Hey everyone,

Thank you once again for your interest and pledges to this project - I know this may be a bit surprising, but I decided to cancel the project. Why? Well, Jeff & I are going to just go out on a limb and do this on our own. We already bought tickets out to New York, and so a major cost has already been absorbed. And then we thought to ourselves, nah - we've got this covered.

Plus, I kind of got ahead of myself in my enthusiasm about kickstarter before I really understood all of the facets that a kickstarter project can include. I just wanted to be fair to you as backers - I hope you all understand.

But, in no way does this mean that you won't see other projects from me in the future. I think that this project was excellent practice. I'll still post any interesting finds that result from the interviews, just so you know. And please don't hesitate to contact me about anything regarding this project.

Most truly,
Amelia

First of all, I would like to sincerely thank the backers so far for their extremely generous pledges. It's so exciting for me to check my inbox and see those three magical words: "new kickstarter backer." It absolutely makes my day.

To warm up for this project, Jeffrey decided to take part in the National November Novel Writing Month where the goal is to write a 50,000 word novel by the end of November. Last I checked, I think he was up to something like 14,000 words. I don't want to give anything away, because this is his novel after all. In fact, I don't even get to look at it (except for a few sentences that I saw from peeking). However, I can tell that it is going to be extremely good.

We are still working on transcribing the four hours of interviews from this summer, which is a lot harder than it would seem. It's just so time consuming! I've been thinking about posting a special update later on that includes our favorite excerpts from those interviews as a taste of what is to come: but this shall only be accessible by backers.

I also forgot to mention in the video that not only would we be interviewing Tom, but we would also be painting with him. I believe the schedule would be something to the effect of painting in the morning, breaking for lunch and interviewing in the afternoon. What an opportunity! And again, train travel is ideal, because checking a French easel on a flight would be no small task (plus, Jeff is thinking about trying to take his cello on the trip as well... but we'll see about that).

So, please seriously consider backing this project if you haven't already, or pass this on to folks who would be interested in learning more about the life of Tom Buechner. Thanks a million!