Equinox Updates from Eldred Wormwood
It is with great difficulty that I make this post. I had intended to take a year's sabbatical from posting here on Skeptical Occultist as the past year has been rather an imposing figure on my health and life. But the situation is such that I must clarify what has been happening in my absence.
In late 2020, having anticipated the events of Brexit making things complicated with my then recent retirement from London to a small village in Portugal, I placed a flurry of printing orders with my longstanding UK printer. The printer was unfortunately beset with staff issues related to the ongoing Covid plague but promised to get things printed and off before the end of the year.
The printings did get done, but the timing wasn't good enough. Having departed the UK they got stuck in a purgatory of shipping created by the closing of borders to all ground shipments and thus were held too long to make it to Portugal before the deadline of Brexit.
At that point, sometime in early 2021, the shipments went missing. According to our shipper they were all in the hands of Portuguese customs, although for many months customs claimed they did not have them. After a Kafkaesque mountain of paperwork, confusing phone calls and emails, we were informed that customs did in fact have the boxes of books and were "processing" them. We were told we would receive letters stating the import taxes due and that with those letters we could claim our shipments.
Those letters never arrived. Months of arguing with customs officials began to affect my health, and while I won't go into the details I have been considerably overwhelmed with the situation as it has unfolded this past year.
Finally I hired a Portuguese lawyer who, after making some inquires herself, declared that a lengthy legal battle would cost much more than the cost of reprinting the volumes. It seems that courts in Portugal take many years to deal with even simple legal matters.
I retired to Portugal out of a love for the landscape that had developed over my years of field research here. Knowing that my pension would not sustain me in London, my partner and I decided that a small Portuguese village we now call home would suit us well in our age. We do love it here, but the postal and customs systems of this country are a crime racket on par with the mob.
I am not in a place where I have the financial means to cover these losses and have been in a mental funk for months trying to find a way to sort out things as the letters from our readers continue to politely inquire what has happened. We owe a huge thanks and appreciation for the patience of our readers over this past year.
A friend who helps us in design and publishing has suggested that we try to crowd source the funding to get Alkahest Press back on track. They have set up a Go Fund Me page where those who have the means and wish to help us get through this difficult impasse can donate. We are extremely sorry for the delays and want nothing more than to know our volumes are in the hands of the readers who have ordered them.
If you are inclined to help please visit the fundraising page. Any amount of help is much appreciated by this grumpy old wizard.
-Eldred
Visit the Gofundme page at - http://gofundme.com/f/help-eldred-wormwood-alkahest-press
