Okay, since this has officially begun I would be remiss not to let fellow Freaks know about it...
As some of you already know, I co-wrote a travel guide to the Star Wars locations based in the continental United States with 2 of my good friends. This was years ago. Our research actually began in 1999 and went through 2001 and we started actually locating sites in 2002 (which is why I look so young and skinny in many of the pics
).
Anyway, the initial idea was just to document everything, because when we started researching there was nothing except for a modest article in an issue of Star Wars Insider. So the thought was to develop an all-encompassing and functional travel guide that fans could use to actually locate and see some of these iconic locations for themselves. But we included a lot of historical and anecdotal information. Basically it's a Star Wars reference book that can actually be used.
Initially, Lucasfilm was keen on the idea, but they were still in the middle of the prequels so their attention was focused elsewhere. So with very little help from them we did all of the legwork and all of the expenses came out of our own pockets.
To make an already long-winded story relatively short, we were strong along for YEARS. Eventually (in 2009, I think) Lucasfilm officially passed on the book and said it wasn't something they were interested in but that we could move on with an unofficial/unauthorized book. Because of that, 2 of the interested publishers (SW licensees that can't be named) backed out and we were completely on our own. I basically washed my hands of it and moved on. But my good friend Adam Parr did the opposite... he made it an almost obsessive mission to make the book happen, come Hell or highwater. Afterall, we'd already written and edited it years ago.
Adam came into contact with a self-publishing group, graphic artist and printing agency based in Memphis, TN. And after a couple of months of back-and-forth the book is actually nearly a reality! All that stands in the way now is the $$ necessary to make the first printing (and marketing) possible. But since we've already sunk more than $5,000 each into this thing Adam came up with the idea of trying Kickstarter as a means of raising the $9,000 necessary for the book to printed and presented the way it was meant to be.
If you have a moment, please take a look at our Kickstarter page and pass along the word to anyone you think might be interested. Rebelscum, TheForce.Net and others will be featuring it soon and we'll be on Podcasts and such, but every little bit counts and I definitely wanted my fellow Sideshow Freaks friends to be privvy to this.
Here is the link to the Kickstarter page (which also has a video, the book cover, images of sample pages, and lots of details on the book itself. which you yourself may find cool):
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/894661479/the-star-wars-filming-locations-of-the-us-our-book
This is just the first day that the Kickstarter page has been open:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/894661479/the-star-wars-filming-locations-of-the-us-our-book
Thanks so much!
Carl
As some of you already know, I co-wrote a travel guide to the Star Wars locations based in the continental United States with 2 of my good friends. This was years ago. Our research actually began in 1999 and went through 2001 and we started actually locating sites in 2002 (which is why I look so young and skinny in many of the pics
).Anyway, the initial idea was just to document everything, because when we started researching there was nothing except for a modest article in an issue of Star Wars Insider. So the thought was to develop an all-encompassing and functional travel guide that fans could use to actually locate and see some of these iconic locations for themselves. But we included a lot of historical and anecdotal information. Basically it's a Star Wars reference book that can actually be used.
Initially, Lucasfilm was keen on the idea, but they were still in the middle of the prequels so their attention was focused elsewhere. So with very little help from them we did all of the legwork and all of the expenses came out of our own pockets.
To make an already long-winded story relatively short, we were strong along for YEARS. Eventually (in 2009, I think) Lucasfilm officially passed on the book and said it wasn't something they were interested in but that we could move on with an unofficial/unauthorized book. Because of that, 2 of the interested publishers (SW licensees that can't be named) backed out and we were completely on our own. I basically washed my hands of it and moved on. But my good friend Adam Parr did the opposite... he made it an almost obsessive mission to make the book happen, come Hell or highwater. Afterall, we'd already written and edited it years ago.
Adam came into contact with a self-publishing group, graphic artist and printing agency based in Memphis, TN. And after a couple of months of back-and-forth the book is actually nearly a reality! All that stands in the way now is the $$ necessary to make the first printing (and marketing) possible. But since we've already sunk more than $5,000 each into this thing Adam came up with the idea of trying Kickstarter as a means of raising the $9,000 necessary for the book to printed and presented the way it was meant to be.
If you have a moment, please take a look at our Kickstarter page and pass along the word to anyone you think might be interested. Rebelscum, TheForce.Net and others will be featuring it soon and we'll be on Podcasts and such, but every little bit counts and I definitely wanted my fellow Sideshow Freaks friends to be privvy to this.
Here is the link to the Kickstarter page (which also has a video, the book cover, images of sample pages, and lots of details on the book itself. which you yourself may find cool):
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/894661479/the-star-wars-filming-locations-of-the-us-our-book
This is just the first day that the Kickstarter page has been open:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/894661479/the-star-wars-filming-locations-of-the-us-our-book
Thanks so much!
Carl
Congrats!
