The Book of Starry Wisdom: Apocrypha of Lovecraft's Cthulhu

A final (?) communique from R'lyeh
almost 8 years ago – Sun, Feb 26, 2017 at 06:36:04 PM

Greetings, fellow cultists!

This is a final update on The Book of Starry Wisdom since, to my knowledge, all of you have received your Starry Wisdom rewards some months ago. If you never received your rewards due to a change of address or other shipping mishaps, please email me at [email protected] and I'll get you a replacement copy shipped post haste. 

As a few final notes to wrap-things up, let me begin by once more saying again thank you for all of your support. 'Starry Wisdom made a lot of other projects possible for me and launched my whole publishing company. My gratitude is as endless as the abyss.

This Kickstarter funded a print run of just over 1,000 books and I still have a few hundred left for sale. If you have friends who might like their own copies, or a copy of the R'lyeh Triangle Map, they're available on our webstore. 

As well, illustrator Valerie Herron has made some of the non-exclusive pieces of art available for sale as beautiful art prints. If you missed them during the campaign you can purchase them directly from her.

Finally, I have a small project on Kickstarter right now. The Great Work: Alchemy Symbol Lapel Pins. It's already funded in the first week and we're closing up on the first stretch goal. You may be asking yourself, "what the hell do alchemy pins have to do with Lovecraft?" Well...

“Fool,” he shrieked, “can you not guess my secret? Have you no brain whereby you may recognise the will which has through six long centuries fulfilled the dreadful curse upon your house? Have I not told you of the great elixir of eternal life? Know you not how the secret of Alchemy was solved? I tell you, it is I! I! I! that have lived for six hundred years to maintain my revenge, FOR I AM CHARLES LE SORCIER!”

—H.P. Lovecraft, The Alchemist

 

That's a wrap, everyone. Thank you so much for your deathless, batrachian support. It means the (end of) the world to me.

Fhatgn!

—Simon Berman

Starry Wisdom is shipped and the Book of Three Gates begins!
over 8 years ago – Tue, Oct 04, 2016 at 01:16:43 PM

Hello everyone,

I'm pleased to be able to say that The Book of Starry Wisdom is in the hands of almost all backers at this point and on its way to the remaining few. International orders may still be in transit but should arrive very soon. If you're a US backer and have not yet received your order please message me privately and I'll resolve any issues as soon as possible. International backers who have not received their rewards by October 15th should message me, as well. Thank you all so much for your support of Starry Wisdom, the success of that book opened many doors for me and founded my publishing company, Strix Publishing.

Speaking of opening doors...

I'm extremely excited to announce the launch of a companion volume to Starry Wisdom, The Book of Three Gates!

"The Old Ones were, the Old Ones are, and the Old Ones shall be." —H.P. Lovecraft, The Dunwich Horror

The Book of Three Gates compiles newly edited editions of H.P. Lovecraft’s public domain stories of eldritch horror, edited and produced by Simon Berman, and illustrated by renowned deific and fantasy artist, Valerie Herron (The Book of the Great Queen, The Book of Starry Wisdom).

Accompanied by essays and musings by some of today’s premiere Lovecraftian scholars, writers, and devotees, The Book of Three Gates will be a luxurious 11.25" x 8.5", approximately 180 page hardback tome, featuring a leather textured cover with gold foil pressed symbols of significance to the Opener of Ways, 12 interior B&W illustrations, and end papers displaying a map of the Township of Dunwich. This premium volume is a companion to The Book of Starry Wisdom and will be a stunning addition to the library of any enthusiast of H.P. Lovecraft or worshipper of the Old Ones.

The Book of Three Gates centers upon three of Lovecraft's stories in which the ways between worlds have been shattered, transgressed, or violated:

The Dunwich Horror
The Dreams in the Witch House
The Haunter of the Dark

Over the course of publishing Starry Wisdom I learned a great deal and am applying those lessons to this companion volume. Printer quotes are tighter, plans are in the works to improve quality of paper and illustration printing, and shipping is being handled separately from the Kickstarter to allow more accurate shipping estimates ensuring no backers will be subjected to the "one-size-fits-all" solution in Starry Wisdom. I also think Valerie's exclusive art print, "Trimorphe" is astoundingly beautiful and that she's grown tremendously as an illustrator over the course of the Starry Wisdom work. 

If you're enjoying your copy of The Book of Starry Wisdom I hope you'll take a look at Three Gates and consider expanding your collection!

Finally, both Valerie Herron and myself will be representing Strix Publishing at the H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival in Portland this weekend. You can find us in the upstairs vending area of the Hollywood Theater, and if you're at the show I hope you'll come say hello.

Once again, thank you so much for your support. I remain overwhelmed and grateful.

Fhtagn!

—Simon 

The Book of Starry Wisdom has arrived!
over 8 years ago – Tue, Aug 23, 2016 at 09:38:00 PM

I'm excited to announce that The Book of Starry Wisdom has arrived in Seattle! 

With the books now in hand I plan to have all rewards shipped within the next 10 business days. Earlier this afternoon you should have received an email from Backerkit notifying that you now have 48 hours to finalize your mailing addresses before shipping begins. I'll be taking the next few days to collate all rewards and prepare everything to begin shipping early next week. 

The one exception will be backers who chose the sculpted book cover edition. Jason Soles will need several weeks to sculpt all of these, so they will be sent to you separately from the rest of your order, sometime in late September.

I'm also excited to announce that we'll be hosting a release party Monday, September 5th, from 6-10 PM at Seattle's Raygun Lounge on Capitol Hill! I'm buying a round of drinks for all 21+ backers, but all are welcome! Bring your friends, pick up your rewards, and hang out with illustrator Valerie Herron and myself as we celebrate the book's release! We'll also have extra books, art prints, and maps available if you missed something during the Kickstarter or you have friends who missed the campaign last October. We hope to see many of you there!

Finally, I hope you'll take a moment to check out the next project from Strix Publishing, Orrin Grey's Never Bet the Devil & Other Warnings. 

Never Bet the Devil & Other Warnings is a premium edition of a modern horror classic. First published in 2012 by Evil Eye Press, this collection put Orrin Grey on the map as an up and coming horror author of note. Grey has since become a renowned voice in the genre with such works at Painted Monsters & Other Strange Beasts, Gardinel's Real Estate, and Mutagenesis.

This new edition from Strix Publishing includes all ten stories from the original, including the novella, "The Mysterious Flame", as well as the heretofore hard-to-find "A Night for Mothing" and an all new story, "Goblins." Never Bet the Devil & Other Warnings will be approximately 220 pages illustrated by the brilliant M.S. Corley. This edition will feature a beautiful 6 x 9" clothbound, foil-stamped cover, and a foreword by author Nathan Ballingrud.

Read "Black Hill" from Never Bet the Devil now!

That's all for now. Thanks once more for your support of 'Starry Wisdom and Strix Publishing! I'll leave you with a photo of one of my first satisfied backers, Strix Publishing Cat, Chud, enjoying his own copies.

Books printed, delivery imminent!
over 8 years ago – Wed, Aug 10, 2016 at 11:32:03 PM

Just a quick update to let you all know that the books have been printed and payment is on the way to the printer!

Once they receive and deposit the check I'll have a date of delivery and set a date for the Seattle release event. There was apparently a last minute delay at the printer when the Skivertex (faux leather) cover material was delayed from the manufacturer, so my apologies for a few more lost days. That said, the books have been produced and should be in my hands within the next ten days. The eBook editions have been completed and being proofed now. They will be sent via Backerkit email as soon as I begin mailing physical rewards to all of you. We're almost done with the art prints, as well, so we should be in good shape to begin shipping all of your rewards within the next two weeks. Thanks so much for your patience and support, we're almost there!

Art prints in progress!
over 8 years ago – Mon, Jul 25, 2016 at 04:53:40 PM

While The Book of Starry Wisdom is at press we're taking the opportunity to produce all of the art print rewards so that we can begin shipping to backers as soon as we receive the books! This past weekend, Valerie Herron and I spent a day testing print files and then began the lengthy process of printing the final rewards.

If you're not familiar with giclée art prints, you might be surprised to learn what a lengthy process it is. The digial files must be formatted and proofed, and then test prints must be made. Minor variations in tone and value may need to be corrected as nothing ever looks quite the same as it does on an artist's screen as it does when it finally hits paper. We want to ensure that your rewards are up to our high standards, so we're spending some serious time on quality control. You may notice that the prints below seem offset. This is because the paper we were happiest with was a little larger than the 8"x10" prints we're making, so we'll be trimming them to size en masse.

Once we were happy with the test prints, we began the process of printing the literally hundreds of prints for rewards. We made good headway this weekend and expect to finish the rest of them this coming Saturday. Below, you can see Valerie bravely risking a future of carpal tunnel syndrome as she signs each print!

We'll keep you posted as things proceed and we receive confirmation that the print run of The Book of Starry Wisdom is complete. We're in the home stretch now and we should have the books in your hands in just a few weeks!

Speaking of the home stretch, we're also in the home stretch for our next project, APOCRYPHA: The Art of Jason Soles. Just over two days to go and we're in striking distance of our funding goal. Jason's work is beautiful, macabre, and intensely Lovecraftian. If you need a hand crafted statuette of Cthulhu, this is your chance! I hope you'll take a moment to look at the project and perhaps support Soles' unique vision and the expanding catalogue of books by Strix Publishing, the founding of which was directly made possible by the backers of The Book of Starry Wisdom! 

 

We're also only 5 backers away from our 200 backers give away! When we hit that number one backer is going to receive a one-of-a-kind cold cast marble Cthulhu statuette as an additional "thank you!"

 

That's all for now, but thank you once again for your support, and if you are going to be at Gen Con next week, drop me a message and let me buy you a drink!