I present:

Mount Saint Book!

Hello, darlings.

When last we met, your generous donations hadn't yet been released from their bureaucratic quarantine, so I hadn't yet started doing anything.

So here's where the month has taken us.  Below, you can see the final proof of the book.  It hasn't got the laminated coating that will protect the print run from minor spills and grubby fingermarks, but it still looks pretty good to me!   The second photo shows the center spread.  This is where the staples of the saddle stitch come through, so it's where the book will naturally fall open.

The matte-coated, heavy pages give the book a pleasing solidity.  It makes a satisfying thump when you drop it on a desk, and resists tearing and dog-ears pretty well.

It pleases me.  Hopefully, it will also please you.  Thanks for all your support!  Printing starts Monday, and I'll spend pretty much the whole of next week hovering over the press and making the printers nervous.

I've received reports of folks not getting all their email announcements, so I'll say it here in case you haven't heard.

Each backer who selected a prize bracket gets to fill out a survey.  This lets me know where to send your prizes, but it also lets you give input on future books in the Lorelei series!  The next book is all plotted out, but I'm planning on five in all.  Each survey contains at least one question pertaining to unresolved details of the last three books, and majority rules.  For example, let's say that more than half of all respondents pick "camel" as their favorite animal.  A camel goes into a book*.  Probably not as a main character; their species have all been fixed already, but something like the role size of Captain MacNever-Washes, the malodorous pirate captain in Lorelei Has A Dream.

I screwed up the 25 dollar bracket, I'm afraid, and Kickstarter won't let me go back and correct it, so could the fine folks of the Quarter-Benjamin please put your favorite animal in with the special comments or email me with it?  You could also leave it as a comment on the project as a whole, but then everybody gets to see your vote and that's undemocratic.

For you, the generous nine who did not select a prize, Kickstarter won't let me send you a survey.  If you want some creative input, send me a line and I'll give you some.

*No one has yet picked "camel."  Please don't all do it out of contrariness; I don't want to get accused of promoting the tobacco industry.

You did it!  Well done and thank you all for your efforts on our behalf!

I've sent out all the ebooks.  If you didn't get yours or have some problem with it, please message me and we'll work it out. 

Over the next little while, I'll be sending out surveys that should allow you to tailor your prize to your needs and specifications, as well as giving me some valuable information about things like where to plan book tour stops and what species to make certain characters in upcoming books.

Thank you again for your support, and stay tuned to this station for updates and news!

First up, status report.  Jenny Lawson, the Bloggess herself, called the book lovely.  That gave me a warm feeling, which I needed, because we're at 36% of project completion, but 57% of the time has elapsed.  That puts us way behind schedule. Brr.

But there is yet hope!  Last night, a sponsor who'd prefer to remain anonymous came forward and said he'd match any pledges or increases in pledges for the next seven days, up to $3000.  If we take full advantage of that, we'll be over our goal.

If I could exploit that by treating it like a loan and pledging the nowhere near three grand in my own account, I would in a heartbeat.  Sadly, this counts as financial fraud (specifically, illegal cash advancing) and it's hard to publish a kids' book in prison.

So the onus falls on you, my faithful few.  If you know anyone who hasn't pledged yet, pull on their ears until they do.  If you haven't pledged yet, thinking of waiting until the eleventh hour, then this IS the eleventh hour.  Do it NOW.  The money still won't get charged you until and unless we succeed, so there's no advantage to doing it later.  You're just costing our project those matching funds by waiting.

In other news, want a hint as to what was in that box at the end of this book?  Both Lorelei and the person (Talking animal?  Person.) who sent her the package have Facebook pages.