Extra Content for Tengu, Oni, & Kappa Patrons (Patreon)

This post is specifically for Tengu (50), Oni (30), and Kappa (15) patrons, but I'm going to post if for everyone, as it might be useful. The TL;DR is at the bottom, somewhere.

Yesterday I went to the post office with my stack of postcards (envelopes at home because I suspected bigger mail wasn't moving yet) and big hope in my heart, only for the normally cheerful women behind the counter to put on sour faces and point to the below notice. 

Those are all the countries either not accepting mail or, well, Japan just isn't mailing to. 

*sigh*

So it's going on three months and I feel crappy about not being able to send postcards, goodies, or stickers to anyone. 

They all will go out once the planes start flying. I've got the returned ones safe in my Patreon Box and I added last month's goodies and will add this month, too. So hopefully before summer everything will go out. 

However, in order to quell this icky feeling, Richard and I had an idea. 

It turns out my agent kept the audio rights to The Carp-Faced Boy which means we can record it and put it up on Audible (or wherever) as an audio book. Richard studied the ACX guidelines/standards and I recorded a story as a test a few days ago. It turned out quite well! We're going to slowly go through all the stories until we get a nice fat little audiobook. 

Now! What this means is, I'm going to give all Tengu, Oni, Kappa patrons MP3s of the stories as we get them done. Since I'm guessing we might not get them all finished before the mail starts moving again, that's okay, once we get the entire book recorded and shiny, all those patrons who are so patiently waiting for postcards and goodie envelopes will also get a copy of the audio book. 

And, of course, (again) that's on top of what hasn't been able to be sent yet. 

Man, I really thank you so much for your patience. We're still not able to open the school. The idea of having students coming into and out of our home during this pandemic is quite a bit anxiety inducing. Especially since my past health issues have me in a moderately high risk category. I've got doctors on both sides of the ocean telling me to keep hunkered down. 

That said, savings don't last forever, so we are going to start teaching a handful of adults. They're good about wearing masks, washing their hands, and not actively picking their noses in class. I kid. I really miss the hilariousness and creativity of the wee ones, it's just probably not the best idea for me to be teaching them at the moment. 

I have to admit I so enjoy these days where I wake up excited to start writing or recording or running whacky audio drama ideas by Richard. I'm hoping the audiobook might sell a little bit, so I won't have to teach so much. 

Gee, that went off topic. 

The TL;DR version: Mail still isn't moving. I'm absolutely going to send patrons all the postcards and goodies for the month's I couldn't send anything, but on top of that I'll also be sending Audible quality MP3s of stories from The Carp-Faced Boy as I get them recorded. And when the final book is done, the whole book.

Even my too long didn't read is long.

XOXO, I'm going to try to stay off the news and Twitter for awhile so I can work on the newspaper story.

Tengu, Oni, and Kappa I'll be putting up "My Dog Bucky" for you within the next couple days. 

terrie