Hello fairy friends! It's time for a very another update!

We have the final poll for this week's make-a-fairy ready for everyone to vote on. Go vote!

We have less than four days left before the campaign ends! Ah! 

As a special weekend treat, I'm revealing the sketches for last week's fairy animal companion.

The first of these sketches is the animal companion. He has lizard traits, a unicorn horn, fuzzy mammal fur, a mermaid tail, and the appendages of a insect. I chose praying mantis. The sword wasn't a winning thing, but it did tie with all the secondary traits. The winning accessory, a cute friend, is what the second drawing is of. The cute friend is wearing earrings and carrying an umbrella. I didn't quite know how to fit the sweater in without it being too much, sadly.

While these creatures look aquatic, and can swim if need be, they are more apt to levitating above the ground. They swim through the air.

I'm excited to ink these very soon! I hope you like them!

And be sure to vote on the polls for the latest fairy!

Fairy friends, we did it! We configured our first fairy. I'm going to put it in the kiln to cure. It takes about a week for the pieces to set. For review, here's what we used to craft out fairy (AKA, the poll winners):

What an interesting and beautiful fairy!

One of the high-fey, Blutterbarts, Princess of the Stink Swamp, is looking for an animal companion that's as beautiful as they are. As long as we make the companion with some fairy magic, we'll be still fulfilling our mission to make more fairies. We'll need to decide on body features and the kind of hat Blutterbarts' new companion should wear, as well as an accessory.

Check out the first of these new polls below. Then, go check out the other ones!

Ah! A wild moth! Where did that come from? Well, I guess there's no harm in letting the little fella hang out.

Now, onto Book Bazaar news!

We've completed our first week. Yippee! Fairy Seasons is almost 50% funded! I think that's pretty awesome. We have two weeks left and I think we can reach the initial funding goal for this project. 

Please continue to share Fairy Seasons with others. It helps more than you think! And share often! There's quite a few times that someone shared something several times, and at the right time, I saw it and got it. Perhaps, with a little luck, we'll all share this project at the right time.

On November 23rd, The Book Bazaar will be streaming a reading of my Fairy Seasons Sampler. It's read by the author (me!). Be sure to stop in and listen. It'll start at 6pm (CST).

I hope to see you there!

Hello friends,

I have been silent since December! For that, I'm sorry. I usually post monthly updates on the way to completion. Not sure how I didn't share anything in January at the least.

So, where are we at? Are we on track for March printing?

Not quite. As a person who likes to own physical copies of things I make, and as a person who had some patreon stories that needed a physical body, AND as a person who never says no, I took this project on to take part in the Book Bazaar collab launch, and give those stories a body.

Then I sat down to look at what that would look like. A thin collection, comprising of 6 stories from my patreon? One bonus story? A final story on top of that to cap off the storyline I had going on the Patreon? I could have done that, and we'd already be printed and shipping out. But instead, I decided those 6 stories needed real companions here-- something special for folks who have already read those older stories.

So let's look at what it's become:

El Roso, a standalone story following a favorite character of mine, The Rat, is going in, even if it's (mostly) disconnected from the other stories in the collection. Just knowing that The Rat is in the book means that he could easily be anyone else in the other stories, and that's a delight.

Juli and Kent, a story following two mages in Chicago taking on a routine issue with abnormal results, that's sticking in. Lightly edited, but mostly the same.

Alexcia and Jimmy, following my two favorite idiots as they road trip around, beating up demons and vampires and such? In almost unchanged.

Jimmy & Lexi short, where Jimmy gets a warning something is wrong with his mage friends in Chicago, still in, and still pretty short.

Kent's Week, the final story I ever did in the "Mages in trouble" story, that has stayed.

But, all new stories have joined the roster and will be why this book is substantial and has meandering paths through other people's stories on the way to finishing that Juli + Kent story. It kind of makes this a novel with chapters that change focus each time, but I hope it helps fill out the world all the more and helps you, the reader, feel like you know what this place feels like, more than just what a few characters go through. There is texture across this space, beyond the Alleyman!

Stacey Deluca invites us to meet a new character, one who at the start is a bit unassuming, but who grows into her role as an underground boss of Chicago. She also has a strange eye, lost in an abnormal accident, that will play into future stories!

Paper asks us to recognize something important about this world and its history, or non-history as it may be.

Caleuche introduces us to a paranormal side of Chicago that carries into later stories, and I hope, is an interesting take on its titular myth.

Geraldine introduces us to a lovely background character. Not Geraldine, no. A cardboard box!

Imports introduces us to the idea of a character who joins us later, and shows us an important location that will be called on in later projects, Baba Changa's Imports & Antiques.

Wickerfolk is our collab story we voted on in updates, and is a nice slice-of-life story about finding fantasy and beauty in the world around you, following our strange amalgam construct that I have named Wember.

Pai Huan, ... is a story that finally brings a long favorite character of mine to my modern stories. You will find she is perhaps more abnormal than any of the supernal beings we meet in our other stories-- and she's just a human! Just a human, maybe, with a storied past.

The Oil Slick Door is a direct followup to Kent's Week, carrying that story forward finally after the last 3 or 4 years!

... the Baba Changa is our final story in the mainline of stories in this collection, and finishes the story carried on in The Oil Slick Door.

I am still working on the order the stories will go in-- that's certainly not locked in just yet. One thing I want this collection to be is an introduction to this world, a world I lovingly call Earth 2, in a way that helps you understand some of its rules. This is not just urban fantasy, there are a few layers to it, and I don't want to be boring and just explain them outright. So I'll be layering the stories in such a way that the main thread through (Kent & Juli, Jimmy & Alexcia) aren't resolved all at once, and so that the lessons you need to learn are shared in the appropriate order.

I am also still writing into Geraldine, The Oil Slick Door, and ... the Baba Changa. I have some more things I want to see completed in them before I call them complete.  I'm also, also topping off the collection with a bonus short story called No Moths Left, which gives Alexcia a chance to share a bit of how she got the way she is.

I have a half-page write-in to a story about Dr. Ala Okoye, but I don't think it's interesting just here, and he cameos (without his name) in another story, so I might save him for the followup book. 

SO! I'm asking for a couple more weeks to be done with these final bits, then I'll spend a day in layout (it's quick with fiction), and get a test print to me maybe even yet this month. This means we will be collecting shipping here by the end of the month and then shipping in the early bits of April.

I apologize for pushing it a month late, but I've had quite an honestly exciting exploratory time thinking about the format of this book and a way it can speak to how I might want to write some other worlds to introduce characters, rules, and strangenesses to my readers. I hope to stop putting out games and things like them without supporting them with stories, rich with information on the world of the game.

And this leads into Secret Halls in October!

So I think I'm starting off alright.

Thanks for your patience, and chat again when I have a copy in hand end of this month!

7DA
your pub gob

Surveys are out and into the wild!

Lettering is wrapping up on the book, and I have finished logos to show off 🎉

Now that the logo is complete, we're working on the "packaging" of the book, putting together all the parts of the print file that isn't the meat of the book, itself. With us completing this ahead of time, we'll be able to slide the finished lettered pages right into the file and shoot it off for printed proofs 🎉

We are still more or less on schedule. With lettering wrapping up, I'll be ordering a physical printed proof of both versions of the book by the end of the month. I'll have those in-hand in April, and - assuming there are no major edits needed - our print run will be ordered in April so we have books for fulfillment. 

Until next update!

-=-

Live now!!

Collaborating with my friends over at Theys & Gays on ghost emoji pins!

It's a folio and an ita bag! Display your pins at D&D - and on your dice bag with the pairing Ita Dice Bag.

Alex Priest is back, in an all-new short story collection!

Brand new anthology! Cute animals! Shenanigans!

Collaborating with friends again for a Legend of Dragoon fan project!

Hello Stitchbinders!
Thank you, thank you, thank you!! Chains of Deceit is DONE!!

Things are starting to take off here! The book is finished with edits and is off to the formatter! I am waiting for one map of Krashe before those ebooks go out.

A couple of things to remember:

1) I will be sending the ebook (to all those who pledged for one) to the email address provided on the Backerkit survey. If you'd like a different email, please go and change it or connect with me.

2) This email will come from BookFunnel. I'll let you know the day so you can go search for it. If you have problems loading it to your device, BookFunnel's customer service is TOP TIER! They are really good about helping people.

3) Once the ebooks are out, I will be sending the books to the printer. This can take weeks to months for them to return to me. The paperbacks are local, as are the case, but the clothbound with sprayed edges come from UK. As soon as I have them back, I'll start with paperbacks and mail those, the case, then the clothbound because I assume they will be mailed in that order. If you are in CA, UK or AUS, I'll ask on shipping survey to see if you want shipping from US with a signed copy or drop-shipped from country of origin. (I will be sending bookmarks and stickers etc in the mail).

All the rest of the fulfillment will happen alongside the books. I am super excited and happy with how it's going!

Hello all! The time is nearly here -- the books are off to the printer and the digital downloads are almost ready! Launch date is March 15th!

With that in mind, a few housekeeping notes: There are 8 people left who haven't filled out their surveys. Please do so as soon as possible! If you can't find it or are having trouble finding BackerKit communications, check your spam -- BK communications have been getting sorted into there for a lot of people. Everything will be locked on the 15th.

Keep your eyes open for some extra fun updates in the next few days!