A Whole New World

“You’ve taken your first step into a larger world.”  ―Obi-Wan Kenobi

Today, six months after making a specific decision to launch today, I pushed Launch for my first Kickstarter project. You may read about it the Kickstarter project page.

It’s been nearly a year since I first ran this game at a convention, when I first considered the whole Kickstarter thing. I’m now sitting here, two beers and a bourbon in, just hours after launching the campaign.

Back in 1999, I was wandering around New Chinatown in San Francisco, which is located on Clement Street between 3rd and 8th avenue. I loved it! The streets were teeming with life and you knew you were in a true city. I heard Chinese, Japanese, Russian, Korean, Vietnamese and even Irish brogue before I heard American English. So many cultures all mashed up. I was single and unemployed, wandering those streets, looking at the sidewalk bins and dodging all the small, old Chinese women. I loved it – I felt home in San Francisco.

Three years later I was living with my wife, right at 5th Ave and Clement. The HUGE fish market was basically in my back yard, and every day I walked past the vendors dumping fish straight from the tanks on the back of the truck right onto the street. It’s how they do it on Clement.

And so I always look back at that moment where I innocently wandered just 20 feet from the apartment I would share with a woman who I had not even met yet, let alone spend the rest of my life with. I see that moment of not knowing — but still understanding — that my life would be impacted by that neighborhood. My wife and I would wander those streets every day, sucking in the life and craziness that is cosmopolitan San Francisco. We would visit the bookstore, the ice cream shop, the Japanese home goods store, and of course the Chinese market. We became part of the life that I had sensed all those years ago.

Right now, I have 18 backers and am nearing $800 on my first night of my first project. Just two hours in, I’m at 26% funding. My mind boggles. Yes, I have some good friends, but some other folks are starting to creep in, and the next week will be a test of my ability to create some buzz around the project.

What will happen? Will I fund? Will I double my goal? Will I skate by on the skin of my teeth? How will this project reflect on my writing abilities? Will people be interested in this project? Will my $1800 level fund (which would be so awesome) and send me to meet some new cool gamers?

It’s all on the horizon, just past where I can see it. But I have a feeling — a warm feeling that’s not just the bourbon — that I will meet lots of cool people through this project, learn a lot about myself and publishing, and then just have a good time sharing my story with the world.

I hope you can come along.