June 17, 2008

Pegasus II  coming in 2014
Shadows coming in 2013

Can’t Do It All Woman

 Drat.

            I know, I do my little tap dance about having to spend less time blogging with some regularity.  Although I haven’t done it in a while* because I got tired of listening to myself say I’m going to alter my evil ways and then promptly fail to change anything.  But . . .

            My life was out of control before I started the blog last October, as anyone who’s gone back to the beginning, way back on lj, knows.  I started by saying I didn’t have time for a blog.  I didn’t.  I don’t. 

            I was already taking piano lessons, last October.  But then I started composing.**   When this was only within a prescribed and specific few notes, time and key signature, it was merely an interesting little blip on my playing time.  But it’s taken hold.  Like a short story turning into a novel.*** 

            And now I’ve started riding again?†

            Meanwhile this week I’ve reluctantly decided that I have to put PEGASUS aside for long enough to pull my FIRE stories into final form so we can send them all off the end of the summer.††  I also have to think about getting the web site transformed to announce CHALICE, which I would like to do in the next month or so.†††  Not that I’m going to be doing any of the work‡, but I have to decide what I want to ask for, and then suffer through the whole gruesome process of trying to understand what my webmaster is telling me about what’s possible and what isn’t.  But the theory was–that’s was, that’s past tense–that I was going to have started revising the web site text towards doing some kind of global reorganization:  the poor thing just grew in all directions and I never did get around to a master plan, and it shows . . . but I haven’t been doing that either because I’m spending too much of my that-kind-of-writing energy and too much of my time writing this blog.

            And then . . . the galleys of the paperback of DRAGONHAVEN hit my doorstep.‡‡  Yesterday.  Bang.  And, as is always the way, I have about ten days to get them read.  You think ten days sounds like plenty?  Ha.  Reading your own galleys is always excruciating, because all you can see is all the story stuff that it’s too late to change . . . and you keep trying to jerk your mind back to the awful question of typos, or, worse–and more terrifying–the possibility of entire lines or paragraphs left out, which–yes–happens, and which is usually something Only You the Author would catch, and what if you’re busy having a nervous breakdown and don’t notice?‡‡‡   Galleys are hell.§  Galleys for a reissue of an old novel aren’t quite so lacerating–you can tell yourself that you’ve learnt better and you wouldn’t make this or that appalling error of tone or development or style now–but DRAGONHAVEN is still way too fresh in my life and memory. 

            So in the short term I simply have to blog less.  So there will be more photos, more links, more recipes.§§

            And in the long term . . . maybe being short in the short term will teach me to be short.  We live in hope.

            And now . . . this isn’t short.§§§  But I’ve still got two hours till midnight to read proofs, and that’s what counts.

           

* * *

* Really I should though.  I might forget the steps.^

^  Nah.

** I had–I took–two hours at the piano today.  One to play, one to compose.  It was delicious.  It was also too short. 

*** I wrote the intro to Song II today.  Fiddled–er, pianoed–around with the join between the new introduction and the old beginning of the song for quite a while.  And there’s the whole balance thing–just like expanding a short story–what was long enough when it was a short story is now probably either no longer long enough or has become subsidiary.  Song II is as long as its verses, so my remit for any instrumental bits must be that they . . . as you might say, harmonise.  It’s an interesting–new–discipline, since as a writer who keeps writing novels when she meant to be writing short stories I obviously don’t write to given length very well.  I wonder if this is at all what it’s like doing illustrations?  Where the story is already the story and anything you do must be grounded in or brought back to it.

† Lesson Two today went much better than I deserved.  I’d warned Jenny that my legs were only semi-functional and maybe we should concentrate on nice square halts^.  And we did in fact do a lot of nice square halts . . . and the surprising thing is they were.  Nice and square.  And halted.  But we also did the other stuff we did last week–perhaps not quite as much of some of it–and it was all better organised.  No doubt my instincts are struggling to return but have I mentioned in the last five minutes what a nice horse Connie is?  She’s also obviously trying to adapt to her new rider.

            She’s also a funny old thing, as horses often are.  In the schooling ring she was all business^^ but it’s about a 100-yard walk from her stall to the ring and back again and by golly we were looking for bears.  Horse-for-sale, Jenny says, has settled back down again, so I’m thinking he’s passed the I’m a Three Year Old Juvenile Delinquent parasite on to Connie.  I’m hoping she’ll have passed it on to some other harmless creature by Saturday when I have to take her out into the tiger- and pig-infested countryside by ourselves.

^ Yes I know you still need your legs for nice square halts, but you don’t have to whisk+ them back and forth quite so quickly as for, say, change of leg at the canter, except not in Connie’s case, you just think about the other direction and she obeys telepathically.  But I’m an old dressage girl, and I believe you have to ask properly.

+ Whisking is relative.  We’re talking an inch or two here:  in front of the girth, behind the girth.  But it’s a precision thing, and precision requires muscle

^^ Well nearly.  There were those intimidating flowers on the far side of the ring, and those threatening Large Black Rubber Objects that appear to be part of a fence (a fence to jump, I mean) but are not at all to be trusted when leaning nonchalantly against the outside of the ring.

†† Anybody new to this blog:  Peter and I are supposed to be doing a series of short story collections about elemental spirits, not just the single one we did for WATER.  I’ve written three novels that started life as FIRE stories:  SUNSHINE, DRAGONHAVEN and CHALICE.  With reference to not writing to length too well.  But I’ve now written two short stories that will remain short stories.  Although I admit I would like to write a novel about what happens next in Hellhound [sic].

††† I’m unconvinced that you want to put up your banners too early.  Then people get excited long before the book exists, and have become jaded before they can buy it.

Shudder

‡‡ Somebody couldn’t have *&^%$£”+={]¬!!!!!!! warned me?!?  I mean, yes, if it’s coming out in September, the galleys would be turning up some time around now.  But I still feel a heads up would have been nice.

‡‡‡ I told you all this about reading galleys for CHALICE, right?  Well, I’ll tell you all of it again, next galleys too.  Galleys have this effect.  You don’t get used to it.

§ Many things about publishing are hell.

§§ Which will make Hannah happy.

§§§ Rats.  You noticed.

comments

Please join the discussion at Robin McKinley's Web Forum.

Comment by Anonymous

******** And now . . . this isn’t short.§§§ But I’ve still got two hours till midnight to read proofs, and that’s what counts.

Glad you’re “fitting in” the quality of life stuff – composing, riding, peter (lol) etc which all inform the writing. Hey, the writing is why we’re all here, so no apologies needed, the blog is great, but the books are what counts, so any photos, links, etc gratefully received, and go look after yourself

… shovels wagon load of green & black’s into small cyber cupboard again!

Comment by Robin

Thank you, whoever you are! :)

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Comment by Southdowner

southdowner here – Sorry to be anonymous, the computer ate my name tag :(

Proper computer not coming home anytime soon, so trying to cope with internet explorersaurus in the meantime; the dogs are happy as whenever I get frustrated I grab a couple for a walk round the block :)

Comment by Robin

It may be you more than usual, but I think WordPress eats name tags.

the dogs are happy as whenever I get frustrated I grab a couple for a walk round the block :)

********* i’d look into the bully/computer interface, if I were you. :)

 
 
Comment by Southdowner

AAARRGHH!! You don’t think there’s any connection do you? Even worse combination than bully/greyhound! (which I’d prefer with wiry hair, tho I do like arawachs (?sp) and sloughis which are shortcoat but amazing)

I’m taking a friend to look at puppies this week, and starting to get broody – well it IS nearly 3 years since I had puppies around.. And NO!!! I’m definitely not increasing my horde – enough is an elegant sufficiency, as someone must have said :)

Comment by Robin

Then bully/deerhound! :)

Oooh . . . puppies. :)

 
 
Comment by Southdowner

Yes, if I had a bully/lurcher I think it would have to be deerhound… WHAT AM I SAYING????

No, not until I have 5 dogs or less, and I hope (for 8 fur covered reasons,) that that doesn’t come soon but I’ll let you know as soon as I start searching for my own “little” hellbeastie :)

Puppy chosen today, and friend collecting him in two weeks, so name-choosing taking over. He’s large, potentially shaggy, darkish brindle and very friendly to cats, people horses and dogs… Photos depend on my getting computer back this week, but I did take loads :)

Comment by Robin

You’re saying that you ned a bully/deerhound lurcher. Next question. :)

 
 
 
 
Comment by jmeadows

Hah! Yes, I had noticed that your entries tend Not To Be Short…especially the entries you mention that you need to spend less time on the blog. *grin*

 
Comment by Anonymous

You didn’t make any errors in Dragonhaven. It is lovely. Really.

Comment by Robin

THANK YOU. It’s a very sore point with me that it didn’t even make the ALA Best Books for Teenage list. I think most singular prizes are pretty bogus–not that it’s not nice to win one occasionally–but I’m kind of a believer in lists. And I know that my teenage boy voice is ‘controversial’–although I’ve also had a very gratifying stream of readers telling me that I got Jake right–and the truth is *I* think I got him right–but I was still very shaken DRAGON didn’t get on that list.

You’ve come through anonymous . . . sigh . . . who are you?

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Comment by Melissa Siah

That wasn’t me.

But it’s true, there are no errors in Dragonhaven. It took me back to that hideous unable-to-sleep-must-check-sick-bird-one-more-time period in my life before I gave up the aviary. And the scars on Jake’s stomach made me look for the mostly faded ones that used to cover my hands. It turns out that mostly wild lovebirds don’t like being put in a small hospital cage and handled twice a day. And they want you to know it.

And b_twin_1 below is right. We’ll be here when you have a bit of time for us again.

Comment by Robin

THANK YOU.

I think most of us who’ve had animals can relate. If you take care of them *properly* it does get obsessive–or what the rest of the world calls obsessive. And in Jake’s case, well, he has the personality AND the world really IS out to get him and his dragons.

 
 
Comment by librarykat

I think the problem with the BBYA (Best Books for Young Adults) committee (speaking as one who served on that committee many years ago) is, despite our charge to look at a book without considering the author’s past books, that too many librarians DO weigh the nominated book’s merits vis-a-vis the author’s past books. The fact that you did something quite different in Dragonhaven probably threw a lot of them for a loop. It’s an unfortunate fact that we are faulty human beings who can’t always do what we’re supposed to do. I had to force myself to look at books just for themselves when I served on BBYA, then again a decade later when I served on the Printz Award committee. It’s difficult. I do wish more committee members would have been able to look at Dragonhaven for its own wonderful self.
BTW, I was on the Printz committee that gave Peter the Printz Honor for Ropemaker.

Comment by Robin

I do wish more committee members would have been able to look at Dragonhaven for its own wonderful self.

********* I’m afraid one of my pet peeves is reader assumptions that a writer who has done one thing is going to keep on doing it. You keep yourself *alive* by doing DIFFERENT things. And I frankly think there is *no excuse* for professional people on a committee for not being able to see past their assumptions.

 
 
 
 
Comment by b_twin_1

Okaaaaaay.
Take a deep breath. Let it out sloooooowly.
Take a piece of lardy cake and eat it sloooowly. (May involve fending off verrrrry interested hellhounds.)

Smell the roses.

We’ll still be here even if you miss a day or two :)

::hugs::

Comment by Robin

:)

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Comment by spindriftdancer

Totally, completely, absolutely. I try not to check every day, or comment every day, because… you have a life! A very full and interesting one, which I like peeking into every once in a while to see what you’re thinking about or doing (or writing- btw, you keep mentioning names of stories/books… is there anywhere where you give a synopsis of what they’re about? The anticipation is killing me :)

If you only posted even once a week we would be completely satisfied and happy. Honestly! (: This kind of open communication allowed by the Internet is awesome, but also overwhelming. Just ’cause we think you’re interesting and cool doesn’t mean we need to hear from you *every* *day*… (Just a bee in your ear, per se)

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Comment by Robin

The dailiness gives it a momentum that as I am a trifle . . . disorganised, is very useful. I don’t know what I’ll end up doing, but I’ll end up . . . doing something. :)

 
Comment by spindriftdancer

Okies(: We will await your… eventual… decision(: Until then, it gives me a nice way to wind down after a long and boring day at work. (:

 
 
 
Comment by FatFred

I got Chalice on my Recommended list at Amazon already.
U.S. Amazon.

Comment by Robin

Yaay! :)

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Comment by rachel

Yes, I’ve pre-ordered it and am waiting impatiently… and I’m so glad the website is going to be updated soon! I have been stressing out a little, checking it often– I respect the theory of book-coming-soon announcement oversaturation, but in my experience when I hear something as exciting as “Did you HEAR that Robin McKinley has a new BOOK coming out??” the first place I check for verification is the author’s website. What if there are many McKinley fans out there who only check the website? Even if they read your blog occasionally, it’s not as if in every post you say “by the way, Chalice coming in September…”
Probably I shouldn’t lie awake at night worrying about the poor ignorant multitudes who have not yet learned that you have a new book coming out.
But I do.

Comment by Robin
 
 
 
 
Comment by Susan from Athens

Yes, you can’t do it all. Don’t worry so much about it – neither can we. So miss a day – we’ll catch up on comments. You’ve spoiled us. (We’re having fun so thank you).

I understand about the galleys. I am now doing a final – post scientific editor – re-read of my psychiatry project. Eeek! Mostly I’m quite happy, but despite all the work and all the re-writing and edits and research, I still find some odd turns of phrase, some details to tweak, some errors to correct. Why didn’t I see THAT before? Well, I didn’t, I’m seeing it now. And however many times I take it over, I will still not be satisfied entirely. Sigh. And the sun also rises. Soon.

Off to bed (after checking out some more sorbet recipes). You have me on the research hunt. I will return (like a cat) to leave something on your doorstep…. *grin with lots of teeth showing*

Comment by Robin

Why didn’t I see THAT before?

********* That’s one of those ‘engrave on my tombstone’ things, like ‘there must have been an easier way’ (and ‘she was slow at backstroke’).

I’m COLLECTING sorbet recipes. *Go* for it. :) (I still want you to make the butter one and tell us what the texture is like.)

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Comment by skating librarian

Roses have exploded here (heat followed by rain) as have weeds and mosquitos.

I’m thinking Rose Petal Sorbet …

and the lavender is blooming … time to see if I can do gluten free lavender shortbread.

You see, we do have lives, and if you can’t blog now and again, Pollyanna’s book list and the recipes give us something with which to amuse ourselves until things become less fraught for you.

I’m sorry I haven’t figured out the RSS feed comments … you may be amused that a friend is using your blog as a tool to help her learn about WordPress … for she too has been strongly encouraged to add a blog to the things she does to promote the services she offers (reference librarian).

 
Comment by Elizabeth B

Take care of yourself; the blog can wait. Glad Peter is back and you had a nice conversation over dinner. Glad you are riding again. In spite of sounding run off your pegs, you sound pretty happy. It’s good to see.

Yes, lardy cakes for stress relief. Says the woman who’s gained almost TEN POUNDS in the last few weeks. Must lay off the sweets. :(

 
Comment by Black Bear

Peter and I are supposed to be doing a series of short story collections about elemental spirits, not just the single one we did for WATER.

Will the third one be “DIRT”? :) I think I have a dirt elemental living on my back porch at the moment…

WATER was thoroughly enjoyable; you and Peter’s styles both contrast and compliment each other very nicely. We’ll look forward to FIRE, whenever we see it.

Comment by Robin

Well, yes, although we rather romantically call it ‘earth’. :)

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Comment by Black Bear

“Dirt Elemental” lets you cast your net a good deal wider, though. Those guys can pop up anyplace, not just in newly plowed fields and mountainous outcroppings. I also like the phrase “Soil elemental.” One might find those in the potting shed.

Comment by Robin

. . . And the hellhound crate. Especially after they’ve been ‘helping’ me garden.

 
 
 
 
Comment by judy-in-ny

The person who should be looking for missing lines in the paperback edition is the proofreader. Line by line, word by word. Also correcting any errors that crept into original edition and weren’t caught. Tell your editor to get on it!

Comment by Robin

Oh DON’T get me started . . . especially at 1 a.m. . . .

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Comment by Q

Now, remind me why you can’t join a choir again?

Just kidding.

Off to find Dragonhaven.

Comment by Robin

BECAUSE THEY WOULDN’T WANT ME.

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Comment by Q

Oh, you’re just scared. I’m sure you could find a choir to take you.

Comment by Robin

No, it would be the CHOIR that would be scared.

 
 
Comment by Q

But you’re scared too, I just KNOW it. If I started a choir, I’d let you be in it.

Comment by Robin

Of course I’m scared! I have a voice like a cat whose tail is being twisted!

 
 
 
 
Comment by Judith

*****Reading your own galleys is always excruciating, because all you can see is all the story stuff that it’s too late to change . . . and you keep trying to jerk your mind back to the awful question of typos, or, worse–and more terrifying–the possibility of entire lines or paragraphs left out, which–yes–happens, and which is usually something Only You the Author would catch, and what if you’re busy having a nervous breakdown and don’t notice?*****

In one of my old jobs, we used to to proofreading by having one person take the original and read it out loud to another person, who was reading the new copy and checking for accuracy. Tedious, but the most likely way to catch errors. Sounds like something a friend (or even, dare I say, a husband) could be asked to do, perhaps in return for dinner and the pleasure of your company. I’d volunteer if I lived close by.

Do things ever change substantively ON PURPOSE between the hardcover and the paperback? I’ve always been troubled by this nagging feeling that the hardbound and the paperback copies of “Deerskin” are slightly different in the accounts of Lissar’s return to the hut in the mountains after she leaves Ossin. Specifically, I always “misremember” whether the note she left (“Thank you for saving my life”) is untouched or whether it is gone. And I can never find both copies at the same time to compare them.

Judith

Comment by Robin

There better f—— **not** be any difference. I’ll have someone’s head on a platter if you discover there is.

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Comment by Diane in MN

I can understand why galleys would be frustrating to deal with–like reading to revise or clean up a text, but of course you can’t do that at that point and have to concentrate on the mechanicals. Sounds like they must reset the whole book to put it into paper–one would think that with all the word-processing technology available, there would be a way for them to get the text into PB format without the chance of introducing lots of new errors into it.

(And heavens, why is your teen-age boy voice “controversial”? I hope not because you are-gasp!-a *girl*. Or because your protagonists generally are girls.)

Short blog entries need no apologies, you have a *long* list to get through. And one does have to sleep, although sunset past 9:00 pm gives me at least an exaggerated sense of the length of the day. Exaggerated and false, unfortunately.

I think you’re right about the banner on the blog; the folks at Barnes and Noble must agree with you too, since they’ve only just made CHALICE available for pre-order. And Southdowner isn’t the only one whose name gets eaten–Wordpress seems to have cranky periods. Why do so many people have a naive idea that artificial intelligence would be benign?

Diane in MN, suspicious of the machine

Comment by Robin

(And heavens, why is your teen-age boy voice “controversial”? I hope not because you are-gasp!-a *girl*. Or because your protagonists generally are girls.)

******** I’ve learnt the hard way that I basically don’t want to know. I can tell by how many reviews Merrilee sends me how many of them I wouldn’t have liked. But I *guarantee* there’s some text out there somewhere saying that McKinley didn’t pull off the teenage boy voice . . . and I know from crabby website mail that yes OF COURSE HERE WE GO AGAIN I am BETRAYING MY AUDIENCE by writing a boy. I’m supposed to write girls! Bad Robin! But see above . . . I’ve also heard from various teenage boys and connections thereof like parents and teachers that Jake DOES work, so just unilaterally declaring I didn’t get it right doesn’t wash. The criticism that really makes me laugh though–and I don’t laugh about criticism of my books very easily–is that Jake is ANNOYING. Well, *yes* . . . That’s another of the ways I got inside his skin. :)

. . . But . . . Arrrrgh. Don’t get me started on the downsides of writer/audience relations. . . .

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Comment by Katherine

I do NOT understand this. Any of it. (Not you, by the way, but these criticisms).

First, you write boys all the time. Compelling, engrossing, believable men. You’ve always gotten their voices right before. Why would that change simply because one narrates the whole story instead of coexisting with the female lead?

Secondly, I don’t remember signing some suffragette/”Sisters Together” contract that I would follow you into any tale as long as you remained faithful to the credo that “only girls can have adventures or we are plunged back into the dark ages of oppression”. Which is the only reasoning I can think of that could justify any cry of betrayal. *scoff*

And yes, Jake is annoying at times. Because he’s a teenage boy. Because you made him HUMAN. To me, that says that you completely pulled it off by creating a multi-faceted, real character that we can root for and understand even when he’s being an idiot because he feels like someone we know.

Grrr.

I’ll stop ranting now. Also pacing. And indignantly waving my hands about in the air.

Comment by Robin

Thank you! LOL! I especially like the hand-waving part, being a hand-waver myself! . . . I want to try to write an entry about writing Jake, so . . .

 
 
Comment by Wenna

You got Jake right. He reminds me of my brother as a teenager when his dog got really sick. (Oddly enough, my brother’s name is Jake. ;) )

And teenage boys are annoying. Seriously, under the skin, annoying.

And wasn’t ‘The Outsiders’ written by *gasp* a WOMAN?!

Comment by Robin

Thank you. :)

And wasn’t ‘The Outsiders’ written by *gasp* a WOMAN?!

******** Yup. It happens. :)

 
 
Comment by danceswithpahis

” I want to try to write an entry about writing Jake, so . . .”

—- Please do!

 
 
 
Comment by Ryl

Galleys? *shudder* I had to put together the papers of a Slightly Famous Poet Who Won Prizes into a proper collection for my job in the manuscript collection at the university library. Part of these papers were galleys. FOR SIX BOOKS. With corrections and setting copies. And the glue on the setting copies was about thirty years old and deteriorated so all the little slips of paper were falling off.

I wish I could have burned them, but I like having a paycheck, so I refrained. With luck they’ll all sit in a folder until they disintegrate.

Comment by Robin

Oh little yellow stickies! The bane of many people’s existence! My particular shape of bane is that I use second sheets–this printer is MUCH more cooperative about slightly used paper than my previous. But the yellow stickies I missed . . . Old fashioned galleys were the real fun stuff though–they were three times longer than ordinary sheets of paper–I have NO idea why.

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Comment by Anonymous

***Old fashioned galleys were the real fun stuff though–they were three times longer than ordinary sheets of paper–I have NO idea why.

To annoy the archivists (or rather, the lowly grad students who get the short end of the stick) who have to lovingly wrap them in acid free everything so they will last for future generations. You cannot convince me this is not the case. I had more fun pulling out seventy-year old rusty staples than archiving the galleys.

 
 
 
Comment by Rebecca WinkleBeam

Sounds like you’re going to be a galley slave for the next few weeks. Best of luck rowing through the words.

;)

Happy riding, composing, writing and living.

Rebecca Winklebeam

Comment by Robin

Thank you. ‘Rowing’ is about right. :)

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Comment by Jeanne Marie

I’ve never yet noticed an error in ANYTHING you’ve written (and I re-read them enough that surely an error would stand out, you know?). Undoubtedly this is akin to an artist of any stripe cringing about their goofs, while the rest of us say “goof? what goof? I didn’t see a goof!” The trick, as I say to students, is in not showing anyone where you think there are goofs. If you don’t tell them, they won’t know! :-)

And please take care of yourself by not spending so much time on the blog. We’ll read your books, and send virtual chocolate, hugs and lit candles no matter what!

Smiles,
Jeanne Marie

Comment by Robin

Snork! I want more readers like YOU! :)

But you’re absolutely right about not pointing out goofs. I’m pretty good at this. :)

Tonight’s entry was a whole third shorter than usual!

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Comment by Susan from Athens

††† I’m unconvinced that you want to put up your banners too early. Then people get excited long before the book exists, and have become jaded before they can buy it.

I agree with you entirely. You say yay! Chalice! (Using this solely as an example) And by the time it comes around you go, “Oh Chalice, hasn’t that been around for ages?” I also find this happens with books from my to be read pile. If I am really excited about a book it will leap into my hands as soon as I buy it and no rest or sleep until it’s finished (unless I am truly exhausted). But if it so happens that it is late in coming or I genuinely have no time when it arrives and it joins the dreaded pile, there is an activation energy required to pick it up. Which is a sad indication of the overall fickle character of one Susan (and possible other swathes of humanity too). I do wish that there were ways that I could buy a book in paperback as soon as it came out. I almost wouldn’t mind paying a buy-now hardback premium to read it immediately, but hardbacks are harder to read in bed, more tiring on my already stressed wrists and take up entirely too much space… (mutter mutter mumble mumble).

I ate out at a fabulous Cretan restaurant tonight and at the end my sister, mother and myself shared a fabulous dessert (not for reasons of virtue: we were simply too stuffed to have one each): dense chocolate mousse with slivers of melissa ice… Delicious.

Comment by Robin

Good. Glad to hear a book BUYING reader agree with me. :)

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Comment by Susan from Athens

Yes, I’ve booked my trip to England for mid-August and will of course spend too much time – and more than likely too much money – at Hatchards which I find is the apex of temptation in so many ways. I then spend a fortune having these books sent back to Greece. I cannot however rid myself of my addiction to the kind of bookstore that has great and interesting selection and staff who love books and know things about their topics. I have been in love with books all my life and the dearth of Athens libraries means my bookshelves and piles and boxes keep growing and groaning. E-books take care of some of the problem (in the more “disposable” categories – i.e. things that I know I am unlikely to want to read more than once), but they do not give me the tactile pleasure of a book, that smell and feel that is part of the addiction. Additionally, I already spend too much time at the computer and need to get away from it, and I haven’t yet come across an e-reader that meets my – admittedly stringent – specifications.

Comment by Robin

But you *do* read ebooks? What do you read them on? And where do you buy them? –Ever tried just reading them on a small, carry-around, knapsack sized computer, or do you have a dedicated bit of kit?

 
 
Comment by Susan from Athens

I do read e-books. At last count I had approximately five hundred of them. All legally bought and paid for. Of these I am tempted to buy in book form – but haven’t so far – maybe five. So I was right to e-book them. I read them on my main computer with my expensive and comfortable Aero chair on recline. But this is not my favourite position to read in. It is also tiring on the eyes.
I have thought about a small computer, or a good e-book reader, but haven’t been satisfied so far by the alternatives. I figure the market will mature in two-three years and I will be able to go one way or another. I’m looking at tiny portables and know that Panasonic have a great cheap multi-coloured e-book reader on sale in Japan, but not anywhere else. I also know that the market is ready for something better than the awful Kindle, so time will tell. I am conservative about jumping into any gadget market. I am never a super-early adopter. I have friends who are and they waste a lot of money on gadgets that are antiquated before you’ve finished reading the instructions. I’d rather buy content i.e. books and music.

 
 
 
Comment by elainekaelar

*cackle* I find it entirely enchanting that my favorite author spends time muddling through music just like I do. =) Even better that she understands better than some not music major friends that there is not enough TIME to spend with music.

And don’t worry about Dragonhaven. I think I may have told you this at the Old Blog, but I got my 17 year old brother who never reads to read it. And he LIKED it. He liked Jake. I mean, if the main character, being a teenage boy, gets approval from being read by a teenage boy, what else is there? ;)

 
Comment by Robin

Well I hope it’s been a very ENJOYABLE few weeks. :)

 
Comment by ChrisW

Ahh, time. if only I didn’t have to sleep. I love my job, have really time consuming hobbies, and like to spend time with friends. I sympathize. D*&%N the need to sleep.

Comment by Robin

Indeed. :)

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Comment by Robin

LOL! So, when were staples *invented*?

 
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