We're so excited to share this video of Veronica Giguere, our audiobook narrator, recording the complete story "Moving Targets" from the upcoming Grandmaster Audiobook.
"Moving Targets" is one of our favorite Valdemar short stories, one that Misty and Larry love performing at conventions, especially for the moment when listeners get the joke. And yes, the painting that we've commissioned for this story, from artist Dasha Park, is everything that fans of Valdemar and that *other* world could hope for. (You'll get it when you watch Veronica's stellar performance!)
VALDEMAR SINGLE UPDATE
We'reless than $9000 away from unlocking a new Valdemar single from S.J. Tucker. If those of you who are waiting keep pledging, we'll hit that target easily.
In fact, we're so certain that we're going to reach this goal that Sooj and Ben have already started work on the single, a new version of Threes. If you all can keep the pledging to a dull roar—rather than overwhelming us with a hundred new pledges in the next couple hours—we might even have a new recording ready by the time we reach $275,000.
Backers! We’ve got a quick update for you! The time to double check your shipping address is here! We will begin locking addresses in waves on September 16 in preparation for our first batch of shipping. As we mentioned in our previous update, we’ll be focused on shipping out pledges with the highest volume of pledge rewards. This means those higher tiers will also have their addresses locked first.Â
Why is this SO important?
If we ship your rewards to you and the items are shipped back to us or can’t be delivered because you are no longer at the address on file, you will be responsible for any reshipping fees. These packages are heavy, so this could be very costly depending on the item. Please do yourself a favor and keep it up to date!Â
Please update your shipping address immediately through your backer survey. If you encounter any issues with updating your address, please contact our Dragonsteel support team.
Note: After addresses are locked, any address changes you make in BackerKit will NOT be reflected in our shipping system. You must reach out to our Dragonsteel support team to make these address updates or risk shipment to the previous address.
A Timeline Reminder
In our first two waves of shipping this fall, we’ll only be shipping pledge rewards and add-ons that do not include the New Secret Project. All New Secret Project rewards will begin shipping mid 2025.
What are we waiting on?
Those storming playing cards are playing their own game with us. We’re hoping to receive them soon, but they’ve taken longer than expected to reach us. As soon as they arrive, backer packs will be assembled, and then… the shipping can begin!
The Orders United
In the meantime, we’ve received everything for the Knight Radiant Orders! Thanks to our inventory team for finding space for the hundreds of pallets and organizing them so neatly!
If the boxes were stacked on top of each other, would they reach the peak of Urithiru?
It's Saturday and we've unlocked a stretch goal so secret that we didn't even know about it!
Care Halverson, who designed our book cover, just casually dropped this painting in our Discord conversation, like it was no big deal.
So we asked, Care said yes, and we're adding it to Grandmaster: both books get an extra art plate!
The goodies don't end there. As a thank you to all of our backers, we're also dropping some additional digital goodies from Care in the Backer-only section below, including a couple of coloring pages and some wallpapers for your phones!
Send your finished coloring pages to [email protected] and we'll include our favorites in an upcoming project update.
A VALDEMAR SHORT STORY SURPRISE
It turns out we're not the only Booktopia campaign with Valdemar stories!
We were excited to connect recently with Anthea Sharp, the bestselling author of the Elfhame series, and a frequent contributor to Misty's Valdemar anthologies. Anthea is currently crowdfunding a fairy tale collection called Mermaid Song, with a companion volume called Faerie Hearts. And Faerie Hearts contains (with full rights and permission, of course) one of Anthea's Valdemar stories: "The Gift of Love!"
As soon as this update is done we're heading over to pledge for Anthea's books, because how cool is that?
TRIVIA CORRECTIONS
Question Nine created a LOT of discussion. While more than 80% of backers selected the correct answer, a small number of close and careful readers made a very good case for other options.
We will [edit] not count this question towards the final trivia point tally.
It's so much fun seeing the love that you all have for every aspect of this world. The collective knowledge about Valdemar that this fandom shares is staggering and magnificent.
THE MID-CAMPAIGN SLUMP
A few backers have commented with concern about the pace of pledges slowing down and whether we'll reach our stretch goals.
The good news is that the mid-campaign is almost always slow. All of the excitement and momentum happens at the beginning and at the end. That makes this a great time to share more detail, build community, and enjoy the journey before we have to buckle up for the final whirlwind of a week.
BUT... this is also a great time to join the campaign if you're one of the thousands of followers who's waiting for the right moment! After all, now we have COLORING PAGES.
We ran the numbers again, thanks to how many Deluxe Grandmasters you all have pledged for, and then we chatted with our manufacturer. Based on these numbers, we may be able to fulfill a backer request to provide the optional choice of a vegan leather alternative in our backer surveys.
Please let us know in the attached poll if, given a choice between the two options, you would choose leather or vegan leather when filling out the post-campaign pledge manager.
We are not taking leather covers away. Based on the ratio in the poll results, we will get a quote from our manufacturer to see if we can produce a variant vegan leather cover in addition to the existing leather cover. If we're able to fit this into our budget, the choice will be offered in the post-campaign backer survey. No additional action will be required now.
As we've shared elsewhere, our approach to manufacturing on this project has been intentional and environmentally conscious. We're using wood-free pulp from natural fibers for the pages, to help reduce deforestation. We're consolidating manufacturing to a single vendor to reduce our freight footprint. And we chose the highest quality full grain leather because it's biodegradable, rather than the forever plastics that vegan leather is made from, which can release more harmful chemicals into the environment both during manufacturing and when the material begins to break down. However, we also understand that, for some backers, the moral calculus around use of leather is non-negotiable, and we respect that. (Bonded leather, the cheapest "deluxe" option, mixes plastics with leather scraps, which is why we didn't consider it.) Ultimately, neither cover option is going to be 100% environmentally friendly, despite our efforts to mitigate our impact as much as possible.
Commenting and voting are open to followers as well as backers, so that everyone's voice can be heard.
We'll let you know the results and our decisions in a future update. If it doesn't raise the per-unit costs of the book too much—vegan leather is cheaper, but the volume-based discounts that make Grandmaster possible to manufacture would also go down—then we hope to have good news for people who don't want a leather-bound book on their shelves.
NOTE:Please be kind to each other in the comments. This can be an emotional issue, with valid arguments for and against either option. Our goal, if possible, is to provide MORE options. We expect that everyone will tolerate that other people's perspectives may differ regarding which choice is most ethical. The final decision is ours and we appreciate that this community isn't one that makes ultimatums or demands.
