Each feather, it fell from skin.
Apr. 18th, 2008 11:43 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
greygirlbeastI'm predicting a short journal entry. Let's see if I know of what I speak...
Yesterday, I began and finished the second section of Chapter One of The Red Tree. A total of 1,346 words, so a very good writing day. At least, as regards the number of words written. Already, I am struggling with doubts. Somehow, the text does not seem as solid, as dense, as detailed, as authentic as it needs to feel. This may all be in my mind, I do not know. I see now that this chapter will likely have four sections. I'll begin the third this afternoon.
And yesterday I had two readers tell me that they find endnotes more distracting than footnotes. So, there you go. I've had readers, in the past, extoll* the horrors of footnotes, that they are distracting, destroy the flow of text, and (gasp) feel pretentious (it's all pretentious, kiddos, as it's all pretend, it's all pretense). So, now I'm not sure what I'll do. I guess I'll figure it out when I reach the end of Chapter One. Also, I have considered inserting the Caitlín R. Kiernan construct as "the editor" of Sarah Crowe's journal, which means that I would be writing the prologue, afterword, and foot/endnotes as "me."
I sat out in the sun a bit yesterday, when all the writing was done, just loving the warmth, dozing, soaking up a little Vitamin D. The sun so rarely touches my skin.
Some reader questions now. First![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
eldritch00 writes, "Question about the new Penguin paperback reissues: were all of those novels revised? I remember that Threshold was." Here's how it works: Silk was extensively revised for the mass-market paperback Threshold was revised, but not as much as was Silk. Both Low Red Moon and Murder of Angels received minor edits (more in the former than the latter). Daughter of Hounds will receive almost no revision at all (in part, this is because it doesn't need it, and, in part, because I don't have time).
eldritch00 also asked about the Table of Contents for A is for Alien, and I reply it will probably look something like this (the order of the stories is likely to change):
“Riding the White Bull”
“Zero Summer”
“A Season of Broken Dolls”
“Faces in Revolving Souls”
“The Pearl Diver”
“In View of Nothing”
“Ode to Katan Amano”
“Bradbury Weather”
And, remember, a FREE e-edition of The Dry Salvages will be released by Subterranean Press to coincide with the release of A is for Alien. Also, this from MySpace reader Kate La Trobe:
I always read your blog with interest - have done for years, from London, Holland, the States...wherever I am... and your books of course. You're an incredible inspiration. My favourite is Low Red Moon which I read over many coffees in Amsterdam...am now reading and very much enjoying my recently-acquired Murder of Angels. In Montana! Isn't it great that your work is everywhere?! I always find your books, wherever I am. Usually in shops, and if not, I ask them about your titles and get them to order it in. And there's always Amazon if the worst comes to the worst. Thanks for being fabulously talented. You're enjoyed worldwide.
See? This is what does not make the "Baby Jesus" cry. Yes! I can find your books.
More Millennium last night. Episodes Three and Four. Many more pages of House of Leaves And that was yesterday. Tonight, we get Byron and new Doctor Who and another new Battlestar Galactica. And no, this wasn't a short entry...
* extoll may, indeed, be spelled with two L's, and, to me, extol looks like the name of a neotenic tiger salamander or Aztec god.
Yesterday, I began and finished the second section of Chapter One of The Red Tree. A total of 1,346 words, so a very good writing day. At least, as regards the number of words written. Already, I am struggling with doubts. Somehow, the text does not seem as solid, as dense, as detailed, as authentic as it needs to feel. This may all be in my mind, I do not know. I see now that this chapter will likely have four sections. I'll begin the third this afternoon.
And yesterday I had two readers tell me that they find endnotes more distracting than footnotes. So, there you go. I've had readers, in the past, extoll* the horrors of footnotes, that they are distracting, destroy the flow of text, and (gasp) feel pretentious (it's all pretentious, kiddos, as it's all pretend, it's all pretense). So, now I'm not sure what I'll do. I guess I'll figure it out when I reach the end of Chapter One. Also, I have considered inserting the Caitlín R. Kiernan construct as "the editor" of Sarah Crowe's journal, which means that I would be writing the prologue, afterword, and foot/endnotes as "me."
I sat out in the sun a bit yesterday, when all the writing was done, just loving the warmth, dozing, soaking up a little Vitamin D. The sun so rarely touches my skin.
Some reader questions now. First
eldritch00 writes, "Question about the new Penguin paperback reissues: were all of those novels revised? I remember that Threshold was." Here's how it works: Silk was extensively revised for the mass-market paperback Threshold was revised, but not as much as was Silk. Both Low Red Moon and Murder of Angels received minor edits (more in the former than the latter). Daughter of Hounds will receive almost no revision at all (in part, this is because it doesn't need it, and, in part, because I don't have time).eldritch00 also asked about the Table of Contents for A is for Alien, and I reply it will probably look something like this (the order of the stories is likely to change):“Riding the White Bull”
“Zero Summer”
“A Season of Broken Dolls”
“Faces in Revolving Souls”
“The Pearl Diver”
“In View of Nothing”
“Ode to Katan Amano”
“Bradbury Weather”
And, remember, a FREE e-edition of The Dry Salvages will be released by Subterranean Press to coincide with the release of A is for Alien. Also, this from MySpace reader Kate La Trobe:
I always read your blog with interest - have done for years, from London, Holland, the States...wherever I am... and your books of course. You're an incredible inspiration. My favourite is Low Red Moon which I read over many coffees in Amsterdam...am now reading and very much enjoying my recently-acquired Murder of Angels. In Montana! Isn't it great that your work is everywhere?! I always find your books, wherever I am. Usually in shops, and if not, I ask them about your titles and get them to order it in. And there's always Amazon if the worst comes to the worst. Thanks for being fabulously talented. You're enjoyed worldwide.
See? This is what does not make the "Baby Jesus" cry. Yes! I can find your books.
More Millennium last night. Episodes Three and Four. Many more pages of House of Leaves And that was yesterday. Tonight, we get Byron and new Doctor Who and another new Battlestar Galactica. And no, this wasn't a short entry...
* extoll may, indeed, be spelled with two L's, and, to me, extol looks like the name of a neotenic tiger salamander or Aztec god.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2008-04-18 04:48 pm (UTC)It is not my intent to complicate your life. I can deal with endnotes.
Also, I have considered inserting the Caitlín R. Kiernan construct as "the editor" of Sarah Crowe's journal, which means that I would be writing the prologue, afterword, and foot/endnotes as "me."
I will make sacrifice to Pale Fire for you. Wonderful!
no subject
Date: 2008-04-18 06:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-04-18 06:10 pm (UTC)Now, now. Sacrifices to Nabokov are not yet necessary. Maybe later...
no subject
Date: 2008-04-18 04:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-04-18 06:11 pm (UTC)And would the Baby Elvis cry less if I told you that at least one fan specifically looks for your books at the local bookstores, buys them all up, and then gives them out to friends?
This makes the ghost of "baby Krishna" very, very happy.
no subject
Date: 2008-04-18 05:03 pm (UTC)Here's another possibility to consider: non-notes at the end of each chapter, a la the "selected reading" that some scholars stick at the end of textbook or monograph chapters.
If you endnote, is there any chance you'd simply put page & line numbers in the notes, and leave endnote numbers out of the text itself?
I hope all that helped, or at least, didn't hurt.
no subject
Date: 2008-04-18 06:08 pm (UTC)If you put in endnotes, I'll read them. I won't like them, me, but I'll read them. I've always felt that endnotes were a horror because that number... that little number... tantalizing and teasing... will pull me out of the narrative and make me flip through the book and maybe lose the thread of the story. Fiction that's footnoted is inherently distracting (which can be both good and fun, I think), so why not integrate these secondary narratives into more of a visual patchwork by putting them on the page?
Hmmmm. I'm still pondering....
Here's another possibility to consider: non-notes at the end of each chapter, a la the "selected reading" that some scholars stick at the end of textbook or monograph chapters.
I may do this in addition to foot/endnotes.
If you endnote, is there any chance you'd simply put page & line numbers in the notes, and leave endnote numbers out of the text itself?
I don't think I've ever seen a book do that. It seems extremely irritating.
no subject
Date: 2008-04-18 06:24 pm (UTC)I've rarely seen it in monographs--once in a great while (no sample titles off the top of my head). Where I have seen it, repeatedly, is in commentaries on Classical texts or in "critical editions" of literary works with commentaries included along with the text.
no subject
Date: 2008-04-18 05:14 pm (UTC)I harp, harpingly
Date: 2008-04-18 05:28 pm (UTC)(And a less serious suggestion, made because I wouldn't be the one writing it: try writing a footnoted short story, see how a story flows in that context. Heck, it might be possible to make a really footnoted story funny, by the sheer number of footnotes.)
I'll put in a vote for footnotes, for what it's worth. (I thought they were a worthwhile addition to Eaters of the Dead.)
Speaking of footnotes! Here's something footnoted. You'll like this: the Xena filk "I Am the Very Model of a Heroine Barbarian (http://www-users.cs.york.ac.uk/~susan/sf/filk/xena.htm)"...
Re: I harp, harpingly
Date: 2008-04-18 06:05 pm (UTC)Though I have often send unfinished or unpublished stories to other writers for their general opinions, I'd likely never, at this stage of my career, ask another writer to help me make a decision of this magnitude. If the book should tank, I want to be able to blame no one but myself (or the publisher for not promoting it, or readers who are idiots, or...). Likewise, I refuse to offer this sort of advice to other authors.
Re: I harp, harpingly
Date: 2008-04-18 06:12 pm (UTC)So there
Date: 2008-04-18 05:47 pm (UTC)Why did I see SILK in the horror section, but DAUGHTER OF HOUNDS in the fantasy/science fiction section?
Re: So there
Date: 2008-04-18 05:58 pm (UTC)Why did I see SILK in the horror section, but DAUGHTER OF HOUNDS in the fantasy/science fiction section?
There are a number of possibilities:
1) In some ways, Silk is closer to being a traditional "horror" novel (whatever that is) than is Daughter of Hounds. However, this supposition requires that the people working at the bookshop stopped to think about the whole matter, which seems unlikely to the point that I'll dismiss it out of hand.
2) Randomness.
3) The cover of Silk (I assume we're talking about the new mmp) bears blurbs by other three writers often saddled with the "horror" writer tag: Clive, Poppy, and Peter. The cover of Daughter of Hounds bears a single blurb from another author, one from Neil, who is generally viewed as a "fantasy" author.
4) When the people who order books for bookshops ("buyers," I think they are called) are being courted by a publisher, cover flats are sent out, with bullet points detailing why this book would sell to readers. A bullet point on the mmp cover flap for Silk is that it won the International Horror Guild Award for Best First Novel. I do not presently have access to a cover flat for the tpb of Daughter of Hounds, but it won no awards for being misperceieved as a "horror" novel
These are all guesses, of course.
pursuant to the matter of availability
Date: 2008-04-18 06:25 pm (UTC){rf}
no subject
Date: 2008-04-18 06:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-04-18 08:49 pm (UTC)But, of course, I'm pretentious.
As are we all, I fear.
no subject
Date: 2008-04-18 08:38 pm (UTC)http://www.amazon.com/Murder-Angels-Caitlin-R-Kiernan/dp/0451461827/ (http://www.amazon.com/Murder-Angels-Caitlin-R-Kiernan/dp/0451461827/)
no subject
Date: 2008-04-18 08:48 pm (UTC)Looks like Amazon finally got its head out of its ass:
Thank you! I shall note this in the journal tomorrow.
footnote v. endnote death match
Date: 2008-04-19 04:28 am (UTC)However, I feel fairly safe in saying that all of us here are going to buy this book, read it, and love it no matter what you decide to do. :)
no subject
Date: 2008-04-22 02:21 am (UTC)