COVID-19, and general housekeeping (Patreon)

Hey fellow cultists,

first and foremost, I hope everyone is doing well and managing their stress levels. I normally work two other jobs besides making the Necronomicon, but in recent weeks I have replaced them with being a stay-at-home teacher to my sons as we practice responsible social distancing. I know we are all facing some difficult decisions so if anyone needs to bow out of this Patreon I would completely understand. I fully intent to keep working away though, so folks can always catch back up later. 

Mailing concerns: Currently I do not see the next mailing being affected by the situation. The following month's mailing *may be* depending on if my print shop is able to deliver the Leaves, but we will address that concern if/when it comes up.

Envelope issues: I have had a few folks mention that the last mailing arrived with the flap open. I will take the added precaution going forward of taping the flap down, but I am also curious if this adhesive failure coincided with the change from manila to white envelopes. If so, I may change back...

I also have a change to the length of the book to announce. My plan had been to do 816 pages (17 Quires of 48 pages each). But in my research I discovered a specific reference  by Lovecraft (in a letter to Clark Ashton Smith) to a ritual on page 829 of the Necronomicon. Unlike the vague reference to "1,000 pages" he made in a letter to another correspondent, this is such a specific reference (and so close to where I intended to stop) that I want to incorporate it. My plan is to now offer an 18th Quire at half the normal size (6 Leaves instead of 12), and delivered as two mailings of three Leaves each. This would bring us to 840 pages, and has the following three advantages: first, it incorporates the aforementioned ritual. Second, it places almost 100 pages between the Dunwich Horror quote (page 750) and the end of the book, which is a more satisfying visual distance. Third, it allows for an element of surprise right up until the end of the book. One quirk of this book release model is that I am constantly giving the you a peek at what happens after the events of the first pages you receive each month. Generally this doesn't create an issue, but with the conclusion of the book it is exciting to think I could save an element of mystery for the final mailing. 

 I hope you will agree this is worthwhile, and as always I thank you for your support on this journey!

(Pictured is your humble Scribe (in the new HPLHS MIskatonic Myrmidon sweatshirt), and Renfield the Cat.)