The initial plan for this book was that it would be about 50,000 words, and cover roughly fifty songs, and be done by some time in December 2014.

My writing pace has been such that were I keeping to that original plan, I would have hit that target. The current draft stands at 43532 words, I’ve written about 42 songs, and for the last few months I’ve consistently been posting two essays per week to my blog (a reminder to everyone that you can read all these at https://andrewhickey.info/tag/california-dreaming/ )

But the book has expanded as I researched and wrote. I’ve found that I needed to write far more to tell the story properly, and so my current list of songs to cover is another 38 songs, plus I want to go back and fill in River Deep Mountain High, which I missed posting.

Assuming I can keep up the rate I’ve managed for the last few months, that means I should get the final book finished and out by April next year.

However, I’m aware that some of you may not want to wait that long, so as a free bonus, tomorrow I will be sending all the Kickstarter backers, and any Patreon backers at over the $5 level, whose email addresses I have a free epub and mobi copy of the book so far — unedited, and cutting off in mid 1967, but a book of about the length you paid for.

You will still all get, as well, whatever other backer rewards you asked for, once the book is completed, but I thought this would be a reasonable way to make sure you know I’ve not just taken your money and run.

Thanks again to all of you for your support on this project. It means a lot.