I think I've been making my way around this forum and perhaps one or two people might recognize me. I've said it a couple of times in replies and such; money is tight for me. I'm 17, my family travels full time and I'm running my own Kickstarter for my first novel; I don't exactly have the luxury of endless amounts of cash money. However, I scrounged up the last few bits of my money and backed Neal Akasaka's debut novel,
Pathways. Yes, the book is actually pretty good; Neal has the first chapter up for public viewing so you know what you're getting into (he also reads the first chapter, and has that up for your listening pleasure, which I highly recommend), and right from the get go he encaptures my attention. He doesn't do it with any startling action or even eye-grabbing dialogue, but from being a monumental, writing tease. Right from that first page he's building and leading up to some greater thing that you can't help but look forward to seeing later on in the novel.
I reached out to Neal and together we agreed that rarely do authors get together often enough to inspire others to write, or just to geek out about writing. Together we made a video where we do both of those things, and also offer tips and stories to, hopefully, help out fellow writers. I backed Neal's project not only because of his talent, but also because of his personality. I hope you all will check out his novel, and help both of us succeed in our Kickstarters! Here's the link to the video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6Iih641WE4