Introduction from E. Stephen Burnett: After Rebecca LuElla Miller’s article Fantasy And Children’s Books, this seemed a good time to continue that theme–this time from Splickety editor, novelist, and SpecFaith contributing writer Ben Wolf.

Every child needs to know that they’re loved. It’s a fundamental concept that can either make or break a child’s life and well-being.

Many of you probably know me, probably through Splickety, through my writing or editing, or through my involvement with Realm Makers. Or perhaps you know of me because of my propensity to pose frustrating controversial questions on my Facebook page.

Those are all causes I value. (And yes, that includes the latter, mostly because I believe we need to learn how to communicate with each other in a civil manner on topics where we hold opposing views.) I believe in each one of them enough to spend a lot of time and money supporting each one.

Unfortunately, due to some difficult circumstances and some incredibly tough decisions, my children—whom I love—live in a different state now. They’re about 4 hours away. Not at all insurmountable, but far enough. As such, I have limited opportunities to see them.

I wanted to provide my son with something tangible that will remind him that I love him with all of my heart. And, of course, I had to make it speculative.

I wrote the story, paid about $1,000 to get the art created and get the text laid out, and I asked a bunch of my friends with kids to take a look at the story to give me feedback on it. So far, the general consensus among girls and boys has been “please read it again?” They love it.

But as I was researching how to bring the project to life in print form, I discovered how ridiculously expensive it would be to have this printed. I’d need to buy at least 1,000 copies in order to get these down to a reasonable price-per-book, but on the whole, that’s an expensive purchase (to the tune of several thousand dollars).

Not just lions. Also sharks. And dinosaurs.

Given my friends’ kids’ responses, I know this book will be a hit with the general population. It could be huge—but I need a lot of copies on-hand so I can contact distributors and possibly even plan a book tour. Unfortunately, I don’t have an extra several thousand dollars lying around, so I decided I needed to get some help to put this book into print.

As such, I’ve launched a Kickstarter campaign with the hopes of funding my book’s launch. I’m offering a ton of awesome giveaways from Splickety, from me personally, and also cool stuff associated with the book itself (like posters of the artwork and signed copies of the book).

If you have a child in your life and you’d like to express how much you love him or her, would you pledge your support to this project? Or if you know someone with a small child who could use a reminder of their parents’ love, could you refer them to this project? Please help me bring this book to life.

You can pledge your support here.