Kickstarter

Hey there backers, and anyone else listening in!

As we come into the last days of the project, I wanted to send out some early notice of what you can expect in terms of my schedule of delivering all the various works in the rewards to you over the next few months.

First up, Faerie Blood. Barring a few more minor text tweaks, this novel's about ready to go out to backers. We need to put appropriate names in the Acknowledgements and Dedications sections, and Dara needs to do the print layout so we can hand it off to Third Place Press for printing. At the same time, I need to prepare the epub for handing out to everybody who wants the digital version. We hope to be able to deliver both the print and digital versions of this in early to mid June.

Second, the short story "The Blood of the Land". As this story has been a finished work for some time, all it needs is proper layout as an ebook. I'll be taking care of this and hope to have this ready to go out to all backers who have asked for it by early June. It has no cover art, but I'll be making it look as good as possible in ebook form nonetheless!

Third, Bone Walker. I'm still writing this and as of last night, I'm about halfway through it. I have a clear plan for how the rest of the book is going to go and am hoping to finish the text by the end of the month, at which point it will be handed off to JoSelle Vanderhooft for editing. At the same time, artist Kiri Moth is about to shift over to working on Bone Walker's cover art. So it'll be a bit yet before we'll be able to deploy this novel to you. My goal is to get it delivered before I go on extended vacation to Canada in late July and early August.

Fourth, novella #1, currently untitled, regarding the psychic Elizabeth Breckenridge and how she must help Ross Taggart solve the murder of his Warder sister. This story's about half-written as well, but I have the whole thing planned out and intend to resume writing this once I hand off Bone Walker to JoSelle. If all goes well, target delivery for this will also be before the aforementioned Canada vacation, but it may wind up being mid-August after I get back.

Fifth, novella #2, also currently untitled, regarding the origin story of Millicent Merriweather, Seattle's senior Warder in Faerie Blood and Bone Walker. I haven't started this yet, and still need to plan it, so this'll be the last of the works to be deployed. Depending on how long this story winds up being, because there's the potential here for quite a bit of substance, this may wind up being a September or October delivery.

Some of you have won the right to have characters named after you, and backer Cyn in particular has won the right to a Dramatic Character Death in particular! So I will directly communicate with these backers in order to work them into appropriate planning. Right now, Millicent's origin story is a wide open opportunity for named characters to show up. Two other immediate options are Kendis' Book Three, and a third novella I'm planning in the Warder universe.

Last but not least, the soundtrack! Participating musician Leannan Sidhe will not be available to Dara and me until mid-June, so before then Dara and I will be doing planning for appropriate track sections. Once Leannan Sidhe is available, we will be able to do actual recording. We're hoping to be able to deliver the soundtrack on the same rough timeline as Bone Walker, i.e., by late July.

As I proceed through all these works I'll keep all of you posted on my progress through these updates! And for backers who would like early sneak peeks, I'll be willing to offer rough draft copies for reading as well. I'm always on the hunt for beta readers, but for purposes of the Kickstarter, beta reading will be optional! I just want you all to see progress as it happens. This will also include sneak peeks of the Bone Walker cover art as it proceeds, as well as musical snippets from the soundtrack!

Once again, because it bears repeating, thank you all VERY much for your support! On behalf of Dara and myself and all the others who are contributing to the production of these works, I really hope you'll enjoy what we'll be sending out and I look forward to sharing these works with you all!