Tag: ocean life

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The Chosen Ones

Minerva Cerridwen

Hi!

Be the Sea author Clara Ward summarised it this way:

The tentacles wave! The crab claws clap! All the Sea Creatures celebrate together as some are chosen for postcards, some remain paper-free, and all are friends because Minerva made them special Sea Creatures! (Did I just tack a Hopepunk ending onto a Chosen Ones narrative? Maybe?)

In other words: after running the Sea Creatures poll for over a month, we have now decided which of these Creatures will be represented on the Be the Sea Kickstarter reward postcards. Thank you very much to the 45 people who voted!

Even with your help, it was a tough choice. In the end there were 4 Sea Creatures with the same number of votes who competed for the last 2 spots on a postcard. We of the Be the Sea Kickstarter team have seriously discussed our options, taking into account the varieties of Sea Creatures and the balance in styles within the set of postcards. Considering this was “just” a stretch goal reward for this Kickstarter, you can imagine how much work Chris is doing with all the actual rewards. A round of applause for him, please.

Yes, I do expect you to be clapping in front of your computer screen or at your phone now. Don’t be shy. Extra cheering is encouraged; Chris will feel the love.

Now, the Chosen Sea Creatures are:

Floral Sea Horse, Dites-moi Hermit Crab, The Dragon at the Bottom of the Sea, Rainbow Tardigrade, Crochet Non-Binary Jellyfish, Watercolour Octopus, Flower-spotted Moray, and Galaxy Angelfish.

Image showing the 8 chosen postcards

Do you like our final selection? Did your favourites make it? Let us know in the comments!

You can still visit all of the Sea Creatures from the campaign on this page.

And you can still add as many sets of postcards as you like to your Be the Sea: Audiobook and Hardcover Editions order via Backerkit! Also check out the Atthis Print Bundle and Atthis Digital Bundle options; these both include my book The Dragon of Ynys. The Print Bundle includes a pack of Sea Creature postcards at no extra cost. What are you waiting for?

Thank you all for joining me on this Sea Creatures journey! It has been an exciting adventure.

Love from Minerva, the Be the Sea team, and all of the Sea Creatures!

And also

A Queer Market, WorldCon, and Vote for Your Favourite Sea Creature!

Minerva Cerridwen

Dear friends,

Last weekend I was at the Queer Market at the Zomerfabriek in Antwerp. It was my first experience selling books in a booth out in public—and it was amazing!

Photo of The Future is Queer booth at Queer Market Antwerp
The Future is Queer booth at Queer Market Antwerp – special thanks to photographer Leni, the leader of our book club!

In spite of the scorching heat, the people who organised the market had made sure we had everything we needed to thrive (from extra water and tents to provide shade up to clothes hangers for those who were selling second-hand clothing, and metal racks on wheels to put those on—I’m still marvelling at that bit). The atmosphere was great, and I actually sold and signed books! People’s favourites were The Dragon of Ynys, Community of Magic Pens, and Neon Horror.

I had the most wonderful day there with my friends from The Future is Queer book club, and the whole experience was really encouraging me to go out and sell books at events again in the future. Probably to be continued after this summer…

Because this summer is all about WorldCon 2024! As WorldCon is taking place as “close to home” as Glasgow, Scotland, I will be there in person for the whole duration from August 8 until August 12. I’ll write an update later with my panel schedule!

Finally, I’ve opened a poll where you can vote for your favourite Sea Creature at the bottom of the Sea Creature page (click)! Go ahead and pick your 8 favourites, and don’t worry if you need to sleep on it; the poll won’t close until September 1, 2024. I can’t wait to see which of these creatures will be the chosen ones to be turned into postcards as rewards for the Be the Sea Kickstarter. 

Thank you all, and happy summer!

Minerva

And also, Projects by Friends

Final day of the Kickstarter!

Minerva Cerridwen

Dear friends,

We achieved the final stretch goal of the Be the Sea Kickstarter!!!

Thank you all so much for your support!

There’s still 18 hours left in the campaign. Mind that the hardcover editions are limited to this Kickstarter—and the 8 (!!!) Sea Creature postcards that come with them as well!

For now I won’t write a very long message here—it’s time for me to go finish the final Sea Creature (and there’s still quite a bit of work on that, whoops).

Thank you,
Minerva

PS Happy Non-Binary Awareness Week!

Photo of a crocheted jellyfish hanging from the arm of a cactus

And also, Projects by Friends

Three days left: order your Sea Creature postcards!

Minerva Cerridwen

Hi!

Great news: we made it to the first stretch goal in the Be the Sea Kickstarter, so 4 of my Sea Creatures will be turned into postcards! They’re included with every hardcover reward, can be added to every physical reward, and all backers will get high-resolution digital downloads of the postcards. I’ve made a page here on my website where every Sea Creature of the Day is added as soon as it’s come out to play.

In fact, we’re already very close to the second stretch goal: you could be the one to push the Kickstarter to the $5000 mark right now! This will bring us a bonus story by Clara Ward and a better quality of hardcover!

Floral illustration of a spotted moray, black and white
Day 22: Only flowers, and yet a whole spotted moray.

We really hope the Kickstarter will make it to $6000, as that’s the full amount needed to make the audiobook. Besides, $6000 brings 4 more Sea Creature postcards, AND foil stamping to the cloth cover of the hardcover edition!

You can find all the possible rewards for this Kickstarter here.

Photo of a crocheted sea snake
Day 21: A crocheted Ace Sea Snake who loves to play games!

Whether you’re able to support the Kickstarter or not, don’t forget to read the updates; they’re so much fun! In the latest, Clara and Chris took us on a Bookstore and Chocolate Shop Tour, Clara has talked about childhood memories inspiring Be the Sea, and Matt has given a Behind-the-Scenes Peek at Hand-Colored Numbered-Edition Hardcovers.

Please do tell everyone about this project and let’s make these last days of the campaign really impressive! Clara, Chris, Matt, the team at Atthis Arts, all the Sea Creatures, and me are so grateful for your support.

This image includes 20 small square images, each showing a Sea Creature.
The first 20 Sea Creatures

Thank you and have a great weekend!

Minerva

And also, Projects by Friends

Sea Creature Postcards

Minerva Cerridwen

Hi!

Great news! The Be the Sea: Audiobook and Hardcover Editions Kickstarter has reached its minimum funding goal already! And you know what the first stretch goal is??? Postcards of my Sea Creatures!!!

Small photos and scans of the first 10 Sea Creatures of the Day for the BE THE SEA campaign
A small recap of the first 10 Sea Creatures of the Day

If the campaign reaches $4000, 4 of my Sea Creatures will be made into postcards. They’d be included in all hardcover reward levels, available as an add-on for all physical reward levels, and included digitally for all backers. I’d be very proud if that happened! Personally I hope the Kickstarter will go far beyond that, of course—my peeks behind the scenes have told me there are more brilliant stretch goals coming up!

Of course, the Sea Creatures you can see in the image above aren’t all of them: there’s still a new one arriving every day until the end of the campaign, and for everyone who isn’t using social media, I’ve made a new page here on my website where you can comfortably see them all together, just one click away! I will update that page regularly.

For EVEN MORE Sea Creatures of my hand, I refer to today’s Kickstarter Update, which was a guest post I wrote!

Thank you so much for sailing along!

Minerva

Projects by Friends

Be the Sea and Meet a New Sea Creature Every Day

Minerva Cerridwen

Hi!

Be the Sea is a science fantasy novel written by my friend Clara Ward, and—like my own novella The Dragon of Ynys—published by Atthis Arts. I was a proofreader for Be the Sea, but most of you will know that I write honest reviews, and that not every book I proofread gets five out of five stars. This one did!

Here is my review as originally posted on The Storygraph and Goodreads, in October 2023:

“Be the Sea is a near-future solarpunk science fiction/magical realism book that is definitely worth taking your time for. The gentle atmosphere ebbs and flows like the ocean, introducing new characters on your path, most of whom I found very loveable. 

“The story is told in three acts: first you sail across the ocean with a small cast of characters, experiencing an adventure on the sea and listening to the characters’ stories and memories whenever nature allows such peaceful luxuries. Once on land in act 2, the story unfolds into something larger, with more characters, more intrigue, and higher tension. 

“The reader gets to follow the characters and conversations so closely that it feels to me as if the story has actually taken me on a holiday to Hawaiʻi. I felt the water, smelled the scents of all the delicious food, enjoyed visiting an extraordinarily pretty mall. In Wend, the main character, I found one of the most relatable characters I’ve ever seen. Be the Sea contains an amazing amount of representation for queer and neurodiverse characters all around. But while I love Wend and find them so very relatable, I must admit my favourite character was Aljon, the asexual cook and local ray of sunshine.

“Throughout everything that happens, the theme that stood out most to me was the power of working together—even when interactions with other people can be challenging and confusing. Everything in the narrative is treated with kindness, including the difficult subjects that come up. (A list of content warnings can be found via https://www.atthisarts.com/content/) 

“If you enjoy learning (or already knowing things) about biology, the environment and technologies that could help protect it, the memories and dreams that shape someone, or simply need to be reminded of how the traces we leave in the lives of others can make a huge difference (something we all may need to hear whenever we feel insecure), this is the book for you. Biology nerds will be particularly delighted. 

“In the acknowledgements, I learned that the author’s royalties for this book will be donated to Conservation International, an organisation protecting the ocean. This fits the book and the characters’ ethics so well that I feel like it deserves a separate shout-out.”

Now let’s return to the present (free time travel!):

Today marks the launch of a Kickstarter campaign to make Be the Sea accessible as audiobook and hardcover editions. I’m part of the marketing team of this campaign and we have some really fun things planned—for example, I’ll be posting a Sea Creature of the Day over on Instagram every day! The first one is up right now. There will also be lots of cool updates from author Clara Ward on the Kickstarter page itself!

I really feel it’s important that stories like Be the Sea, which has a non-binary, neurodivergent main character along with a cast of queer and neurodivergent characters, become widely accessible. You all know I’m very fond of Atthis Arts as an independent publisher who allows our voices to be heard—and the audiobook starts from $1 thanks to the “pay what you can” setup. Aside from the audiobook, paperback, and hardcover, you can also grab an Atthis Arts book bundle (which includes my own The Dragon of Ynys as well as other great titles!), AND there’s an extra special Numbered-Edition Hardcover Edition hand-coloured by illustrator Matthew Spencer! Don’t miss it!

Be kind to our oceans!

Minerva

Go to the Kickstarter for "Be the Sea"!