Author seeks €crowd funding€ to help publish novels, to avoid homelessness

Houston, TX€"August 10, 2012€"Local author, Dr. Sallie B. Middlebrook, is trying to raise money to fund her publishing project as she works to reinvent herself, as, after three years of unemployment, she faces possible foreclosure on her home.

The author, who has three college degrees including a doctorate, is a former college professor of journalism and marketing, and, more recently, a corporate marketing and communications director. €Anyone can find her or himself in a situation like mine,€ she says. €That's one reason I swallowed my pride and decided to tell my story. I always dreamed of writing novels, but I had no idea I'd be facing possible homelessness as I'm doing it. But here I am. After looking for work for three years, I've had to put my home up for €short-sale' in order to try to avoid foreclosure.€

Since her unemployment benefits ended a year ago, Middlebrook says she's had to use up all her savings just to stay in her home. €This economy does not discriminate. It doesn't matter how much education or experience you might have. But for the grace of God, I believe anyone could find themselves in my predicament. Anyone. Now I'm devoted to trying to reinvent my life; trying to create something of my own, a publishing enterprise to employ myself and perhaps others too one day.€

Crowd funding sites like kickstarter.com, she says, represent hope for a lot of people. €Those who have resources don't realize how hard it is for those of us who don't,€ says Middlebrook. €I'm new to writing fiction, and I need help to get my books read. I've been going through some very tough times over the past three years with unemployment and all that comes along with it. I'm over 50, so I'm sure it's harder for older Americans to find work. So, between sending out resumes and going on job interviews, I started doing something I've always wanted to do, and that is writing novels. I'll be publishing some of my children's books too, and I also write for Hub Pages, but that doesn't really pay until you get millions of hits on your pages."

Crowd funding websites, Middlebrook says, are her last resort. "This is the only thing I haven't tried so far, so that's why I created a project on kickstarter.com.€

Middlebrook is inviting fans of fiction, romance, and black history to discover Tales from the Quarters, her collection of color-coded novels that she says are packed with plenty of €Deep South heat.€ Each book in the collection features black Americans, from the South, as romantic heroines and heroes.

€My goal is to reach 2,000 readers/book lovers, friends, family, philanthropists, kind strangers, anyone, who, in the next 30 days will help her, so that she can fund the publishing of her second novel, and the marketing of her first. It's all-or-nothing funding, so unless I raise $20,000, I won't raise even one penny. I'm asking for individual pledges of $10, $15, or $20, appealing to anyone with the heart to help. Any type of help, including prayers and well wishes, if that's all someone is able to give. I believe it all helps,€ says the author.

With help from family who believe she has great talent and potential, says Middlebrook, last December she was able to self-publish the first book in what she hopes will be a 10-book collection.
Even though all of the €Tales€ books are fiction, Middlebrook (writing under the pen name Beax Rivers) says her novels are written not just to entertain, but also to open the door to serious and timely thought, discussion, and even debate about love, relationships, romance, family, history, and more. €For example,€ the author says, €Silver, Currents of Change, delves dramatically into how the South is changing, slowly. It involves Southern families, black and white, being faced with the idea of interracial romance. Something that, for many, represents a new day, especially when it comes to black women and white men dating and marrying each other.€

Dr. Middlebrook cited a poll taken just last year where, in Mississippi, 400 Republican primary voters were asked about their views on interracial marriage. The result? Forty-six percent of those responding said they think it should be illegal. €That poll was taken in 2011,€ Middlebrook said. €So to say some minds are changing slowly might be an overstatement. In the South, old times really aren't that easily forgotten, so interracial romance is still a very touchy subject.€

A 2007 Gallup poll found that 75 percent of whites, nationwide, approve of interracial marriages between blacks and whites. The number climbs to 85 percent for whites between the ages of 18 and 49, but goes down to 64 percent for whites age 50 and older. €Not all my books are about black-white interracial romance, but the first two are,€ says Middlebrook. €And these are the two I have on Kickstarter that I'm trying to get funding for. My first two novels in my collection deal with this touchy subject, a topic I think it needs to be dealt with, and brought up for discussion.€

€If someone decides to support my project, their credit or debit card won't be charged until the project is successfully funded, and it's all-or-nothing. That means if I don't raise the full amount in 30 days, no pledges will be charged to the credit cards. You have to reach your goal, in pledges, or you get nothing. If interested, my project video is on kickstarter.com (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/259863771/tales-from-the-quarters-books-one-and-two?ref=email). I created a video from a Power Point presentation. It's not the best by a longshot, but it's all I could produce given my financial limitations.€

Kickstarter campaigns, for the most part, are all €long shots.€ They operate under an €all-or-nothing€ funding model, so unless Middlebrook's publishing project reaches its goal at the end of 30 days, it could be a long time before her dreams of becoming a publisher will come true. To follow this project, go to Beaxrivers.com where updates will be posted on the Beax Rivers' Blog. Consider donating as little as $1 to help keep hope alive for this project. If you decide to donate more, you could be among the first in the world to read the next Beax Rivers novel, or donate a lot, and you could receive a €Certificate of Promise€ for airfare and hotel accommodations for two, to attend a €Cast Party€ should either of Middlebrook's first two novels ever be made into a motion picture.

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Silver€"Currents of Change is available in paperback, hard cover, and e-book, on Amazon.com, i-Universe, and other online book retailers. If you'd like more information about the Tales from the Quarters Project, or if you'd like to schedule an interview with Dr. Middlebrook, send an email to Author2@beaxrivers.com or send a tweet @BeaxRivers.