Due to an unexpected staffing gap that I myself will be filling temporarily, the novellas are delayed until approximately May 28th.
This means you can expect to see your Backerkit surveys arrive near the end of April, perhaps at the very start of May.
We've got fun art to share...see below.
IN DETAIL
A goal I have for Brackenbury Books is to get us to a place where I can hire employees, but for now we have volunteers - who receive honorariums - that sometimes can have to step back suddenly when the rest of their life makes big demands of them. That's what's happened recently with both our layout person and a publishing assistant I was training as a backup - nobody said publishing would be easy!
The good thing is that all the actual material for the books is safely with us, I'm taking the layout into my own hands, and our printer for this project is located in the same state as our fulfillment warehouse. It would take a metaphorical elephant landing on our heads to cause any further significant delay. Should there be an elephant, we'll let you know.
Meanwhile, thanks to the record-breaking success of New Edge Sword & Sorcery 2026, we were able to upgrade the cover for Audrey Stolling's 'zine from this...
Art by Daniel Vega
...to a full wraparound illustration!
Probably not crossing the Delaware...
After some final touches to the layout, we'll be sending the 'zine you unlocked to a different, Chicago-based printer that will be able to get us the finished product pretty quickly. Thus we hope to show you some preview pics of the finished 'zine before fulfillment begins.
BUT THAT'S NOT THE ONLY STRETCH GOAL YOU UNLOCKED LAST FALL!
Art by Caster Jones
This is just one of four maps we've commissioned, one for each novella. The setting of Myrial will be found in Steve Hugh Westenra's The Barbarian at Star's End.
Caster Jones has done each of the four maps in a different style. For this novella I asked them to riff on one of the sources of inspiration swirling around in Steve's and my earliest discussions of Barbarian, Lin Carter's Gondwane novels.
Art by Lin Carter himself
Alright, we don't want to give everything away in advance so I'll stop here. A brief update will go up when, or very soon after, we safely have everything off to the printer. Thank you for your patience, and...
Keep your swords sharp and your sorcery numinous,
P.S. Don't forget you can listen to a reading of the first two chapters of Barbarian, and the other three novellas, on our Youtube channel.
