Hi, folks! Just another quick update on where things stand. Work has started on generating both the e-book and trade paperback editions of Clockwork Phoenix 4. The amazing Liz Campbell is handling the creation of the EPUB edition, from which the MOBI edition will be made. I'm personally working on the layout of the trade paperback, which will also be the basis for the PDF edition.

We are currently on schedule to have the book out in July. With any luck, all you backer folks will get your copies by June, though I cannot as of yet guarantee this; there's too many things that need to happen first before I'll be sure of pulling that off. I will do my best to keep you updated on how things are proceeding.

I'm now at the point in the somewhat complex trade paperback process where I need to create copies of uncorrected proofs so I can send them to reviewers ahead of the actual publication date. I thought I would use this opportunity to once again ask people to tell me if they want to be listed in the Acknowledgments section of the book and if so how they want to be listed. I know I've done this many times already, but, believe it or not, every time I do it, someone new speaks up.

There's a little caveat this time. This is the second-to-last request like this that I will make. The final time I do it, it'll be just before I upload the corrected trade paperback. And after that it will be too late! (Though conceivably someone could be added to the e-book, but not the paperback, not past that point.)

And so, as I've said before: Your name will not appear in the Acknowledgments section of the completed anthology if it isn't on the list I'm maintaining at the Clockwork Phoenix website.

That list can be viewed here: http://www.clockworkphoenix.com/#backers

If you're a backer and you don't see your name on this list and you want it to be there, send me a message at clockworkphoenix@gmail.com, mythicdelirium@gmail.com or through Kickstarter showing me how you want your name or Internet handle spelled.

For other recent developments, see my previous update.

I hope all of you are well! All best,

Mike

Hello, Kickstarter backers. I hope that so far the new year has treated you well.

It's been a little while since the last update, and I have a lot of exciting things to share to bring all of you up to speed. This is a long update, but please scan it all, down to the bottom – it's chock full of things backers need to know, much of it time sensitive.

First and most exciting, I'm thrilled to be able to share the official table of contents of Clockwork Phoenix 4. Anita and I have finalized the order in which the stories flow, and you folks are seeing it here first of anyone.

We received more than 1,400 story submissions during our reading window, and we whittled them down to sixteen short stories and two novelettes that all together total 87,000 words, making this the largest volume in the series by far. All of the writers have received their contracts and I've begun sending them their payments. This crucial stage is what the Kickstarter was all about; I wouldn't be able to pay the writers at all, much less offer them a worthy pay rate per word for their work, without your generosity and support.

And here are the stories:

• Yves Meynard, “Our Lady of the Thylacines”
• Ian McHugh, “The Canal Barge Magician's Number Nine Daughter”
• Nicole Kornher-Stace, “On the Leitmotif of the Trickster Constellation in Northern Hemispheric Star Charts, Post-Apocalypse”
• Richard Parks, “Beach Bum and the Drowned Girl”
• Gemma Files, “Trap-Weed”
• Yukimi Ogawa, “Icicle”
• A.C. Wise, “Lesser Creek: A Love Story, A Ghost Story”
• Marie Brennan, “What Still Abides”
• Alisa Alering, “The Wanderer King”
• Tanith Lee, “A Little of the Night”
• Cat Rambo, “I Come from the Dark Universe”
• Shira Lipkin, “Happy Hour at the Tooth and Claw”
• Corinne Duyvis, “Lilo Is”
• Kenneth Schneyer, “Selected Program Notes from the Retrospective Exhibition of Theresa Rosenberg Latimer”
• Camille Alexa, “Three Times”
• Benjanun Sriduangkaew, “The Bees Her Heart, the Hive Her Belly”
• Patricia Russo, “The Old Woman with No Teeth”
• Barbara Krasnoff, “The History of Soul 2065"

This is a truly international anthology – with contributors hailing from seven countries – that encompasses off-beat takes on sf, fantasy, horror, or combinations of two or more, as well as interstitial works that just can't be easily classified. Most of you will be receiving copies of it in e-book and/or paperback form, and I'm looking forward to putting it in your hands.

There's a number of steps remaining still: I have an introduction to write, acknowledgments to assemble (more about that below); the electronic and print versions both need to be laid out, and then there's proofreading, preparation of advance review copies, brainstorming and following up on promotion strategies and taking the finished product to press. The work doesn't end then, but in terms of actually producing this book, this is what needs to come next.

I'm aiming for a June release, and then an an official reading and launch party at ReaderCon in Boston in July, the same convention where I officially launched the Kickstarter last summer.

Obviously the assembly of Clockwork Phoenix 4 is the largest and most important moving part of this Kickstarter – and I will not be sending out official backer surveys for most reward categories until I'm closer to having the books ready to ship – but there are many other moving parts, too. I'm now going to go over some of the other pieces that need updating. 

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Your name will not appear in the acknowledgments section of the completed anthology if it isn't on the list I'm maintaining at the Clockwork Phoenix website.

That list can be viewed here: http://www.clockworkphoenix.com/#backers

If you're a backer and you don't see your name on this list and you want it to be there, send me a message at clockworkphoenix@gmail.com, mythicdelirium@gmail.com or through Kickstarter showing me how you want your name or Internet handle spelled. I will start laying out the book shortly, so it's urgent that you contact me ASAP.

$10 REWARD LEVEL

Two of the 11 backers at this level still have not filled out the surveys telling me which two e-book editions of Clockwork Phoenix 1, 2 or 3 you want. If you're one of those two people, I am hopeful that you will see this and get in touch.

E-BOOKS

I want to generally remind everyone that the e-book editions of Clockwork Phoenixes One through Three and the three e-book bonus stories (“She Who Runs,” “Sleepless, Burning Life,” “Stolen Souls”) are available now to backers in PDF, EPUB and MOBI formats. If you don't want to wait until I send out the official Kickstarter surveys to receive your copies, contact me at mythicdelirium@gmail.com and let me know what format(s) you want them in, and I'll e-mail them right to you.

E-BOOK REVIEWS

I wanted to add that if you've read any of these e-books, posting a review on your own blog, on Amazon, on Goodreads, or wherever you have access, helps the cause overall by building buzz – and not just for these individual books; it also helps build anticipation for Clockwork Phoenix 4. I just wanted to suggest you think about writing one, if you haven't done so and if you're so inclined.

CHERIE PRIEST CHAPBOOK

I've drafted the layout for the special chapbook edition of Cherie Priest's short story “The Immigrant,” and that draft is now with artist Paula Friedlander, who will create a wraparound cover and five interior illustrations. I am guesstimating that I will be able to put the finishing touches on the chapbook in April or May and then send pages to Cherie to sign. For you backers who are getting copies, the chapbook will be shipped along with the trade paperbacks of the finished anthology.

MYTHIC DELIRIUM SUBSCRIPTIONS

If your backer reward level included a subscription to my poetry journal, Mythic Delirium, you should have received a copy of Issue 27 in November. If you didn't get one and you were supposed to, please drop me a line.

CLOCKWORK PHOENIX JEWELRY PINS

If you pledged at a level that guaranteed you one of Anita's unique Clockwork Phoenix jewelry pins, you should have it in hand. They were all shipped in December. If you were supposed to get one and you didn't, please, please drop me a line.

STORY CRITIQUES

If you are one of the three people who pledged at the level that guarantees you a detailed critique from myself and Anita of one story of up to 6,000 words, you are now free to send in your story to us at mythicdelirium@gmail.com whenever you are ready.

That is all … for the moment. (But there's still a lot more to do.) Whew!

I'll keep reporting in as things progress.

Hello, CLOCKWORK PHOENIX 4 backers!

I'll feel I'm overdue in letting all of you know how things are going, so here's an update.

1) First, CLOCKWORK PHOENIX 4 opened to submission on Oct. 1. (The guidelines are here.) Again, thanks to all of you ... without your help this step would be unthinkable. We've already received over 200 submissions, with more coming in every day. I'll keep you folks updated as the book comes together.

2) Second, with the exception of CLOCKWORK PHOENIX 4 (obviously) all of the e-books that are being offered as Kickstarter rewards are ready. Kickstarter allows me to send official backer surveys only once, so if you pledged $20 or more, I will not be sending your official survey until CLOCKWORK PHOENIX 4 is ready. However, if you'd like me to go ahead and send you the e-books of the previous three CLOCKWORK PHOENIX volumes and the three bonus stories, here's what you need to do: send me an e-mail at mythicdelirium@gmail.com, or message me through Kickstarter, and in that email message tell me what format(s) you want to receive the books in: your options are PDF, EPUB, MOBI, a combination of any two, or all three. It would be helpful if you also tell me the amount of your pledge, to make it easier for me to check you off in my spreadsheets. (IMPORTANT: If you message me through Kickstarter, tell me what email address you want the books sent to. Because if you don't I'll have to ask you anyway.)

3) Third, a detailed breakdown of how rewards are going.

3a) Because this Kickstarter has a lot of moving parts, my goal has been to tackle it a piece at a time. My first goal was to collect all the backer names for those who want to be listed on the CLOCKWORK PHOENIX website acknowledgement page and in the acknowledgements of the completed CLOCKWORK PHOENIX 4 anthology. At present there are 208 names on that list. However, there's still room for more. If you're a backer and you're not on this list (click here to view) and you want to be on it, send me an email at mythicdelirium@gmail.com, or message me through Kickstarter and spell your name out for me exactly as you want it to appear.

3b) My second goal was to take care of the rewards for the people who pledged in the $5 to $15 range. This is mostly done. To my puzzlement, two backers in the $10 category have not yet filled out their reward surveys. I very much want to give these two people their rewards. So if you happen to be one of those people and you're reading this, please fill the survey out -- or, if for some reason you can't do that, email me at mythicdelirium@gmail.com and I'll get you squared away.

3c) My third goal was to take care of the people whose rewards include a 1-year or 2-year subscription to Mythic Delirium. All of those folks have responded to my request for their addresses: thank you so much! The monkey wrench here has been than I've had unanticipated problems with cover art that have delayed the release of Issue 27, the newest issue. I've taken steps to take care of this, but it will still be a couple weeks yet before it's ready. So stay tuned.

3d) My fourth goal is to get the remaining e-book rewards (again, with the exception of CLOCKWORK PHOENIX 4 itself, which isn't ready) out to those who'd like them now. I am going through category by category and sending messages to backers asking them their ebook format preferences. However, if you don't want to wait for me to message you, you're welcome to follow the steps I outlined in paragraph 2 above.

3e) At present, my plan is to send all rewards that involve the shipping of physical books out at the same time, which means they'll go out once the CLOCKWORK PHOENIX 4 paperback is in hand. This includes the Cherie Priest chapbook, copies of the first three CLOCKWORK PHOENIX volumes and of my poetry collection, THE JOURNEY TO KAILASH, and the tote bag rewards.

3f) Craft items by Anita, on the other hand, will likely go out as they're completed. (She's still working on those pins.)

4) Okay, fourth, I thought I should mention that the new web market for fiction and poetry made possible by that final $2,000 push (again, thank you) is in progress, though in its very early stages. The new website that will house it is in the process of being built. My plan is to open a submission window in the spring that will seek stories and poems for the first six months of the new webzine and also collect poems for issues 29 and 30 of the print edition of Mythic Delirium. It should be quite the bonanza.

5.) Further complicating these things, though at present not causing any schedule problems: CLOCKWORK PHOENIX 4 is not my only book project at the moment. My first novel, THE BLACK FIRE CONCERTO, is scheduled to to appear in late November/early December as an e-book from Black Gate. My first short story collection, THE BUTTON BIN AND OTHER STORIES, is scheduled to appear this coming March from Dagan Books.

6) Still have questions? If any of you have any questions, at any time, feel free to shoot me an email at mythicdelirium@gmail.com or message me through Kickstarter.

7) I will alert all of you if anything changes, and as more things develop. Whew!