DRACULA: THE EVIDENCE Hardcover Edition

NEW STRETCH GOAL UNLOCKED! (ft.a hat tip to some friends!)
over 5 years ago – Sat, Nov 14, 2020 at 06:32:52 AM

Dearest darklings,

Somehow, amidst the manifold calamities of a pandemic, an election, and a blue-moon witching season, you all have continued to drive this campaign onward to ever greater heights.

Over the weekend we crossed the $350K mark, and so we'll be unlocking an exciting new stretch goal: MAP OF THE CARPATHIANS! You can follow Jonathan's journey to and from Dracula's castle. Includes as an item in the box sets, printed as an image in the hardbound books.

We're also revealing our half-million dollar stretch goal! This one would be an incredible cool addition to the sets and books.

$500,000: MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE. We will produce the glass bottle found on the body of the captain of the Demeter, which contains the final entry in the ship's log. You might need some tweezers to delicately pry the message out!

So let's keep pushing this campaign to seemingly-impossible heights. We want to make the bottles!

We'd also like to share some terrific campaigns from our colleagues in the obscure craft of Kickstarter creation. Considering throwing some funds to some of these fantastic production. (If you have any funds left, after supporting our highly exclusive wares.)

Our good pals at Spectre and Vox have done something really remarkable and unusual: they've created physical escape room that sits on your kitchen table. A whole multimedia adventure in a box. This seems like a great companion to our Dracula sets, for those of you whole like filling your homes with strange, dark, inconveniently large items.

Just look at these absolutely gorgeous re-designed playing card sets by The Gentleman Wake. Impossibly gorgeous, well-produced decks. Cardsmiths after our own hearts That embossing! *chef's kiss*

RAID is a beautifully designed, extremely fun Viking card game. Their campaign is ending in just 14 hours, so check them out while you still can!

Finally, the folks over at Skillshare were kind enough to interview Maëlle and Josh about their publishing practices at Beehive, and it includes a lot of talk of the Dracula project! We thought it might interest some of you.

Thank you once more for everything you've done to help this absurd project be everything that it can be. We're so grateful for each and everyone one of you, our armies of the night.

Stay strong and eat garlic,

Josh, Paul and Dacre

First Stretch Goal Unlocked!
over 5 years ago – Fri, Oct 30, 2020 at 01:11:15 AM

THANK YOU, dear dark ones! This campaign continues to plumb the depths of magic and madness, ever further and stranger.  

Due to your remarkable support, we've now unlocked our first stretch goal, TAIL-RIBBON BOOKMARKS for all hardbound editions of the book!

So we're now revealing our next, yet-to-be-unlocked stretch goal: UPGRADED CABINET CARD PORTRAITS.

We're almost halfway through to our next goal, the map of the Carpathian mountains, the horseshoe of which Jonathan Harker describes at "the center of some imaginative whirlpool." So please, keep spreading the word to all your weirdest friends about the black creation bubbling in the heart of West Philadelphia.

Finally, take a look at our Twitter (@beehibebks) and Instagram (@beehivebooks, under the highlight SAM'S TAKEOVER) to follow the saga of our intern, Sam, who's hard at work cataloging the Stoker and Harker papers. Sam's story has only just begun, and already many have begun to worry about what's happening in our churchtower.

Thank you, dearly beloveds,  for making this bizarre and remarkable journey possible. Miles to go before we sleep. Hallows Eve is not even yet upon us. So keep your eyes sharp and your heart true. Darkness surrounds.

Ever yours,

Josh, Paul and Dacre

"I bid you welcome to my house."
over 5 years ago – Fri, Oct 23, 2020 at 12:54:12 AM

Dear souls,

As we move deeper into the dark woods within the horseshoe of the Carpathians, you can sense things changing around us. The fingers of the wind bend inside your cuffs and collar, pulling you who-knows-where. In the distance you hear the mirthless howl of a moonstruck wolf, and behind its high keen you think hear what might be a whisper. Your ears shiver into the darkness. There's a voice inside the howl -- you can't quite make it out...

Are the wolves singing... "stretch... goals?"

We at Beehive, the humble Renfields to this masterful production, are awed by the level of support you all have shown this project. With the level of funding we're going to be able to produce this thing in style, and upgrade a lot of the materials, effects and printing techniques. This is going to be a publication like no other.

We want to keep our eyes on the prize -- rather than produce a lot extra stuff for stretch goals, we've decided to try to keep things relatively simple. We have many other upgrades we're already planning to spend the extra funds on which aren't easily articulated as a list of goals (mostly upgrades of materials and inside-baseball production effects), so we're trying to stick to the easily articulated extras we can add as stretch goals to the various tiers of DRACULA: THE EVIDENCE.

$300K: RIBBON BOOKMARK. We will add a bound-in tail-ribbon bookmark to all HARDBOUND editions of the book.

$350K: MAP OF THE CARPATHIANS. We will add a map of the Carpathian mountains, the inner crescent of which Jonathan Harker calls "the center of some imaginative whirlpool," as a special bonus item, printed within the HARDBOUND editions and as an artifact within the box set editions.

$400K: UPGRADE DRACULA'S LETTER. Early in the story, Jonathan Harker receives a letter from his new client welcoming to Castle Dracula. We want this document to be as formal and lux as possible, as is only befitting the dreaded Count's sense of hospitality. At this level, special production  touches such as high end paper, custom embossing and a genuine wax seal.

So please keep spreading the word about this insane, gloriously cursed project. We are still gathering power, as Dracula did on his home soil, preparing for his assault on London. The source and essence of that power is all of you. You have our eternal thanks. We promise not to use your magic to assault London.

Onward into the deeper dark, friends.

Josh, Paul and Dacre

The Thrall of Dracula is Undiminished by the Ages
over 5 years ago – Sat, Oct 17, 2020 at 04:55:10 PM

Good God -- we're honestly not sure what to say. Thanks to some combination of (a) the passion and loyalty of all of you and (b) the mystical thrall of Dracula, we funded this project in 18 hours flat. And we're still going strong, blowing right past $140k and counting.

This is unbelievably exciting and, to be honest, a little dizzying, Thank you, thank you, thank you, dear friends. By all the unholy laws of Kickstarter, I believe this means our immortal souls now belong officially to you.

We'll have a lot more to share in the coming days and weeks. Every dollar we raise here allows us to add more production effects, better materials, more artwork, and generally more terrifyingly beautiful glory to our books and box sets. We would have been pleased to do a slow climb to our $100k funding goal, as we expected to. But the fact that we seem to be zooming past our goal  and headed straight for then moon  will allow us to produce a far more elaborate and stunning creation.

Please stay tuned for a lot of news, updates and sneak peeks in the upcoming days and weeks. The season of ghosts and demons is upon us, and a strange call is summoning into the deep woods. We're so glad to have you all with us, now 500-strong, warm together in the haunted cold. This journey is only going to get stranger. Stay close, friends. For as Jonathan Harker writes: "We are strong, each in our purpose, and we are all more strong together.”

With love and teeth,

Josh, Maëlle and Paul