New Alternate Cover Art! (The Machine)
Great news! Our final Kickstarter rewards have now been finished by my brother, Robbie - anyone whose pledge included Digital 'The Seven' Portrait artwork will be able to pick from one of 6 A4 original works once our campaign ends…
I've included 3 examples of these below for you to check out. Each one depicts characters from the book and has been carefully rendered using a selection of descriptive excerpts.
Above you'll also see another exciting last-minute addition to our rewards list: Alternate Hardback Cover Art in graffiti-style, using Robbie's adapted works. There are 15 of these exciting new rewards available now with just a few weeks to go until our campaign ends!
Siegfried
The Sentinels
V.4 Salvador
I want to say a massive thank you to everyone who has supported this campaign so far! Surveys to follow in the next 2 weeks to arrange your deliveries… :)
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An Island Adventure With Visit Guernsey
“I dedicate this book to the rock of hospitality and liberty of that portion of old Norman ground inhabited by the noble little nation of the sea, to the Island of Guernsey...”
— VICTOR HUGO, THE TOILERS OF THE SEA
So, we knew a few little things about Guernsey, before we partnered with Visit Guernsey and agreed to escape London for a long weekend in their open waters…
We heard that Victor Hugo spent some 15 years there in exile. And that his book ‘The Toilers of the Sea’ featured a protagonist who was at one point pitted against an enormous octopus. Calum had read up on the sudden terror of Nazi invasion, when the harbours were bombed and the Channel Islands fell under occupation. I also knew that this was an island of stoic swimmers, after a team from Guernsey smashed through and won the Movember ‘SwimTrek 60k Challenge’, which I ran back in November 2020.
Other than that though, we flew in pretty much blind and had our first sight of the island announced - on Thursday, September 16, 2021 - by a boulder-strewn coastline and a rounded patchwork of stone-walled fields, country houses and pubs, among those usual hidden plots of semi-dismantled barns and discarded machinery, which we knew well from a roving childhood in Cumbria.
The folks at Visit Guernsey put us up in the La Fregate Hotel near some of the best watering holes in town. The hotel was widely described as being in the ‘best location’. All floors were wrapped in tall-windowed rooms with balcony views over the harbour and the other southwestern Channel Islands, including the green ridges of Sark. Later, the pristine fine dining and breakfast area also served up an amusing contrast to mornings spent being punched from all directions by the seething Bailiwick’s seas.
Our weekend mission was to meet as many local island swimmers as we could and help wield the magic of digital media to promote their favourite spots - guided and protected under the open water tutorage of Jacqui and Jennifer from Guernsey Swim Adventures…
Read the full article here
The Hardback Has Landed!
First Hardback copies of The Machine have landed!
Just wanted to share another quick update for ‘The Machine’ campaign…
This week, I'm very happy to announce that both the Hardback and Paperback proof copies have landed on my doorstep and been approved for final production. I only need to add a few special mentions in at the end and tweak a couple of things, but basically we're good to go.
First copy of The Machine Hardback!
Right now, funding for #TheMachine has hit 127% here on Kickstarter and we are still shuddering in our makeshift rocket, looking to expand our journey out in search of a few exciting stretch goals. I'll have more news on this front soon.
Next up, I'll be working with by brother and artist, Robbie, on the creation of exclusive digital artwork. Can't wait to get all of you your copies and rewards soon!
If you're looking for more content while we wait - check out this article I wrote on Medium about my experience in the publishing world and my journey onto Kickstarter!
You can also sign up to my mailing list for more updates and access to exclusive material:
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It’s harder to pose with two books!
The Machine Hits 100% On Kickstarter
We did it! 100% funded in less than 3 days!
I’ve been totally blown away by the support for #TheMachine - I really can't wait to share this adventure with you in a few months! I want to say a massive thank you to all our awesome backers so far. We're absolutely still accepting pledges until the full 60 days is up. For now, let’s just say - today is a good day and this wild dystopian dream is now a reality thanks to you!
I've just had proofs delivered for the Paperback and will now be finalising the Hardback and eBook next week. Once the Kickstarter 60 days is up, I will get in touch with all my backers (I'll also still be sharing updates as we go) to arrange having all their rewards shipped out to them in a timely fashion.
Watch this space for plenty more exciting updates and exclusive material.
Kickstarter Launch Day!
And we’re off! The Machine is LIVE and funding right now on Kickstarter. From here on, it’s just me and you…
My name is Jack Hudson - I’m a previously represented author published by Hodder and Stoughton imprint, Yellow Kite Books. I was raised in the rural outback of northern England, close to the Lake District. My first book was a travelogue (Swim Wild) about world-first swimming expeditions with my two older brothers – the ‘Wild Swimming Brothers’. We were the first people to swim across two maelstroms, in Norway: the Saltstraumen and Moskstraumen. We also swam the 90-mile length of a river in the English countryside, fueled by being equally at odds with their urban nine-to-fives.
What is The Machine?
After ten years in the ether, I’m bringing you my Fiction debut. In short, this is something totally different to my first book. Since uni’ second year up in Newcastle, I’ve been hammering away at this little dystopian epic – an unflinching dive into a nightmarish near-future, populated by colossal walking oil drills and an omniscient android, bound to a low-orbit satellite.
The Machine has cinematic roots, inspired by the punk style of filmmaking we’ve seen from writer/directors like Neil Blomkamp (Elysium) and Alex Garland (Sunshine). I also fed off books from authors like John Lanchester (The Wall), Stanislaw Lem (Solaris) and Philip K. Dick (Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep). It’s gritty, but still suited for older teens, with themes that would appeal broadly to lovers of the outdoors and adventure.
The book is also part environmental epitaph, and could be described as a travelogue of sorts, tracing interwoven narratives into Earth’s last habitable century. Actually, many scenes and characters are derived from my own personal experiences in wild and unforgettable places around the world, like India, Indonesia and Iceland.
Pledges available from our Kickstarter launch day (August 25) are:
£3 // Shoutout + First Chapter (Audio)
£5 // eBook + Digital Artwork
£15 // Get the book - Paperback!
£20 // Get the book - Hardback!
£30 // Signed Hardbacks
£35 // Hardback + Limited Edition Portrait
£60 // Book Two Character, Portrait + Hardback
£100 // Special Mention in Acknowledgements
I hope you enjoy this adventure! We’re running an exciting Kickstarter campaign with a whole lot of digital goodies and artwork thrown into the mix too. Pledge now for your chance to receive some of our awesome limited rewards and to also pick up your Paperback, Hardback or eBook copies, which will be distributed by Lulu Press as soon as the 60 day funding period is up in late October.
Huge thanks for joining me on this journey!
Love you all,
Jack
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