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.
