Failure?
*Failure*
On Facebook most people post the happiest and most successful parts of their lives. Only the joyful parts they’d like to share with Facebook “friends.”
I’m totally guilty of doing that on certain stretches of my life . I see many people posting their best smiling photos and successes for all to see. Excluding the failures and pictures that make them look fat. Trust me, I’m as guilty as the next girl who smiles and posts “I’m strong & worthy!” Even though we all know she’s guzzling zanies and vodka, cheating on her husband and just got her third DUI. She’s still grinning from ear to ear on her profile picture bragging about how happy her life is.
I don’t make a habit of posting failures. We all know I’ve had a hand full of them to pick from. The last big occupational failure was my “Monsters Wrestling Orlando” venture. I gave M.W.O. a great shot at wrestling in downtown Orlando. The wrestling talent was really good, the venue was cool and the show we put on was a winner. Sadly, only 120 people showed up. It failed. It was not for lack of effort, attention or enthusiasm on my part. Listeners just didn’t care about wrestling in downtown Orlando.
Turn the page to this year. I’ve spent most of the year writing my first graphic novel. Hours of time away from Maryellen and my family. Days, weeks and months of writing and editing. This is not a project I worked on alone. Jeff Kaufman of “Big City Comics” has worked with me for months on “Jolly Jane.” Not to mention the penciler, the colorist, the person who does the lettering and Ken Hunt, the great D.C. artist. He agreed to draw the cover and all the interior art work because he liked my book. All of these people, did the work because after reading the script they BELIEVED in the strength of the story I wrote. They all agreed to get paid from the Kickstarter if ( or when) it gets funded. I want to thank everyone who worked on “Jolly Jane” for believing in me and this project. Thank you so much.
With 15 days left we are not even 45% funded. It’s stalled out and funding has died off. We only have about 170 people who are willing to fund or “pre-buy” Jolly Jane. If we don’t reach the goal by October 17 th, it will not get produced or printed.
This is why you do a Kickstarter. If there is not enough interest in this book, it should not be made. It’s much better to know now, than to dump thousands of dollars ( of my own money) into production of a book people are not interested in buying. If we don’t have enough interest to cover production, it doesn’t deserve the right to be printed. Cold but brutal truth. Just like M.W.O. Wrestling , listeners just don’t care about a graphic novel I’ve written. A paramedic that’s possessed by a serial killer from the 1800’s may not sound like good reading. I think people would have loved it , if it was produced.
If you are one of my 170 Facebook friends that did support this project , thank you very much. I can’t thank you enough for the support. You will NOT have to pay anything if we don’t reach our goal. We have until October 17th, but my dearest and closest friends & supporters have already helped. I don’t think we will reach the production costs.
We tell our kids “you can do anything you put your mind too”, and I still believe that is true. I DID write a comic book. I did write a graphic novel. I had the best editor , colorist and one of the greatest D.C. artist in the comic book world draw MY comic book!! It is an awesome book! Sexy, scary, twisted, funny and based on true stories. A hats off to paramedics , first responders and my lovely wife MaryEllen ( Missy Brand in the comic). A history lesson about the REAL Jolly Jane. A fresh and sexy comic that has many different avenues it could have taken in future stories. I did what I put MY mind to. I was successful in writing a bad ass graphic novel.
If not enough people are interested, it’s okay. I still did what I always wanted to do! I created a great comic book character. Jolly Jane Kicks ass, no matter if it’s printed or not. I succeeded in my latest failure .
You never know unless you keep trying.
RRR