The backers files have been edited to rework something. Basically the Urban Diana Cult and Isaic Cult at Saint Zachary's have been made two parts of the same thing, like the greater and lesser Eleusinian Mysteries. I've added in a beat I laid down a while ago in Hedge Magic. The Lady of the Game there and the Dogaressa In Stone are Aspects of the same being, which is why there's a nightwalker battle above Saint Mark's Square regularly. These give me the three elements of Elesuian Mysteries (Descent / Search / Rise and making Norea explicitly a Divine emanation buried in Faerie before the Titanomachy lets me simplify everything, Realm-wise.
This weekend two episodes went live, well three if you could last week;s which was delayed.
Magonomia: Historical Witch Trials. This is the first of three monthly episodes. Basically I'm fishing for demons in legal records.
The Awful Bugaboo (a Gello variant)
Annual Report 2024: Time for Summer. This last one is basically my response to the Anno Magica and a discussion of my plans. Usually I put out an annual report in late May. Basically, it's all good but I'm doing an experiment with asking co-authors to contribute.
The following episodes are coming up.
May
9: Angela Black's Divine Methods and Powers. Games From Folktales welcomes its first guest author.
16: Venice update. Discusses the additions between Venice Draft Zero and the current document. May be swapped out as a bonus episode.
23: Goethe - The Bride of Corinth (very early vampire story from Ancient Greece)
30 Witch Stories - The Ghost and the Succubus (two extracts from court documents. Infernal ghost, demon.)
June
6 The Cranes of Ibycus from Friedrich Schiller (return of the Nubicuculian Birds from RoP:M)
20 Goethe - The Erl-king (a faerie psychopomp for children from Germany).
27 Witch stories - the headless bear and the lady on the plank (a demon and just a weird court case.)
Then there are a series of linked Goethe stories, one episode per month. The treasure seeker and the magicians apprentice (magicians), the seven sleepers and the castle on the mountain (regiones), the water-man and the false lover (predatory faeries), the minstrel and the king of Thule (plot hooks). Also I'm going to do the Cavalier's Choice, but I haven't found a pair for it. I may tie it to The Erl-King depending on how the writing on that one goes. I have the vague idea that I've already done The Riddles of King John in a previous episode so I can't quite tie it in yet.
I've paid a cartographer to do the first map for the Venice e-book. If he turns out to be good, I'll get him to do the second map, which is Venice proper. Even cheap art is expensive so the two maps will probably cost me AUD100.
I haven't asked anyone to do a cover yet: I'm hoping some digital assets like a license mark will come out from Atlas as part of the Kickstart, so I'll wait for that.
I'm editing the book myself, which I know is a fool's errand, but professional editors cost money. Quite commonly they charge US 3 cents a word, which on a book this length is USD180. If I'm selling it for "Pay what you want but I'd like $10" and Drivethru takes off 30% that needs 24 sales just to pay for itself, plus another 10 for maps, plus another 10 for cover art. It just drifts off into the impossible.
I won't be Kickstarting it, because the upfront costs of a Kickstarter are huge. You need a professionally done book trailer and a heap of full-colour art for the Kicstarter page. It's actually more likely to break even with lower editing quality, simpler art, and sales through places like Drivethru and itch.io. I regularly back things on Kickstarter and you'll see people kvetching at a $20 pdf that has, in a recent example, 224 pages, 120 of which are full colour art (Floral Dragons from Hit Point Press). so there's not a lot of play there for a scrappy first timer.
This is a the player chapter (of the ashcan draft) of the Venice book I'm working for when the Definitive edition comes out. It's also read into audio, so if your players don't want to read it they can listen to it.
Beautiful, simply beautiful. I need to listen to the Stones Of Venice again.
Two minor points (I note your point about this all being you IP, and agree)
Page 3:neighbourhood: First mention of shrouded glen, but no context (if this is for newbies, might be worth a more detailed definition here?), also subsequent mentions of Shroud inconsistently capitalized.