimes hides in numbers, in simple equations, in the sum of disparate parts, right? Well, "Do the math," was the advice I heard recently during my interview with Deputy Justin Revnell of the Grand Traverse Sheriff's Office. Revnell is the officer assigned to investigate the cherry orchard vandalism and here's his relevant equation: If it took the vandals one minute per tree to destroy 428 cherry trees at the Kroupa orchard, the entire crime took seven hours to commit. Seven hours!

That's just one of the details I'm learning about this bizarre and seemingly motiveless crime. I'll be finishing up my interviews next week and hope to have the story completed by the end of June. Thanks again, so much for your support on this literary project. And please, if you've heard anything, even if it's just a rumor, drop me an email and let me know about it. So far, both the who and the why are still a mystery.

Mardi Link

Guess what? Our Kickstarter project, Secret Cuts, is a go!

Thanks to your support, as of Tuesday afternoon we were fully funded. As I write this on Friday afternoon, with 3 hours to go, we're even beyond our goal with 103% funding.

Which means, next week I'll begin interviewing farmers and law enforcement, reviewing police reports, and talking up our project.

In the meantime, here's an interview from Interlochen Public Radio's weekly show, Points North.

http://ipr.interlochen.org/points-north-live/episode/19132.

Give a listen, and if you have any suggestions on who might have insight into this story, who I should interview, or theories on the crime, pass those ideas along. 

Kickstarters, you are terrific!

Mardi Link