The Bloody Unicorn and Other Delightfully Dark Drinks is a collection of fifteen dark, macabre, occasionally campy cocktail recipes and short stories.

It's beautifully illustrated by the amazing Summer Faught, and all wrapped up in a gorgeous hardcover book.

Or ebook. You can also get it in ebook.

But this is really the kind of book you want to page through and show off, don't you think?

The stories and recipes are all 100% written, edited, and tested, and the art is currently in-progress.

This is kind of a weird-ass book, I know. But I am a bit of a weirdo, as it turns out, so that's entirely in character.

I've been writing and publishing fantasy books for four years now, and this was actually supposed to be the very first book I was going to publish.

I'm kind of glad it didn't work out that way.

I had the idea for the book in 2019.

No, wait, let me back up.

A long time ago, in a city far, far away, I was a mixologist at a fancy cocktail bar. I loved making drinks, but hated dealing with drunk people, so I stopped doing that, but I have always missed coming up with amazing drink recipes.

So, when I started getting serious about writing and realized I wanted to be full-indie and publish all of my books myself, an anthology sprinkled with cocktail recipes seemed like a reasonable idea to get my feet wet.

The problem was that when I pictured a cocktail recipe book, I wanted it to have glorious color photos of the drinks. And at the time, the quality of print-on-demand color technology available to indie authors was just sort of okay, definitely not glorious.

So, I had the idea that I could get the stories illustrated in black and white instead. I found an illustrator online, and we started getting excited about the project, and then . . . . . . PANDEMIC.

At the same time as the pandemic hit, said illustrator also got hit with some other Life Situations, and the project got pushed aside. And she never really got to a point where she could pick it back up again.

Fast forward to now . . . and glorious color is totally possible in an indie book!

Which means this book is going to be so much better now than it would have been in 2020, if the book had been published on schedule. I can do those beautiful photos AND the dark illustrations!

It also means that I have four years of publishing experience under my belt to make this book truly magical.

Now, because the original idea was to do black and white illustrations, I was a little bit torn once I picked the project back up. On the one hand, black and white suits the macabre nature of the stories and can be fun if it's done well.

On the other hand, color is so shiny.

So once I connected with my new illustrator, we decided to keep the pictures black and white, but do pops of color in each one to make them really special.

This would also mesh well with Summer Faught's surreal style.

Summer is a self-taught artist and illustrator, whose work fluctuates among psychological satire, melancholy, oddness, and even morbidity. Since the early age of 3, art became her passion and she has since been illustrating with varying mediums throughout her life. Originally from San Diego, California, she now resides in Portland, Oregon where her small business, "Summer Soulstice Arts", takes hold. She has always gravitated towards the idea of inner being and portrayals of the mind's high's and low's (hence, "soul"-stice) and much of her work is based on that. Through her work, viewers are invited to experience what they may find relatable to themselves or, in other cases, to simply stop and enjoy a moment of dark humor.

As of right now, Summer has done illustrations for two of the stories:

The Kraken Awaketh tells the story of two tourists on a cruise off the coast of Norway who make some questionable decisions with unexpected results.

The Machete is a ghost story with a sharp-edged twist:

The higher this campaign funds, the more stories I'll be able to commission illustrations for!

Hopefully we can get all fifteen stories illustrated!

I put a LOT of time, effort, and energy into these cocktail recipes, and they have been tested (and approved) by a wide range of friends, family, and total strangers.

A couple of them, like the Eye Gouger and the Bitter Cup, are variants on drinks I used to serve professionally. I dragged them out, dusted them off, made some tweaks, gave them new names, and here they are.

A few are twists on classic cocktails, such as the Dead New Yorker and the And A Piano Fell on Her Head.

Most are completely original, invented specifically for this book, like the Moonlit Wolf and the Menacing Squiggle.

Ebook Edition - $7
The convenient electronic version of the book, which includes all of the recipes, stories, photos, and illustrations and will load on any kind of e-reader, smartphone, or tablet.

Recipe Cards Edition - $15
Just in it for the tasty drinks? Grab all of the recipes in one convenient pack of 6 x 9 cards. Plus each card has art from the book on the back! You'll also get the ebook edition with this tier.

Hardcover Edition - $35
This is the real deal! The main attraction! A gorgeous hardcover book with glorious illustrations, beautiful photos, and all the recipes and stories. This is going to look amazing on your home bar, coffee table, kitchen counter, bookcase, or wherever the hell you decide to display it! And you'll also get the ebook edition for easy reference.

Book Box - $75
Now we're getting into the fancy stuff! This box will include the hardcover and ebook editions, the fifteen recipe/art cards, plus one item of your choosing from either of the two bigger boxes listed below. 

Bartender's Box - $120
This is ideal for anyone looking to start or upgrade their home bar! You'll get the hardcover and ebook editions of this book, all fifteen recipe/art cards, a set of basic bartending tools, a set of swizzle sticks, and a set of Bloody Unicorn cocktail napkins.

Art-Lover's Box - $175
Really loving Summer Faught's style? This box is for you! You'll get the hardcover and ebook editions of this book, all fifteen recipe/art cards, and a variety of prints of other original art pieces created by Summer.

I've mentioned a couple of times that the higher this campaign funds, the more illustrations we'll get, but what does that look like?

Commissioning art is expensive, as it should be! Summer is putting her heart and soul into these pieces and I would be thrilled to reach the point of being able to hire her to do an illustration for every one of the stories.

As we near each stretch goal, I'll send out polls so backers can choose which stories you want to see illustrated first.

I'm so excited to be making my Backerkit debut as part of the Booktopia collaboration.  There are so many amazing books in here, and I hope you'll check them all out! Here's some more about that from the good people at Backerkit

📚 Welcome to Booktopia — a celebration of creativity and collaboration from a vibrant collective of writers, authors and artists collectively running crowdfunding projects from September 5th - September 26th.

🔥 Limited Cross-Collaboration Freebies — All 50+ Booktopia creators have paired up with a fellow participant to create two unique and limited freebies together. If BOTH projects successfully fund, backers who support BOTH will get the TWO [2] cross-collab freebies listed on their campaign page, one will ship from each creator. The more pairs of Booktopia creators you support, the more freebies you will earn ✨

🧧 1 FREE Limited Edition Booktopia 2024 reward if you back FIVE [5] or more projects. Exclusive reward for Booktopia - Black Metal Bookmark

This book is 100% written and edited, and the art is currently in progress. It will be delivered in early 2025, once the art is finished and the book is formatted and printed. All rewards will be fulfilled at this time.

Because shipping is such a fluctuating and varied situation in this day and age, shipping costs are not included in any physical tiers. Shipping costs will be calculated and charged at the time of fulfillment.

I will do my best to keep these costs down, but I have very little control over them. I am located in the United States and while I am happy to ship internationally, those costs will be high. Just like domestic shipping, that will be calculated and charged after the campaign is over, at the time of fulfillment. 

There will be no shipping costs for the ebook tier.