Every year the Pawling Resource Center gives gift packages to families in need in the community. The church I pastor in Pawling decided to participate by donating 24 grocery gift cards to be given to these families. I decided to run a funding campaign in order to provide Daniel Dreamgazer books with these gift cards. So I sent a message to my email list and put posts on facebook. People responded and we were able to raise more than enough books. In each book I placed a personalized message that the backers choose to say along with their name (for those who chose for it to be mentioned). This provided a nice personal touch. Then I packed the Daniel Dreamgazer book and the gift cards in a nice slip case. The campaign was a success. We shot passed the 24 books goal. We actually reached 41 books! Praise God. So I was able to have 24 books packed with gift cards, and I was able to pack 17 other books to bless some extra families. When I delivered these books to the Pawling Resource Center last week, the director's face beamed. She was so impressed with what the church and what the backers had done. Terry, the director gives her thanks to all who made this possible. For those who may have missed this opportunity, the next place where I want to donate books is the Children's Village. Visit our Sponsor Youth page in order to donate a book to a young person.
Thank You!
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11/26/2020 0 Comments Gift Cards and Comic BooksSo many families don't have enough money to have a decent meal during these holidays.
The Pawling Resource Center is fighting to stop that. I have volunteered my time there many days. Stocking shelves, making deliveries, cleaning bed pans. One of the amazing things they do is provide gift packages to people during the holidays. In order to participate in this endeavor, my church in Pawling will be sponsoring 24 families in need by providing gift cards for groceries. I am proud of my church for being willing to serve the community. As believers providing for people’s physical need is essential. More importantly we are called to provide more than just physical food, but also the word of God. This is why I am looking to give these 24 families a physical copy of Book 1 in the Daniel Dreamgazer series. By reading this comic book, they will actually be reading the Bible, because every verse of chapter 1 in the book of Daniel is woven into this book. Thousands of dollars have already have been spent to produce this series. It will cost thousands of dollars more to print more books. So your donations make a huge difference to keep Daniel Dreamgazer alive. If you donate here, not only are you supporting us, but you are sponsoring a young person to receive a book. When the books are given they will be labeled with a personal message from you. Why? Because a personal touch makes a difference. So make sure to mention your name and the message you want to be labeled on the book. As a thank you to you, I will email you a digital copy of the book. The Pawling Resource Center told me that any donations that are going in the packages need to be delivered next week. So the deadline for this campaign is December 3. So please consider Sponsoring a Young Person Today. What a rollercoaster ride.
There were less backers this time a round, but we actually raised more than or last kickstarter campaign. (I am not including funds that have come in outside of kickstarter which when calculated we are still in total higher this time then last time.) Praise God. It really didn't look good, because we got off to a fast start, but it really slowed down in the middle, but eventually picked up again. Which goes to show, you have to maintain your trust in God. It's never over until it's over. And it's actually still not over, because if you or anyone you know want to still support they can visit our support page where they can either donate, purchase, or preorder. My backers have done more than enough and I am not asking for more. I just wanted to thank you for the support and keep you up to date. It blows my mind how supportive you guys are. Some of you I have never even met in person, but yet you believe in the project so much. I am truly touched. So tomorrow I will be sending you all surveys that you would need to answer in order for us to fulfill your rewards. For instance we will need your email address so we can send you the digital copy of the book, ect. So look out for that email. Then we will get to work drawing the pictures for those who selected commissions as their reward. We will also add the names of those who pledged $25 or more to the book. When that is complete I am heading to the local printer to get the books printed. I will be going to the local printer so that you as my backers won't have to wait so long to receive the books. The bulk order books won't be available for a while. Then we will mail out to you your rewards. Estimated arrival is July 2020. Later, I will work with a big printing company that will print the book in bulk. That will be available hopefully by September 2020. I will be taking pre-orders of the book on this website. Prior to the pandemic I was in negotiations with a local book store and conventions. Soon, as things start to open up again, those conversations can begin to resume. Please pray for that. God has some good plans in the works. I know it. So thank you again for this support. Every single backer has encouraged me more than you can know. 5/12/2020 0 Comments Book 2 Kickstarter LaunchWe have officially launched our second kickstarter campaign for Daniel Dreamgazer.
What is Kickstarter? Kickstarter is a crowdfunding website. It is a place where creatives can post fundraising projects. It's sort of like taking pre-orders, but with the warm feeling of supporting a fundraiser. You can donate any amount that you wish and depending on the level of your contribution, you'd be entitled to certain rewards. It’s our way of saying thank you for believing in us and supporting us on the ground floor. Pre-Order your copy today on Kickstarter 4/30/2020 0 Comments Back in Stock9 boxes of books arrived this week. Opened them up yesterday and they look great. Here is a picture of our first bulk order we are sending out to this woman who ordered a 100 books for her church and family. We really appreciate the support. The books are ready for purchase once again. Click Here.
If you are interested in the bulk prices Click Here. Soon we will start the kickstarter funding campaign for the second book. All the books have been printed for our kickstarter backers as well as our first preorders. On Monday we finished signing all the books for our kickstarter backers. I also drew the caricatures for all the backers that selected that pledge. By the time I was done my index finger and thumb was literally hurting. Had to spread out all the drawings so that the ink can dry. Then I packed all the books in their slip cases and envelopes. I mailed out the packages on Tuesday. The lady there told me it takes 1 - 3 business days to arrive. So either you got it by now or you will receive it tomorrow.
Tomorrow morning I will email the digital copy. If you want you take a picture with your book you can tag our facebook page Daniel Dreamgazer or if you are using Instagram tag Daniel_Dreamgazer. The lady at the post office was really cool. We really connect the past couple of meetups. She was even showing me her family pictures. She was so helpful, helping me to navigate this whole shipping thing. Thank you all again for your support. 2/16/2020 0 Comments Proof has been printedThis is so cool. Last Friday I went to the print shop and transferred the file. They printed a proof and it looks good. This is just the proof so the quality will be much better in the finished product, but still this is exciting stuff. So awesome to see an idea come to life physically in your hands. I brought in some comic books from home and asked for our book to be printed with similar paper. However, I didn't realize how thick our book was going to be. HEY! But with how thick the book was I realized it was going to need a thicker cover. So rather than comic book cover, I am going with a cover that has paperback thickness. It will make it sturdier. It will still be saddle-stitched. I really like how it came out. When you are doing things on a screen you are not sure how it will look physically. Those two page spreads look nice. I think it really worked out. I would like to thank Excel Printing their accommodation. The people there are so friendly. Over the course of time with other print jobs I have done with them, we have become really cool. Also it's cool to support a local business, especially one that is walking distance from where I live. They estimate that the printing of these books will be done by this Friday. Then we will start the shipping process. I can't wait to get the book into your hands. Thanks again for all your support. I am so thankful. Kickstarter finally transferred the funds to my account. Kickstarter takes 2 weeks to collect and release the funds and chase bank took a couple extra days.
Today I finally received the funds. I am still waiting for about half the backers to fill out the surveys that I sent out through kickstarter. I need that in order to know what address to mail the books to, and for those with commissions I need to get your reference picture so we can draw you. Those who want their name in the acknowledgement and special thank page, I need you to fill out the survey so I know what name you want in the book. The only information that kickstarter gives me if you don’t fill out the survey is your email address. Therefore I will email all of my backers personally. Hopefully they can respond soon. But I don’t want to delay production, because on Kickstarter I promised that the books would be delivered to your homes by February. So February 1 we will start the printing process. So please send us your survey before January is over. Thank you for all your support. It means so much to me. PS. This message only applies to backers on Kickstarter. Pre-orders were available directly on this website. As mentioned on the page where you ordered, pre-order books will be shipped to you in March. That's because priority is given to Kickstarter backers who will be receiving the books I print at the local print shop. All books that were ordered after Kickstarter closed here on this website will be printed overseas for cost purposes, therefore it will take longer. Thank you for pre-ordering and thank you for your patience. Our first Kickstarter has come to an end.
Thank you all so much. I cannot believe all the support we received. We appreciate all of it: For the nice words For the likes on facebook and instagram For the shares and shoutouts For the pledges you all made, from $1 to $500 We were able to reach not just our funding goal of $500, but we were able to shoot pass our stretch goal of $1,500. In fact we came so close reaching our Bulk Printing goal. Especially considering the donations we received outside of kickstarter (which was a total of $750). The average donation per person was more than double what I was expecting. We raised a total of $4,630 during this past month. So because of that I can afford to move forward in doing bulk printing. Its crazy how in the beginning I was panicking doubting we would even hit $500. God assured me to trust in Him. I am glad I did. Your support has been humbling. The idea that you would go out of your way to make contributions truly is remarkable. We don't deserve God's goodness. Thank you for letting God use you. So what happens now? I just sent our backers surveys that they need to answer in order to fulfill our rewards. For instance we will need their email address so we can send them the digital copy of the book, the home address to mail them the physical copy, ect. So if you are a backer, please check your email. If you did not receive it, please email me right away. Then we will get to work drawing the pictures for those who selected commissions as their reward. We will also add the names of those who pledged $25 or more to the book. When that is complete I am heading to the local printer to get the books printed. I decided to still go with the local printer for the first run for quality control. Also it will be much faster being that it is walking distance from where I live. Then we will mail out to you your rewards. Estimated arrival is February 2020. Because we reached one of our stretch goals I will be emailing each of you the behind the scenes book showcasing the creative process and study that went into making Book 1 of Daniel Dreamgazer. You should be receiving that in late February 2020. Later I will work with a big printing company that will print the book in bulk. That will be available hopefully by March 2020. I will be taking pre-orders of the book on our support page. We look forward to continue to work on this series. Right now I am working on Book 5. Just trying to stay ahead of schedule. This have been fun so far. Now with the success of this kickstarter it has encouraged us to keep moving forward with it. Pray that as we contact stores God will open the doors and we will recognize the opportunities to walk through them. That way this book can have a wide and lasting impact. Thank you all. 12/19/2019 0 Comments We Reached Our Stretch Goal!Wow you guys! You helped us to reach our stretch goal of $1,500. I saved and saved and saved so I could be able to pay for the production of this book. So when I put thousands of dollars of my savings into this series it was an act of faith that this would be a tool to reach and appeal to others. Through all of your generous donations it has covered what I have already spent on book 1 of this series as well as cover the additional cost of printing, etc. As a thank you, we will be emailing to all backers a behind the scenes pdf that showcases the creative process and study So what now? I would like to print more books than the amount needed for the backers. That way I can have some in stock in case some bookstores want to purchase in bulk. Also some people who learn about us later can have the option of buying the book off this website.
Pray that we can actually get into secular stores, like comic book stores. How great would it be to reach people who have never even read the Bible. So if we can reach our stretch goal of $5,000 then printing in bulk becomes more cost-effective. If we can make it to that, then I will be emailing each person who pledged on kickstarter a pdf copy of "The King Within". This is the story of the birth of Jesus told with about 50 fully illustrated pages in cartoon style. While "Daniel Dreamgazer" is geared towards teenagers and young adults, "The King Within" is geared towards children. Thank you for supporting us and believing in this project. |