Evening, all! Paige and I have been talking logistics, and we're well on our way to setting up a Kickstarter to raise money to cover the anthology's productions costs, incentives and all. We're aiming to get it up in early June, and we'll have some pretty cool rewards for people who donate. Next step: create a killer video for the Kickstarter page, which, honestly, we're both kind of dreading because we're authors, and authors like to hide beneath their desks when there's a camera in the room. But it's not our first time doing the whole promotion thing, so we'll make it awesome nonetheless!
We've also got details about how we're going to handle the scholarship fund. The plan is to donate all proceeds from sales of the anthology to the Society of Women Engineers' scholarship fund for girls pursuing STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) subjects. To learn more about the Society of Women Engineers, visit their website here: http://societyofwomenengineers.swe.org/. Donations will be made every quarter, whether we sell one anthology during that time or a hundred (fingers crossed that it'll be a hundred... or more!).
So here's a question some potential donors may ask: why the anthology? If the goal is to raise money for a scholarship, why not just do a Kickstarter for that directly? Answer: there's a dearth of intelligent, tech-savvy young women in science fiction. There are plenty of female characters, sure, but they're usually relegated to quirky side-kick, perfect love interest, damsel in distress, or fetishized combatant roles. By creating stories about heroines who are not only independent and interesting, but also happen to be mechanics, engineers, and programmers, we're aiming to inspire girls through fiction and remind them of all the possibilities within their reach.
So if you're an author with a story about a tech-savvy teen girl, we'd love to see it! Though we can't provide monetary payment if your story is chosen, what we can offer is a paperback copy of the anthology (which will include an illustration for your story!) and publicity. Because believe me, we will be promoting the heck out of this book once it's out!
-Mary
We've also got details about how we're going to handle the scholarship fund. The plan is to donate all proceeds from sales of the anthology to the Society of Women Engineers' scholarship fund for girls pursuing STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) subjects. To learn more about the Society of Women Engineers, visit their website here: http://societyofwomenengineers.swe.org/. Donations will be made every quarter, whether we sell one anthology during that time or a hundred (fingers crossed that it'll be a hundred... or more!).
So here's a question some potential donors may ask: why the anthology? If the goal is to raise money for a scholarship, why not just do a Kickstarter for that directly? Answer: there's a dearth of intelligent, tech-savvy young women in science fiction. There are plenty of female characters, sure, but they're usually relegated to quirky side-kick, perfect love interest, damsel in distress, or fetishized combatant roles. By creating stories about heroines who are not only independent and interesting, but also happen to be mechanics, engineers, and programmers, we're aiming to inspire girls through fiction and remind them of all the possibilities within their reach.
So if you're an author with a story about a tech-savvy teen girl, we'd love to see it! Though we can't provide monetary payment if your story is chosen, what we can offer is a paperback copy of the anthology (which will include an illustration for your story!) and publicity. Because believe me, we will be promoting the heck out of this book once it's out!
-Mary