Filk

(The internet has been quite full lately of different versions of two pieces of music; Ramin Djawadi's excellent theme to the series Game of Thrones, and the song "Let It Go" from the Disney film Frozen. Being the kind of idiot I am, I thought it would be fun to mash up the two and see what happened.

And then the news broke that the producers had opted to include in a recent episode a gratuitous rape scene between two major characters, a scene that was not played that way in the books and seemed to have been put in simply because some people presumably enjoy watching women being raped. This kind of changed the song I was trying to write...)

( Song behind here... )

Book news

Proof copies of the Eight-Man Austin and of Three Windows arrived today, and they look very nice.

Unfortunately, I found still more typoes in both of them.

The good news is that the revised and (please gods) typo-free versions are immediately available from Lulu, so if you were planning to and haven't already, buy buy buy folks. The bad news is that, as I mentioned before, Lulu's inflexible policy is that before they will put the things forward for wider distribution via Amazon, B&N and Ingrams, I have to shell out for another proof copy, wait for it to arrive, look at it and hope like hell I don't see anything else wrong. I can't say "it's all right, I've gone through it and I'm satisfied, go ahead." Such is their concern for my professional standards that they won't let me. Plus, of course, they get their whack on all the proof copies.

Given that I would have to sell roughly eighty copies of each book on Amazon or whatever to make back the cost to me of another proof copy, you can understand why I'm baulking, and wondering whether all this is really worth the candle. I now have one brand new proof copy of each of the books I've published recently, and every time I open one all I can think is oh gods, did I spot that one?

I'm very lucky. I love writing. It keeps me sane, for given values of. I enjoy having written, and looking back and finding that I do still enjoy reading my own stuff. I like formatting books, and coming up with tchotchkes to add if the actual story's a bit thin. I have fun designing covers. There's even a thrill to the act of uploading the files. But this part, this part is inexpressibly disheartening.

Nonetheless...since I found that the Temeraire book I bought had a glaring typo on just about every page, since I read that Clive Barker book in which one character says something like "You know, it's weird," and the other character turns round and says "What's funny?"...it's been a point of pride with me to Get It Right, as far as I can. So, in a few weeks time when I can, I'll order another proof copy of Tetrad or Oonaverse, and start again. I've begun on this, so I'll see it through.

Wish me luck.

Book news

Proof copies of The Eight-Man Austin and of Three Windows arrived today, and they look very nice.

Unfortunately, I found still more typoes in both of them.

The good news is that the revised and (please gods) typo-free versions are immediately available from Lulu, so if you were planning to and haven't already, buy buy buy folks. The bad news is that, as I mentioned before, Lulu's inflexible policy is that before they will put the things forward for wider distribution via Amazon, B&N and Ingrams, I have to shell out for another proof copy, wait for it to arrive, look at it and hope like hell I don't see anything else wrong. I can't say "it's all right, I've gone through it and I'm satisfied, go ahead." Such is their concern for my professional standards that they won't let me. Plus, of course, they get their whack on all the proof copies.

Given that I would have to sell roughly eighty copies of each book on Amazon or whatever to make back the cost to me of another proof copy, you can understand why I'm baulking, and wondering whether all this is really worth the candle. I now have one brand new proof copy of each of the books I've published recently, and every time I open one all I can think is oh gods, did I spot that one?

I'm very lucky. I love writing. It keeps me sane, for given values of. I enjoy having written, and looking back and finding that I do still enjoy reading my own stuff. I like formatting books, and coming up with tchotchkes to add if the actual story's a bit thin. I have fun designing covers. There's even a thrill to the act of uploading the files. But this part, this part is inexpressibly disheartening.

Nonetheless...since I found that the Temeraire book I bought had a glaring typo on just about every page, since I read that Clive Barker book in which one character says something like "You know, it's weird," and the other character turns round and says "What's funny?"...it's been a point of pride with me to Get It Right, as far as I can. So, in a few weeks time when I can, I'll order another proof copy of Tetrad or Oonaverse, and start again. I've begun on this, so I'll see it through.

Wish me luck.

Originally posted on http://avevale_intelligencer.dreamwidth.org. Comment here or there or both if you wish.

Coming up TOMORROW!

Part 28 of The Overly Obnoxious OIK Operation!

Part 4 of Two Magicians...and a Boat!

Part 8 of A New Chapter!

Watch out for them on http://www.avevale.org/!!!

Coming up TOMORROW!

Part 28 of The Overly Obnoxious OIK Operation!

Part 4 of Two Magicians...and a Boat!

Part 8 of A New Chapter!

Watch out for them on http://www.avevale.org/!!!

Originally posted on http://avevale_intelligencer.dreamwidth.org. Comment here or there or both if you wish.