Earlier this week, I launched a project on the crowd funding platform, Kickstarter. I’ve never done anything like it before, so I was understandably nervous. Crowd funding means that the online community financially support a project to get it up and running. If I don’t meet my target, I don’t get any of the funding.

My book is called Iceland, Defrosted and is the story of one Englishman’s obsession with a half-frozen, roughly duck-shaped island in the cold north Atlantic. That Englishman is me. That duck-shaped island is Iceland. It’s an obsession that started with hearing Sigur Rós in a record shop and one that shows no sign of abatement.

It is a story that is less about wars over codfish, flight-halting volcanoes or globe-shattering financiers, and more about relaxing in natural hotpots, sharing barbeques in howling winter storms, eating waffles and rhubarb jam whilst watching playful Arctic foxes and desperately, desperately searching for the elusive Northern Lights (that might not exist anyway).

It concentrates on the places, people and experiences I found in Iceland, sound-tracked by the coolest Icelandic musicians, all wrapped up in the warmest lopapeysa and jump started with the strongest coffee.

I don’t pretend to know everything about Iceland. Actually, I do, but my Icelandic friends are very good at correcting me in a firm, yet empathetic manner. They have shown considerable patience with me turning up at short notice, crashing weddings and family events, borrowing warm clothes and constantly asking questions.

Iceland, Defrosted deserves to be produced into a high quality, enjoyable book, both in an old fashioned paperback, and into a new fangled e-book edition. I have the skills to produce decent prose, but I need professional help in editing, typesetting, design and even flat-out, really dull stuff such as ISBN and bar codes. Iceland, Defrosted needs to be set free into the wilds of the internet and book stores, especially in the city of literature itself – Reykjavík.

The biggest challenge –writing the book – is done. There are other challenges ahead. I’m sure that the editing process will be difficult–not just because it will cost half the funding (!) – but to have a harsh, critical eye looking over my work, like an over-zealous teacher, which is not something I relish.

The biggest risk, however, is here and now. I need to get Iceland, Defrosted off my hard drive and on to your coffee table. Without support, I’ve just spent a huge chunk of my life writing something that will never be read by anyone else. I’m not prepared to let that happen. I want my friends, my family and all the kind hearted Icelanders who helped me with this project to be proud of it. That’s why I am nervous.

Edward’s Kickstarter project can be found here.