Ryan here to talk about something very special. When I achieved my dream of seeing my first book, My Life as a Comic Book Reader to become published last year the dream soon becomes bigger and you want to give more to those who supported and helped me achieved my dream of seeing the book published. My second book, Small Hope was born out of creating My Life as Comic Book Reader seven years ago and in 2013 a group of friends helped to bring the world of S’more to life and now I’m ready to share S’more with the world. Small Hope is a children’s story about finding hope when it feels our world has caved in on us. Where the tiniest creature can bring a type of love that felt lost and about moving on and facing the challenges in life as we grow up. As an owner, rescuer and fosterer of guinea pigs for many years, this story has a special place in my heart.
All of us has had a pet that brought a type of magic into our lives like no other. Sometimes it almost felt like our new friend was from another world. In this case, Janice’s new adoptive guinea pig really is.
Small Hope is the story of S’more; who escapes his destroyed home world and finds himself on Earth. When he is discovered by a family they see that he looks like a guinea pig, talks like a guinea and acts like a guinea pig, so they believe S’more is an abandon guinea pig looking to find a new home. However, S’more isn’t a guinea pig, he is an alien with the ability to bring out hope in others no matter how small. When S’more arrives in his new home, he finds a family that has lost their hope due to the death of a family member. Over the course of the story S’more brings hope back to the family, especially for the daughter, Janice and must later face the hard choice of remaining with his new family or leaving his new home to help others like Janice who have lost hope.
We have written, illustrated, and edited the book. This project has been a couple years in the making and we feel we are at a place where we are ready to self-publish. I need to raise $2,500 to cover all costs by May 2nd from paying my illustrator to printing and shipping costs for a hard copy edition of Small Hope. Please support Small Hope by clicking on the link. Small Hope on Kickstarter Thank you very much.
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Thanks, yeah his support came at a great time. We still have $2,000 to go and we are in that 20% range of success since we went so many days without any backers. However, I will not, cannot give up on Small Hope.
*especially given how cynical and sarcastic the world can be. (Sorry!)
Wow, congratulations, Ryan — not only for the book project underway, but for Tom DeFalco’s support. It might sound kind of cliché, but the value of hope is one of my favorite themes across literature and film, so I appreciate your work — especially how cynical and sarcastic the world at large can be. It seems there’s a premium placed on being “snarky” these days so thank you also for the uplifting posts you share. Every bit helps.
Tom DeFalco just backed the book! Wahoo!
Thanks for everyone looking at this post. Means a lot to me.