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The Bloody Unicorn and Other Delightfully Dark Drinks

Created by Anna McCluskey

Fifteen delicious cocktail recipes. Fifteen darkly humorous short stories. One beautifully illustrated collection.

Latest Updates from Our Project:

I Haven't Abandoned You
11 days ago – Sat, Apr 25, 2026 at 11:28:57 AM

Hey, everyone, I got a message from a friend yesterday, asking for an update and saying it had been a while, which was confusing for me, so I logged on this morning when I got back to my computer, and saw a bunch of my updates sitting there as Drafts.....

I'm gonna stick around and triple check this one to make sure it definitely posts; I'm sure that I did something wrong there. Brain fog is real.

Anyway, here's a quick summary of the updates you missed because I am terrible at things:

1. I have books! Look how pretty!





2. Everyone now has the ebook in their BookFunnel library! To get your books, just log in to the BookFunnel app or my.bookfunnel.com using  your BackerKit email. If you log in and your BookFunnel library is empty, try logging into BookFunnel using another email address to get your books.

3. I charged your cards because I thought I was feeling up for a big task like fulfillment, but then executive dysfunction reared its ugly head, so I'm doing this a little at a time, and I really appreciate your patience. You can read more about my current struggles here. The gist of it is that I'm fighting off the overwhelm by breaking this into small chunks, and while this is slower than if my brain worked, it's faster than if I waited until I could do it all at once. 

Needless to say, this will be my last crowdfunding campaign ever, because clearly, even though I used to be able to do it, I cannot count on my brain to do things in a timely manner, and I will not ask you, my readers, to count on my brain going forward either.


Charging Cards Tomorrow
7 months ago – Sun, Sep 28, 2025 at 02:11:04 PM

Hiya, backers! Orders are now officially locked for The Bloody Unicorn, which means I'm about to start fulfillment! And this also means that your cards are about to get charged for any add-ons you ordered and for shipping costs.

You have been warned! 

Start getting excited to get your books!!

Wrap Up Those Surveys!
8 months ago – Fri, Sep 05, 2025 at 11:29:48 AM

Hiya, backers! 

Most of you have completed your surveys --- thank you! 

If you're one of the twelve people who haven't, please do so. I can't do any ordering until I know how many Things of each Thing to order! We're just waiting on you.

Cheers,
Anna

Smoke Test Surveys Sent!
9 months ago – Sun, Aug 10, 2025 at 12:24:27 PM

Hello, backers!

The surveys for The Bloody Unicorn are just about ready to go. The first step in that is to send out what BackerKit calls a "smoke test," in which they send a small portion of the surveys to a random sprinkling of backers to test it out and make sure there are no glitches that got missed in review.

This has been sent out, so if you got it and have already filled it out, thank you! About half of them are still at large, so please be sure to check your inbox and your spam folder and see if you got one. The ones that have been filled out all seem good, so I should be able to send out the rest of the surveys in just a couple of days!

Friendly reminder to those of you who are getting the "Recipe Card" edition: You are eligible to upgrade that to a recipes-only book at no extra charge. So, when you see the question about upgrading, I just want to make sure everyone knows, that's not an upcharge! And the book will have the photos of the drinks too, just like the cards; just not the stories or the illustrations. Perfect for anyone who just wants the cocktails, but isn't interested in the anthology aspect of the book.

Same goes for anyone who wants to add it on; because you backed the project initially, you can get that recipes-only book for the same cost as if you had just ordered the recipe cards.

Cheers,
Anna

Photos and Recipe Card Editions!
11 months ago – Mon, Jun 09, 2025 at 04:39:06 PM

Okay, so I have some news, especially for those of you who backed the Recipe Card Edition tier or got a book box that comes with recipe cards. If you're not sure whether or not that applies to you, don't worry. Surveys will be going out probably within the next week or so, and that will remind you of what you ordered and give you a chance to mix things up, if you want.

First, I want to show you a couple of photos I've taken for the book!

This one is for the Dead New Yorker:


And this one here is for The Bitter Cup:


I'm still tweaking and editing and taking photos, but I'm really pleased with how they're coming out, and I think they're going to be even better in print!

Now the exciting news about the Recipe Card Editions! I initially put that option in there in case anyone *cough* my mom *cough* thought the stories and illustrations were too dark, but still wanted the drink recipes, and cards with photos on one side and recipes on the other seemed like a really practical way to do that, since I thought it wouldn't be enough pages to put into an actual book.

But! And this is exciting . . . I have found a way through the printing company I'll be using for the hard covers, to do a small, lovely little paperback booklet! So, it will have the same content, but in a much easier to use and display format! And this way you'll also get the beautiful cover, designed by Kelley York, since it's a book and not just a stack of cards!

This will be available for anyone who ordered the Recipe Card Edition, at NO ADDITIONAL COST. I want to be very clear about this. Yes, it's a higher end product, but I will not be charging you more for it. Also, if you do, for any reason, really want it in card form instead, don't panic! That will still be available. It will be an option in the survey, once those goes out, to choose whether you want the original format or the cards.

And if you didn't order the cards, because that wasn't really of interest to you, but you do actually want the book, all backers will have the opportunity to add it on in the survey as well!