Waiting on Wednesday--THE KAIROS MECHANISM, an experiment by Kate Milford

Kate Milford is the author of The Boneshaker (2010)--a sort of historical fiction/vaguely steampunk real-world fantasy that pits a young girl named Natalie against dark supernatural forces.

Her second book, The Broken Lands, comes out this September from Clarion, and I'm looking forward to it, it's not about Natalie (who's a great character). And it's not what I'm waiting for today. Instead, I was very pleased to see that Kate has written a novella companion, The Kairos Mechanism, that's a self-contained Natalie story, which will be released in conjunction with TBL this fall.

Here's what Kate has to say about it:

"The novella, The Kairos Mechanism, will be a bridge between The Broken Lands and The Boneshaker. I'll be publishing it in three editions:

• Paperback, using McNally Jackson's self-publishing services and Espresso Book Machine. This edition will have a cover illustration by Andrea Offermann, the artist behind The Boneshaker and The Broken Lands.
• Digital, via Google Play.
• and Super-Special Reader-Illustrated Digital, via my website,www.clockworkfoundry.com. This edition will be enhanced by the work of ten to twelve tween and teen artists, each of whom will be given a chapter and commissioned to create an illustration of his/her choosing in the style of his/her choice. That edition will be priced "pay what you like."

The goals of the project are these:

• Experiment with self-publishing in support of traditional publishing.
• Use resources that are supportive of independent booksellers.
• Experiment with extra content that supports the "big story" as it is being told.

I'm funding this excitement through Kickstarter. Here's the link to my project:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/3548813/the-kairos-mechanism-arcana-1

You'll see that the goal is to raise $6500 to pay for printing and compensation of the contributors. If we raise more, the first thing we do is bump up the teen artists' paychecks. I'll also be keeping a blog journal about the project throughout the summer at my website,www.clockworkfoundry.com.

Any support you are moved to provide, including social media chatter and blog appearances and that sort of thing, would be tremendously appreciated. It's my hope that I'll discover there's enough enthusiasm for this project to repeat it alongside future books beyond The Broken Lands."

Sounds good to me!

(Waiting on Wednesday is a meme hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine)