Hello everyone,

I wanted to say THANK YOU!! for the trust, patience and support you have given to this campaign, especially during these strange times. I apologise if progress has been slow (I've reduced promotion since March both in consideration of financial difficulties for potential backers, and my own mental health), but it's truly awesome to see that we're moving closer towards raising 50% of our final goal.

As progress will be slow until things recover somewhat, I feel it'd be good for us to check in and update you on the status of Volume II of The Carpet Merchant of Konstantiniyya

• Yes, this book will still happen - it's just going to take longer to achieve the funding we need for production.
• My hope is to get the book fully funded by the end of the year (between September to November, thereabouts). If that works out, this means Volume II will be released around autumn - winter 2021, if the timeline is the same as Volume I's. This is all approximate and not final; I just thought it'd good to give a ballpark.
• The woven carpet bookmark factory is finally open after an extremely long vacation - I'm going to reach out to them sometime in the next month for quotes. I'll send an update then (I may or may not need opinions re: design options).

And:

After a long time thinking, I'm excited to show you the updated cover for Volume II. Here it is...

TA-DAH!

The flowers on the front cover are inspired by 18th century floral patterns, as a nod to the setting and to maintain the theme of the rest of the cover design.

The gold foil will be applied to the title, stars, and fencing (same as the last book) and hopefully - to the embroidery on Zeynel's coat.

And that's it from me for now! I will return in the next month or so with updates re: the carpet bookmark.

Once again, thank you so much for your patience and trust. It's much appreciated.

Hope you've been taking care and staying safe. Until next time,

Reimena.