A hundred pages done. Out of those 100, there are, I think, two pages upon which nothing is stetted. Of those two, one of them had only one CE change and the other had maybe three. Most had…far more than that, so it was a hundred very long pages. 321 to go.
I basically have to have this done Thursday so it can be photocopied and go into the mail on Friday (which reminds me, I need to figure out where I can go in Cork to UPS/FedEx/rush-mail a manuscript overseas), because production has given me until the 22nd to turn it in, and if it’s not in very close to then, the final stage of eyeballing the manuscript (known at Harlequin as Author Alterations, and at most publishing houses as galleys) is going to be sheer and utter hell. Besides, I have another book to CE before, well, next Tuesday, ideally. This means I have to do a minimum of 150 pages tomorrow, and preferably 200. Or more, if I can, but that’s an awful lot.
*headdesk*
(STET, incidentally, means “let it stand”, and is used to indicate material that’s been removed or changed in the editing process that you want to retain in its original form. Just in case you haven’t read the comments on the last post and are wondering. :))
Every time I blow my nose it feels like my brain gets smaller. *glorp*
Ted and I got up unreasonably early on Friday to head up to Dublin. Driving the ~mile to the train station took closer to an hour than not, and our poor little Fiat was overheating alarmingly by the time we got done with all the stop and starting. We’re going to have to bring it to a car doctor before we can sell it. Sigh. Anyway, the ride up was uneventful; I worked and Ted read and napped. After lunching with my parents we parted ways, Ted to see a movie and I to…er. Well. Have some ice cream and read STRANGERS IN PARADISE: EVER AFTER at the Forbidden Planet. It was a better wrap-up to the story than I expected from what people’d told me about it, and I got sniffly in places, so I guess Moore pulled it off in the end. Well done, him.
I retreated to my family’s home and worked for the rest of the afternoon, then spent enough time with my plague monkey nephews to ensure that my already-lowered immune system would not have any up time in the next week or so. :) We got up unreasonably early again and trundled out to Maynooth, arriving at the hotel more or less at the stroke of ten, which was when, in theory, opening ceremonies began. They actually began around 10:25, which was expected, and for the remainder of the day I spent a fairly astonishing amount of time in panels, breaking once for an outrageously priced lunch that made certain I’d never eat another meal at that hotel again.
Generally speaking the panels were fun. Several (most especially the religion in SF one on Sunday) could’ve used moderators, and they *all* could have used information about who would be on the panels listed in the program, but there was a lot of audience interaction and discussion, which is always very satisfying to me.
Amongst the people to whom I did not have nearly enough chance to speak were
Oop, Ted has invited me to watch an episode of Smallville, so there will have to be more Octoconing later. :)
A hundred pages done. Out of those 100, there are, I think, two pages upon which nothing is stetted. Of those two, one of them had only one CE change and the other had maybe three. Most had…far more than that, so it was a hundred very long pages. 321 to go.
I Feel Your Pain.
(Remind me, one of these days, to show you the galley of ACCELERANDO. It’s mostly red. Not due to a crap copy editor, but due to a lack of copy editing that consequently required post-copy-edit work.)
that is because you’ve snot for brains right now, as I do in spring, when I blow out my brain(‘s weight) in well, snot.
I have to wonder: is there no way to do this electronically, like sending over a .PDF?
Amongst the people to whom I did not have nearly enough chance to speak were
Muahaha! That’s deliberate. That’s why there are panels, and they put you on them, so you can’t get enough time, and have to go to more conventions, where they’ll put you on more panels, and you won’t have the time to speak to people, and you’ll need to go to more … and so on, until your withered corpse is finally allowed to slide under a table at the end of a panel sometiume in 2079.
Welcome to being a con guest.
On the other hand, sometimes you do get bought drinks.
I don’t have the equipment to scan a 420 page document, or the knowledge to create PDFs. Possibly I should invest in both. Possibly I should invest in both *tomorrow*, but I don’t even know where to start.
2079 isn’t late enough; I’m aiming to see the year 2100. :)
In fact, I remember you mentioning the ACCELERANDO galley at some point, and more than once today I thought of you. :)
Well the Glenroyal has always had a reputation of being expensive. However that was back when I was student, imagine my shock to find it was even more expensive now!
by the way I am most of the way through Urban Shaman, and am thoroughly enjoying the story, and the characters, and the world and pretty much everything.
I have been reading it at every opportunity since last night when I cracked it open.
Thanks.
Oh no. Just when you were having fun again. How unfair!
I’ve had this happen. Not often, but more than once. And maybe more than twice, although memory fades. Luckily.
What I do remember is that it was terrifying each time, because I kept imagining the worst, i.e. what if production ended up siding with the CE, and the disputed/inappropriate edits were still there when the galleys arrived? Then I’d have no choice but to buy the book back so that it would never see print in that condition.
So I stetted like a woman possessed, and it always worked out in the end. But I swear it took its toll, so I feel for you.
Stay strong.
No, I was thinking that to generate the PDF with markup would be their responsibility. Since all this stuff has to go back into a computer somewhere anyway, it just makes sense to me to save a step. They may just not be set up on their end to do that (which again strikes me as something of a waste).
The copy edits I was sent are a PDF. I’m vaguely aware that one can, somehow, edit one, but I’ve got no clue how. I’m working from a printout of it.
Oh no. Just when you were having fun again. How unfair!
I honestly think that’s the worst part. “Oh look, fun! oh, *damn*, arse-deep in misery…”
I shall persevere!
How did you find that? I didn’t tell anyone I’d posted it – yet.
And BTW this is why I like taking off-the-cuff photos.
And I hadn’t gotten around to posting it – I don’t have to now – but it does mean I can’t blackmail him over it ;)
Oh, I went up to the gallery level on the shoes page to see what other pictures were posted there and found that one. :) Did you want me to take the link down?
No, leave it there. I was going to post it anyway, but then I thought I’d let post it.
It is a good shot. I’ll post the other Octocon photos later.