Hi all,

I realize this has taken longer than expected (because we had to change printers), but the Mischief books have finally arrived at the distribution center in Chicago. Some boxes of them are on the way to me, and as soon as I receive them (hopefully this week), I'll send out all your copies.

Thanks for your patience!

All best,
Stephanie

Last night at exactly midnight I finished the final touches of the final page. I feel like I've given these drawings everything I have -- I'm satisfied with them now. There's nothing more that I need to do with them. I feel very good about being finished (even if a little behind deadline).

They're all printed out and spread on the floor of my office so I can see that the colors are a balanced mix, and how they look in order, in relationship to each other.

Only a few things remain to get the book ready for the printer. There are a few changes to the text. Then I need to go through each page and adjust the lettering -- make sure the spacing between each letter and each word is right. Then there's the back cover and spine, title page, the acknowledgments page, and then layout.

The book's formal publication date will be in May. PM Press is going to be our partner publisher, and will get it into stores and take it to book fairs and so on. They're a relatively new publishing company and already have a really impressive list of wonderful books, mostly radical political non-fiction and fiction. Derrick has a new novel with them, "Lives Less Valuable," featured on their front page. They're at pmpress.org.

The other major goal met last night, or rather, early this morning while I was sleeping, is our fundraising goal! Thank you so much, to all our contributors, for your amazing generosity and support! Your backing, which shows your faith in this book, makes me confident that this book will be a positive addition to many kids' lives and will encourage empathy toward our neighbors of other species. I'm very grateful for your assistance.

With love,
Stephanie

I’m in the final push to finish up “Mischief in the Forest.” Derrick had asked me to “add some magic,” so I’ve been attempting to do that with texture and pattern and shadow. I hope I’m succeeding. I’ll put a couple of “before and after” images below, and I'll add a bunch more new images in an update for backers. Whether or not they’re magical, at least they’re improved!

I’m also in the final 11 days left with Kickstarter fundraising, and only $928 away from the goal of $6000 for printing costs. I’m afraid of seeming tacky to ask for more support now when our focus on support is (and ought to be) on Haiti, but if I don’t make it to the end, then we don’t collect any of the pledges and will lose the $5072 pledged so far.

Thank you to all contributors! It's wonderful that we're so close!

Best wishes,
Stephanie

Here's page 29. I also finished pages 36 and 37 last night. I'll post those for backers in a moment. The last 5 pages (33-37) will be for backers only. I'm going to work on 33-35 today, and post them soon. Then all the pages will be basically done, but I'll have to go back and fix and/or re-draw some things, and Derrick would like me to "add some magic," so I'll try to do that too. I'll be working on this in some fashion through the end of the month. Oh, and there's the back cover to do, and the title and acknowledgments pages.

Thanks for looking!