This is such a great update to write, you have no idea how happy I am to write it!

SHIPPING UPDATE
The pallets of books have arrived at White Squirrel, and they are shipping out books very soon(maybe even this week)!

I have put every Special Edition (that filled out their survey) into the mail! I hand-packed every single one of these orders and it was really wonderful to see familiar names on the shipping labels.

I wanted to send you a picture of the final PILE OF PACKAGES, but I'd have to redact so many visible addresses, so here is my assistant in her new USPS raincoat instead (it was a rainy day the day we shipped).

(When I say things like "your package was packed by me or my assistant," I also have a human assistant; your packages are not covered in dog hair.)

All orders are now locked for fulfillment, but if you want additional copies of the book, they will be available after all the crowdfunding copies have been fulfilled. Copies of the Special Edition will also be available in my store after fulfillment, but due to some significant manufacturing errors of the book boxes which are basically impossible for me to reorder right now for both logistical and financial reasons, the edition is actually smaller than intended(there will only be about 150 copies of the full Special Edition after fulfillment, for a special edition of about 500 copies). The manufacturing errors really lower my margins on this project, but that's okay (it's not like...extremely okay, but I'll deal).

Next, I'm building custom altars for the highest level backers. These take several days each, and are hand-carved(I can't sustain carving for 8 hours a day, obviously).

SHIPPING
I accidentally overcharged for shipping. Shipping costs HAVE gone up*, but especially at the Special Edition level, you were charged too much! I'm trying to figure out if I can batch process refunds...but it sounds like I have to do that manually so please be patient with me (I'll try to do them all in the next month)! If you backed at the book level in the United States, you'll get a refund in the $5-8 range, and Special Edition backers will get refunded around $10.

International backers were all undercharged - it cost me an average of $50 to send a Special Edition package internationally. I am sorry, international shipping really is difficult and costs a lot.

*and all other costs...let me tell ya', it is really not a good time to be making physically manufactured objects.

SURVEY STRAGGLERS
After fulfillment is complete, I will be doing a check about every month for backers who have newly filled out their backer surveys. White Squirrel checks semi-regularly too. At the end of the year, I will likely bring fulfillment to a close and cancel all remaining orders (with refunds, if relevant). Remaining copies of the book will still be available via my store and any distro that carries it!
 

It's just me, there is actually no assembly line. I did miss getting the print order in before the Lunar New Year print factory break(my fault!) but it is in now(it is technically still Chinese New Year).

That said, the special editions are being assembled at my woodshop right now! I am personally assembling every single one of them! They look so nice, I am so excited. Also the gold foiled book boxes have been sitting in my studio space for years(they were the first thing I designed) and I am so excited to be ushering them outwards.

A reminder - if you got the special edition(or the very fancy edition), you are getting multiple shipments! I am shipping the special edition components; my fulfillment partners will be shipping the books.

Do you want to see some pictures?

The first batch of shipments go out next Monday(If you live in California and your shipping charge went through, and you ordered the special edition, you're in the first batch! Sorry to other states, it was easier to segment by state and almost 20% of the special edition orders came from CA.)

I really love doing this, especially at a time where being an artist(and especially being a non-binary, queer, immigrant artist of color) feels like a very tenuous way to exist. Putting these together reminds me that there are people in the world who value the work of human hands(that are paid a not-high, but reasonable, wage), and making art slowly and with specificity. Thank you for your patience, and thank you for letting me make art for you.

Hello!

Thank you for your patience. My city is also on fire right now and while my household is currently fine, the air quality is not great and we all know friends who're in more dire straits who have evacuated or lost their homes. To keep things easy and not fumble around with itch.io codes(although those will be sent out so you can add this to your itch.io libraries), I am simply giving you a link to the final(pending some very minor edits) digital version of the Bird Oracle game via Dropbox. There is a version in pages(better for printing) and a version in spreads(better for reading on a screen). I am planning on sending this off to print next week but may have missed my window to avoid the Chinese New Year break at print factories. I'll keep you updated on when the book will ship, but I am hoping that it will be by the end of February!

HI HERE IS THE GAME : THE BIRD ORACLE .pdf (pages) , THE BIRD ORACLE .pdf (spreads)

Meanwhile, almost all of the special edition objects have arrived at my studio, and I'll be assembling them starting this week! If you pledged to a special edition, your special edition items and your book will be arriving separately(I'm covering the extra shipping).

I'm hoping to send out backer surveys soon - setting up the Backerkit pledge manager took some time(god, I miss the simplicity of the Kickstarter system, and will be returning to that with my next project), and I haven't gotten approval from Backerkit to send out those surveys yet. Please keep an eye out for them - I really want to send them out and begin shipping special editions next week!

The introduction of the game explains a little why I ended up delaying the game by a couple months, and ultimately, putting out a project that I’m not absolutely delighted with. Don’t get me wrong - I think many things about it are good - but this project was meant to be an end to my larger Oraclebird project, a project which has spanned the end of several relationships, a couple moves, and six years of inhabiting a character that is a version of myself - and that was ultimately, too much for one small game too hold. Working on this game for longer would not make it the game I thought it could become. This game here is the game I promised, a short game about oracles and finding community; I simply expected it to be a container for too many feelings and too many parts of my life, and that was an unreasonable expectation. 

Fundamentally, a lot of my work as an artist is the work of process, and sharing this with you is part of my process. I think a lot of people who follow my work know that, and are interested in the very fallible process of making work and being an artist. Perhaps there will be a variant or expansion on this game in the coming year(you will get it for free, of course) where I continue to figure out my feelings regarding this game - but in the meantime, I feel paralyzed by not fulfilling my material obligations to you, and I would like to deliver this game.

More shipping updates soon!