A Lengthy Post of Predetermined Girth

Hello all,,
I will begin by addressing the most recent points raised in posts before moving on to the meaty part of the update:

a) Contact with the subscribers:
A good point was raised about contacting the subscribers more regularly, perhaps using the email they registered when they opened their accounts. I see no real problem with doing this--I could send out an initial email and offer the option to unsubscribe to keep from pestering people. I feel rather sheepish admitting it, but I hadn't considered that possibility.

I am checking to see if there will be any way to tie this blog--or some form of blog format--to the new website for the sake of convenience. (Until then, blogspot supports atom feeds so simply visit virginiaedition.blogspot.com/atom.xml and you can choose to use firefox's live bookmarks to automatically see updates or import the address into a feed program of your choice and you'll be automatically updated.) I've no idea how much trouble there would be in embedding all of that, but we'll find out!

Some seem to feel that we've been ignoring, perhaps intentionally, subscribers, but I'd like to assure you all that that is not the case. We've sent letters to everybody at the addresses provided to us and we're honestly perplexed at how many have gone astray. When we get contacted by people that didn't get a letter, we're taking down their addresses and correcting them if they're off. If the next mail-out doesn't work, we may have to resort to rather excessive methods to try and get proper communication lines going. Regardless, we are not intentionally trying to shut people out or give them the cold shoulder. We have no reason to do so and, honestly, pretty much everything we're doing--and part of why this has taken so long--is with each of you in mind.

b) Time Enough for Love
Jim Bob, thank you for pointing out the error in the poem. We'll fix that.

On which note, we have a list of errors to fix, but if you have spotted errors in the first six volumes, please feel free to let us know.

c) The Next Three Weeks
As I've mentioned, we're sending a letter to the subscribes detailing what's going to be happening. Right now, I'm waiting to get confirmation back that there's nothing dramatically wrong with it before sending it out and, as such, it's likely to post on Monday. As soon as I do get confirmation, though--hopefully tomorrow morning--I will post the text here so that you, loyal readers, will be able to read it in advance.
The next few weeks should be the last of the chaotic times and see the following happen:
a) Website set-up properly
b) Books 1-10 to printer for prepress with printing to begin with the New Year
c) A poster of "Heinlein's World" (the Donato painting meant for the spine of the first twelve books) printed and sent to all the original subscribers. (On which note, while I'm looking at printing options, the painting is rather wider than tall such that a single print would probably end up having bleed on top and bottom--caption "Heinlein's World" on bottom, probably set the painting against a starscape. Would anybody prefer having two half-posters (the left half and the right half) that could be put together to form the whole painting?) My hope is to have that to everybody by Christmas.

Once all of that is done, most everything should proceed regularly and smoothly 'til the bitter sweet end.

Once again, I would like to thank all of you for the astounding patience that you've shown throughout this process. It speaks well of you.