Hello! We're Sharron and Jordaan Arledge, and we're excited that you've decided to check out our campaign for Shuttered Stanzas. You may know us from our publishing work with Arledge Comics, but what you may not know is that we've been dying to collaborate on a project together. Thanks to BackerKit and Booktopia, we've finally an excuse opportunity to change our "we should really do a book together sometime" into an actual book that we're proud of and cannot wait to share with all of you.

Shuttered Stanzas is a 32 page collection of photography and poetry. It's an art book. It's a collection of poems. It's both! Our initial vision includes 15 different sonnets (with topics ranging from mental health to nature and time to pizza - yes pizza!) and 30 photographs.

The book will be roughly 8"x5" and laid out to feature a sonnet and 1 - 2 photographs per page flip. The book will be hardbound with a gloss finish.

I'm Jordaan. I'm a comic writer and founder of Arledge Comics. I've been in the comics industry for nearly a decade! But what most don't know about me is that my origin story is a poetic one. In 2005 I won first place in a local International Forgiveness Day poetry competition. Despite some minor success, I don't feel I hit my stride until I was introduced to Shakespeare years later. For my senior project, I summarized my high school experience by writing and reciting five sonnets - alternating Shakespearean and Petrarchan. And I only became more extra in my adult years. I consider myself a cotemporary sonneteer, writing about literally anything and everything in the form and style that some English professors call "just as ugly now as it was then." (You know who you are, and I'm still writing wing'd.)

I'm Sharron, co-founder of Arledge Comics and founder of Sharrone & Only Photography. I've been in publishing for eight years and pursuing photography for half that time. I've always found nature very grounding, and photography allows me to capture the beauty between the hustle and the bustle of busy everyday life. Our lives are surrounded by natural wonders, but so few are able to slow down and actually see how epic our home really is. This is my first time sharing my art, my passion, and my vision, and I really hope you love Shuttered Stanzas as much as I loved making it!

Our initial goal is $500. This will fund a small print run of Shuttered Stanzas and photo pins (Intrigued? Keep scrolling!). However, both of us have years of photography and writing under our belts, and we would love to grow this volume beyond our planned 32 pages.

We really want to see just how much content we can pack into this book! We're working with a well established printer, and the printing quotes show that we'll be able to offer up to 100 pages at the current price point. Can we make Shuttered Stanzas 100 pages??

Rewards are set up à la carte. Each reward item is its own reward tier, and every reward item is also available as an add-on. So you can get yourself a 2025 wall calendar even if you don't want a book. Or if you want a printed copy of Shuttered Stanzas without any frills, you can do that, too. You can even get a pin and a digital copy of the book for later! Everyone's tastes differ, and this way you get the rewards you want and nothing you don't.

Step One - Identify the reward you want. Reward tiers and add-ons are priced the same, so the tier you select doesn't affect pricing. It's just the primary reward you choose.
Step Two - Include any add-ons you wish in your cart. (There are a couple add-ons that aren't reward levels, so check those out!)
Step Three - Check out and revel in how awesome you are.

IMPORTANT!!

Shipping costs will be charged to you SEPARATELY through your BackerKit survey.

Add on items may come with additional shipping costs depending on the final weight of your order.

All orders are shipped through USPS and come with tracking. International backers are responsible for their own country's VAT or import taxes/fees.

When shipping internationally we will make every effort to properly fill out customs forms. We will abide by your country's customs and shipping laws, which means we will denote the package value as the cost of your order, and mark it as merchandise. We are not responsible if your country holds your package and requires extra payment to release it.

📚 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.

🔥 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 (*design coming)

As part of Booktopia, I’m partnering with Gold Dust Publishing 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!

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 to complete your oracle deck with 56 of cards!

Participating projects: The Warm Machine | Lesbians in Space | Dire Contact | The Fractured Balance | Nuclear Strudel | Mermaid Song | Gamer | The Bright Spot | Like Warm Plastic | Weave of a Thousand Lies | The Eyes of Mandoral | Sombulus | Violet's Pretty Purple Playground | Shuttered Stanzas | First Life Duet | Blood Ties | Ruthless Wolves | Silver Series of Grown Up Wisdom | My Body Beeps | Reimagined: The Relic Saga