Chapter Sixteen has been posted

Chapter Sixteen is up.

Nearly half of Chapter Seventeen is paid for. Unfortunately, with the holidays and other commitments, that’s more than I’ve actually written so far — but hey, I have a week.

In other news, concerning the long-awaited distribution of The Spriggan Mirror and the chapbook of “Sirinita’s Dragon” to last year’s donors, I’m pleased to report that the illustrations did show up before the books — by about an hour. Both are in hand, and I’ll be sending stuff out as quickly as I can get the chapbooks printed, collated, stapled, and packed. Which is not, frankly, all that quickly — the dry winter air has been causing static problems with my heavy-duty printer, making two-sided printing difficult, as I sometimes need to hand-feed the individual sheets in.

Bear with me; they’re coming.

A request for information

I’m trying to locate two people who are owed copies of The Spriggan Mirror, but who didn’t provide mailing addresses and whose e-mail addresses now bounce:

Richard Russ
Robert Allen

If anyone knows anyone by either of those names, drop me a line.

And no, I don’t actually have the books in hand yet, but in theory UPS does and they should be here by the 29th, so I’m getting the mailing labels ready.

Alas, the illustrations Kiri did — three of them — appear to have gotten lost in the mail somewhere between Shanghai and here, so unless they turn up unexpectedly, the chapbook of “Sirinita’s Dragon” will not be illustrated.

Chapter Fifteen has been posted

Chapter Fifteen is up.

I have six bucks toward Chapter Sixteen. Haven’t yet written Chapter Seventeen.

No news on The Spriggan Mirror; so far as I know, it’ll start shipping by the end of the week, but I’m sure we remember what happened last time I thought that.

There’s a change in plans regarding the publication of the finished novel. After all the delays with The Spriggan Mirror, I have decided that I don’t intend to make anyone wait a year for their copy of The Vondish Ambassador. Therefore, it’s my intention to do a privately-published, limited first edition — probably about 400 copies. Anyone who’s donated $25 or more will get that, rather than waiting for the eventual trade edition — well, unless they ask to wait; if you’d rather have the trade edition, okay, but then any delays are your problem.

The exact form of the limited first edition isn’t yet determined, as I haven’t yet talked to printers and binders about costs. Or to artists.

I’ll be working out details in weeks to come.

Chapter Fourteen has been posted

Chapter Fourteen is up.

Chapter Fifteen is about one-third paid for.

Chapter Sixteen is written; Chapter Seventeen is not.

Latest word is that The Spriggan Mirror will ship from the printer on or around December 21st; this probably means I’ll get my copies and start distributing them on the 27th or so. I’m sorry they won’t be there for Christmas.

I’ll be sending an e-mail to everyone on my list of people who are due a copy, to verify addresses and ask whether you want your copy signed. If you have a book coming and haven’t received such an e-mail by Friday, drop me a line. The default, if I don’t hear from you, will be to assume that you want an unsigned copy sent to the shipping address you gave me last year.

Three illustrations for “Sirinita’s Dragon” are in the mail to me; if they arrive in time, as they should, and are suitable (I haven’t seen them), I should be able to include a chapbook of the story with each copy of The Spriggan Mirror.

Thanks for your contributions and your patience.

Chapter Thirteen has been posted

Chapter Thirteen is up.

Chapter Fourteen is paid for, and will be posted on Wednesday, December 13; there’s a small start on Chapter Fifteen.

I’m midway through writing Chapter Sixteen.

There’s a long discussion of technicalities of magic in the comments on the post “Chapter Five Revised,” for those of you who hadn’t already noticed it.