Greetings, adventurers!

Once again, it’s been awhile. I’ve been working diligently on the edit, but it’s been slow going—I have two young children and I’m working two jobs, trying to spend time with my spouse, keep my living space some semblance of clean, and retain a few shreds of sanity here and there, so finding and making time for this has been a challenge, to say the least.

I do want to add that I am struggling with this edit. I never expected this process to be so oddly vulnerable, and I’m left wondering if this book is even worth releasing. This isn’t due to being unable to take criticism, but rather because I am faced with just how much there is wrong with the manuscript. I was a very different person when I wrote it—the first book was written 15 years ago, after all. I was another different person when I funded it, and now I’m a much different person during the editing process. I am trying to make this book worthy of its wait, but I don’t know that it ever will be. I suppose that’s the risk I run in pursuing anything like this, but I don’t want to disappoint anyone with this.

It’s been a long road and I’m humbled by how patient, supportive, and kind everyone has been during the process. The first delays were out of my hands, but these delays are completely on me, and for that I am sorry. Having such a gap between funding and editing has changed my mindset about the book. That being said, I struggle with finishing projects when they get past the “fun” stage, so I am determined to finish this, no matter how I feel about it. And, let me make this perfectly clear: I do not feel good about it, at all. I’m a bit of a perfectionist, so either things get rushed because I’m feeling excited about them, or they get abandoned because I’m no longer excited about them. I’m sure I’m not the only one and some of you can relate, so in some small way, maybe sharing this will help somebody. 

In any event, enough with the Debbie Downer talk. I actually do have a very exciting update that I meant to give you all two months ago but, quite frankly, life completely got away from me and I have said “I need to share that already” to myself almost every weekend since then and have just not had the chance, as things have been crisis after crisis or just packed to the gills. So, as promised 2 months ago (somehow?!), here is your official, actual cover for Mushroom and Anchovy, by artist—and my very good friend—Molly E. McGuire. 

Molly really captured the essence of a certain part in the book and her attention to detail is so keen. There are some details in here that will only be understood after reading the book, and I love that. I hope you do, too! Her work is so beautiful and she was always my first choice for the cover. She’s been very busy the past few years and we weren’t sure we could make it work, but we did and I couldn’t be happier.

I’ll continue to work on the edit and will hopefully get more news for you before too much longer (comparatively). If you ever have any questions for me, please don’t hesitate to reach out. I’m an open book—unlike this, which will hopefully be that, one day.

May your travels be fraught with wonder and just enough peril to keep them interesting,

K. M. Cooper

Greetings, adventurers,

Congratulations to those of you who correctly correlated yesterday’s cover reveal with the date! Those of you who know me well believed it anyway and I love that about you. Regardless, yes, yesterday’s cover reveal was absolutely an April Fool’s Day joke, but so many of you were so warm about it nevertheless that it made me smile. Thanks for understanding me!

That being said, if you really do want to read about adventuring anthropomorphic animals, you might be interested in the next series I’m writing... but that won’t see the light of day for a few years, yet. Definitely do keep an eye out, though, through my Substack and my website, as I’ll be trickling out information as it comes--probably starting as early as next year. The first book is written, but I’ll likely release them together. Stay tuned.

Now... that being said, you may be wondering about the future of Mushroom and Anchovy. A few things.

1. I am not actually rewriting them as ducks. I am slow because implementing the edits has taken me considerably longer with my current work schedules. That said, I am making good progress and we are still looking at a 2023 release for this book.

2. As for the cover, I actually have hired somebody. I am very excited, because this artist was always my first choice and I know they’re going to do an incredible job. They have been VERY busy these past few years and neither of us had thought we could make it work, but here we are. They are hard at work right now and have shared some details with me, and I am hoping to do the actual cover reveal this week. 

3. I’m going to keep the joke cover on this site until the actual cover reveal, because I think it’s funny.

4. Because the reception was so warm about the joke cover, I kind of want to do SOMETHING with it. Maybe a bookmark, a poster, or a journal... or something. I’m thinking about it. If you have any ideas, let me know!

Thanks for having a laugh with me yesterday. I really cannot wait to get this book into your hands this year--and that’s no joke!

May your adventures be fraught with wonder and just enough peril to keep them interesting,

K. M. Cooper

Greetings, adventurers!

It’s been awhile but I have finally come to you today with something very exciting: a brand new cover reveal. I have been planning the new cover for some time and waffling over who to hire, what design to have, etc., and I was struck with inspiration earlier this year. I decided to just bite the bullet and do it myself. Without further ado, here is the brand new cover for Mushroom and Anchovy, hopefully gracing your bookshelves later on this year…

What do you think? It’s really something, isn’t it? I want to add that part of the delay is that I’ve been rewriting our titular heroes as ducks. It has taken quite some time to go through the entire book and make sure every instance of human facial features is replaced with duck bills, and that I throw a handful of scattered feathers into the narration from time to time. I think that, ultimately, this will make for a much better book, because who doesn’t love ducks going on adventures?

I will have more news in a couple of days, but for now, I hope you’ll bask in the glory of this new cover and really take it in properly.

Woo-oo!

K. M. Cooper

Greetings, adventurers.

I come to you today with perhaps the most exciting promise of treasure of all: an update.

Much like the feeling one has when dropping their child off at a new babysitter for the first time, I write to you with hope and apprehension today. Because Mushroom and Anchovy’s most recent manuscript has been sent off to Inkshares to undergo copyediting. 

I’m not sure what this expressly means for our timeline, but the facts we have right now are thus:

1. Mushroom and Anchovy is currently sent in for copyediting.

2. This has never happened before. 

We can, by means of logic and reason, now deduce thusly: the ball is finally rolling to get these books into your hands. 

It’s been a long time coming, and I’m so excited to finally be able to share this wacky tale with you all! 

I’ll contact you again when I have more news. But, for now, please know that the book is in progress. My biggest wish now is for it to be worthy of such a wait. Thank you so much for your patience and understanding! 

In the meantime, I’m going to be looking into getting us a new artist and cover! 

May your travels be fraught with wonder and just enough peril to keep them interesting,

K. M. Cooper

Greetings adventurers,

A very small update tonight. 

I’ve been in contact with Inkshares and I’ve been given the loose timeline of early 2022 for Mushroom and Anchovy to launch. This may change, but it’s a date we can go by for now! 

That’s all I have for you. As always, I’ll talk to you when there are more updates to be had.

May your travels be fraught with wonder and just enough peril to keep them interesting,

K. M. Cooper

Greetings, adventurers!

It’s been awhile! I hope you’re all doing well despite the circumstances!

The last time I updated, I did have some news—however, that news was vague. As such, I still have nothing for you as the pandemic has strongly impacted California—where the Inkshares headquarters is located. Because of that, all of their projects have been pushed back, including this one. I haven’t checked in recently but have gotten updates from authors with books ahead of mine, so naturally my assumption is that Mushroom & Anchovy has also been pushed back.

As always, there is free content to read on my blog, The Practical Escapist, and I have resumed a fairly stacked livestream schedule on Twitch. I also mentioned with our last update that I hope to be moving this newsletter to my website. I have not yet started it, so I would love it if you’d sign up!

Keeping up with content creation has been deeply challenging as I’ve also been homeschooling our first born. It’s been challenging but a lot of fun as well. I’m not sharing much about those experiences beyond the odd Instagram post—but we’ve been working on a seed library, learning about foraging and local plants, and, of course, a lot of reading and writing.

That’s all from me for now. I hope this letter finds you well.

May your travels be fraught with wonder and just enough peril to keep them interesting,

K. M. Cooper

Greetings, adventurers!

It’s been awhile. How are you doing? During this strange time, it’s my hope that this letter finds you in good health. 

Before I get too far into it, I’d like to introduce you to the newest addition to our household and the reason I’ve been silent for so long. Meet Baby Olivia, AKA "Snorlax"--secondborn of the Escapist household children. She arrived in early March and has been growing like an out-of-control little weed ever since. We’re all doing great--her delivery was quick and easy--and we’re all in love! It’s definitely coupled with our global pandemic to make things chaotic, though. You can read more about that in my most recent blog post.

I have another small update for you. When last we checked in, I had been given the date of early April for Mushroom and Anchovy’s production kickoff. However, as we all have seen, a lot can change in the span of a few months, and now we’re deep into global pandemic territory. I reached out to the lovely folks at Inkshares and confirmed with them that production had been suspended for the time being--a decision I fully support. They are now hoping we can kick off production in July. I’m hoping to release another chapter soon--something I wasn’t originally planning to do, but seems pertinent in times like these.

I’ve told you before that I’ve been streaming this past year and a half. I did take a break for a time following my daughter’s birth, but I’m slowly getting back to it. Right now, I’m streaming Monday nights at 9:30 PM AT (8:30 PM ET) with low-key chatting and kitchen-cleaning streams. I’ll be coming back to a partial cooking stream schedule in about a month or so.

I hope to be moving this newsletter to my website in the near-ish future. I’d love it if you’d sign up there! I plan on having monthly letters--nothing spammy, I promise--featuring a clip-of-the-month, updates, previews, stream events, and more. You can sign up on my website by navigating to the bottom of the page. I will still be updating with book-related information and news here, but everything else will move. If you’d like to keep up with non-Mushroom and Anchovy work, please do sign up on my website! A starting point for the newsletter will be gauged by level of interest.

Before I go, I want to take a moment to express my appreciation to everyone for your continued support while I take a step back. I have been really enjoying this time with my family and it’s been nice not to worry too much about having to produce. Being productive is in my nature, however, so do plan to see things from me outside of blog posts in the next two months or so. I plan on trickling various content back in bit by bit, with an end goal of having all of my main ventures back by September. 

I hope to have more updates for you in the months to come. I’m not sure when the next update will be for Mushroom and Anchovy, but until then, may staying home be fraught with calm and as little peril as possible, for the time being.

Yours in adventure,

K. M. Cooper

Greetings, adventurers!

Happy Mushroom and Anchovy Monday!… on Wednesday. I had every intent to get this out on Monday, but I’m finally starting to recover from a nasty sinus infection and, let’s face it, life is kind of chaos. So, without any further ado...

I’m so sorry for the silence over the past few months. Between moving, the pregnancy, the holidays, birthdays, illness, and now being on leave, everything has been really chaotic. Our due date for our newest family member is approaching swiftly—less than a month away, in fact—so now we’re getting everything ready. It’s going to continue to be a very busy time!

The good news is that I have a bit of an update for you. After reaching out to the lovely folks at Inkshares in the new year, I have been informed that they are only a few months away from Mushroom and Anchovy’s production kickoff. This is very exciting news. I hope to have a true update for you in a few months, but for now, at least we have this!

We moved to our new home back in November and have been settling ever since. The cats are very fond of this place and have been happily bonding. I won’t go into too much detail, but if you’re curious for some shots of our updated kitchen and other points of interest in our home, please head over to my Instagram or you can watch live from my Twitch channel, where I do cooking and baking 3x a week (for the time being)—in fact, we’re having an on-stream baby shower this coming Sunday the 8th, and we’d love to see you there! I also would like to add that I participated in Vlogmas this year--that and more content can be found over on my YouTube. I’ve also recently partnered with the amazing folks over at Wild Cherry Spoon Co., who make beautiful artisan kitchenware. Very exciting times!

I have been pushing myself to produce 2 blog posts a month—one recipe, one prose—over on my website www.thepracticalescapist.ca. Hope to see you there!

I won’t update again until production has kicked off, now that I have some news. I hope you’re looking forward to an exciting 2020 with me!

May your travels be fraught with wonder and just enough peril to keep them interesting,

K. M. Cooper

Greetings, adventurers!

Sorry for the lack of #MushAnch Monday this month--and sorry in advance for the lack thereof for next month, as well. There is a reason for this. Things have gotten very busy around here in the past few weeks, and that’s about to ramp up, because after a year of trying, we’re finally moving! 

I don’t have any updates for you on the book front as I continue to wait patiently for news, myself. It’s my hope that this beautiful time of year finds you well, and I hope to be back and updating regularly again in December.

Thanks for your patience!

May your travels be fraught with wonder and just enough peril to keep them interesting,

K. M. Cooper