The Kickstarter for “Murder in the Mail: A Bloody Birthday” was fully funded, and the story was officially launched (as part of an art exhibition) in August 2018.
It is no longer available in subscription form (mailed to you over 8 weeks) but there are some packs left that you can purchase through the store, here. They are identical to the full subscription version except that they are sent as a single package (anywhere in the world; the store will calculate postage for you).
The visual novel format will be available through Publisher Obscura from some point in 2020.
The full list of contributors is here, with pics (and book covers of the writers).
Here’s the trailer:
Here’s the same (nearly) trailer, but with me yabbering at the end. This is the trailer we used for the Kickstarter (before the store was set up).
Murder in the Mail is a story told through letters, objects, and artworks physically posted to the reader over the course of eight weeks.
The reader is a character in the story, invited to guess the identity of the killer each week. The Murder in the Mail forums are a place where readers can compare clues and insights, helping (or hampering) one another. Everything, including the art, contains clues to be unravelled.
The story is A Bloody Birthday.
(Like the logo? It’s by Publisher Obscura author Annabelle Lee.)
A group of art students gather at a birthday party where the guest of honour is murdered. One of them is the killer.
You ask the group of friends to write letters to you, talking openly about what happened, and sharing art works they’ve done in the period of time before, during, and after the party.
People say artists show their soul through their art. . . now it’s up to you to discover the darkness inside someone you trusted.
There are eight beautiful pieces of art included with this story, all made by Australian artists (almost all of whom I scouted out personally here in Canberra). Every character is written by a different published Odyssey Books author (including Tash Turgoose from the Publisher Obscura imprint). The objects in the story are chosen to involve all the senses, and the art was chosen to be (a) Beautiful (b) Varied in style and medium (c) Packed full of clues.
For example, this picture has five clues in it.
That beautifully intricate piece is by the artist Shauna O’Meara.
(Fun fact: This is not the final version of the pic. Can you spot the difference between this and the “real” one sent to readers?)
If you want to know more, you can email MurderintheMailStories@gmail.com or visit the official forum at MurderintheMail.boards.net.
You can buy it through my store here.
Here is another one of the artworks that will be in the story:
It’s by Adam Lee.
YES there are also two “Magic in the Mail” stories! You can see more at the Magic Forum, and/or check out the whole store here.
Reblogged this on omearaartandwords.
Nice. And you can share both of your stunning pics if you like now.
When will a new Murder in the Mail story be out? I just finished the last one and loved it! Is there a list somewhere of all the clues hidden in artwork that we should’ve found?
Glad you liked the story! At the moment there is a tentative plan for a new murder story in 2020. Sorry about that! In the meantime, there is a “Magic in the Mail” mini-story (Emmeline’s Empire) out now, and a full-length 3-part “Magic in the Mail” story which will have a pre-release mail-out in June 2019. Both are in the store.
There’s no official list of all the clues but would you like to email for me to go through them all? murderinthemailstories@gmail.com
Any update on when a new Murder in the Mail story might be out? Did you release the one in 2020 that was planned?
Oh I’m so sorry! For some reason I didn’t see this comment. The first Murder in the Mail story didn’t do well enough for a second round BUT it does now exist in book form, and there are two “Magic in the Mail” stories as well.