Bodacious Creed: A Steampunk Zombie Western was just covered on Leonardoverse, an excellent and popular steampunk blog!

I also posted a project update, which all project backers get in their email, and anyone can read on the Bodacious Creed Kickstarter page.

Here's the text of that update:

Howdy, my fellow travelers on this exciting journey into the world of Bodacious Creed!

"Bodacious Creed: A Steampunk Zombie Western" is currently featured on Leonardoverse, a popular and excellent steampunk blog by author Leonardo Ramirez.  Have a look, and also browse his blog!  Leonardo wrote a wonderful entry about my project, and I'm proud to have it featured there.

It has also been featured on many Facebook pages.  Have a look at the Bodacious Creed Facebook page for more information.

I've also been contacting newspapers and periodicals.  Yesterday, I sent press releases to a few Orange County papers, and one to Watsonville's Register Pajaronian.  I grew up on Watsonville, California, and, way back when, took Creative Writing at Watsonville High.  I hope they all pick up the story.

This message is getting a little long, so I'll end with this.  Thank you, all of my bakers, and everyone who has shared this project!  Thanks to you, we're at 21% funded already!  Please help keep the momentum going by sharing this on Facebook, and Twitter, and letting anyone who might be into a steampunk zombie western know that this exists.  Your support means the world to me!

Feel free to check the Kickstarter page often for updates.  Of course, if you pledge, even as little as $1, you will also get the updates in your email.

I'm also excited to report that the project has been live for not quite 3 days, is 21% funded, and has 14 backers. The video has been seen 112 times, and the most popular reward is the $10 level, from which backers get a digital copy of the book when it's published, a high resolution jpeg of the cover, and a pdf copy of my first novel, Children of Rhatlan, whether the project gets funded or not.  I've made sure that all the rewards are worthwhile, so have a look.

Bodacious Creed Kickstarter is Live!

I'm going to do something I don't normally do on a blog.  Instead of writing about the title here, I'm going to direct you to the new post on my Bodacious Creed blog.  See, when I was working on my thesis, I kept an extensive blog of the process, from start to finish.  There's even an accompanying vlog!  I put a lot of work into it and wanted to share the creative process with others.

My first priority is directing people to the Kickstarter project, Bodacious Creed: A Steampunk Zombie Western.  You'll learn all about the project there, and I think you'll enjoy watching the video and reading all about it.  If you're going to click just one of these links, click this one.

The Bodacious Creed blog post is here.

And finally, here's an image that features prominently in the Kickstarter video.

Oh yes!  As of about 3:00 pm Pacific Time, before the project had been live for 24 hours, it was already funded 10%!

Goodbye, Kickstarter. Hello, Kickstarter.

Well, my OCVG Kickstarter project didn't make it.  I realized early on just how much I didn't know about launching a crowdfunding campaign!  So, I stepped back, regrouped, and thought about another project that I had set aside: a novel based on my demo reel theme.

I kept an extensive blog, and vlog, on my demo reel's progress.  Everything in it is linked together in one story, that of Bodacious Creed, a dead US Martial, circa 1862, who is brought back from the dead with Steampunk technology.  Yep, this is a blend of Steampunk, Wild West, and horror... most specifically, zombie horror!  It's pretty damned cool.  And I thought, "I wonder if the world is ready for a Bodacious Creed novel?  That would be something to use Kickstarter for."

I've set up a fan page for it on Facebook.  I've been tweeting about it about once per day.  I'm sharing the Bodacious Creed art in my deviantArt gallery in more dA groups.  I'm so glad Facebook finally got hash tag functionality!  I've started sharing the fan page posts that way, and have been checking out other posts under #zombie, #wildwest, and #steampunk.  Obviously, I'm a fan of all those things.  The hash tags will make others aware of my pages, and will also help me see what's out there.

No, I haven't started the actual novel yet, but the cool thing about the fact that I have tons of background work done, and understand the characters and setting, but that I haven't started writing the actual novel yet, is that I can get backers involved. The higher rewards include naming characters and places, and even creating characters for the story.  Once that's all figured out, I can power through the first draft of the book.

More soon...

Bad Federal Credit Union!

I'm fed up with my credit union.

I usually don't post reviews of, well, anything.  Not here at least.  As a freelance writer, I do occasionally write movie or television reviews for other sites.  That's beside the point.

I've been with Bay Federal Credit Union in Santa Cruz, CA, for almost four years now, and in that time, they have been, let me say, less than understanding.  Today, they could have reversed an overdraft fee that my checking account incurred through a mistake that was not my fault.  A company I had been working with for marketing was supposed to cancel my recurring weekly payment to them, and they forgot to do so.  Well, here's the one star review I posted on Yelp.

I wish I had known about this Yelp page before I signed up with Bay Federal.  They have been a nightmare.  From waiting inordinate amounts of time to getting multiple overdraft charges because of how they arranged the order of withdrawals, I've had my share of headaches with Bay Federal Credit Union.

Their latest is the last straw for me.  I was erroneously charged for a service I had canceled, through my PayPal account.  Because of this, I was not able to transfer over the funds to cover a payment I new would be coming through to Bay Federal.  The business that charged me on PayPal was courteous and reversed the charge, with an apology.

At first, the teller didn't seem to understand what I was explaining.  Instead of understanding that I was a customer trying to do my best, the teller had no compassion and would not reverse the charge, simply because it was not the bank's fault.  So, it doesn't matter if it was my fault, or because a bill I thought I had canceled came through anyway.  Bay Federal could apparently not afford to pay back $29, and then let me transfer money in to make my account current.

I'll be leaving Bay Federal, at last, as soon as I can pay back the overdraft.

I am not a fan of big banks.  Their insane lending practices and gambling lead to the huge economic crash of 2008.  But I'll tell you something: From a customer standpoint, credit unions--or at least this one--are just as bad.

The Occupy Chess Video Game

I've mentioned my Kickstarter project numerous times.  Well, it got approved, and I launched it tonight!

It's the Occupy Chess Video game, and you can check it out here!

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jonathanfesmire/the-occupy-chess-video-game?ref=live

Put simply, it's a video chess game with figures based on the two sides of the Occupy movement: the 99%, and the 1%.  You can learn all about it on the project page.

As a note, Wolf-Pac is specifically mentioned in the video because I believe strongly in what they're doing, and they're an organization I hope to help out in the future.  The pledges for the project are earmarked for the creation of the game itself, of course.  Once I'm able to sell copies, I hope to make enough that I can actually support Occupy causes.

People who pledge will help to honor the 99%, all the protesters who participated in the Occupy movement, and the Occupy members who continue to do great things.

Kickstarter Images

My friend who's doing the line art for my Kickstarter project (and I will share his name, of course, once the project is live!) sent me five brilliant images today!  A few more and I'll have enough to make the video.  Exciting!

Kickstarter Progress

Progress is happening on my Kickstarter project!

No, the project isn't live yet.  It's at the stage where I'm getting getting work done on it, so that the public can see it's really moving along, and that it just needs funding to get finished.

A good friend of mine is doing line art of the characters, and has sent me two sketches.  They look GREAT. His art will be featured in the video and in the final product.

I've also written a few drafts of the video script.  I need to revise it more, but that's coming along nicely.

Anyway, keep an eye on this space for more information!