Hi everyone.

I've been around here a bit helping the guys and girls at Pioneer with their storyline and back story, then got distracted by the Kickstarter for Eilte Dangerous.  To cut a long story short,  Myself (www.andherethewheel.co.nz), along with Drew Wagar (www.drewwagar.com), Allen Stroud ( http://www.allenstroud.com/ ) and Fifteen authors in an Anthology ( http://www.elite-anthology.co.uk/ ) are producing Official tie-in fiction for the computer game. 

Together we are being published as a set by Fantastic Books Publishing (www.fantasticbookspublishing.com).  Fantastic Books are pretty unique in the publishing world.  They are a indie publisher who cares.  10% of all book sale profits go to the charity of the choice of the author (mine is the Wellington Cancer Society who looked after my Mother-in-law).  They are also very passionate about bringing fiction to those who have trouble enjoying the traditional reading experience.  One of the author's sons, for example, has Dyslexia.

So we have set ourselves the goal of turning our novels into audiobooks.  This is an expensive operation and we have decided to turn to kickstarter to help fund this. 

We've giving away a plethora of goodies:  Paperbacks, Hardbacks, signed copies, boxed collector editions, the audiobooks themselves, its all there.  There's even a real gift for just a 1 GBP pledge, a collection of 25 short fantasy and science fiction stories called 'Fusion' AND a random story from the anthology (around 10,000 words).

If you have a moment I'd like to ask you to please stop past the kickstarter here:  http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/fantasticbooks/official-elite-fiction-release-in-audio-and-print

I make this request to you not as an Elite fan-boy (which I am obviously), not as a writer trying to make a buck, not as a spammer of any type.  I make this request as one lover of science fiction to another.  These three novels and the anthology are going to be the best combination of tie-in fiction you'll ever see.  Each author has there own voice and natural style.  We have political thrillers, dramas, action adventures and detective stories.  All the stories are based in the Elite:Dangerous universe but you don't need any love or interest in Elite:Dangerous to get enjoyment out of these books.

We the authors are all amateurs in that we have day time jobs.  But that doesn't mean we don't have the writing skill or the editor back up of the professionals.  We do.  PLUS we have something else:

Passion.

Passion is what drew us to Elite in the first place, Passion is what has kept the fire burning in our souls as we waited nearly twenty years since the last Elite game.  

Passion is what keeps us up late at night working on our novels to make them perfect when normally sane people are sleeping.

And that passion is what shines through in our fiction.

Please, if you love science fiction, if you want to see professional quality audiobooks, if you want to help our charity, come to our kickstarter, contribute as much as you think appropriate and then join in the fun we have in the comments thread as we work to take this crowd funding campaign all the way.

Thank you.

Kind regards, 

John