They're cute. They're cuddly. They're little goblins who steal your food and your hearts. It's CATS!

BEHOLD! I have put together an art book full of cat sketches I drew during the Inktober Challenge of 2023!

For folks who don't know, Inktober is the artist’s challenge to draw daily in ink during October. Usually, people put together a list of prompts. I ignore them and draw to themes I pick out instead. 2017 had Witches. 2018 had Gods and Spirits. 2019 had dragons. 2022 had characters from my comics and stories. 2023’s theme? CATS. 

WHY

I got the idea at Small Press Expo when someone came up to my table and spotted The Stars of Fantasyville (my 2022 Inktober sketchbook). They saw Duchess, my black cat character on the front and flipped through it. And they said, “Oh I thought the whole book was cats.”

And I said, “That's my NEXT book!” So I made it happen.

I had been meaning to make an art book of cats for a while, anyway, and that was the signal I needed to make it happen.

WHEN

This campaign is only open for ONE WEEK and ENDS on JAN 19. Here are some reasons why.

1. When I looked at my numbers for crowdfunding projects, all of my best-funded projects only lasted 7 days. (Any campaigns for The Legend of Jamie Roberts were the only exception). This is doubly true for campaigns on Crowdfundr.
2. The sooner we hit our goal, the sooner we can place the printing order and start order fulfillment. 
3. I want these books in our hands as soon as possible!

HOW

With YOUR help, because I don't have the budget to print these books on my own.

Thanks to a generous patron on Ko-fi, I do have about $70 saved back for this project. Which is enough to cover the books getting shipped to me, as well as envelopes. Here's a breakdown of what we still need to make this happen: 

For past supporters, you may be wondering, “Wait. Why is there no ISBN or barcode? And where's the part of the budget for shipping to backers?”

I’m not getting an ISBN or barcode for this book to keep the circulation small. As cute as the idea is, I don't expect this book to pop up at Barnes & Noble or something similar. (Not that this has happened for any of my books yet to my knowledge, but the point is, CATS is more of an art zine. Let it be a collector's item!)

As for shipping to backers, Crowdfundr has shipping costs as a separate line item in the budget. So I can just ask for the goal, but still get the funding needed to ship stuff because it's handled separately! It's kooky compared to KickStarter, but it works. 

Why a new book display? Because I hope to bring extra copies of this book to future conventions and in-person appearances...but I now have so many other books that I need a second multi-tier display case for the art books (including CATS).

That's why, for a stretch goal, I hope we can raise funding to get a duplicate of this display I currently have:

“Who's printing the book?”

We're going to the same folks who printed The Stars of Fantasyville to print these CATS books…MIXAM! For art books, their print and paper quality is *chef's kiss* marvelous. Plus they're fast and budget-friendly, and their customer service is stellar.

If you can, please consider pre-ordering your copy of CATS: A Sketchbook! We also have other rewards available, which you can pick and choose a la carte to make your reward bundles! Many of these rewards are digital, too, so if you're international, I have you covered.

Broke? Share this campaign far and wide! Sharing is caring and helps more than you know.

We have UNTIL JAN 19 to make this happen!

That’s all for now. Thank you for your time and support!

You. Are. Awesome.