Gold Dust Publishing is raising funds for a local professional artist to do the artwork for Violet's Pretty Purple Playground - a story about a little girl who learns a valuable lesson about diversity. The artwork will consist of 25 to 30 various pieces.
Violet's Pretty Purple Playground is a children's book about a little girl who learns a valuable lesson on the importance of diversity in the world. This book appeals to all parents and grandparents who wish to teach the little ones in their family how important it is that we are all different and unique in this world. The age range for this book is ages 2 - 12, and even those adults who are kids at heart. During this campaign, we are raising funds to pay professional artist Ben Mirabelli to do the front & back cover and roughly 25 to 30 different custom art pieces. We thank you for your time as you read through to learn more about the project and the wonderful things we are offering.
Let's learn more about Violet, our author Harker Jones, artist Ben Mirabelli, and Gold Dust Publishing.
Harker Jones is a queer author and screenwriter from Los Angeles. He was inspired to write “Violet’s Pretty Purple Playground” because, despite so many different flavors in the world, he feels we sometimes forget to venture out of our comfort zones. We might like chocolate and vanilla so much that we sometimes forget to indulge in pineapple or blueberry.
When 11-year-old Violet Van Buren turns the world purple because she loves purple the most of all, she discovers that variety — not singularity — is what makes the world so rich. Without silver, bronze, and black, purple isn’t so special. Just like our differences in humanity make us unique, the colors of our world make it interesting. For kids ages 5–8, the book will teach the importance and joy of diversity, in addition to opening them up to a broader spectrum of colors than just the primary and secondary.
Ben Mirabelli is an illustrator who received his Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Charlotte NC. He has previously been published by White-Wolf Game Studios, Art of War Games Empire Games, Skaldcrow Publishing & Mocha Memoirs Press. Visualizations of his artwork can be viewed at www.benmirabelli.com
Gold Dust Publishing is a new indie publishing company for LGBTQIA+ authors & allied stories. Its mission is to provide an avenue and safe place for LGBTQIA+ authors to share their artistic talents through fiction or non-fiction writings with the world. Our non-fiction side works to help preserve our LGBTQIA+ history in a world where books are constantly being banned. Our fiction side of the company provides entertaining tales for all ages featuring LGBTQIA+ characters or written by LGBTQIA+ authors.
Since opening in January of 2023, Gold Dust has brought you the audiobook for The House on Dead Man’s Curve & The Vampire Crusades series by owner and paranormal enthusiast Jason Roach, Until Death: An Eric Kent Investigation by Rey Nichols, The Purple Menace and the Tobacco Prince by Wade Beauchamp, The Sword’s Secret – Ancient Wonders – Book 1, and a charity book titled Reflections featuring over forty different authors from around the world writing letters to their past selves.
As of June 2023, Gold Dust has been out in the LGBTQIA+ community accepting pitches from and assisting authors while at events. You may have seen them at Winston Pride, Greensboro Pride, Charlotte Pride, Fayetteville Pride, Statesville Pride, and Hickory Trans Pride. To learn about upcoming projects or submit a manuscript, please visit www.golddustpublishing.com.
📚 Welcome to Booktopia — a celebration of creativity and collaboration from a vibrant collective of writers, authors and artists collectively running crowdfunding projects from September 5th -September 26th. As with all crowdfunding projects, this is an all or nothing project - meaning we need to reach our initial goal to be able to provide rewards.
🔥 Limited Cross-Collaboration Freebies — All 50+ Booktopia creators have paired up with a fellow participant to create two unique and limited freebies together. If BOTH projects successfully fund, backers who support BOTH will get the TWO [2] cross-collab freebies listed on their campaign page, one will ship from each creator. The more pairs of Booktopia creators you support, the more freebies you will earn ✨
🧧 1 FREE Limited Edition Booktopia 2024 reward if you back FIVE [5] or more projects. Exclusive reward for Booktopia - Black Metal Bookmark
As part of Booktopia, I’m partnering with Shuttered Stanzas for special collaboration oracle cards. Check out their project here!
If you support both campaigns at any physical rewards tier level, and both campaigns meet 100% of goal, you will not only receive the awesome books you supported during the campaign, but you’ll also receive 6 free cards – three from each campaign!
But wait, there's more!
Don't forget to check out all of the other campaigns that are producing oracle cards for this unique Booktopia 2024 oracle card deck! Back all campaigns, as long as it's any of the physical reward levels, to complete your oracle deck with over 30 cards! They're great to look at, plus, if you want to use them as a sort of mini-game, each card is associated with a single word. It's a great way to support creators and get and amazing product that will never be available again!
Not only that, but BackerKit will send you a freebie too! You'll get 1 FREE Limited Edition Booktopia 2024 Black Metal Bookmark if you back FIVE or more projects. Here's a great list just waiting for you! Here's the list of all the people participating in the Oracle Card deck. Gotta collect 'em all!
Unlike many crowdfunding platforms, BackerKit is a buy now, pay later system. BackerKit is unique in that shipping is charged after the project is completed, and separately from your pledged amount. Since shipping rates can fluctuate, shipping will be determined at the time of fulfillment based on the total weight of your package and the destination country. I will do my best to ensure fair rates. However, international rates will likely be high.
Please note the above numbers are estimates. Shipping will be added when you fill out your survey form, and is based on your location. Generally, US shipping for one book will be about $7, three books will be about $9, and five books is around $11. See below for International shipping.
International Shipping:
Yep. It's expensive. The cost starts around $30 for one book, shipping to Canada, and $50 international. The price will go up for extra books by weight. For example, another 2 books will add around $5-10 in shipping. This is the cheapest I've been able to find it for, especially if you are getting multiple books. I'd recommend getting the eBooks, and then you can get as many as you want!
Due to needing time to complete the artwork, layouts, and printing, Violet's Pretty Purple Playground will be released in the fall of 2025. We will do our best to work as fast and as hard as we possibly can to bring you a quality book and keep you updated along the way. All rewards will ship together. However, items purchased from the Gold Dust catalog will ship as soon as they are available, and eBooks will be provided after the campaign's completion.
