in the eating

[realthog]

Proofs (in the form of PDFs ready for me to print out and read) will be arriving tomorrow for Bogus Science.

This is always a nerve-racking time with a new book, I find, because it's really the first opportunity I get to look at the text objectively. In theory that opportunity came earlier, when I was polishing the text preparatory to delivering it to the publisher, but of course that was soon after I'd written it: it was all too easy to read not so much the words that were actually there in front of me but the thoughts I'd been intending to express when I set those words down. Now I'll be seeing everything cold, and it'll be revealed to me in a stark, icy light quite how ghastly it all is.

Whatever, since my first warning of the proofs' arrival came this afternoon, and since the corrections are wanted a bit quickish, there's a certain level of ungentlemanly panic going on at Snarl Towers right at the moment.

To add to the sense of rabbits staring into headlights, I've also said that, before the end of what was already looking to be a busy month, I'll write 1500 hellishly witty words -- or at least words filled with a witlike substitute -- about pal Ian Watson for a convention program book. Plus there's a huge ghosting/editing job to finish off, and stuff to get ready for BookExpo America in a fortnight's time. And, oh yes, a couple of anthology editors have very flatteringly asked if . . .

This might be about the right moment for y'all to express sympathies to Pam for everything she's going to have to put up with over the next few weeks. I'm sure she'd be touchingly grateful for this small gesture.

Comments

[fledgist.livejournal.com]

Since I'm going through a process called marking finals, let me share with you the following: 'Don Imus whom plays the character “Kramer” from the hit television show “Senfield” is also known for his statement regarding the black women whom play professional basketball, where he referred to them as “Nappy head Hoes” are current visible examples of racism.'

[realthog.livejournal.com]

I'm hopeful my own text will be at least marginally better than that.

[fledgist.livejournal.com]

Only marginally?

[realthog.livejournal.com]

It's me innate modesty speaking, guvnor.

[fledgist.livejournal.com]

A quality as palpable as your Cockneyness (Cocknyehood?).

[realthog.livejournal.com]

"Cocknyehood"

Sp.

Ahem.

[fledgist.livejournal.com]

Sorry. I'm being infected by the undergraduates.

[realthog.livejournal.com]

"I'm being infected by the undergraduates."

No comment . . .

[fledgist.livejournal.com]

All I can do is quote the essay I am currently reading: "Political theory is a unique in that everyone has different philosophies and interpretations on what it is. The complexities of understanding political theory and its direction in the modern world are that it is ubiquitous."

[txtriffidranch.livejournal.com]

Do you need a big baseball bat with "FAIL" carved backwards into it? I know someone who could provide you one within about two or three days.

[fledgist.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, the weak-kneed authorities who run this place forbid such devices.

[txtriffidranch.livejournal.com]

That's why you need to go freelance. Get the bat and a cool costume, and go forth as an avenger of bad scholastic efforts. "Beware, evildoers! You face the wrath of...CAPTAIN FAIL!"

[fledgist.livejournal.com]

Will I be visited by Samuel L. Jackson?

[txtriffidranch.livejournal.com]

Better: the ghost of Hunter S. Thompson. "Remember: tear gas slaps at the problem. Nerve gas solves it."

[fledgist.livejournal.com]

Oh dear me.