04/15/2024
Unfortunately due to a few major unexpected expenses that came about this past couple of weeks we were unable to get all Secret Gateways orders out by 4/15 as planned. We are continuing to ship all orders until they are fulfilled. Meeting this obligation is our biggest priority and we are shipping out copies as we can. At this point, because every time I plan and set a date something keeps coming up I don't want to set an exact date but by my best estimation we are about three to four weeks away from getting these all fulfilled.
I really should have gone into more detail about the issues we ran into this past year. I know for some people, understandably, it doesn't matter, but for those of whom it does, I want to be more transparent. The biggest cause of delay with this whole project was that when I set up the Kickstarter, I failed to account for all expenses involved with Nox Pareidolia, and that reality didn't become fully clear until it was too late. Between that and other struggles in 2021 of which I have gone into with more detail in the past, things got way behind and we had to fill that financial gap in the cost of this project from our personal expenses, which at the time we were just barely scraping into middle class. Last year, we were finally able to cover the cost of ordering copies and I didn't foresee any issues with the cost of shipping but I had no idea what was in store for us financially.
So, we started shipping and then as I mentioned before, PayPal took two chunks of $600 a piece for a company called Appy Pie of which we had set up our Weird Whispers app with back in 2020 before the Kickstarter. It was an annual plan and I set it to pause in 2021. For whatever reason, they "unpaused" it last year and charged us for 2022 and 2023 respectively. It took months, but we were able to get $600 of that back for the 2022 subscription but PayPal refused to refund the 2023 one. Meanwhile, we hadn't used this service since 2020. By that time I had to use all of that money to cover the cost of three refunds for understandably angry customers. In May our beloved German Shepherd Majour had to be put to sleep due to leg issues and potential abdominal issues. Later that month my best furry friend Ninja, who we had had for 9 years passed due to kidney failure. The vet bills for both animals was in the thousands. We continued to ship copies as we could, albeit very slowly, but most of our money had to go to covering that and two major car repairs between June and September. And then I lost my job in October and didn't get another job to replace that one until January of this year. And living in California is financially brutal. We barely avoided homelessness.
Which brings me to this year. Three plus months of being without the majority of our income put us behind on a lot of bills including our car payments. We also had to have a tire replaced in December or January, I can't remember which at this point. Anyway, we got a good chunk of that squared away before our update last month and I felt confident that we would be able to get these out by now and then our granddaughter, Zoey, who we are guardians of, needed foot braces for severe toe walking. She has been getting treatment for this for months but up till now it had been either covered by insurance or we were able to be billed. But these braces are through a different company and due to our deductible not being met on Jen's insurance, they require half of the cost up front and half upon completion and these braces cost over $1,000. On top of that, with starting my new job, I had a waiting period before I could get insurance myself. Well, the time came at the end of last month and when I went to sign up, I learned that my employer takes out the entire month's payment from the first check of every month. So, that combined with the braces and other bills and the fact that I hadn't accounted for just how incredibly expensive some international shipments would be (many costing upwards of $100 or more per set to ship) has put us off track for meeting this deadline. And I'm sorry I didn't say something a few days ago when I spoke with Jon but I have been waiting on news about a potential business loan from our bank and was hoping to have that information ready in time to update folks but we are still awaiting a decision on that.
Again, we are incredibly sorry for all of the delays. I will have more updates as soon as we hear back about the loan etc. If we are approved we will be able to ship these out much more quickly than if not but either way these books will go out to everyone who ordered them! Thank you for your patience and understanding and keep an eye out for an email with tracking from us in the coming weeks if you haven't already received your copies.
Dream
Nightscape Press
