Last Tuesday, we launched the Kickstarter campaign for Across the Universe: Tales of Alternative Beatles. In that time, 112 backers have pledged 44% of the $6,000 we need to actually publish the book. We’re off to a great start!

But now that the first-week excitement has passed, we have to really dig in to raise the rest of the money (in order to pay the authors and editors and artist, and actually produce the book). If you’d like to join us (we’d love it), the time to get involved is now. Tell your friends, share the link, and pledge a bit yourself (those pledges are actually pre-publication orders, not donations). The early-bird bonus offer — the ebook for a scant five dollars — ends at 11am Tuesday, so get in on it now!

And for the few of you who haven’t been paying attention, here’s the description of the project:

What if the Beatles had never met? Would we enjoy Dave Clark Five-mania (as Spider Robinson suggested)?

What if Brian Epstein hadn’t managed the band? What if George Harrison hated sitar music? What if Ringo had been the true star of the band all along?

What if the Beatles had been aliens? Or magic users? Or zombies? Or <gasp> American?

Help us answer those questions, and many more, as we gather together some of the biggest names in speculative fiction — and some wonderful musicians — to create Across the Universe: an anthology of speculative Beatles fiction. The writers who’ve already clamored for places in the anthology will be writing a series of speculative fiction stories across the genre-verse: horror, science fiction, and fantasy. Some humor, some not.