TDG CEM Day 9
Sep. 23rd, 2011 01:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
greygirlbeastI believe I have a new motto. Which would be more interesting if I could recall what the old one was. Anyway, "However bad you think things are, they're probably much worse."
Words to live by.
And yes, ladies and gentlemen, kittens near and far, it is possible to spend nine days on a novel's CEM, and still not be finished. Which is to say that today will be Day 10. Yesterday was Day 9. And it was the very height of tedium. Today, I believe I begin descending the slopes of Mount Taediosus. But yesterday, I worked on the "Back Pages" for The Drowning Girl: A Memoir, correcting, adding words, subtracting words. Then I went over the Author's Note again and made a lot of changes and additions. Then I threw out the old authors' biography that Penguin had used, exchanging it for a much better and inclusive (or comprehensive) one. Today will be the last actual day spent on the CEM, but it likely won't go back in the mail to NYC until Monday.
And I promise you this, someday there will be an expnaded hardcover edition of The Drowning Girl: A Memoir, complete with color plates. Even if I have to use Kickstarter to fund it myself.
Also had a good conversation last night with Lee Moyer, who did the marvelous cover for Two Worlds and In Between, and who will be doing the cover for Confessions of a Five-Chambered Heart.
Also, yesterday was a good mail day. To start with, I somewhat inexplicably received two contributors' copies of Blood and Other Cravings, edited by![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
ellen_datlow, inexplicable because I didn't actually contribute a story to the anthology, though the cover letter from Mr. Frenkel at Tor assures me that I did. But, regardless, it looks like a fantastic anthology, and I am glad to have copies. Maybe they slipped in from an alternate universe. Also, my thanks to Steven Lubold for sending me a copy of Colin Meloy's Wildwood (illustrated by Carson Ellis). I'm thinking this may be next month's book for the book of the month thingy. Also, my great thanks to Jada and Katharine for Loch Ness souvenirs from their recent trip to Scotland!
There is this matter of Arthur Machen which I mentioned yesterday, then promised to explain today. So, I shall. In the summer of 2008, I wrote an introduction for Bloodletting Press' Machen collection, The Great God Pan and Other Weird Stories. It was a lot of work, and I'm still grateful to Peter Straub for his guidance. So, I turned in my introduction, and was thanked by the publisher. A year or so passed. I heard no news of the book. Finally, I googled it, and there it was on the Bloodletting Press website, for sale, complete with my introduction. I emailed the publisher, and was told that yes, the book was in print, but that it didn't actually include my introduction – as I'd gotten it in too late. This last bit was never mentioned when I turned in the intro, but whatever. They sent me a copy of the book (but no check), I asked them to take my name off the page selling to book, and I put the affair behind me. The introduction remained unpublished. Then S. T. Joshi, who'd edited the volume for Bloodletting, asked me to write an introduction for another collection of Machen's work, this one to be released by Centipede Press. So, that essay on Arthur Machen I wrote three years before was dusted off and will appear in the forthcoming Centipede Press volume of Machen. I've just received the signature pages. I think it will also include an afterword by T. E. D. Klein (unless my piece is appearing as the afterword, and Klein's piece is the introduction; either way). I'll let you know when it's available for preorder, but I know the book's supposed to be out in 2012.
---
Last night, spaghetti. Good RP in Insilico. And we finished Season One of Mad Men, which is truly and actually a terrific series.
And now I must away, to try and finish.
Not in Maine,
Aunt Beast
Postscript: Remember when Wikipedia was sort of fun – good geeky, useful fun – and anyone who wasn't a drooling idiot could help out? When that was, in fact, the point of Wikipedia? Those days seem to have passed us by. Which is to say, you're now a stodgy old coot, Wikipedia, so wrapped up in being THE BEST AND MOST ACCURATE that you've forgotten the point of it all.
Words to live by.
And yes, ladies and gentlemen, kittens near and far, it is possible to spend nine days on a novel's CEM, and still not be finished. Which is to say that today will be Day 10. Yesterday was Day 9. And it was the very height of tedium. Today, I believe I begin descending the slopes of Mount Taediosus. But yesterday, I worked on the "Back Pages" for The Drowning Girl: A Memoir, correcting, adding words, subtracting words. Then I went over the Author's Note again and made a lot of changes and additions. Then I threw out the old authors' biography that Penguin had used, exchanging it for a much better and inclusive (or comprehensive) one. Today will be the last actual day spent on the CEM, but it likely won't go back in the mail to NYC until Monday.
And I promise you this, someday there will be an expnaded hardcover edition of The Drowning Girl: A Memoir, complete with color plates. Even if I have to use Kickstarter to fund it myself.
Also had a good conversation last night with Lee Moyer, who did the marvelous cover for Two Worlds and In Between, and who will be doing the cover for Confessions of a Five-Chambered Heart.
Also, yesterday was a good mail day. To start with, I somewhat inexplicably received two contributors' copies of Blood and Other Cravings, edited by
ellen_datlow, inexplicable because I didn't actually contribute a story to the anthology, though the cover letter from Mr. Frenkel at Tor assures me that I did. But, regardless, it looks like a fantastic anthology, and I am glad to have copies. Maybe they slipped in from an alternate universe. Also, my thanks to Steven Lubold for sending me a copy of Colin Meloy's Wildwood (illustrated by Carson Ellis). I'm thinking this may be next month's book for the book of the month thingy. Also, my great thanks to Jada and Katharine for Loch Ness souvenirs from their recent trip to Scotland!There is this matter of Arthur Machen which I mentioned yesterday, then promised to explain today. So, I shall. In the summer of 2008, I wrote an introduction for Bloodletting Press' Machen collection, The Great God Pan and Other Weird Stories. It was a lot of work, and I'm still grateful to Peter Straub for his guidance. So, I turned in my introduction, and was thanked by the publisher. A year or so passed. I heard no news of the book. Finally, I googled it, and there it was on the Bloodletting Press website, for sale, complete with my introduction. I emailed the publisher, and was told that yes, the book was in print, but that it didn't actually include my introduction – as I'd gotten it in too late. This last bit was never mentioned when I turned in the intro, but whatever. They sent me a copy of the book (but no check), I asked them to take my name off the page selling to book, and I put the affair behind me. The introduction remained unpublished. Then S. T. Joshi, who'd edited the volume for Bloodletting, asked me to write an introduction for another collection of Machen's work, this one to be released by Centipede Press. So, that essay on Arthur Machen I wrote three years before was dusted off and will appear in the forthcoming Centipede Press volume of Machen. I've just received the signature pages. I think it will also include an afterword by T. E. D. Klein (unless my piece is appearing as the afterword, and Klein's piece is the introduction; either way). I'll let you know when it's available for preorder, but I know the book's supposed to be out in 2012.
---
Last night, spaghetti. Good RP in Insilico. And we finished Season One of Mad Men, which is truly and actually a terrific series.
And now I must away, to try and finish.
Not in Maine,
Aunt Beast
Postscript: Remember when Wikipedia was sort of fun – good geeky, useful fun – and anyone who wasn't a drooling idiot could help out? When that was, in fact, the point of Wikipedia? Those days seem to have passed us by. Which is to say, you're now a stodgy old coot, Wikipedia, so wrapped up in being THE BEST AND MOST ACCURATE that you've forgotten the point of it all.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2011-09-23 05:59 pm (UTC)What great news! I really cannot wait for it since the stories comprising it are the group of Sirenia Digest tales I have not read. Patience, patience.
Coincidentally I was going to order the Arcane Wisdom imprint HC edition of Machen's The Great God Pan and Other Weird Stories because the TOC still lists you as authoring the foreword. Thanks for the head's up as I would have put out $60 for it only to discover Centipede Press is releasing an edition signed by you that actually contains the foreword!
p.s. Centipede Press should have had you do the foreword to their gorgeous Algernon Blackwood Master of the Weird Tale volume, you would have knocked that one OUT.
no subject
Date: 2011-09-23 06:01 pm (UTC)What great news!
I think we make a great team.
the TOC still lists you as authoring the foreword.
What?! Okay...this is bullshit, and I'll see if I can vaporize it.
p.s. Centipede Press should have had you do the foreword to their gorgeous Algernon Blackwood Master of the Weird Tale volume, you would have knocked that one OUT.
I would love that opportunity.
no subject
Date: 2011-09-23 06:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-09-23 06:02 pm (UTC)Have you read Mark Valentine's biography of AM? A bit brief, but good.
I haven't. But I should.
no subject
Date: 2011-09-23 06:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-09-23 06:41 pm (UTC)If you don't mind parting with it and the postage, that would be very generous.
no subject
Date: 2011-09-23 06:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-09-23 06:37 pm (UTC)Hell is always further to fall.
no subject
Date: 2011-09-23 06:42 pm (UTC)Hell is always further to fall.
Black holes are a good model.
no subject
Date: 2011-09-23 06:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-09-23 07:11 pm (UTC)I will say that Arcane Wisdom was nice about giving me a refund when I returned their book because it didn't actually contain your piece. But, yeah, they really should take that off their website already.
Agreed, and agreed.
no subject
Date: 2011-09-23 06:55 pm (UTC)I was just going to put in a hopeful question about this. I'm thrilled to hear it! Those Zulli paintings...
Congratulations on the airing (airing-out?) of the Machen essay! I've been seriously needing to brush up on my Blackwood, Machen, et al., and Centipede Press' books look exceedingly elegant. I can't wait for the release announcement.
Separately, something I'd been wanting to ask about for a while, if you ever have the inclination to answer: how/how often do you re-read your journal? I'm always curious about how people interact with their written records and other mementos.
no subject
Date: 2011-09-23 07:13 pm (UTC)I was just going to put in a hopeful question about this. I'm thrilled to hear it! Those Zulli paintings...
I'd probably on;y need to raise about...$25,000.
if you ever have the inclination to answer: how/how often do you re-read your journal?
Part of my morning ritual is to read over the entries for that day all the way back to 2004, when I began the LJ account. So, yes.
no subject
Date: 2011-09-23 07:00 pm (UTC)I have the edition with the Greg Bear intro, actually I have three different editions of that story, and I love all three covers.
no subject
Date: 2011-09-23 07:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-09-24 02:48 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-09-23 08:52 pm (UTC)That reminds me of the profound almost last words of Alfred Packer in the cinematic classic, "Cannibal the Musical":
http://youtu.be/Q3aHzvBIo6A
It's kind of disturbing how often circumstances in my life bring that scene to mind and make me want to do just that.
no subject
Date: 2011-09-23 09:03 pm (UTC)"Cannibal the Musical":
I was not even aware of this.
no subject
Date: 2011-09-23 09:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-09-23 09:50 pm (UTC)I'm very fond of musicals, pre-1980s.
no subject
Date: 2011-09-24 12:06 am (UTC)P.S. If you see it, watch for the aliens. *grins* Even then Trey Parker had a thing for aliens.
no subject
Date: 2011-09-23 09:20 pm (UTC)I think you were working with "A plan is just a list of things that don't happen."
Also, my thanks to Steven Lubold for sending me a copy of Colin Meloy's Wildwood (illustrated by Carson Ellis). I'm thinking this may be next month's book for the book of the month thingy
Wow, I didn't even know that existed, I'll be looking out for this.
no subject
Date: 2011-09-23 09:50 pm (UTC)I think you were working with "A plan is just a list of things that don't happen."
I do believe you're right.
no subject
Date: 2011-09-24 01:01 am (UTC)I wonder what sort of story the Alternate-Aunt Beast would have submitted?
no subject
Date: 2011-09-24 01:36 am (UTC)I wonder what sort of story the Alternate-Aunt Beast would have submitted?
Vomiting would have been involved.