Check out the For a Few Gold Pieces More Kickstarter
Q: Would you introduce yourself?
A: Hi, I’m Richard C. White, a science fiction/fantasy author and occasional blog contributor here at Black Gate. I’m also the sponsor of the For a Few Gold Pieces More Kickstarter. Along with my writing, I’m a member of the Writer Beware committee for the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America.
What is this project about?
For a Few Gold Pieces More is a collection of ten short stories I originally did for an e-publisher a few years ago. After having the rights to these stories returned, I decided it was time to release them as a collection, both e-book and in print. It’s tough to promote an e-only series at conventions, because as soon as you get people interested, they want the book now — not when they go home and try to remember what the book was or who wrote it.
The idea for the stories was to take folktales, fairy tales, and legends and given them a decidedly dark twist. And speaking of dark twists, my protagonist isn’t exactly a hero, but he’s not as hard and cynical as he like to think he is. Suffice to say he does what it takes to get the job done.
So, what are you raising the money for?
World domination, of course. No, seriously, the goal is to raise enough money to pay for new art work, to get the book re-edited, and then the general formatting for publishing (cover and interior design), printing costs, shipping, fees, and other items.
Who else is helping you on this project?
I was incredibly lucky to work with Shane Braithwaite. He’s an Australian artist who’s looking to break into American publishing as a cover artist. If you look at the attached work, I think you can see why. Shane also did the cover art for my non-fiction book, Terra Incognito, which was also published by StarWarp Concepts.
You can find more of Shane’s work at his Deviant Art page.
I’ll also be working with Steve Roman who’ll be re-editing my collection…
Wait a minute; you said it had already been published. Why are you having it re-edited?
When the collection first began, it was simply a series of short stories. Jessica Robinson, my first editor, did a fantastic job with the individual stories. However, since I’m going to be going back and binding them all together in the same book, I figure it wouldn’t hurt to get fresh eyes on it and to check for any continuity errors I may have made over the two years I wrote these stories.
Also, Steve is a former editor-in-chief for a NY publisher as well as currently freelancing for several publishers like St. Martin’s, so he may spot some things we missed. I’ve worked with Steve before and trust his editing completely.
For those who might not know, what previous credits do you have?
I’ve written science fiction, fantasy, dark fantasy, action-adventure, and historical novellas and short stories for a number of smaller publishers. I also wrote Terra Incognito: Building the Worlds of Your Imagination, which is a non-fiction book on world building for new authors and game designers. In fact, the new column I’m writing for Black Gate is “World Building 101,” which is a continuation of the work I’d done in Terra Incognito.
However, I’m probably more well-known from my work on various media tie-in projects such as The Incredible Hulk, Star Trek, Doctor Who, and I wrote the novelization of Gauntlet Dark Legacy, which was the best-selling title for my publisher that year.
All right, so what else should we know about this?
Well, if you’re a fan of dark fantasy, warped fairy tales and sarcastic protagonists, I think this collection will be right up your alley. The Kickstarter runs from the 9th of February until the 14th of March and we hope your readers will visit the site and spread the word to their friends.
Richard C. White is a science fiction/fantasy author. His latest work is Terra Incognito: Building the Worlds of Your Imagination, a non-fiction work about world building, which was released October 2015. His other works include Full Moon Affair, a fantasy noir short novel, and The Dark Leopard: Mouse Trap, an homage to the golden-age of comics. Additionally, Rich has worked in the media tie-in realm, writing in the worlds of The Incredible Hulk, Star Trek, Doctor Who, and he did the novelization of Gauntlet Dark Legacy, which was a best-selling title for his publisher. He will be conducting a Kickstarter for his dark fantasy short story collection, For a Few Gold Pieces More, in the near future.