Three days until orders get locked!
almost 2 years ago – Mon, Nov 28, 2022 at 10:45:44 PM

Hi everyone, just a quick note today to let you know that you have 3 days left to complete your surveys and make changes to your orders in BackerKit before orders are locked in! 

(I believe you CAN still complete your survey after that time, but getting them in is always helpful to me... especially if you ordered a physical thing, so I know where to ship it!)

If you've already done this, THANK YOU! <3 I appreciate it greatly. And as always, because I'm still not 100% sure how BK works on this, if you were supposed to receive an ebook download link and did not, please let me know! I want to make sure you get your things!

- RoAnna

Full beautiful jacket cover is finally here! (LWP 1 + 2)
almost 2 years ago – Wed, Nov 23, 2022 at 12:14:49 AM

Oh boy, I've been wanting to show you this (and see/feel it myself!) FOREVER, and now I finally can, because it's here!

Yesterday, a Package for me arrived, containing my full, correct, lovely copy of the Life Within Parole, Volumes 1 + 2 (the combined CHAMELEON MOON short story collection!), complete with OUTSIDE DUST JACKET! :D 

As you may remember, this was quite a struggle to obtain from Ingram (having previously received a copy without the jacket), but it's honestly worth it because... 

It's perfect.

The jacket is matte-finish and soft to the touch, which to me feels so much fancier/higher quality than glossy? Personal taste, but I love it, can't stop petting the pretty book! 

It's HEAVY and wonderful, and I'm so happy with how it came out!

And the inner flaps came out perfectly too (hello, cute lizard boy! <3 Hello, me!)

And here, might as well take the opportunity to show you the gorgeous graphics on the inside, courtesy of incredible interior-book-decorator/formatter/human Lyssa Chiavari! These beautiful books would NOT have been possible without her!

So! Yes! It took a while, but I'm extremely happy with how it came out - once BackerKit's recommended 9 days are up (a period for you to make order changes before I lock stuff in, etc), I will hopefully begin sending these out to you!

(A note: if you haven't read Chameleon Moon at least, you MAY want to wait before reading Life Within Parole, as it's entirely supplemental short stories in the CM universe. That said, I've heard that reading the stories first can give a really interesting experience (in which you, the reader, know more than Regan, the main character!) of CM Book 1! So, that's up to you! :D Whatever you do, I hope you enjoy!

Anyway! That's one of three gorgeous hardcovers down! Keep an eye out for news about Chameleon Moon and The Lifeline Signal, which will be getting the same fancy treatment!

Lastly: THANK YOU so much to everyone who's turned in your survey! <3 I appreciate it greatly, as it makes everything much easier on me. I may have said this before, but if you ordered ebooks, the URLs to grab them are likely attached TO your survey, so look there for that, and let me know if you didn't get them!! Still feeling things out as I go, and want to make sure you get all your stuff!

- RoAnna

BackerKit surveys should be out!! Hooray!
about 2 years ago – Sun, Nov 20, 2022 at 03:40:17 PM

Hi everyone, just a short note today to say that FINALLY, I seem to have figured out BackerKit, and sent out everyone's surveys! Not everyone will have gotten one, but you SHOULD if you:

• Ordered any kind of physical thing (art card, paperback, hardcover), to provide a shipping address
• Ordered an individual thing as an add-on, to tell me what kind
• If you ordered an ebook, you should (again, GOD WILLING) have recieved a message with download URLs for all of them. Again, if not, please let me know!

Like I said, I am still figuring BackerKit out very much, so if anything weird occurs, like you don't see something you ordered, or have a ton of "credit" left over (which means I forgot to add something to the site inventory!) please tell me and I will fix it!

The next step:

BackerKit has an 8-day period before it "locks down" orders, in which you should be able to make changes to yours, and if I'm understanding correctly, change your address if you move or something. (That should be possible even after 8 days, I THINK!)

And this is good because it'll give me time to gather things - including ordering more art cards myself, because OH WOW those were big sellers! Thank you!

I do expect everything to slow down during the holidays, so thank you so much for your patience here too - but no matter what, if I have news, you'll have news here!

(Including... I hopefully WILL have something VERY COOL to share about the special hardcovers for Chameleon Moon and The Lifeline Signal! I've been close-lipped about them for a reason, I promise! :D)

Thank you all again so much!

- RoAnna

Things in the works! (Also, ebooks delivered!)
about 2 years ago – Fri, Nov 18, 2022 at 03:46:55 PM

Hi, everyone! Thank you so much for your patience with me the past few weeks; it's taken a while for Kickstarter to process your pledges and send them to me, but HOORAY, it finally has! Which means I can start working on actually fulfilling your orders!

First off, check your emails for ebooks!

Like I said before, I'm using BackerKit, and if an ebook (one or more) was part of your reward, their digital download service *SHOULD* have delivered you an email last night containing URLs to retrieve them!

I very much hope that worked. Since all of this is VERY new to me, I'm going to probably ask you for updates every now and then - so, if you were supposed to get an ebook and have not yet, PLEASE let me know!

 Surveys should go out soon!

God/BackerKit willing, these should be out to you before too long! BackerKit is also an extremely new and pretty complicated setup for me, so it's taken me a bit to wrap my head around it as well, but I'm getting there!

These surveys, again, should be pretty minimal - just your shipping info, and if you ordered a paperback or individual art card, letting me know which one! 

(...And if I STILL can't get it to work within a couple days, I will just do this through KickStarter so we can get moving! I did this thinking it would be easier, and yet...)

Hardcover for Life Within Parole: Volume 1 + 2 is still coming!

...But getting the (completed, CORRECT proof with both book and jacket!)  is of course taking longer than expected, and yesterday Ingram sent me this:

So... yes. Still working on many things and trying to get them lined up. Thank you so, so much for your patience and support right now - everything will be super cool, but gosh it is a process getting there.

- RoAnna

Important Hardcover Updates! And short story Un-Dead (New reward in bonus folder!)
about 2 years ago – Wed, Nov 09, 2022 at 05:02:14 PM

Hello, everyone! Fancy meeting you here. I know there's a lot going on in the world right now (boy, do I), and I hope everyone is as safe and Okay As Possible. <3 Do what you can to get through and take care of yourselves and each other.

In the meantime, we've got an update on how the first (completed/designed/submitted) hardcover, the LIFE WITHIN PAROLE, VOLUMES 1 + 2 omnibus, is turning out! 

The short answer: looks amazing, but still in progress (on Ingram's end).

Full disclosure: dealing with IngramSpark's hardcover printing service has been a bit of an... adventure. The books I'm trying to make are very pretty and fancier than usual (hence the Special Editions!), and Ingram is just about the only place that does what I want (a custom full dust-jacket, and a second, separate image printed on the hardback itself). They're going to be beautiful, but getting there is taking some time, and you deserve total transparency from me. So:

• I ordered the first "proof" (author version to make sure everything looks right) of the  Life Within Parole, Volumes 1 + 2 omnibus way back in September. Should have been more than enough time. 
• Well, that one simply never arrived. (And I don't think ever shipped! It just said "label created, not yet in system" forever!) 
• So, I ordered (and paid for) a second one. 
• That second one DID arrive yesterday (still took around 3 weeks) - and most of it looks amazing! Perfect! But I say "most" because:
•  It arrived incomplete: no dust jacket, just the hardcover itself. Which is obviously not acceptable, for me or you!

...But like I said, what I DID receive looks wonderful.

So yes, lovely, but no jacket to show you yet, because I don't have it. When I do, you'll see! (And then I can start shipping it to those who pledged that reward!) It'll look like this:

I've sent in two separate complaints to Ingram and requests for them to replace these books, so hopefully I'll get a full, gorgeous and COMPLETE version before too long, and be able to show you how it's actually supposed/going to look!

But in other, BETTER news...

An awesome person (thank you again, Kyle!) let me know that the short story "Un-Dead" (which they'll be reading for y'all as a bonus and to tide you over to the audiobook itself!) may not have been included in your electronic copy of CHAMELEON MOON; likely if it's a PDF version. And so:

Un-Dead is now in your Backers Only folder!

Check out your secret Backers Only dropbox folder, which is linked in private Update #3! That should have been there from the beginning, but I hope you enjoy it now, whether you're reading it as a preview to the narration, or reading along later! I love doing that with audiobooks.

Thank you all so much for your support. <3

And patience, through some of the growing pains. I appreciate it so, so much, and can't wait to have more cool things to share!

- RoAnna