I was kinda surprised you guys didn't choose to do Indiegogo instead for that reason. I think you can choose whether or not to have it all-or-nothing there, which is why the Freeborn werewolf film project opted to use that one.

But I've tweeted at LeVar Burton, and my other half tweeted at a couple comic folks he knows who like to support indie stuff, so hopefully we'll get a signal boost out of one or both of them (shame it's not up George Takei's alley - if he posted the link you guys would hit like a million bucks within a day LOL)

Oooh, cool! I was asking Tod about what the sea mares were but he already answered that one for me. :3 I may have other questions and will keep this in mind! I just started the 4th book two days ago.

I am keeping my fingers crossed for you guys for this kickstarter - everyone has been putting so much into it it just HAS to succeed! I already plugged it on facebook but I'll plug it on my FA as well.

Hi Lyrak and Kittrel,

Thanks for posting, and keep boosting the signal. Sheila has had the most experience with Kickstarter, so that's why we chose it. If we do this again, we pick a different site, because Kickstarter uses Amazon Payments. Both I and my husband had difficulty opening Amazon Payments accounts; If you make a teeny mistake, they block the account, and you not only have to start over, you have to use a different email. Chuck got his through after a lot of pushing and delays.

I'm hoping other people are not having this difficulty.

Lyrak, thanks so much for tweeting at LeVar Burton, and his comic-supporting folks. Maybe we could try George Takei, sind some of my inspiration did come from the original Star Trek. Fans were speculating at the time that Vulcans evolved from feline ancestors, and I did a series of sketches showing the feline ancestor and all the intermediate species up to the Vulcans themselves. I started wondering how the feline ascestor might have devloped intelligence and what they might have done with it, and from that speculation Ratha was born.

I've actually reproduced those sketches, and have them up on Google+, if anyone wants to see them.

Kittrel, thank you so much for the signal boosting on FB and FA. That will help, I'm sure. I've had a tremendous outpouring of support from the Ratha fan community.

If we do get the funding (and I am tying really hard to make sure that we do) it will be a gift from Ratha readers; one that we are determined to return in the form of a well-crafted, stunningly illustrated graphic novel.

Please keep boosting the signal and rekindling the fire. Let people know that I will be available on FA this week if they have more questions about anything, or just want to hang out with me here.

I'm one of those who's asking about the Named vs. the UnNamed. Are they diffferent species, or the same species just evolved differently, like Neaderthals and Homo Sapiens?

Hi Kowe,

Thanks for your question.

When I wrote the books, I envisioned three different populations. The Named in the center, surrounded by a larger population of the UnNamed, and beyond that, scattered individuals of the ancestral species, which is the fossil nimravid, Dinaelurus crassus. The books never tell exactly how the Named achieved sentience, which was done deliberately, because the explanation would not have fit that well with the rest of the story.

The UnNamed may have begun with hybrids between the Named and the D. crassus ancestor. Also if the Named rise to large-brained sentience took several million years, then the early Named, with perhaps smaller skulls, could breed successfully with D. crassus. Later, when skulls became larger, they could no longer breed successfully with the ancestor, due to the problems you mentioned. However, some of the smaller-skulled UnNamed can breed successfully with D. crassus, and some of the larger-skulled UnNamed can breed successfully with D. crassus, and some of the larger-skulled UnNamed can breed successfully with the Named.

So the Named can't cross with D. crassus; they have become genetically isolated. The UnNamed form a buffer population between the Named and the ancestor species.

How is that for a bit of creative rationalization?

Rathacat