Stikmanz in winter

Drawing in progress for the Cuaderno set

Price Increase

Lightning Source (LS), the print-on-demand service on which Stikmantica depends, has advised that price increases for book production will take effect in mid-July. They will implement new mandatory minimum discounts for wholesalers at the same time. With the advisory, LS helpfully provided a calculation tool so its publishers can figure out how much prices must go up in order to make continuing existence possible. I have no specific prices to name yet, but they will increase. Changes will take effect in July, at the same time LS makes it necessary. What this means to anyone interested in Dvarsh language and civilization (or their fictions), is that you should buy books now. Never again will these titles cost as little as they cost for a few weeks longer. Repeat: Buy Books Now!

Stikmantica earns most on sales through our Bookshop affiliate store, but the titles are available through all major retailers. If you are yourself a bookseller (or at least a seller of some books), Stikmantica titles are available wholesale through Ingram, just like those of any other publisher. Your purchase of Stikmantica books is absolutely the best way to support this project. Please note that at this time only Stikmantica editions are authorized by Robert Stikmanz.

Musings

The Musings column has settled back into the personal bully pulpit of Robert Stikmanz. This Update assumes the role of the old Stikmantica newsletter. Visitors to the Musings page will note that it has been a while since a new column posted. Computer failure slowed the wheels for a couple of weeks, and for a while before that I worked on three columns at once with typically Robert-like alternate efficiency. Three finally became one not yet finished, that would have been finished in the next day or so had not a need to refigure prices arisen.

The column in progress fingers a few topics of importance to me but without much interest to others, so it may post without mention until the next Update here. The latter part of the column finally discusses that which I long said I would never say aloud, the key behind the four artifact books of Habdvarsha.

For those just arrived, the four artifact books are:

Together or separately, these make wonderful gifts for the GM, conlanger or Indiana Jones in every closet.

Cuaderno

The word means “notebook.” For now it’s a catchall term for poems in Spanish and drawings of city details that Stikmanz is making in Montevideo. The character of both words and images is relaxed compared to the usual Stikmanic obsession—so relaxed it surprises me when I step back to look. Together, they are a notebook, a Cuaderno Montevideano, observations and sketches of discovery in this place to which I have come. As the counts of poems and pictures grow, I’ve begun thinking about an ebook as a practical way of sharing with friends in two hemispheres. Going forward means, first, finding a scanner adequate for capturing the drawings. I’ll hunt an editor for the Montevidean Spanish a little later.

Scanner choice has come down to which acceptable model is available locally, answer expected soon. The poems, though well advanced, are still in revision. One or two nearest ready may appear as Musings. That may be a good test drive for a contract editor.

Wishing you peace, love, justice and comfortable shoes!