The crowdfunding campaign for Marked by Scorn has been running for the last two weeks, and we’re already down to the final 10 days. I meant to announce it here sooner, but things have been busy.

If you’re not already aware of this book, the premise behind it was to put together a collection of stories and poetry that highlight a diverse array of characters in various non-traditional relationships. I have been making my mark highlighting the tales of the under-represented characters in mainstream media for years now. Focusing in particular on racial diversity, as with Amok: An Anthology of Asia-Pacific Speculative Fiction, and sexuality diversity, like with many of the female characters in my pirate time-travel novel, Adrift (which features 4 women who are not straight and fall in different places along the sexuality spectrum).

Marked by Scorn follows and expands on both of these diverse areas, with stories across 5 continents (Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, and North America), more gender diversity (transgender, gender fluid, and intersex, as well as your more common cisgender characters), and a wider variety of gay, lesbian, and bisexual stories than what appeared in Amok. Many of the South East Asian stories explore what it’s like to have to hide your homosexuality in those cultures.

But these are all stories that transcend the labels, with universal experiences that everyone can relate to. Even if you fit the mainstream culture. As one reviewer put it:

“Altogether, the collection is uplifting, heart-wrenching, sexy, fun, wicked, but most of all, utterly important. Because the one thing that ties all of these stories of breakups and makeups and threesomes and violence and werewolves and partnerships and understanding together—is love. And what could possibly be more important than that?”

While we’re already 20% funded, we still have a way to go to reach the $2,500 goal. If you haven’t already seen the campaign, let me lay down a few basic details about what YOU get:

• If we reach the goal, everyone who backed the campaign will get a free ebook of Solarwyrm’s first anthology, Fae Fatales: A Fantasy Noir Anthology. This will likely be the last time the book will be available with Solarwyrm, as the editor has moved on to another publishing business.
• Backers will get their paperbacks at least a month prior to the publication date (July 31) – they’re ready to be sent out as soon as the campaign ends.
• San Francisco Bay Area backers will be able to collect their paperbacks in person even earlier, if ordered early enough (there are about 20 available copies scheduled to arrive in Oakland in the next 48 hours, and 3 remaining available copies of Adrift, and 2 of Amok before more would need to be ordered).
• DRM-free ebooks come with all paperback orders of the same book(s).
• The ebooks will start to be sent out as of Friday May 27 to anyone who has already backed the campaign.
• There are still a few ebooks available at the early backer price of $4!

Whilst the book is all ready to send out to people, the aim of the campaign is to raise enough funds to pay the 32 writers what is owed to them as per their contracts. Because Solarwyrm believes in paying our contributors.

So if this all sounds awesome to you, go check out the campaign, buy a book or three (the other books listed above are also listed as perks), and help us spread the word so you can get that bonus ebook.