Friday was the last day of school, and as such it was time for my final lesson to my students. What message would I like to end the year with?

Actually, it was the messages of “Catch the Wind” — which was appropriate, since this year’s group was the first to ever read the complete story. It’s the lessons learned from the characters:

from Eloywn — anger makes you powerful, which can be intoxicating, but it inevitably leads to pain and suffering.

from Raya — you need wisdom and humility, and respecting your mentors, to turn good intentions into good outcomes

from Jaren & Seraph — reality will never match your big dreams. So be careful that you don’t overlook the good you do because it doesn’t match the perfect ending you envisioned.

from Wit — wisdom is nothing without patience.

from Andelyn & Jasper — you will not be the hero forever.

from Wren — you can find joy even when terrible things happen to you

from Damarion — true goodness is when you persevere, hold to what you believe, even when the entire world is raging against you and tearing apart what you worked so hard to build.

from Elizabeth — it takes great humility and courage to honestly face your own mistakes and turn back to what is right.
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from everyone — there is no such thing as Happily Ever After. And yet, despite that, the story of Catch the Wind is one of triumph and hope. We don’t need perfect Happily Ever Afters to experience triumph and joy.

It is both thrilling and humbling to see the initial funding goal met. Thank you so much to everyone who  backed this project in its earliest stages. The generosity is appreciated -- though I hope that you enjoy the novels enough that it turns out to be more of a fair trade than generosity at the end.

Response by Young Readers

As these novels were originally written for my students, I have to be very careful about keeping the education side and the Kickstarter side separate. Confidentiality, conflict-of-interest, etc., demand a lot of care in how I go about this. I have to make sure the activities done in class are 100% educationally-focused, and I cannot make any mistake in revealing student work or anything of the sort.

That said, as students have engaged in recent projects in response to these novels, I can't help but be encouraged at their enthusiasm. They care about these stories. They care about these characters. The activities and discussions may be laser-focused on 5th grade reading skills, but I can still hear what the kids say when they tell me how much they love the stories.

Onward

And so I still plan to push ahead. I believe in these stories, and I want to share them with as many people as I can. And so while meeting the initial funding goal is exciting and ensures that the self-publishing of the novels will be financially sustainable, that's not really the end goal. The end goal is to find as many people as I can who are interested in reading these works.

And I am also eager to see if I can meet the stretch goals to add illustrations to the novels. It is not only a matter of aesthetics (I happen to love good illustrations), but as a teacher they are a major part of the function. Illustrations help struggling readers comprehend higher level stories. So being able afford to work with a high-caliber illustrator helps me make the stories accessible to even more readers.

Thanks to all those who are among the first supporters of this project.
It was interesting timing for me ... launch this Kickstarter the same week I spent most of my spare time directing the closing performances of a youth theater production Beauty and the Beast. But I suppose that is a major part of my story, and the story behind this Kickstarter ... I'm a guy who wears a lot of hats: a teacher, a youth theater director, and a writer.
And yet amid it all I began the first stages of publicity for the books, and I'm going through the first novel, Catch the Wind, to find the final tweaks I want to make before sending it off to editing.
I'm excited and grateful for the support these books have already received, even though the launch is less than a week old and publicity has just begun. I feel humbled at the money already pledged, and it's made me determined to make sure these books are as good as they can be.
I'm excited to see how far this can go.