Home » Discussion Forums » Blog Post Discussion » Very Old Eden, and Modern Serpents
| Very Old Eden, and Modern Serpents [message #9808] |
Mon, 12 January 2009 17:33  |
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 AJLR
Messages: 2566
Registered: September 2008
Location: England, UK |
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Very Old Eden, and Modern Serpents
"Never let a computer know you're in a hurry."
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| Re: Very Old Eden, and Modern Serpents [message #9818 is a reply to message #9808 ] |
Mon, 12 January 2009 17:51  |
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AJLR
Messages: 2566
Registered: September 2008
Location: England, UK |
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. . . and then subsided in a gibbering heap on the sofa, demanding therapeutic champagne and a poultice of hellhounds.
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You know this may have been mentioned before, but you have quite a way with words! Ah don't know how you does it, Ah'm just grateful you does. 
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I don’t dare take the herbaceous things*** out at all–the osteospermums and fuchsias and so on–they’re in the sitting-room till June. If it’s a warm June. Meanwhile, however, the mighty Atlas has been putting up my grow light today. I pretty much guarantee that if I get back to the cottage tonight and it’s all installed and functioning and splendid, it’ll stay above 40° for the rest of the winter.
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Perhaps you should inform the local council that your house has had a change of purpose and ask if there are any taxes due back now its primary purpose is no longer a residential dwelling (or whatever the correct term is)?
Many congratulations, anyway, on getting all those corrections done despite disliking the working medium. You're so good.
"Never let a computer know you're in a hurry."
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| Re: Very Old Eden, and Modern Serpents [message #9820 is a reply to message #9808 ] |
Mon, 12 January 2009 17:57 |
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‡‡‡ You aren’t going to try and tell me that a comma pause isn’t mortally different from a semi-colon pause, are you? Which is absolutely different from a colon or a full stop pause?
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Okay, I usually adore you, but at this moment I adore you EXTRA. Ah, punctuation. Semicolons. --And em-dashes! Oh, how I love punctuation and the different little stoppy sounds they all make. They're so beautiful.
*swoon*
Smooshes!
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| Re: Very Old Eden, and Modern Serpents [message #9832 is a reply to message #9829 ] |
Mon, 12 January 2009 18:17 |
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| Black Bear wrote on Mon, 12 January 2009 18:08 |
God, I love em-dashes. And commas. My one foray into having my writing published involved a Canadian editor removing about 4/5 of the commas from the essay, which resulted in a lot of "FRK! BRP!! GRAHHHH!!!" on my end. Because it made the thing SOUND totally different. Grah. I'm still annoyed. :)
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Great, now I'm going to have nightmares. THANKS A LOT.
;)
Smooshes!
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| Re: Very Old Eden, and Modern Serpents [message #9842 is a reply to message #9808 ] |
Mon, 12 January 2009 22:17 |
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demanding therapeutic champagne and a poultice of hellhounds <snip> Chocolate comes later. Believe me, it comes.
Not luxuries, essentials. I think a prescription of a canine poultice would do a lot to heal the world. (Champagne and chocolate go without saying)
Actually I’ve never known a well-mannered plot. Extreme hair surgery and a slight poisonous alcohol problem sound pretty mild to me.
Plots sound like teenagers to me - they may start off meek and mild but there comes a hair tearing period of variable length but guaranteed stress; this is most likely prolonged, repeated or both, until (with much care, nurturing, blood, tears and sweat) the harbour is reached. Oh, and it might be the wrong harbour at that
Here's hoping that the light works and it propitiates the weather. A candle lit for you, and virtual Green & Blacks for your hoard.
Someone says "pie" and we all go on alert, like meercats. "Pie? Where?" - Blackbear
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| Re: Very Old Eden, and Modern Serpents [message #9843 is a reply to message #9808 ] |
Mon, 12 January 2009 22:28 |
b_twin_1
Messages: 2596
Registered: September 2008
Location: Victoria, Australia |
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Meanwhile–arrrrrgh--I’ve told you the indoor roses are leafing out, haven’t I? They’re leafing out enthusiastically. They’re leafing out like . . . May.
*laughs helplessly*
Since you mentioned Peter Beales yesterday.... ..The other day I was flicking through Classic Roses to get propogation info and came across the following..... (for some reason I thought of you!!) "..if the weather is really terrible, with frost and snow, place the roots in a bucket or box, cover with peat, soil or even damp sand, and store in a garage or suitable outbuilding until they can be heeled in...... Never keep them in a centrally heated area for any length of time. They will think it is spring and start to shoot." What a shame he doesn't say what to do once this has already occurred!! LOL
Maybe they are wishing they are in Australia or South Africa? *g* Although given our scorching temps at the moment... maybe not!
I've got a plan so cunning you could put a tail on it and call it a weasel ~ Blackadder
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| Re: Very Old Eden, and Modern Serpents [message #9849 is a reply to message #9808 ] |
Tue, 13 January 2009 00:37 |
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Congratulations for getting Fire done. Well, done until you get the galleys, right? Or whatever they call them now...
One of the first stories I published was with a local press, and I punctuate much like you do (don't judge me by my posts1)--I think of punctuation as a way to play with the rhythm, right? And the copy editor put in a bunch of punctuation that didn't need to be there. I ended up sitting by her side and going through the story sentence by sentence almost. But when the book came out, it was right, so it was worth it. (It was a collection of stories by Utah women.)
I can't imagine going over a novel in the same way. Gak.
Glad you're back working on Pegasus, or getting ready to.
"And by the way you look fantastic in your boots of Chinese plastic."
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| Re: Very Old Eden, and Modern Serpents [message #9852 is a reply to message #9836 ] |
Tue, 13 January 2009 02:23 |
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Diane in MN
Messages: 2732
Registered: October 2008
Location: Twin Cities, MN, USA |
Senior Member |
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| skating librarian wrote on Mon, 12 January 2009 18:44 |
Just heard a sound bite from G.W. Bush's final press conference. He accused the press of "mis-under estimating" him. An interesting concept, even if I can't quite wrap my brain around it.
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"Misunderestimate me" was one of his malapropisms early on in his presidency, so he was being cute with the press this morning. I spent the last eight years not listening to GW except when there was no escape, so I don't recall the context--whether he meant to say "misunderstand" or "underestimate"; in his case, it was all too easy to do the one and impossible to do the other. But I actually kind of like "misunderestimate" as a portmanteau word. Scary, that.
"The point of books is to have way too many but to always feel you never have enough . . . " Louise Erdrich
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| Re: Very Old Eden, and Modern Serpents [message #9853 is a reply to message #9808 ] |
Tue, 13 January 2009 03:22 |
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Diane in MN
Messages: 2732
Registered: October 2008
Location: Twin Cities, MN, USA |
Senior Member |
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I think I’ve told you I punctuate by ear, not by grammatical precision
I think good writers have a good ear and write for the ear. People bring up the necessary auditory component of writing in discussions of poetry but less so when talking about prose, but it's just as important there. Maybe even more important when you're dealing with something longer than a lyric.
Although I will be bitterly remembering the easy instantaneousness of email§§ when I sit around waiting in for the delivery which they’ve lost or sent to the wrong address or claim to have tried to hand over when I was here and there was no knock on the door, or what have you.
Perhaps the publisher could send you the ms in both formats, so the e-mail would be there as a backup while you're pacing the floor waiting for the hardcopy.
But I’m interested in how popular those cross-country ski-pole things have become for walkers.
Yes, I know a couple of people who use them and like them a lot. But I can't imagine managing poles and dogs at the same time, unless the dog is so well-behaved it might as well be a robot.
Around here today you would have needed the cross-country skis or some snowshoes as well as the poles. Some Siberian air is coming to stay for the rest of the week. NO ONE will want to go out.
"The point of books is to have way too many but to always feel you never have enough . . . " Louise Erdrich
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| Re: Very Old Eden, and Modern Serpents [message #9854 is a reply to message #9820 ] |
Tue, 13 January 2009 06:02 |
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Lucy Coats
Messages: 223
Registered: October 2008
Location: Northamptonshire, UK |
Senior Member |
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| jmeadows wrote on Mon, 12 January 2009 22:57 |
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‡‡‡ You aren’t going to try and tell me that a comma pause isn’t mortally different from a semi-colon pause, are you? Which is absolutely different from a colon or a full stop pause?
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Okay, I usually adore you, but at this moment I adore you EXTRA. Ah, punctuation. Semicolons. --And em-dashes! Oh, how I love punctuation and the different little stoppy sounds they all make. They're so beautiful.
*swoon*
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Oh! Oh! Oh! *faints dramatically* It is SO nice to be with people who understand these things with their inner ears.
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I still print out each draft of a manuscript; I do a lot of editing on screen–and would find it extremely difficult to go back to a typewriter†††–but I periodically need the feel of proper pages in my hands, and when I make a note it stays made‡.
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It doesn't feel real to me either if it's not on a proper printed-out page. I know this is unecological and wasteful, but I do use cheap paper and then use the back of it for scribble notes. I make my notes and changes on the hard copy, and then transfer them to the sacred 'final copy' file on the computer. Only then do I know where I am. My editor doesn't understand at all about em dashes and colons of either variety. But I am slowly educating him. I don't think he has a copy of Butcher's Copy Editingwhich is where I learned all my little squiggles from when I was an editor myself--and I'm not lending mine to him. I like to think I can squiggle a blue or red 'stet' sign with the best of them still.
Lucy xx
"'Thou shalt not' might reach the head, but it takes 'Once upon a time' to reach the heart."
http://www.scribblecitycentral.blogspot.com
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| Re: Very Old Eden, and Modern Serpents [message #9855 is a reply to message #9808 ] |
Tue, 13 January 2009 06:13 |
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Mrs Redboots
Messages: 943
Registered: October 2008
Location: London, UK |
Senior Member |
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| Robin wrote: |
I pretty much guarantee that if I get back to the cottage tonight and it’s all installed and functioning and splendid, it’ll stay above 40° for the rest of the winter. But that’s all right. That’s fine.
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Oh please yes! Parents' heating still not installed as they can't find a plumber (too many burst pipes after the freeze), so the milder it stays, the better!
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But I’m interested in how popular those cross-country ski-pole things have become for walkers. You never saw them eighteen years ago but every group has at least a few now. I’ve read a couple of articles extolling their virtues and if I weren’t holding a magnificent array of leads when I’m walking I might be interested
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I like them - at least, I like ONE. And was annoyed that I'd forgotten to pack one on our trip to France - it really does help when walking up hills. None of the rest of my family can see the point, though.
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I think I’ve told you I punctuate by ear, not by grammatical precision,
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Doesn't everybody? I don't think you can write conversation without.
Mrs Redboots
I love my computer because my friends live in it!
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| Re: Very Old Eden, and Modern Serpents [message #9861 is a reply to message #9808 ] |
Tue, 13 January 2009 13:26 |
gingerwood
Messages: 2
Registered: October 2008
Location: Minneapolis |
Junior Member |
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‡‡ I can hardly wait for ebooks to become the standard. Nooooooooo.
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Yesssssss! I mainly just want most/all books to at least be available in e-format. No more out-of-print books! I have 30 yo paperbacks that are dark yellow, falling apart from being over-read (or have met with other accidents) and I have no way of getting new copies. To me the ebooks are actually more enduring. I can back them up! I can make multiple back ups and keep them in different places and still read my book! And never again lose a book because I've spilled a can of pop all over it, or my puppy decided that it would make a nice chew toy.
Mickie
[Updated on: Tue, 13 January 2009 13:29]
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| Re: Very Old Eden, and Modern Serpents [message #9870 is a reply to message #9808 ] |
Tue, 13 January 2009 16:06 |
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Black Bear
Messages: 3216
Registered: September 2008
Location: Indianapolis, IN USA |
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but I periodically need the feel of proper pages in my hands, and when I make a note it stays made‡.
When I'm teaching I demand that my students turn in their papers on hard copy, which drives some of them bats--"Why can't I just email it to you??" Because then I have to print it out on MY dime, you turkey. I want to make notes and corrections and scribbles on actual paper. I find it requires about twice as much effort to grade "virtually" (which I did when I taught an online course, and man that sucked.) Glad I'm not the only one.
The great thing about the interwebz, of course, is that I now CAN get used replacements for nearly every OP paperback I've ever lost/destroyed--and pretty cheap, if I'm considering it a reading copy. One of my coworkers just got a Kindle, and while I can kinda see the appeal... nah. Not fer me.
"The time is always right to do what's right."--MLK Jr.
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| Re: Very Old Eden, and Modern Serpents [message #9881 is a reply to message #9876 ] |
Tue, 13 January 2009 18:53 |
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| Robin wrote on Tue, 13 January 2009 18:41 |
Get used to it, kiddo. Sorry. But publishing is like this. You have a little more room to swing deceased mammals in book publishing: they'll usually let you change it back. Usually. But magazines and essays in anthologies--probably not. In fact you probably won't even KNOW till they send you your author's copy of the finished (*&%$£"!!!!! object.
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Oh piffle. I know what publishing's really like. You established writers just say that kind of thing to scare us. My commas will live to pause another day!
;)
Smooshes!
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| Re: Very Old Eden, and Modern Serpents [message #9896 is a reply to message #9895 ] |
Tue, 13 January 2009 19:16 |
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| southdowner wrote on Tue, 13 January 2009 19:15 |
sharpened ferrets pointing at shiny things - sounds like fun! Can I join this road trip?
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I hope you do!
Smooshes!
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