Day 10 of our Kickstarter: Autumn Frederickson has just released this gorgeous piece of art which will accompany Vicki Steger's story in Athena's Daughters.
Vicki has published several short stories in DAW anthologies, including Spells of the City, Timeshares, Boondocks Fantasy, and Hot and Steamy: Tales of Steampunk Romance. Orphan Train was published in Triumph over Tragedy, 2013. “Auggie’s Wings,” a novella, was acquired by Dragonfly Soapworks, to launch their Bitty Bug line of skincare products for children. Fairydale Tale, a YA fairytale mystery, was a quarterfinalist in Amazon Penguin’s Novel Contest 2012 and is currently being shopped. Her tribute to Gene Wolfe appeared in The BULLETIN of the SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY WRITERS of AMERICA.
Vicki has also released a summary for her A.D. story, "Burly and Cavendish Blend,"
It looks as though archaeologist Abigail Watts' obsession with ancient artifacts will lead to her demise, when she and her cousin Dawson Willoughby are left to die in an abandoned Egyptian tomb.
Me personally, I'm a sucker for any stories featuring archaeology, perilous Egyptian tombs, and ancient artifacts. I can't wait to read it!
I also wanted to give you an updated version of the Rewards Rundown, summarized nicely by Maggie Allen as of this morning:
To recap, with your $5 Kickstarter pledge you get: 4 novels, 3 short story bundles, 2 short stories, 2 audio books, 1 music album, and [Ginger Breo's] illustration of Athena (digital, and a physical 5x7 for people with books.) Plus we added 7 additional stories to the anthology (with an 8th to come @ $26k) + the option for a hardcover edition and soon the option for another anthology!
Meanwhile, we are less than $100 away from unlocking our companion anthology, Apollo's Daughters! This is a stretch goal I'm very excited about, not least because we get more stories about strong women written by talented authors. Cleolinda Jones, one of our authors, and Bryan Young, an author who is one of Silence's founders, and who will also be contributing to as well as editing Apollo's Daughters, were on Twitter a couple days ago, discussing how excited they were about the companion collection. I happened to glimpse part of their conversation as I scrolled through my feed, and saw a tweet where Cleo articulated what I love about the entire arrangement:
"The Apollo's Daughters companion takes it into the realm of "female protagonists are for everyone," IMO. I love that."
This is one of the things I love most about this Kickstarter. Not only are we producing great stories by great authors, but we're also dispelling myths about what makes compelling protagonists, inspires their characterization, and makes a multi-faceted, page-turning, amazing story. In the end, both women and men are excited to write works about engaging female characters. And our readers are excited to receive those stories and dig into them. What's not to like about that?
Thanks to everyone who has continued spreading the word about Athena's Daughters. If you or someone you know is interested in pledging, here's your link.