You find yourself alone on a craggy, roughly hewn surface, almost every direction entirely devoid of anything. Up ahead looms a massive wall of obsidian, dominating the landscape and your vision.

Stark against its surface, you notice a sign, but the words are impossible to read from where you stand.

Approaching cautiously, the largest words fall into focus once you are only a step away.

“Let curiosity guide you.”

Leaning closer, you peer at the smaller print beneath.

“This book has no traditional summary. Wrapped in The Pact of Curiosity, it instead asks you to step bravely forward, crossing the threshold of the unknown without prior research or investigation.

“For some this might be asking too much, but for those willing to explore, step through the tunnel with an open mind and embrace what might be.”

After a few moments of confused glancing, you finally notice the entrance, but struggle to see past the darkness suffocating the passageway.

Frozen in consideration, the echoes of those who came before radiate from within, beckoning you.

You slowly take your first step, and as you cross the threshold a previously unnoticed pressure begins to fade, pulling you ever deeper.

The Pact of Curiosity doesn't prevent anyone from sharing this summary. Feel free to share it!

Want updates on the book? Join the mailing list!

I'm hoping everyone will honor The Pact of Curiosity.

If you haven't read the book yet, it asks you not to seek out summaries, analyses, snippets, theories, or anything else which directly discusses the content of the book itself. Hopefully people will share in pact-safe ways, but if it ever seems like someone is about to reveal the content itself I implore you to stop the video, halt your reading, or simply walk away.

In essence, we preserve our own curiosity so we can flourish while we discover.

If you have read the book, it asks you to be careful how you discuss, review, reflect, question, or otherwise dig into the content of the book with those who might not have read as far as you have. Even the often-used spoiler tags can be too tantalizing for others to resist. When talking with someone who has read as much as you have, speak freely! Simply be careful of your audience.

How in the world do you encourage someone to read a book without covering any of the content, characters, events, or anything else which makes up a book?

In a way, you don't.

Instead, try discussing any questions it brought up for you. Explore changes you've made in your life. Even talking about the difficulties you've had suggesting a book without a summary to others works well. Maybe opening up about your frustrations will help you find the humor hidden within.

Try things out and see what works. Have fun with it!

Although I've provided a few recommendations, there isn't a formula. Each reader will ultimately need to forge their own path forward.

I'll be honest, it's plenty challenging in the beginning, but it gets easier with practice and can often lead to deeper, more worthwhile discussions.

For some people this might seem silly or cheesy. Those who end up disliking the book might find it stupid or pointless. Even still, I would hope everyone is willing to adhere to the pact so we might give someone the gift of curiosity, even if the recipient is ourselves.

Through simple inaction, we might be able to contribute to something special and unique.

What a wonderful thought.

You will only be sent significant updates on the book (e.g. release, advanced reader copies, etc) and can be removed at any point by visiting the same link and choosing “Unsubscribe”.

There will be no confirmation email for being added or removed from the list.

All information will be used strictly in relation to the Horizon Breakers book. No information will be transferred or used for any other purpose without explicit permission.

It would be wonderful if everyone had easy access to literature and other things which feed the mind. Unfortunately, in this day and age, such an important part of self care and rejuvenation is often out of reach for even the average person.

What is this?

It's a description of the program I want to put in place to give free-from-cost digital copies of my book to those who can't afford it. Of course I'd love for people to purchase it, if they can, but sometimes life gets in the way.

It's not up to me to decide if someone can afford my book or not. All of us live rich, complex lives, and it would be ridiculous for me to try and create some sort of measurement of worthiness. Honestly, I'd prefer to ask for as little information as possible because I find it ridiculous how many hoops people need to jump through to get a little help. To struggle with excessive requirements is still a cost many can't afford.

The legal details of the program still need to be worked out, but I describe the current plan below (pending research of said legal details).

How will it work?

The current plan is to have a set number of "slots" which are either "open" or "closed". As long as there is an open slot available, any person can submit a request to receive a free-from-cost copy of the book. Doing so will close that slot and, after a delay, release a digital copy of the book (for personal use only) to the person who requested it.

Slots will remain closed until a condition is met. Right now, I lean towards reopening slots after a set period of time, but I'm still considering options. A particularly fun idea I'm interested in would be regularly occuring random chances for a slot to reopen. Maybe once a day or so I would generate a random number for each closed slot. All slots with a generated number matching a certain criteria would be changed back to open.

In terms of what people will need to provide to get the book, I'd love to only require a valid, permanent email, but I also want to be sure the takers of the world don't steal slots from those who really need them. I still need to consider ways of protecting the program from abuse, but I want to be careful it doesn't end up deteriorating the experience of those who deserve access.

In order to accomodate potential growth and to be sure the program is actually useful, I plan to grow the number of slots according to certain criteria. Currently a new slot will be added based on time elapsed since publication and checkpoints in non-refunded sales.

Libraries

Lastly, I also want to investigate how I can gift at least one copy of my book to as many libraries as possible. They are an amazing resource and need all the support and help they can get. Just like how the number of slots will grow, I would also like to give more copies to libraries according to checkpoints, so those who are reading through the library aren't starved for access.

There's still a lot to figure out (especially to ensure fairness, abuse prevention, and legalities), but I'm excited to dig in and figure it all out.

When would it start?

I plan to start the program the moment the book is released. For anyone interested, I recommend they join the mailing list so they can know when the book is available.

SOUP?

Yeah, this currently is abbreviated to SOUP or maybe SUP. I think it's fun and don't have plans to change it, but might if a better name jumps out at me.

Can I help?

Sure! Simply join the mailing list and add "SOUP help" and a short description of how you think you can help to the "Refer" section. I will reach out if interested in accepting.

If you don't want to subscribe to the mailing list for whatever reason but want to help, simply choose "unsubscribe" when submitting the form 🙃.