Hearthlight Updates: Kickstarter Lessons & Chapter 29 Progress
A failed campaign isn't a dead end; it’s a masterclass. Looking back at the numbers from our June Kickstarter, what I learned about audience momentum, and our massive goal for the September 1 relaunch. Plus, a progress update on Chapter 28!
A World Reborn
Looking Back: The June Kickstarter
As many of you know, this past June I took a major leap of faith and launched a Kickstarter campaign to bring the first phase of The Hearthlight Cycle to life. My goal was ambitious, but my belief in this world and this community was—and remains—unshaken. Ultimately, the campaign fell short of its funding goal, closing out with 6 incredible backers and a total of $205 toward our $5,500 target.
To those 6 pioneers who stepped up to back the project: thank you from the bottom of my heart. Seeing names pop up in my inbox during those first few days was an incredible feeling. Your early faith in Aestraea is exactly what keeps me moving forward, and I am deeply grateful for your support.
The Hard Truth & What I Learned
A failed campaign isn't a dead end; it’s a masterclass in publishing. The data from June sent a loud, clear message: audience momentum is everything.
Crowdfunding isn't just about having a great book or a compelling universe; it’s about a highly coordinated launch window. Relying on a small, passionate inner circle to clear a large funding hurdle simply isn't sustainable. To make this project a reality, the strategy has to shift entirely from launching and hoping to preparing and knowing.
Moving forward, I'm setting a strict prerequisite before the next campaign goes live. We need to hit a milestone of 100 to 150 subscribers on the Kickstarter "Notify Me" pre-launch page before September 1. This is the critical mass required to signal to Kickstarter’s algorithms that our project is worth paying attention to on Day One.
The Next Steps: Goals for August & September
We aren't throwing in the towel; we are recalibrating the entire engine. Here is how the next two months look behind the scenes:
August Focus (Building the Foundation): This entire month is dedicated to pre-launch visibility. I will be pulling back the curtain on Aestraea more than ever before, sharing exclusive lore, behind-the-scenes worldbuilding, and character reveals. The sole goal of this content is to drive readers to the "Notify Me" button so we can secure our 100–150-backer foundation.
September 1 Relaunch: Mark your calendars. With a refined strategy, a built-in crowd, and a clear vision, The Hearthlight Cycle returns to Kickstarter on September 1.
Writing Update: The Hearthlight Cycle
Coming to Kickstarter September 1:
A World Reborn returns to Kickstarter on September 1, with the goal of having 100-150 pre-launch backers. Will
While the business and marketing side of indie publishing has its steep learning curves, the creative side is absolutely thriving. I am currently deep in the trenches of Chapter 29 of the manuscript.
The finish line for this specific arc is finally coming into focus. I have roughly 10 chapters left to write before the first full draft is complete. Watching these characters evolve and seeing the plot threads weave together has been incredibly fulfilling, and it makes me more determined than ever to get this book into your hands in its best possible form.
Thank you all for walking this road with me through the peaks and the valleys. Your support—whether it's backing a project, reading this blog, or sending an encouraging note—is what keeps Aestraea alive.
The new pre-launch page will be live soon. Let’s hit that 100–150 goal together and make September 1 unforgettable!
The Significance of the Ordinary
Steven Moffat gave Matt Smith a single line to fix an error Russell T. Davies had made. That line became the foundation of Aestraea. This is the essay about why I built a world around the conviction that no one is unimportant and nothing is insignificant, and what it cost me to understand that about myself first.
Doctor #4 - Tom Baker
“Baker had always seemed like someone out of place in ordinary reality, the eccentricity audiences would soon celebrate simply being how he carried himself.” - from How Tom Baker Changed TV as the Fourth Doctor Who: “I Became the Doctor” by Ed Gross
It is no secret that one of my favourite fandoms is Dr. Who. In fact, I have two Doctor Who-themed tattoos, and my dream of earning a Ph.D. stemmed directly from watching Tom Baker as The Doctor on PBS when I was 3. I wanted to be a doctor just like The Doctor.
As time went on (as it is wont to do), I found The Doctor again. He was harder, angrier, sadder. When Christopher Eccelston stepped into the role in 2005 as the 9th Doctor, he brought a grit with him that hadn’t been present previously. Tennant reminded us of the fun the Doctor used to have and how humans were always so amazing.
But it was his final episode, “The End of Time, pt. 2,” in which he uttered a line written by Russell T. Davies that just never sat well with me. The Doctor said to Wilfred, “Look at you. Not remotely important.” It was his way of trying to rationalize his last moments as what he had come to know, which made his last line even more heart-rending: “I don’t want to go!”
It would take a season of Matt Smith getting his feet as the Doctor. In the first episode of his second season (the sixth of New Who), Steven Moffat fixed the error Davies had made, and allowed Smith to speak one of Moffat’s greatest quotes into existence: “…You know that in nine hundred years of time and space and I've never met anybody who wasn't important before.” That simple, throw-away line became the anthem for many neurodivergent nerds out there who felt themselves insignificant or unimportant. It was emblazoned on a t-shirt and given to me as a reminder of the power I have in this world.
In this world, and in the world I created.
Doctors #10 (David Tennant) & #11 (Matt Smith) in “The End of Time”
You see, Aestraea did not begin with a plot. It began with a question I could not stop turning over: what if the thing a person considers most unremarkable about themselves turned out to be the greatest feat humankind had ever witnessed? Not because of prophecy, not because some external force reached down and assigned them importance, but because the particular shape of who they are was precisely what the moment required.
I have spent a long time watching people make themselves small, and being one of those people I watched do it. Shrinking is not a sign of weakness; it is a defence mechanism. There is safety in anonymity. There is peace in blending in. There is also a deep sadness and loneliness in being overlooked and unrecognised.
I built a world where that is simply not true.
The Hearthlight Cycle is, at its structural core, about cycles: birth, death, rebirth, and the living that happens within and between them. It is about found family as a genuine architecture of belonging. It is about the idea that the bonds we choose are as load-bearing as the ones we were given.
Marleigh l’Mer runs a tavern at the edge of the known world. By every ordinary measure, she is easy to overlook. She does not carry a sword. She does not hold political power. What she holds is an uncanny understanding of what people need before they know to ask for it, and a refusal to let anyone in her orbit diminish themselves without being challenged on it. The world would look significantly different without her in it, and she will never be the one to say so.
That is the story I needed to tell. Across seven books, in the bones of a world built from the beginning to hold the argument: significance has never been as legible as we were led to believe.
I needed someone like The Doctor to rescue me. So I became The Doctor to save myself. I needed a world like Aestraea to prove that no one and nothing was insignificant. So I created it and breathed it into existence. If, like me, you have found yourself crying late into the early hours of the morning, pleading with the Universe to save you from your pit of despair, then know the Universe has answered. It has sent me, The Creator, to put pen to paper and create a world in which no one is unimportant and nothing is insignificant.
This post first published on Substack, June 19, 2026. The content has been modified for this blog.
What is The Hearthlight Cycle & Where Do I Start?
Seven books. One original world. An ensemble cast navigating ancient dragons, warring nations, and the fear of what cannot be known. Start with A World Reborn.
What is The Hearthlight Cycle and Where Do I Start?
As with many adventures, it is best to start at the beginning; and for The Hearthlight Cycle, the beginning is A World Reborn.
The Hearthlight Cycle is a seven-book epic fantasy series set in Aestraea, an original world created by C.N. Mackey and published by Map's Edge Media. It follows an ensemble cast across a world shaped by ancient dragons, warring nations, and the remnants of a forgotten age. It is epic fantasy with psychological depth, morally complex characters, and prose that reads as poetry.
You start with A World Reborn. That is Book 1, and it is the intended entry point. The series is sequential. Each book builds on what came before. There is no good reason to read them out of order, and several good reasons not to.
A World Reborn is currently being crowdfunded on Kickstarter. The campaign runs through 30 June 2026. After that, a standard edition will be available through Map's Edge Media.
If you want to be inside the world before the book is finished, the Map's Edge newsletter on Substack is where that happens. Lore, character insights, behind-the-scenes writing, and everything happening with the series as it develops. It is free. It is where readers find the door first.
The full series runs seven books, from A World Reborn through A New Age. It is worth it.