SUNSHINE!!!!!!
. . . Actually I meant the kind that happens outdoors. WE SAW THE SUN TODAY. It was very exciting.*
The condition Connie was in was pretty exciting too despite the fact she goes out in a rug. I had a wedding to ring at 2:30* so I couldn’t spend indefinite amounts of time** clawing my white horse out from under the spiky brown monster that put its head out over its stall door when I turned up with Connie’s tack and bucket of brushes. Good grief. She was sillier than usual*** out gambolling across the landscape too but that may have been frustration: the going is so heavy there is barely anywhere you can so much as trot, and she and Caprice were blowing like steam trains by the time we arrived at the top of a very gentle slope.
Meanwhile . . . look what turned up in the post: the first copy of the new American SUNSHINE. This is, depending on how you look at it, an excuse for a short entry† or an interesting comparison in cross-cultural marketing departments. I thought they were going to be virtually identical and they’re nothing like. I don’t think you can tell from the photo, but the American SUNSHINE is a much classier object: matte rather than gloss, and my name is not only gold but embossed (the titles of both are embossed) and it’s got some catchy little design features. The
But . . . whatever. It’s heeeeeere, and that’s the main thing: they’re both here.‡
* * *
* The conductor of the infamous Last Night of the Proms^ has just made reference to ‘the first day of the English summer.’ I like a man with a good sense of humour.
^ Which I listen to pretty well religiously every year. The spectacle of several thousand Britons making noisy gratuitous sentimental twits of themselves is pretty riveting.
* Theoretically. The one time a wedding did not run at least twenty minutes late would be the time us ringers showed up assuming it would be. Today’s was about forty minutes late which is, unfortunately, not unusual. We still rang about twenty minutes . . . and the churchyard was still full of people. Don’t they realise that the bells are supposed to make them go away? Maybe we weren’t ringing loudly enough.^ And when we left we had to fight our way past the serried ranks of bridesmaids having their photos taken. One hopes the photographers’ fingers paused on the zap buttons while the scraggy crew in jeans slunk out.
^ Ha ha ha ha ha.
** Wasn’t it handyhunter who said that it takes four hours the moment you step into the horse yard? Yes. You may merely have gone back because you left your jacket behind. It’ll still take four hours. You might just want to leave your jacket till your next scheduled visit.
*** Cows! Geese! Lack of cows!^ Cow parsley! Calves! Oooooh! Calves are very scary, they dash around with their tails sticking straight up!^^
^ Now, look, there were cows around this corner last time
^^ I’m also mildly bemused at calves this little this late in the year. But I’m not going to shy into the hedgerow about it.
† Between horses and late brides^ I have got nothing useful done today, which leaves now to change this sad state of affairs.
^ And an extra-long second walk for hellhounds who felt that it had been a very long time since their first one as well as an awful lot of hours shut up in a kitchen without any human company. I am made to feel guilty very easily.
†† It is possibly significant that the American has artists and designers listed and the
^ As I say, I like the wall. And the babe . . . well, they asked him (I assume it’s a him) for a babe.
^^ I assume the snappy details are hers, and, for example, the sharp focus of this cover. You can see the mandalas on the wall plaques in the American. And that sharp focus makes the atmosphere, possibly, spookier: this is exactly what it looks like. . . .
^^^ And I love the title type. They’ve taken that straight from the first edition. Yaay.
‡ Well, sort of. Now all we have to do is convince amazon.co.uk to carry it. I should probably not rant and scream about this on a public blog, but ajlr has been pursuing this interesting question and right at the moment McKinley’s lack of popularity in this country is being recreated as a self-fulfilling prophesy. Arrrrrrrrrrrgh.
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Congratulations!
I think I like the American version better if only because it stays open. I’m paranoid about creasing the spines of paperback books. It’s rather silly, but I (really really really) don’t like creased spines. That’s another point for hardcovers–you can lay them on their faces when the telephone rings (even though I apologize every time I do (from Fire and Hemlock by Diana Wynne Jones)) and the spines are just fine with it, even if the book itself is a tad bit offended that the telephone would DARE ring while you’re reading. (And then I tell it that I’m offended that anyone would DARE call when I’m reading, too.)
I am so schizo about how I handle books. One of the books in the queue to be blogged about is exactly the kind of book I turn down pages of and write in the margins of. Only I CAN’T because it’s TOO PRETTY. Well, I have written a few small tactful pencil notes. And paperbacks eithe rhave to be pristine or beaten to pieces (thus demonstrating either respect or that you’ve had a very good time).
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That is the perfect reason for having multiple editions of the same book. Also if the covers are pretty. Or if they have to match the other books on the shelf. Or if one version is easier to read or carry around. Or one copy to lend out/give away. . .
LOL! A woman after my own heart! Yes! –And to you buy spare copies of favourite books at church/library/boot sales so they’ll have a HOME? (After all there’s probably someone you can give them to. . . .)
****** And to you buy spare copies of favourite books at church/library/boot sales so they’ll have a HOME?
Yes! At one point I had 4 copies of Hero and 3 of sword, all identical, from charity shops, because there was NO way I could leave them there. And I thought only I was this daft :)
Numbers down from – giving to friends (3) dropping irretrievably in bath (1) being cuddled/dribbled on/gnawed by my beasts
NAME PLEASE, she begged. . . .
Oh yes! I just had my favourite booksellers put aside a copy of the version of SUNSHINE with the spooky chandelier for me to give to my friend. Only now I want to keep it…
Order ANOTHER one. :)
YES. Poor little orphan books need homes too! And readers to introduce to favourite books!
******Yes! At one point I had 4 copies of Hero and 3 of sword, all identical,
from charity shops, because there was NO way I could leave them there.
And I thought only I was this daft :)
Numbers down from – giving to friends (3) dropping irretrievably in bath
(1) being cuddled/dribbled on/gnawed by my beasts
Hi! that anon was me again – hunches up – sorry. I’ll keep following those dratted anons until I corner every last one… :)
(Southdowner)
Yes, the gnawed on by beasts made me wonder!!! :)
****** the gnawed on by beasts made me wonder!!! :)
Gnawed is good, inhaled, shredded and evacuated in dismembered pieces is more “normal” :)
LOL!
Yes, it’s so hard to pass up used editions of books I love. Especially since I do have a number of friends who have reasonably similar book tastes as me, so I probably CAN pass them on if I wait a bit and think about who might like them.
danceswithpahis
“The spectacle of several thousand Britons making noisy gratuitous sentimental twits of themselves is pretty riveting.”
Yes, but if you look closely you’ll see their upper lips are still stiffened…:)
****** “The spectacle of several thousand Britons making noisy gratuitous sentimental twits of themselves is pretty riveting.”
++++++ Yes, but if you look closely you’ll see their upper lips are still stiffened…:)
Not all – I went as a season ticket holder to the proms for years, and could be seen near the front row (as a “prommer”, not a “tripper”) dressed up and silly on viennese and last nights – SULs were several rows back ;p
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We’re having a bad night for anonymice. Names, please.
****** I went as a season ticket holder to the proms for years
Aarrgghh!! sorry again – Yes! it’s me, southdowner (forming the I hate being anon on wordpress – any company??
Some day when things quiet down–like, when the new web site is launched–I’ll ask Blogmom about this.
I would have preferred an empty shackle. Ahh, I’ll buy this edition anyway. It could have no cover whatsoever and I would still get it.
Well, thank you, but who are you? :)
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Oops! My name is Monica. Ive been reading your work since I was 14, but only just realized that you had a blog! So much for the tech generation.
Even the tech generation has to have TIME to pursue it. :)
Ah, nice! I do prefer the figure being off center… but I am rather a sucker for matte finish on things like this. And she’s smaller looking on the American one, and the lighting effect is more pronounced. So yeah, it’s a tad cooler. Is it only in trade size, though? Siiiigh. :)
Yes, smaller babe is good, and the lighting is definitely more interesting in the US. Yes, trade size: why siiiigh? You were expecting to jam it in a back pocket? It’s 476 p long in the smaller UK. :)
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Yes, trade size: why siiiigh? You were expecting to jam it in a back pocket? It’s 476 p long in the smaller UK. :)
I know, I know. :) I prefer mass market size mainly because I have some rather small bookshelves, and trade are often either too tall or just barely fit, which occasionally ends in their getting wedged and damaged. I do also like that mass market fits easier in a jacket pocket when I’m travelling. But I’m coming to cope with the trend toward trade size, and I’ve got other bookshelves…. I’m just being peevish. :) You’re right that the title type is better, too–I’d not noticed that on my first look…
Oooh, yeah, I like the off-center of the US version. I can’t *wait* to see this in person.
And the babe — she is tactfully done, and looks proportional. Very many covers have impossible Barbie women on the covers.
I was in the bookstore the other day, noting the COMPLETELY empty shelf just above you and McKillip. I thought about rearranging a few things. *When* I get published, I’ll be there, and my friend Holly will be there. It’s probably good they’re saving space for us beside the masters.
No, the off-centre is the **UK**. Yes, as a first hit, I think the UK wins. But you can’t see the classy details of the US in the photo. Ultimately I think the US wins.
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Oh poo, I got them mixed up then. Either way, it looks very nice. :)
From the pictures I prefer the UK edition, because I don’t like gold embossed letters and I think the dame off-centre is better, but I have the pristine haunted house cover (despite reading the book upwards of twenty times – I too am paranoid with my books) and am partial to that. I hate changed covers when I like the original. They upset my sense of order. I am most conservative in this respect.
But congrats on the new edition and the good weather and the ride and the ringing and the walks with hellhounds. Busy is good, busy means that you were all well enough to do a lot of things :)
We are hot and humid and dreary of weather (I hope we have a thunderstorm and strong winds and at least the fug will clear off) and after a month of welcome no translation, I am once more drowning in work. Why do five different projects all from good clients have to land on my desk in two days, all with deadlines before the middle of next week. Life as bedlam.
Life as bedlam.
******* Good luck!
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******* Good luck!
Thanks, although I feel slightly ashamed, when I say bedlam over too many commitments and standard life running around then see people with serious problems such as hurricanes to deal with, or serious injury.
Congratulations on sighting the sun! I think people from the Pacific Northwest, including the lower mainland and islands of BC, tend to feel that way come spring (whenever Persephone decides to surface, I suppose).
Wasn’t it handyhunter who said that it takes four hours the moment you step into the horse yard?
Yep. At least that much time goes by in what feels like 10 minutes. And the time difference from barn time and outside-the-barn-time only increases with each horse one rides or visits; though, luckily, I’ve found it doesn’t quite double, or else I’d really be in trouble.
I think he’s laughing at me (fat, furry, retired and the colour he always wanted to be (when green is unavailable)).
Did you know Chalice comes out in 4.5 (give or take) days?! :D
LOL! Yes, very happy horse!
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When I lived in Europe, I used to watch the last night of the proms every year too. I loved it.
I liked the US version better at first glance ’cause the girl was smaller. Until you mentioned the off-center on the UK book that part didn’t really occur to me. I do love the feel of matte finish on books though, so in person that would have swayed me in a second.
Also, a small confession. I’m pretty nice to my books generally, but my original paperback copy of The Blue Sword is held together (sort of) by tape and so soft it’s hard to turn the pages anymore and the cover keeps flaking. That book went everywhere with me for a couple of years when I was a teenager. I bought a duplicate of it a few years back simply so I could actually, you know, *read* it without fear of total disintegration.
I LOVE stories like this. :)
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***‡ Well, sort of. Now all we have to do is convince amazon.co.uk to carry it. ***
Clearly, English booksellers are just, um, WEIRD! And, speaking of weird bookselling decisions: my local Barnes and Noble bookstore is NOT carrying the new McKillip!!!!! They just lost a sale- or rather two- as I am about to order both the new McKilliip and the new McKinley from Amazon.com in the US. Boy am I glad I live in Amazon US territority. BTW, quick question, is it not possible for those who live in the UK to order from Amazon US? Or is it possible and simply more costly??? I have to sympathize as I am about to order a Susanna Kearsley mystery novel that is only available through Canadian booksellers; it’s not available on Amazon US and I’m guessing I’ll have to pay more in shipping. Sigh! It’s not easy being a Faithful Reader.
Having had multiple attempts at talking to amazon.uk I have just ordered Chalice from amazon.us – Bad amazon uk :) Good Chalice – strokes screen
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I like the new cover for Sunshine. It’s more classic vampire-ish, which might attract some new readers, and with any luck, they’ll want to investigate some of your other books. More sales, always of the good!
I’ll just have to buy the new edition, which will make three (hardcover, paperback, new pb), which will mean that I have a Sunshine collection… Three of anything is a collection, is the way I heard it.
Well, there are certainly worse things to collect, and it’s not as if I don’t collect editions of other books [looks embarassedly at my collection of Winds in the Willowses with different artists illustrating and hoard of editions of LotR, although Himself is responsible for some of those].
Besides, then maybe I can let one of the Sunshines out of my hands for a little while. I’m almost afraid to lend them out now – what if I suddenly need to read it, and it’s not here?
Congratulations on getting some actual sunshine. Are the hellhounds and their equipment finally drying out? I’ve been enjoying a brief spell of fall weather here – we get the marine layer in the mornings, and one day the sun didn’t come out until 5PM. It was lovely.
Back to work. Himself finally got my Ikea flat file cabinet assembled, and I’m trying to figure out what of my art paper collection will actually fit; it’s smaller inside than I expected, alas.
Three of anything is a collection, is the way I heard it.
********** Works for me. I have a few of those too. :)
Well, there are certainly worse things to collect, and it’s not as if I don’t collect editions of other books [looks embarassedly at my collection of Winds in the Willowses with different artists illustrating and hoard of editions of LotR, although Himself is responsible for some of those].
********** I’m there too. I also ‘collect’ BLACK BEAUTYs. And maybe one or twelve more. (I seem to have SHELVES of LOTR.)
Besides, then maybe I can let one of the Sunshines out of my hands for a little while. I’m almost afraid to lend them out now – what if I suddenly need to read it, and it’s not here?
********** LOL! I understand this too–and thank you!
Congratulations on getting some actual sunshine. Are the hellhounds and their equipment finally drying out? I’ve been enjoying a brief spell of fall weather here – we get the marine layer in the mornings, and one day the sun didn’t come out until 5PM. It was lovely.
Back to work. Himself finally got my Ikea flat file cabinet assembled, and I’m trying to figure out what of my art paper collection will actually fit; it’s smaller inside than I expected, alas
************ They always are. It’s one of those physics things. Sigh.
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UK for me (not that it really matters as I’m in Oz, but hey…!)
It’s so beautiful! They both are!
Mmm…I think I like the fact that the babe is smaller in the US version. Actually, what I really like is the wood they’re on (I’m assuming table). Sorry…my dad’s a woodworker, I notice these things. Back to the covers, I also like that there’s more black in the US version.
That’s my kitchen table. :)
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Well then, I like your kitchen table. In fact, I have Table Envy. All the wood in my room is this awful fake stuff. Blech.
One of the advantages of being old is that you’ve been buying a nice-ish piece of furniture–usually found in the back of a junk shop you went into to look for books–every few years/decade and they begin to MOUNT UP.
****look what turned up in the post: the first copy of the new American SUNSHINE.****
Congratulations! It looks very good from the picture. I’ll have to check it out whenever I get out of this house long enough to go to the bookstore, no easy accomplishment with a 3-month-old puppy living here. I agree with everyone about preferring the babe to be off-center, but it’s a striking cover either way. I prefer trade paperbacks because the binding is generally better and the print is a little bigger (a plus when one has, alas, reached the bifocal stage of life), and a really thick mass market paperback is not an ergonomic read. The publishing boys did all right. :)
****I am made to feel guilty very easily.****
Well, that’s high on the list of Canine Best Things, isn’t it! :) The Alpha Bitch would like us to feel guilty about bringing a puppy home, although I think she’s beginning to cave: she actually played a little with him this afternoon. Then she went back to being ambivalent. However, I have my new camera that will actually take a picture when you press the shutter instead of 27 seconds later, so I have *proof*.
I’m glad you got to see the sun before you forgot what it looks like. We had rain all day. The plants are happy, I am happy . . . unfortunately the moles are happy too, and busy again, but it’s a small price to pay for actual wet ground.
Well, that’s high on the list of Canine Best Things, isn’t it! :)
************* Yes, it certainly is! STOP STARING AT ME, YOU GUYS!!!!!
The Alpha Bitch would like us to feel guilty about bringing a puppy home, although I think she’s beginning to cave: she actually played a little with him this afternoon. Then she went back to being ambivalent. However, I have my new camera that will actually take a picture when you press the shutter instead of 27 seconds later,
*************** LOL! Yes, that’s how I bought MY second digital camera. It amazes me I have any puppy photos at *all*.
so I have *proof*.
************* Which you will, of course, *post*. :)
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************* Which you will, of course, *post*. :)****
Yup, once I get a chance to play with Camera-as-Peripheral and also see if I have to use Canon’s upload-to-computer software. We have had to track down a new refrigerator, a tedious and time-consuming occupation.
Unfortunately for my budget, buying this camera has introduced me to the image stabilizing lens. So now I want an image stabilizing telephoto rather than trying to use the telephoto from my film camera. Clever people, these camera manufacturers . . . :)
****** Yup, once I get a chance to play with Camera-as-Peripheral and also see if I have to use Canon’s upload-to-computer software
I haven’t yet got a digital camera which takes pictures without looong time lag (sigh) – what variety of beast is yours?
No! No! The main thing is that you are announcing the sequel to Sunshine! And that you are giving out spoilers by the handful!
I got all excited, you know, and now I will be cranky for the rest of the day. You are FORCING me to make chocolate muffins. You are very cruel.
No! No! The main thing is that you are announcing the sequel to Sunshine! And that you are giving out spoilers by the handful!
************* Er. It’s very late at night, and I am short of sleep *anyway* and it’s been a long day. (Sundays? They’re just more days . . . ) I’m missing the joke I’m afraid. . . .
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“right at the moment McKinley’s lack of popularity in this country is being recreated as a self-fulfilling prophesy. Arrrrrrrrrrrgh.”
What I just don’t understand about the situation – and forgive me for trying to put logic and the publishing industry into the same paragraph – is WHY one should have to investigate/chivvy/kick or otherwise encourage books to be sold into what is obviously a bigger market than the in-house gurus want to believe. Most puzzling.
Still, at least you have your hands on both versions now. I think I prefer the cover of the Berkley version too – it looks more deliberate, somehow, as if some people sat down and thought about the effect they wanted to achieve.
What I just don’t understand about the situation – and forgive me for trying to put logic and the publishing industry into the same paragraph – is WHY one should have to investigate/chivvy/kick or otherwise encourage books to be sold into what is obviously a bigger market than the in-house gurus want to believe. Most puzzling.
*************** Yes. Exactly.
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I love this book. It’s one of the few that I didn’t pack up when I realized I was running out of shelf space and had to put a huge chunk of my books away. It’s one of my favorite books ever–one of those I don’t read often because I don’t want it to get old. I think I’ve read it twice, which is very NOT often for my reading habits.
I’m glad they re-released it for you. :) I understand that means it’s selling very well and the publisher likes it?
When I have read a book there is no mistaking it; I need to get my magnifying glass into the inner margins. When I used to read my younger brothers’ comics (Spiderman, X-Men etc), they sometimes complained, but I obviously ignored them. (One fun consequence of reading comics with a magnifying glass [or anyway my type of magnifying glass] is that you see only one picture at a time and can be really surprised/shocked by the next one!) I have a sort of ritual in how I “break open” my books, to avoid them becoming lopsided (which I learned on a library assistant-cpurse).
My particular “quirk” is, I suppose, that I will let no one – NO ONE – read my new books before I have! It doesn’t matter how many years (sigh) it will take me to get to that particular book on my reading list – NO ONE ELSE READS IT BEFORE I HAVE! Absoulutely not being, you know, an obsessive git…
Congratulations! – The book isn’t on Amazon.uk? Why? Couldn’t your (gestures toward forehead) publishers see to it? Are they doing NOTHING to make it sell – do they not want it to?!? It seems to me that if it will be a success, it will be so DESPITE them, rather than because of them…an odd state of affairs…
One of the many things I loved dearly about Sunshine is that we had such a vivid description of her personality, but virtually no idea what she looked like beyond “weird hair.” I am glad the book is doing well enough to merit another printing, but am also kind of sad that we have a de facto official skin tone and hair color. I guess if I hang on to my copy that doesn’t have that cover, it doesn’t count!
One of the many things I loved dearly about Sunshine is that we had such a vivid description of her personality, but virtually no idea what she looked like beyond “weird hair
******************* YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS. Thank you!
This is just publishing malarkey–babes sell. And, trust me, they TONED DOWN her babeness when I asked them. Of course that’s not Sunshine.
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>>[Downfall said]“One of the many things I loved dearly about Sunshine is that we had such a vivid description of her personality, but virtually no idea what she looked like beyond “weird hair.” I am glad the book is doing well enough to merit another printing, but am also kind of sad that we have a de facto official skin tone and hair color.”
Oh, me too. I write very…well, introverted stories in which you see a lot of thought process and personality and body language and reactions, etc., etc. But at my writer’s group, if I don’t also have an explicit description of the PHYSICAL appearance of the character, the leader (who’s an English professor) will ignore all of that to ask, “But what is she like? Does she have long brown hair or short red hair? And how tall is she? Maybe you could have her look in a mirror and describe herself.” Umm…she already knows what she looks like. That would be weird. In fact, I’ve read books like that and it always reads as incredibly contrived.
And how does that tell you more of what she’s like than all the rest of the actual actions and thoughts of a character? Most of the time a character’s physical appearance has no real bearing on who they are…when it does, I describe it.
As for the covers themselves, they remind me a little of the old Mary Stewart covers–slightly gothic and full of tension. Which works nicely here, I think. And I like the quotes on the American version better as well. Congratulations!
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the leader (who’s an English professor) will ignore all of that to ask, “But what is she like? Does she have long brown hair or short red hair? And how tall is she? Maybe you could have her look in a mirror and describe herself.”
********** This kind of thing makes me spit nails. I will stop now, before I say something unforgiveable.
Oh dear. I want it badly, but I already have a (very badly battered) copy of Sunshine. And I feel like I should buy it to reward the publisher for bringing out a new edititon. How will they know we approve if we don’t demonstrate it with out money? Well, I’ll just have to buy it and give it to someone.
GOOD attitude. EXCELLENT attitude. :)
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Speaking of not carrying a book, Books A Million (not my favorite, even of the big-box book retailers – but I have a gift card, so hey) will not be carrying Bell at Sealey Head. They will be carrying Chalice – I asked.
And I thought of you, Susan from Athens, while I ate pastichio (spelling?) and dolmades at our local Greek Food Festival. It was good, but my best girlfriend’s mom makes it better. : )
***And I thought of you, Susan from Athens, while I ate pastichio (spelling?) and dolmades at our local Greek Food Festival. It was good, but my best girlfriend’s mom makes it better. : )
Oooh, nice to be thought of! Pastitsio is great if you do it right, but so few people do… I guess that could be another recipe post. Just not right now, as I have just started a routine of healthy lowish carb eating, and even writing down pastitsio would make me want to eat it…
Salads and light stir fries and soups. Grilled things and fruit… Sigh. Oh well, at least it’s still 36 degrees and I don’t feel like baking.
I’m glad you had fun GeelMom in Birmingham AL
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Pastitsio! Yes, I saw this on one of Rick Stein’s cookery programmes last year and it looked extremely good (http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/database/pastitsiobeefandmaca_86776.shtml ) . I haven’t made it yet but it’s definitely on the to-do list. Is the recipe on the BBC site anything like either of the GeekMom’s friend’s mother’s or Susan from Athens’ recipes?
“Is the recipe on the BBC site anything like either of the GeekMom’s friend’s mother’s or Susan from Athens’ recipes?”
Well quite good, but I don’t know anybody in Greece who cooks with celery stalks (you can’t find them here) and I wouldn’t be caught dead putting stalks or leaves (which are common in bean soup – but I hate) in pastitsio. Also not bay leaves. I’d definitely add cinnamon, but you can have straight meat no spices if you prefer it that way. I’d use more oregano and no breadcrumbs. And kefalotyri or graviera cheese is good or Cretan hard myzithra. You can sprinkle some on the top for a gratinee effect.
As with all Greek food, don’t fall into the English trap of eating it super hot. It tastes much better at slightly over room temperature, so let it rest a bit. And make a tangy salad as a side dish. It needs it. Great re-heated too.
**‡ Well, sort of. Now all we have to do is convince amazon.co.uk to carry it. I should probably not rant and scream about this on a public blog, but ajlr has been pursuing this interesting question and right at the moment McKinley’s lack of popularity in this country is being recreated as a self-fulfilling prophesy. Arrrrrrrrrrrgh.**
But Amazon .co.uk seem to have BOTH editions listed at the moment (and I seem to have ordered both because I couldn’t decide which I liked best – and my copy of Sunshine (haunted house cover) is somewhat trashed, having been my handbag book…)
Chalice however, comes up as just being available from an alternative seller for about £25…. (I’m not sure how this will affect my preorder which I placed back in June when it was listed properly – I’m currently wishing I’d just ordered from Amazon.com…:-s)
It *varies.* It may be back on the list again.
CHALICE will *only* be available in the American ed–it didn’t sell over here. Almost nothing ever does. Feh.
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This is just bizarre. How do they say something that hasn’t even been released yet didn’t sell? How can it sell if the publisher doesn’t bother to try? Do the UK fans and librarians have to go and picket bookstores or something?
How can it sell if the publisher doesn’t bother to try?
************ Yes, well, this is my big question. It sold three copies and died last time, but possibly . . . because IT WAS NEVER ANYWHERE ANYONE COULD BUY IT.
***How can it sell if the publisher doesn’t bother to try?
************ Yes, well, this is my big question. It sold three copies and died last time, but possibly . . . because IT WAS NEVER ANYWHERE ANYONE COULD BUY IT.***
So, nobody stocked it, so it didn’t sell, so nobody stocked it because it didn’t sell… That’s insane troll logic.
In response to another post – I buy multiples of books I love because I can’t just leave them at the thriftshop/yardsale/Friends of the Library bookstore looking all sad and lonely, and try to find homes for them later. Which is probably why we have four copies of The Thirteen Clocks, and come to think of it, I want the new edition for the collection, so that’ll be five, or is it six, I forget.
LOL! I have several 13 Clocks myself!
“I’m not sure how this will affect my preorder which I placed back in June when it was listed properly”
I’m in the same boat, Vikkik, as regards CHALICE, and haven’t given up hope – I don’t think Amazon UK will put it as ‘available’ until after publication day on the 18th and the ‘other seller’ is just skewing the situation at the moment.
I’m still boggled by the to-and-fro over the SUNSHINE editions though. Publishers need to get out more into the real world…
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I’m still boggled by the to-and-fro over the SUNSHINE editions though. Publishers need to get out more into the real world…
********** It’s even worse than that. I got lost in the Random House/Transworld/Bantam UK book site today, where there are about FOUR different versions of the *UK* book listed, including several different descriptions and both the new bio and the old one I told them to ELIMINATE, and . . .
“I got lost in the Random House/Transworld/Bantam UK book site today, where there are about FOUR different versions of the *UK* book listed,”
Good grief. Whoever is doing their cataloguing/web updating needs a kick in the pants, at the least. In such situations, I can appreciate why retailers get a bit lost about knowing what they can order for stock. And something else I found odd, when I was talking with Amazon UK, was that for small publishers they can order direct whereas for big publishers’ products they have to go through Gardners – I mean WHY?
And I thought the ed/tech world was a bit tangled at times. Publishing – :shudder:
And people wonder why writers are nuts . . . :)
I too am super particular about my books. I LOVE the original covers of Hero and the Crown and Blue Sword (the reprint cover art just wasn’t as impressive!), and so I’ve kept my old battered copies and very carefully book-taped the covers so they’ll last another 20 or 30 re-readings. :) Now hopefully the spines will hold up as well (and I’m also particular about using bookmarks). And YEAH for the new Sunshine! I do love the American version- I’ll have to make sure my library orders another copy with the new cover. I always very prominently display both Sunshine and Dragonhaven every time I walk past them, making sure the cover is face-forward. Now I have an even better excuse to get Sunshine up on the top of the shelves…
“LOL! A woman after my own heart! Yes! –And to you buy spare copies of favourite books at church/library/boot sales so they’ll have a HOME? (After all there’s probably someone you can give them to. . . .)”
I once bought 7 remaindered books just so I could send them to my friends. And just to have a couple hanging around, you know, because. I have lost count of how many Beautys I have given away. Now comes the Sunshines…
Still waiting for Chalice!
Oh good. :)
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I like the American version better, mostly because I like seeing more of the background.
My version of Hero is literally falling apart and taped together….I occaisonally think about buying a new copy, but it somehow seems like an insult to a good friend… so I don’t.
But I think the new Sunshine will have to be purchased as I have made a new friend who has not discovered you yet and ought to. Yup. : )
Can’t wait for Chalice!! All excited : )
YAAY! :)
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Heh, I already have two copies of Sunshine (one hardback and one paperback, the latter I got when I realized that the binding on the hardback was starting to loosen a little from repeated readings :). And two copies of Blue Sword, come to think of it, and I keep meaning to get second copies of Deerskin and Hero…
I usually hate new art on books where I’m already comfortable with a previous cover, but I rather like that new cover for Sunshine – either of them, really.
My only issue is that the dress looks almost nothing like the description (except the color, gorgeous color), but that’s not that big a deal, just me being nit-picky. I like how it’s all moody and atmospheric and the lighting is fabulous.
We went round and ROUND about the dress. Much hair tearing. I don’t know WHY it was so difficult. Eventually they just said ‘we’re on deadline, this will have to do.’ It was *worse* before. They did try.
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Could be worse. Could be a chain-mail bikini.
I know, small comfort.
All I ask these days is that the cover of the book I’m reading at the dentist’s office not embarass me in public. Which is sometimes harder than one would think.
Yes. I’m with you there. There’s a LOT I won’t be seen reading in public I’m afraid.
I can’t believe they wouldn’t want yards and yards of fabric trailing off the side of the cover (or wrapping around to the back, wouldn’t that look nifty?) but maybe that’s not ‘the thing’ these days.
There are, of course, SO MANY ways it could be worse. ‘The thing’ in YA book covers, if you look, is to have a person standing straight upright, cut off below the eyes.
I can’t think of any books I own that I wouldn’t want to be seen reading in public, but I can think of some books that I’ve read that I wouldn’t be caught dead reading where anyone can see me (of course, most of them are books I wouldn’t want to read again anyway. Own your reading habits! ;).
IMO – off-centre anti-babe is nicer than centered anti-babe, but the American version gets the creepy background music playing in my head, with her being smaller, in dramatic lighting … alone. If they’d made her a bit smaller it might have been better, but hey — I love “Sunshine” and this is a fine cover. Congratulations!
Now I have an excuse to get my bookshop to order sunshine – I had forgotten to do it before…
And about the last proms – I actually watched it this year, because I am a fan of Sue Perkins and wanted to see her conducting. So it works to attract audiences.
Congo Rats! :-)
I like them both. (Actually I like them all) May they sell like, um, cinnamon buns?
Er–what?
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Congratulations of the new edition! I myself don’t mind the babe, in fact I kind of like her, but I think that is selfishness on my part because the illustration resembles me slightly. In fact this selfishness runs so deep that when Alibris.com describes Sunshine as a “17-year old coffee house employee” I scream inside my head “NO! Sunshine is MY AGE!” (After all, if she started the 4 am bread-shift 7 years ago, she would have started working at age 10 for the math to come out right. Right? RIGHT?) However I think I probably should stick with my chandelier cover so as to prevent further delusions that I am, in some strange way, Sunshine. But I do know my best friend is getting a new copy for her birthday! And perhaps a new edition might help me be less miserly about lending out my only copy…
On the subject of book treatment, for the longest time I was one of those awful people who would borrow my sisters’ books (I’m thinking of “Deerskin” and Madeleine L’Engle’s “Time Quintet” in particular) and reread and reread them until they were well and truly broken in, then I’d go buy myself my own shiny new copy. In my defense, this was something I did in my teens and pre-teens. I am much nicer now, and to be fair, I don’t think my sisters really minded all that much. They’re good people who introduced me to fantasy/sci-fi in the first place.
Sunshine is in her mid twenties. Alibris is culpably not paying attention.
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