Hello!
Sarah T. e-mailed me today for an update on the book! It is most definitely STILL happening! I have been working on it in all of my available time. I can’t believe my last update here was in AUGUST! Sorry about that. I have been posting updates on Facebook and via my newsletter (which you can subscribe to on my blog: http://www.LeadSafeMama.com).
My legal cases have been a huge “distraction” to completing the book. You can read more about that here (posted on September 16, 2017). After the IRS victory (after completing an exhaustive audit, they were satisfied that it clearly showed my complete innocence of all the allegations)… there was more crazy stuff that happened – including an arrest on false charges (same tactic, initiated by the very same individual that had first reported me to the IRS!) on November 28th! (Yup, my kids say I am now officially a REAL environmental activist because I have ACTUALLY been illegally arrested!) This was also documented on my Facebook page (a post that, understandably, went viral.) Needless to say, I have been a wee bit busier than anticipated – both with defending my innocence and raising legal fees (while also trying to work enough in the midst of the chaos to also feed my family!)
That said, during this time I have also managed to assemble everything I need for the book! I rented an XRF instrument, I collected & hunted down all the items I wanted to test, tested everything; done preliminary photography; secured the volunteer collaborative efforts of a graphic designer (in Denmark no less!!!) to help put the layout together; and I have now written all of the text for the book, as well!
In recent months both the designer and I have also been dealing with personal hardships (family matters & illness) that have delayed things a bit more [to throw another wrench in, my site experienced a cyber attack over the past several weeks and Jovana (my designer/collaborator on the book) has also been helping me with that (as my website and e-mail were briefly all but inoperative!)]— but all of the pieces are finally in place to get this book layout finished and send it off to be printed very, very soon.
Currently I have about 80 pre-orders for the book, and finishing it has been a top priority amidst all of the chaos created by my legal battles. HOWEVER, if anyone would like a refund and cannot continue to wait for their copy, I will be happy to refund your money at this time.
To all who are in a position to continue to wait, I want to thank you all for your patience. While deadlines have continually slipped, given the set of extreme, unanticipated circumstances over the past months (I had certainly never been arrested before in my life!) my current goal is to have the final layout completed by mid-April.
I will update you all when the final layout is complete and the book has been sent to the printer. I have also learned that the cost of the book (given so few have been pre-ordered, and given it is a larger format hardcover photo book) will be closer to $35 a copy, so, while this Kickstarter helped me cover the cost to procure and test the items for the book, I will be subsidizing the actual printing of the book personally… which I hope will pay off, in that I will then be able to continue to order copies “on demand” for those who want them in the future.
One goal of this Kickstarter was also to share this “first edition” with a literary agent (or distributor) to see if they might want to help me have the book reach a larger audience with a larger printing. Well, good news there, I did successfully connect with a literary agent in Irvine, California at the end of January (at ShiftCon) — and she said she will take a look at things [this draft when it is assembled] and may be interested in helping with the project (given how unusual it is, the book (like yours truly) is difficult to categorize [not just environmental, not just humor, hot just history, not really just a photo book, etc.] and therefore a very challenging project), so I am very excited about the possibilities there!
Thanks again everyone! Please do subscribe to my newsletter on my blog so that you get all the updates (or follow me on Facebook!) I have not posted here much, because I didn’t want to duplicate communications and I thought everyone was already getting updated there!
BTW: I also incorporated as “Lead Safe Mama, LLC” during this time and have a lot of other exciting, positive projects in the works!
Your friend,
Tamara Rubin
#LeadSafeMama
If anyone here is interested in/able to chip-in in support of my legal fund (I currently have bills for over $35,000 in services that need to be paid, although the next phase of things will be done on contingency if I can get these bills covered!) your help with that would be greatly appreciated (in the form of a loan [for which I will happily pay interest] or contributions in any amount!) Here is my chip-in link, and here is my GoFundMe link. Or you can email me if you have questions at TamaraRubin@mac.com. Thank you! Happy Spring!
P.S. In the midst of all this I am also working with my stepfather to try to help sell the family honey farm in Napa (yes I have my hands full). If you want more info about that, click here. I am driving down from Oregon to visit the farm (with my three youngest kids) this coming weekend (for a week) if anyone is around, in the area and wants to visit, please let me know! Then, in the end of April, I will be in Southern, California (Santa Monica and Irvine) for a week doing Healthy Home Consultations (in case you know anyone who might be interested in a home visit there!) Finally, if any of you really haven’t been up on anything that has been happening on my blog since August (there are just a few of you who sponsored this Kickstarter who I don’t know personally) – I went viral for MENSTRUAL CUPS, and RAE DUNNpottery, FIDGET SPINNERS among other things since then and you may want to check out those posts! [Career Highlight: I was also on CBS This Morning with Charlie Rose on November 8th, just a week before he was fired!]
Photo below is just a small sampling of stuff I bought to include in the book! [My shed is now full of boxes of leaded junk! Hopefully after the book is done I will also use these items to create the museum exhibit (of toxic household stuff) that I have been envisioning for years!
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