Notes from the publishing jungle
Yes, the books are posted, but my question, really, is: Are they actually available, other than from a used book source?
Your guess is as good as mine. And amazon’s, or your local bookstore’s, if you have a local bookstore that does special orders and is willing to do some hunting through the trackless jungle of publishing, is better than either.
The author (or the author’s wife) is often the last to know. I daresay all vast corporate monsters have a little trouble in the details but the only vast corporate monster I have experience with is publishing. And a big publisher publishes a lot of books. But it’s still infuriating, not to mention profoundly dispiriting, when books aren’t available out there in the world when in theory they are available from the publisher, according to the paperwork about it the author is receiving from said publisher.*
There’s also the whole wretched business of putting something out of print. Publishers don’t like putting things out of print; it’s even more paperwork and there’s always the chance that the author will become a sudden, stratospheric, putting-a-lot-of-publishers’-children-through-college type best seller with volume twelve of The Featherstonehaugh**-Whittingstall Chronicles.*** Whereupon the publisher will want to heave all the author’s backlist into shiny new editions and flog them to the reading populace while the best seller is still scintillating from every spaceport book rack in the solar system. They can’t do that if they’ve put the backlist out of print, because the author’s agent will have requested reversion of rights–ie back to the author–and the minute a publisher officially declares any book OP, they can. And once it’s back in the author’s hands again they could conceivably sell it to someone else. Most of the time this isn’t going to happen–where one publisher has failed, most other publishers are going to give a wide berth†–but if volume twelve takes off like a rabbit with a hellhound closing on it, the original publisher will have to pay for the privilege of buying back the rights to the previous eleven volumes.†† And it’s kind of in the human corporate gene anyway: what you have, you hang onto. Just in case.
The real rat turd in the chicken salad sandwich however is OS: out of stock. This is an all-purposes we-don’t-know-we-don’t-care-and-we’re-not-going-to-do-anything-about-it-and-you-can’t-make-us listing and means you, the average reader, can’t buy the book. Very, very occasionally, OS appears briefly and legitimately between editions–SUNSHINE might be briefly OS before the reissue this autumn, for example, although I hope not, and since the new one is going to be trade paper size there is no reason (I feel, but then I would, wouldn’t I) the mass market can’t go on as it has been doing. Most of the time OS is a way of not putting something OP but not doing anything else with it either. Publishing limbo. BEAUTY spent years OS and it made me nuts.
And publishers have an infinity of ways of not responding to demands that they either fish or cut bait: get it back in stock (which probably means printing more copies, ie spending money on the thing up front) or revert the rights. The standard ones are either claiming they’re going to get it back in print/stock, or ignoring you. If you have a good agent, she can sometimes make them do something†††. But it’s only worth any of your time if the book is a reasonably good bet. BEAUTY is a minor classic in its way and was a good bet. Demanding they revert rights is perhaps parallel: unless there’s a powerful reason to get those rights back in your hot, twitching hands, you might as well leave them with the publisher. They’re a publisher and you aren’t. However that is changing: there are more and more and better and better self-publishing opportunities out there, and the publishing-on-demand thing is very exciting, if you can stand the implications of doing it yourself,‡ including knowing when it’s worth bothering. If you have any head for business you might perhaps just as well get your rights reverted and start investigating your options.
Books of short stories, alas, are not a good bet. ‡‡ Chances are TOUCH AND GO and THE LION TAMER’S DAUGHTER AND OTHER STORIES‡‡‡ are genuinely OS, OP, NA, dead in the water, gone. Chances are anyone who wants to read The Spring in its entirety will have to find it in a library–or an inter-library loan catalogue–or from an old-books dealer.
But about my–or Peter’s–books in general: Light a candle toward the good temper of the publishing gods, do your homework, shrug and/or slap your forehead as appropriate . . . and don’t ask me. I won’t know.
* * *
*There’s also the tiny factoid that most of the paperwork you get from your publisher is indecipherable. They only do it to annoy, because they know it teases.
** Everyone here does know that this is pronounced ‘Fanshaw’, don’t you?
*** Although gods forbid it should be mentioned anywhere that it’s volume twelve of a series. This is one of those publishing conundrums. Series sell. Series build loyal audiences. Publishers want you to write series.^ But gods forbid it should be mentioned anywhere on the actual book(s) that they are volumes in a series. I do see the problem; you don’t want to put off anyone who is picking one of them up–volume twelve, say–for the first time. Oh, it’s volume twelve, ugh, and they put it down again. And you really can’t rely on there being enough obsessive gits who, having liked the first page of volume twelve, will then spend the next six months or six years tracking the first eleven through eBay and abe and so on so they can start at the beginning.^^ But it’s still a little . . . perverse.
^ This is, of course, hard on those of us who don’t seem to be built to that last.
^^ Why am I sure that obsessive githood will resonate with some readers of this blog?
† Especially in a series, obviously
†† This has probably never happened in the history of the world. But it’s one of the nice little fantasies that keep authors from giving up in despair and retraining as heavy equipment operators.
††† Yes, Merrilee was instrumental in getting BEAUTY back in print
‡ Not me honey. I really want someone else doing it.
‡‡ If you guys out there wanted to get organised and make FIRE ELEMENTALS an exception to this rule, that would be very nice. Autumn 2009. We hope.
‡‡‡ Note for anyone pursuing British editions: The Spring is in the collection TOUCH AND GO over here. THE LION TAMER’S DAUGHTER was published as a separate short novel.
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^^ Why am I sure that obsessive githood will resonate with some readers of this blog?
With us? No, why? *** copies J. Meadows by whistling nonchalantly***
The Featherstonehaughs of this world may not care, but githood is close to nerdhood and obsession is a necessity in both. I reserve my rights to belong to both categories, while categorically denying any such thing. Obsessive? Thousands of books, thousands of CDs, magazines, and recipes. I don’t even want to think of how many photographs. Obsessive? No you must be talking about the readers of some other blog.
Thanks for posting early by the way. I am drooping after an afternoon at the beach playing with my visiting nephew.
Takes one to . . . recognise the readers she’s getting. :)
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With us? No, why? *** copies J. Meadows by whistling nonchalantly***
How did you know I’d be one of the ones whistling in response to this? ;)
I am DEFINITELY the kind of obsessive freak who’ll hunt down series until I can start at the beginning. I’m pickier now, and sometimes I look at huge series in fear because I know they might never end, but when I was in my teens and only had to worry about budgeting money for gas, rather than life, I bought series like there was no tomorrow. (And, alas, recently I tried reading one I’d never gotten to back then. I wonder if I’d have liked it then…but I couldn’t finish the first book when I tried last year. Hence the pickier now. *sigh*)
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Oh sigh, yes. Here for years you’ve been nobly and carefully stashing the little beggars away for this enormous treat, and then you finally get around to starting to READ them and halfway through volume one you start to think, uh . . .
Here for years you’ve been nobly and carefully stashing the little beggars
Nobly! I like that. I was going with lazy all this time because I kept finding other things I wanted to read more. And I’m sure I would have liked these books when I was younger, before I started learning how to write and developing HUGE opinions, but I’m not sure the content of these books would have been good for me then, either. Can’t win! *hmphs*
Yes. There are books that need to be read at a given moment. And you know that even if you had the perfect fairy godmother saying, here, read this one NOW, you’d STILL have your own opinions and keep reading out of order and MISSING things and . . .
If anyone on here does Bookmooch (bookmooch.com), I just mooched the last copy of the short story collection available in the US (lucky me!), but there are a few copies of the aforementioned separate publishing of The Lion-Tamer’s Daughter available in NZ and the UK. Didn’t see any copies of Touch and Go, sadly.
User name please! thank you!
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Sorry, that was me!
Some people on there will ship internationally–you get extra points! (I’m sending a mooched book to the UK tomorrow.)
There are several used copies of Lion-Tamer’s Daughter on US Amazon here, or you can put in your own zip code here to find the nearest library that has it.
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Oh, well done! :) thank you!
Perhaps I just missed the memo, but I’m wondering: What brought this (rant) on?
But gods forbid it should be mentioned anywhere on the actual book(s) that they are volumes in a series.
YES. I HATE THAT. Sometimes they try to be tricky with stuff like “The author of…” on the cover. And they used to only do that with books actually by the author but not in the series. (AFAIK.) Now they trick you, so you have to pick up all the books and compare what this one is by the author of, too, until you find one that doesn’t have that little note, and MAYBE that’s the beginning of the series, but you’ll never know for sure.
It makes me *really* appreciate writers who can get their stories out in one or two books. Far less confusion. (And actually, I’ve been drawn more toward singletons lately, mostly because they’re less commitment. I can get a whole story in one book and then move on to something else without having to worry about middle-book-slogging on trilogies, or series that never end. There are a couple hugely popular series I never even *started* reading because I was under the impression they’d never end.)
Well, more series SHOULD be singletons in my arrogant opinion! I read a book recently which got off to way too slow a start, but it was an interesting idea and the author wrote well so I thought, okay, I’ll stick it. Then it started getting interesting about half way through and then IT SLOWED DOWN AGAIN. At which point I developed a Dire Suspicion . . . and yes, it’s the beginning of a *series.* Way too many series are TOO LONG FOR THE MATERIAL. *Anything* that is just one 500-600 page book after another I’m not even going to start. I’m a *slow* reader . . . and I pretty well guarantee that I’ll find them padded and strung out. Whether anyone else agrees with me. Some of them get rave reviews.
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Well, more series SHOULD be singletons in my arrogant opinion!
HAH! Seriously, I’m right there with you. I’ve read at least two trilogies lately that would make lovely duologies once you cut the enormous amount of fluff out of the middle book and the fluff lurking in the first and third. Which is never as bad as the middle book. Middle book syndrome is a sad thing indeed.
And lots of the bricks after doorstops after bricks of books get rave reviews. I think people must think that longer is better, and getting into every POV, learning about everyone’s childhood, and seeing every non-plot-related detail of every character’s life is a sign of a thought-out story. Er…
YES. Just tell the story, please!!!!
****Way too many series are TOO LONG FOR THE MATERIAL.****
Oh yes, or way too long for the author to remember stuff from the beginning or figure out how to *end* the damn thing. BUT there are some people who can pull off a succession of 500-page-ish novels–I’m thinking of Dorothy Dunnett’s Crawford of Lymond series, which run you from one end of 16th-century Europe to the other and back again with little noticeable flagging. And she keeps track of her characters, too. But you’d need to be in the mood for a long read.
Diane in MN (the blog gave me a blank name box and sparked fear of anonymity)
Sigh. People keep telling me about this series and I keep failing to get past the first 100 pages . . . several times . . .
When I worked in the game industry, the dreaded distributor code was OSM–”Out of Stock at Manufacturer.” This meant either a) the manufacturer of the item (be it book, boardgame, little metal critter, whatever) truly had run out of the thing and hadn’t got round to deciding whether to make more or shift it to OP status and be done with it; or b) the distributor just hadn’t bothered ordering more of whatever it was lately, but didn’t want to be blamed for not having it in stock. I got calls all the time from people demanding to know why their local shop didn’t have our book because it was listed OSM, and all I could say was the standard Han Solo “It’s not my fault! It’s NOT MY FAULT!” We have piles of it in the basement, you could order it direct from me–but I can’t MAKE the distributors restock the damn thing!
Why am I sure that obsessive githood will resonate with some readers of this blog?
I have no idea what you’re talking about.
(And god, it DOES drive me apecrap when I buy a book on impulse only to discover I’ve gotten book 6 of a possible 8 and I’ve got no frickin’ clue what’s going on in the epic plot. I think this first happened to me with Moorcock’s Elric, and it’s just gone on from there…)
If you guys out there wanted to get organised and make FIRE ELEMENTALS an exception to this rule, that would be very nice.
We’ll do our best for ya. :) I’m a fan of short story format, myself. Tiny brain, short attention span, you know.
Yes. That ‘piles in the basement’ ARRRRRGH. I *might* have MORE piles in the basement/attic if, when they put stuff OP, I had basements/attics big enough.
The whole series thing is a nest of snakes. There is no answer.
And yes: I don’t myself understand why short stories aren’t more popular. We LIVE in a short story atmosphere, for pity’s sake. We’re all, um, bytten.
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The answer, of course, is for writers to just write consistently good books which are NOT in series; so readers are overwhelmingly compelled to collect them all but in no particular order. So far you seem to have this down pat. :)
have you read Beagle’s “The Rhinoceros Who Quoted Nietzsche”? Nice collection of his short stuff from over the years. (I even bought it in hardback–I couldn’t help it. It had a satin bookmark. I’m a sucker for that kind of thing…)
Gosh, I thought I had everything Beagle ever wrote. When did it come out?
Hmm, I bought it when I was living in Chicago and it was relatively new then I think? I’m guessing 1996.
***rummage rummage***
1997, I was correct in substance at least! It appears to have been reprinted in 2003 in a paperback by Tachyon, according to Amazon. It has a werewolf story in it, as I recall, which made me extra super happy about it. Not sure if anything in it was new material, or all published in other venues previously.
Lila the Werewolf? Yes. Although I eventually began to get a little twitchy about the Beagle view of women. But I still want to look your book up. :)
Good werewolf stories are few and far between, imho… We lycanthropy fans take what we can get! I don’t recall the details of this story, though. And I can’t seem to lay hands on the book to boost my memory, despite having wrenched apart my massive bookpile searching for it . (That rummaging above was actually fairly catastrophic, and then I still had to go look it up on Amazon. I may have to blog about the great bookpile disaster of ’08…)
I may have to blog about the great bookpile disaster of ‘08…)
*********Yessssssss! –It’s the magnolias, taking retroactive revenge. YAAAH.
I think the classic Anthony Boucher is my favourite. There are a lot of new ones around seemingly but I haven’t read one yet that makes my heart beat faster. I’ll do a werewolf some day if I live long enough. Well, a were-*something*.
Were-bears are nice. :)
Lycanthropes are getting a sort of bounce in popularity from the Vampire genre crowd, I guess. All those folks thinking, “Vampires have been done to un-death, what can I do that will be all cutting edge?” Or like Laurell K.H. they throw every occult reference plus the kitchen sink into their horror series and werewolves are just there in the soup with everything else. I long for a story where the werewolves behave like real wolves in people form, rather than the other way round… Wolves have such a fascinating and complex social structure after all, you’d think more people would want to play around with that.
I was very pleased to discover that my local library has Touch and go. I shall be able to read the full story. Yay!
I love to see the real places that inspired stories that I like. One of the highlights of my trip to England was a tour of Hemmingford Grey manor, better known to readers as Green Knowe, home of Lucy M. Boston. Delightful!
Yes, isn’t it amazing? I was there once when she was still alive. She grew old roses before I had a clue!!! I don’t know if they’ve kept her rose garden.
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abe is your friend (http://www.abebooks.com/) — I lost all my books in a fire in 1991 and I searched *10 years* for a book my dad gave me in 1972. Two copies showed up one day in my email box (I had a request notification in on the abe site). I called across the country and the seller took the time to go through the book with me to confirm it was the book I was looking for. I cried when both copies arrived in the mail (my dad got the other one).
abe ties in to independent booksellers, and I think it includes sellers in several countries. I sure wish it had been around when I was in college!
I really like the section where you describe a book and others guess/tell you the title/author so you can find it again. Book Detectives – heh! Talk about a booky geek fix!!!!!
(PS: the majority of the books I wanted replaced I was able to find in local indie stores & library sales)
How *awful.* I’m glad you’re doing so well replacing. I suppose it makes one heck of a QUEST.
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Yes, it does. The Quest gives me the illusion of Control … :O
OTOH, because of the whole search process, I met Garth Nix, Ray Bradbury, Zilpha Keatly Snyder, and Ursula LeGuin. That was nifty!
And my collection is now *much* larger than it was before. Both my preschoolers LOVE books — heh, heh, heh!!!!
I’m a book selector for a national book distributor here in the US (we only serve public and school libraries, no retail), and the situation you describe drives me NUTS. I haven’t done one in a couple of years, but sometimes I’m called upon to create selection lists for opening day for new libraries, and sometimes lists for libraries that want to substantially supplement their holdings. A book can show as “available” from our company, but then have a status of “postponed indefinitely” or simply show “on order” and have been so for years. And I’m only supposed to pick books that are actually available to order and get in hand.
Thanks for letting us know what it’s like for you as the writer. It will help me the next time I attend a library conference and have an opportunity to talk things over with some of the publishers. When I attend conferences, that’s mostly what I do – stay in the Exhibits area and TALK with the publishers, not just try to grab every freebie available.
And, BTW, have you seen the newer Buffy comics? Whedon started “Season Eight” in comic book form; there are two trade paperback volumes out so far. From Dark Horse Comics. I’ve not had the chance to watch more than a couple of the episodes when the series aired on TV (my hubby is NOT a fan and my younger son was too young for that sort of thing at the time), but I’ve been reading the comics for years. Brian K. Vaughan – one of my newer favorite comic book writers – wrote the stories for the second volume.
Vaughan’s Pride of Baghdad will break your heart; it’s based on an incident that happened during the initial months of the US invasion of Iraq in 2003. He also started one of the best superhero teams in Marvel history with Runaways (a band of teens whose parents are all supervillains).
I admit I’m a bit relieved to hear other people talking about dealing with publishers in the same terms I know. I was being, for me, rather mild mannered in that entry, but it is INTENSELY frustrating. And publishers are INFINITELY bigger than you are–there’s most of the time FA you can do. Even when your editor is on your side, there’s STILL usually nothing you can do.
I’m so out of it with comics. No, I haven’t. It’s on the list. . . .
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I’ve also had a great deal of luck finding out of print copies of stuff on PaperBackSwap.
http://www.paperbackswap.com
I got Georgette Heyer’s AN INFAMOUS ARMY that way, when I had totally given up on ever being able to find it.
Piffle. Very nice for you Americans.
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Count me among the people who: not only obsessively scan every square inch of print on the front cover, the back cover, the spine, the flyleaf, the inside of the dustjacket if hardback, the copyright page, and even the acknowledgements section to be sure I’m not reading the middle of the series, but once having done that if I ever DO determine the book isn’t The First, will put it down at once, and yes, search and search until I find which one IS the first, and begin there.
I think I’m still vaguely traumatized by the experience I had as an impressionable adolescent upon discovering only after I’d finished reading it that a book I’d just fallen in love with was the MIDDLE of a TRILOGY and that it spoiled much of the plot of the first one.
After that mini-rant, perhaps I should introduce myself. I’m a loyal fan of yours, Robin, and have been ever since I can remember. I used to check your website for updates on at least a weekly basis, but after scouring the internet for any hint of a blog of yours perhaps a year ago and finding none, had given up the quest. Well, I was just at a lovely writing retreat for my writer’s group and we got to talking about you, and someone mentioned You Have A Blog Now!!!!!!! SQUEEEE! Beginning that night I went back to the very first entry (would a person so insistent on chronological discoveries of new books do anything else) and have spent the past 4 days reading every one. I started out reading every comment too, but I soon realized that if I did that my children and husband would starve to death before I came up for air, so I was forced to merely read the entries (with occasional can’t-stop-myself forays into comments) in order to ever get caught up. And now I have, and I’m so glad you are doing this. Thank you!
I’d like to get the fangirl gushing out of the way, because it’s There And Must Be Acknowledged: I re-read Deerskin at least once a year. I re-read all your other ones often as well (though I had somehow missed Dragonhaven, which to quote Princess Bride is ‘a situation that will shortly be remedied.’) but Deerskin is the one I love best (so far, of course). My sister and I even have read your books aloud to each other, and they are the most comforting of comfortable, read in flannel nightgowns on stormy winter evenings type of books that we’ve ever found. I can honestly say that part of the reason I’m endeavoring to write books myself is inspired by your tales. Not that I want to copy you or anything, but just that my highest aspiration is to write books that people will take to bed with them and re-read over the years and become friends with in the way all the best books do become friends. I don’t have any delusions of grandeur either; at this point I’m likely quite far from achieving that goal, but hey, a girl can dream.
Regarding Hellhounds: that was one of the things I suppose I love most about Deerskin. I’ve been a passionate sighthound fanatic since I was 15, and though I’m turning 29 next month, have never yet had the opportunity to own one (or several). I DO however frequently lurk at places where greyhounds and other sighthounds are likely to appear, and I spend as much time talking about them to people who do own them as possible. I’ve lived only in a condo and now a rental house since becoming an adult, and when I still lived at home was absolutely forbidden a dog. My dreams for the future definitely include sighthounds though, and I am trying to get as prepared as possible. Including when I buy a house, as I plan to do in the next couple years, being sure to get a large yard near multiple walking places. In the meantime I shall just have to live vicariously through Darkness and Chaos and any stories you choose to tell about your past dogs. Again, thank you.
I have more to say but this is Your Blog, not mine, so I’ll shut up for now. But I’m so glad to be here :).
I’m *staggered* at your getting through TEN MONTHS of blog in FOUR DAYS. Yeeep.
However, delighted to have you. :) Although I’m a bit fascinated that DEERSKIN counts as flannel-nightgown reading. I know what you mean–my favourite books are the ones I take to bed over and over and OVER again too–and I *want* that to be the sort of thing I (mostly) write. But DEERSKIN’s a bit rough. It’s supposed to be, but . . .
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LOL, I can see the confusion. No, Deerskin is probably not a flannel-nightgown book (not that I even wear nightgowns, but it was the feeling I was trying to get across). But Beauty is, and Rose Daughter, and the short story collections, and Harry and Aerin and and and . . . :)
I don’t wear nightgowns either. But the feeling came across very well. :)
I’ll just jump in and state that I’m the little evil one that introduced RachelDryden to your blog… conquering the world, one reader at a time. =)
“Piffle. Very nice for you Americans.”
You’re technically an American too… and I’m sure there’s some sort of analogous site in the UK too. I just don’t know what it is.
Cheers and whistles for obsessive githood, at least as regards the important stuff. No other possible response.
Presumably the emerging self-publishing options don’t involve ownership of a press, bindery, etc. etc. I myself like the feel of an actual book in my hand as opposed to reading from a computer screen, and I get incensed about manufacturers who expect you to go to their web site and download and print, using *your* electricity and *your* paper, the manual that should have been provided for their overpriced gadget. A book is perfected technology, hard to beat.
On a related subject, I read Peter’s Phoenix Award speech and liked it very much. I have a shelf-ful of his books, but the ones that resonate the most with me are the ones labeled YA, so it was a pleasure to read about the idea process behind some of them.
Ah, drat, yes. I was going to post/link Peter’s speech here for a night off. Note to self: Do it.
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I am twittering on the edge of insanity and excitement right now–teetering between glee and guilt, with a side of amazement at serendipity and coincidence.
I’m reading this very blog, as I do at the open of every work day (no longer having internet at home) and my co-worker walks in carrying a book. She starts to say something, but I don’t hear it because I glance at the book and the front cover says, “Chalice” and underneath has “Robin McKinley” and I commence with the FREAKING OUT. I’m squealing, “That’s not out yet!! How…? I don’t… Where?!?”
A friend of ours who works in ordering at our public library apparently snagged an advanced copy and was passing it on to me with strict orders to return it as soon as I’m through reading it. It’s all very black market and I feel very illicit (though why I should since I work for a publisher and understand the whole concept of advanced proofs is unbeknowst to me), but I’m also already counting down the hours to days end when I can dive in and devour.
I solemnly swear not to divulge a single detail before official publication under pain of death and/or banishment.
*squeeeee!*
LOL! Or deletion, anyway! But if you like it I hope you’ll post THAT!
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The publisher’s paperwork that they send to the bookstores is also unreadable, and REALLY WEIRD. I can’t think of a single major publishing house- or publishing house of any size- that has invoices that make ANY SENSE. Are you listening, Mr. Rhymes With Bile-y, and Mr. Small Flightless Seabird?
(Pissed-off small bookstore clerk)
And I made Cheat’s Pudding last week and it is DEADLY.
LOL! I’m glad it’s not just authors publishers pick on . . . :)
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“And I made Cheat’s Pudding last week and it is DEADLY.”
Well, I hope the good version of deadly…? :) That’s why I keep it for dinner parties, or when several friends are around. No temptation then to take extra spoonfuls from the remainder stored in the fridge under the guise of ‘it would be a shame to waste it’…
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off the subject, but PLEASE tell me you know of some homeopathic palliative for chickenpox! I have an itchy 14 month old! Watery pink Calamine lotion works as well on him as I remember it worked on me – i.e. not at all.
Yes, there are, but homeopathy works by the INDIVIDUAL experience of chicken pox, not that it’s chicken pox. Try Dana Ullman’s site–he’s got some ‘family homeopathy’ stuff, I’m pretty sure. Or google for ‘family/first aid homeopathy’. The two obvious remedies to try to start with, for mad itching, are rhus tox and sulphur. But you’d be MUCH BETTER OFF looking it up for yourself.
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Sorry, delayed brain connection! I’m so used to the majority of posters being American!
Both Helios and Ainsworths (homeopathic pharmacies) will give you some over the phone advice; and I recommend the homeopathic helpline 09065 343 404, which costs £1/minute, I think, but they’ll talk to you more. Likely they’ll all tell you to start with rhus tox and sulphur, but if you have any other details/symptoms they may suggest something else. Good luck!
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I had the chicken pox when I was 26 years old. The main remedy I remember wishing for was the Sweet Release of Death. Fortunately clearer heads prevailed.
And hey, how did you know it wasn’t Birmingham, Alabama? :)
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Good point. But I *think* she originally introduced herself as a local. :)
(If you’re there, Geek Mom, you could settle this point . . . )
Yeah, ‘childhood’ diseases as a grown up are no joke.
My mother put us into the bathtub filled with tepid water and oatmeal; I remember being able to see the oatmeal, but it was probably a few handfuls in the water. I do remember it soothing the skin and easing the itching. I think I was 5 at the time, but I still remember the wonderful soothing feel of the oatmeal water easing the itching. I didn’t want to get out of the tub.
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Interesting. I know about oatmeal for anti-itch and it never did a thing for me.
?????????!!!!!!!!!!!??????
(Signifying spluttering speechlessness)
Honestly! And really!!!!, not to mention ????!!! and !?! Publishers!
As for obsessive gits…
Well, I have a reading list, a re-reading list and a library list – these are literally lists.
To over-simplify. I have extremely strict rules in what order I am “allowed” to read the books (invented, of course, by me, and therefore adamant). I have about 500 (well, considerably more probably by now, I haven’t actually counted them – nor do I intend to) unread books (well, new books go on that list even if I’ve actually read them before) on my reading list alone; and my chief concern is how to get my liittle hands on – hm – even more books! I have (of course) rules (and lists) for book-buying as well, but luckily they are slightly more lax…
Especilally since suddenly some books aren’t there any more! For instance I’ve read the first part of a trilogy, own the second… The third can be found – used copies – for, at lowest, 40 pounds/dollars (both/either, and at that price does it matter?). Presumably there’s a demand for the book – presumably there are people willing (not me) to pay up to 200 for it! Why not re-publish? They could get, you know, money…No doubt publishers are not as mercenary as I thought – they’re desire for filthy lucre grossly exaggerated…
But as for obsessive gits… Well, obviously, I don’t know _what_ you are talking about…
LOL! I really don’t understand it either . . . I’ve just HEARD about this obsessive-git thing. . . .
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Hah, since RachelDryden gushed, I’m going to one-up. ;) Deerskin was the first book I read aloud to my husband when we had just started dating. He has patiently sat through (and enjoyed, thank you) The Blue Sword and Spindle’s End, as well. And, um, the whole Anne series. All of it. And a few other books. Mumble. Several other books.
I read him Deerskin and he still married me. Not really a cheerful first-date sort of book, but it was his intro to good fantasy, and he loved it.
:)
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Oh good. :)
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