Hey everyone!

It's been so thrilling to receive your messages about books and ebooks arriving! Thanks for your faith in this project, an your enthusiasm the final product--I couldn't be prouder of how things turned out!

I wanted to take a moment to tell you about a new project I've been working on, and send you a longer-form short story to read!

But first, here's a new multi-media short story I posted last month that I wanted to share with you!

The new project

I’ve always wanted to make a tabletop RPG, and over the past year I got to do that as part of a team of the most talented designers, artists, writers and nerds I’ve ever met. Seriously. This team has done work for Magic: The Gathering, D&D, Shadowrun, Bethesda, HBO–this is the big leagues. An actual bucket list item for me.

This morning we launched our Core game engine on Kickstarter.

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I haven’t felt this excited since the first time I picked up a D&D rulebook at a garage sale when I was 12 and realized OH DANG, I HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS TO CHANGE MY LIFE.

I could tell you about why I think EMBERWIND is going to change the game for tabletop RPGs (modular rules that are noobie and veteran-friendly, options for GM-free play, customization out the wazoo, awesome stories), but I basically already put all those arguments on the Kickstarter page.

Instead, I’m just going to say that I’m so goddamn proud to be part of this team, and I hope you’ll take a look, and consider pledging or sharing the link with that nerdy friend who never shuts up about their D&D character. Because I think we have a game that’s worth getting that excited about.

Here's the campaign I helped write and design. If it's your kind of thing, I'd love for you to take a look and maybe share the link!

The longer-form short story

I had the pleasure of writing a horror-adventure short story for EMBERWIND about an ill-dated expedition to capture an elusive creature on a mysterious island. I had SO MUCH FUN with the tone and the creature design on this one, and got to work with artist Toma Feizo Gas to develop artwork and a stat block!

You can read the story here!

Thanks so much!

Hey everyone!

A few exciting updates and one disappointing one!

The parcels have been packaged and ready since Monday. My logistics company told me they could get me the packing slips in time for the books to be picked up Wednesday or Thursday and shipped out, but they missed their deadlines. Instead I got the packing slips on Thursday and the truck isn't coming until Monday. It's a little frustrating, but trust me, the books are worth the wait!

The books will mail out first thing next week and should all be arriving soon:

• 2-10 business days for Canada and the US
• 4-22 business days for international parcels

The good news is that the ebooks and digital extras have all been sent out, and I've included some bonus material!

First up, every ebook and physical book contains an extra 14th story narrated by Cecil Baldwin! Woohoo!

Second up, for those who backed a tier including digital extras, I have some great news!

• You're getting the MP3 of the bonus story as well as all the 13 promised stories!
  
• I had too many favourites and decided to go for 22 high-res wallpapers instead of the stretch goal 18 wallpapers!
• My animator Mathias was enjoying making videos and we decided to make animated videos of all 14 of Cecil's stories instead of just the 3 we hit stretch goals for. I've included the first batch of 5 video files. The rest will be sent out in subsequent batches as they are done!
  

If you haven't received a BackerKit email with your digital rewards, send me a message and I'll make sure to get you a copy of the download!

Note that for simplicity of tracking fulfillment, I ended up using BackerKit's built-in digital rewards delivery system, so the download will have been sent to your Kickstarter/BackerKit email. If you provided an alternate email in your survey, it didn't go there, but if that poses any kind of an issue for you, just let me know by Kickstarter message and I will find a way to get a copy sent to your alternate email ASAP!

If you backed for the complete ChiZine ebook catalogue, that will be sent out directly by ChiZine in the next week or so! Also, if you backed for a custom short story, I will be following up about that next week!

Lastly, here's another one of the animated videos from the download pack!

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Hey everyone!

The past few days have been a whirlwind! I managed to get all Canadian single-book parcels mailed before my flight to Edmonton Expo on Thursday, which means that if you live in Canada are waiting on either a book or a book + "Postcards From the Future" subscription, your parcel should arrive this week. (Postal workers assured me that in the event of a strike, they would arrive before things shut down.)

Also, today it was announced that Canada Post workers will continue negotiating rather than beginning an immediate strike. While a strike is still not entirely off the table, I'm going to go forward with mailing Canadian parcels through Canada Post since minor delays will still make this shipping option faster than most others.

Today, with the help some rad friend and family helpers (thanks Aaron and Daniel!), we packed up the remaining 750 parcels!

 We were kept on task by our very strict box inspectors!

 I am still waiting on the shipping logistics service I'm hiring to provide the mailing labels. These should arrive mid-week and the parcels should be in the mail system by Thursday or Friday and on their way to you!

I will send out the ebooks around the time that parcels go into the mail! The digital extras will follow early next week.

I will also get started on the custom short stories, which will be mailed out separately in October/November!

Okay, that's most of the updates I have for you for now! I'll keep you in the loop as things go forward!

Hi everyone!

My fellow Canadians have probably heard about the possibility of a Canada Post mail strike starting September 26. I've been keeping an eye on the news as the final packing plans come together and trying to come up with contingencies, and I've been holding off on mailing out parcels because in the event the strike goes through, any mail in the system will be stuck there until the strike resolves--this can be a special nightmare for international packages.

The good news is that I've found workarounds for 95% of my packages, so the vast majority of you will be unaffected if the strike goes through.

The bad news is that I'm going to be delaying shipping until next week so I can know exactly what we're dealing with. Especially for Canadian parcels, some of these workarounds will be slower and less reliable than standard Canada Post mail-outs, and also end up costing more.

ALSO, if you'd like to instead pick up your rewards at either Edmonton Entertainment Expo (Booth 122) or Word on the Street Vancouver (Comics & Chapbooks Exhibitor Area) this weekend, you will have the opportunity to do so. I will have books and the Read Fast T-shirts available in Edmonton, and upcoming October guest-of-the-month author James Stevenson will have books in Vancouver. Just send me a message and I'll put items aside for you.

If you backed from any address outside of Canada, you are 100% fine! I have found alternate mail carriers for all parcels, and I am going to try to pay out of pocket for tracking numbers wherever it's financially feasible for me to do so. I will probably stick with this plan even if Canada Post doesn't strike, just to keep things simple.

If you backed from within Canada and you are receiving more than a single book (e.g., a book + a T-shirt, a book + Half-Cat, a book + a canvas), I have a back-up plan. If the strike goes through, I'll be sending by Ascendia Tracked Packet, which will be slower than Canada Post would have been, but it bypasses the strike entirely. I think this is going to cost me a little bit more, but it will get books in your hands faster than waiting on negotiations. If the strike is called off, I will send by Canada Post, which will be faster and more reliable.

If you backed from within Canada and you are just receiving a single book (or a book and eventually monthly postcards), I am going to see how many of your packages I can get into the mail tomorrow before I fly out for Edmonton Comic Expo. If you live in a remote area there is a chance that your book may not reach you before the strike. I'll speak to postal staff about this and if things look dicey, I will hold your parcel back and try to send by Ascendia Tracked Parcel if the strike goes through.

If you backed for a "Postcards From the Future" subscription, the strike could affect the mail-outs going out in early October. I am going to try to mail out the US and international postcards through cross-border shipping via USPS to bypass the strike entirely. For the Canadian postcards, a prolonged strike may delay the arrival of your first postcard into later October.

Let's hope the strike doesn't happen and I just spent a week worrying unnecessarily (fingers crossed, blood-luck rituals at the ready!), but if it does, these contingency plans should minimize the effects on shipping out.

Also, the first "Postcards From the Future" arrived today and they came out beautiful! They're printed on this gorgeous recycled matte card stock, and I'm so excited to send them out in early October.

Also, to make up for any potential delays, here's tomorrow's story a little early for you!

Thanks, and apologies if I'm slow to respond to questions for the next couple days. I'm going to spend the 16 hours before I leave for my flight madly stuffing envelopes!