realthog: (leaving fortusa)
realthog ([personal profile] realthog) wrote2008-07-29 08:19 pm

it's my rank dimwittedness wot's my most appealing characteristic . . .


. . . so you can just imagine what the rest are like.

Over the weekend, an e-mail from the divine [profile] norilanabooks informed me sweetly (as sweetly as only norilnabooks can) that I'd managed to post the wrong version of the Leaving Fortusa ARC cover proof here.

What I posted was the penultimate proof, which differed by one word on the back from its successor. So here, in the interests of completeness or something like that, is the correct version:


Photobucket 


(Nervously scrutinizes pic to make sure he hasn't made the same knuckleheaded mistake again. Phew!)

To repeat: If anyone would like to review the book on their blog (or elsewhere), I've been told I can dish out PDFs of the ARC. Send me your e-address via the LJ system, and I'll despatch a copy in your direction pronto(ish).

 

[identity profile] norilana.livejournal.com 2008-07-30 12:56 am (UTC)(link)
Dat's better.

The back cover text is now correct, though the blue is still a bit chromatically off (needs more violet). Hee...

Anyways Don't mind me! This book is gonna be GORGEOUS. :-)

[identity profile] pds-lit.livejournal.com 2008-07-30 03:57 am (UTC)(link)
Look'in good!

[identity profile] fledgist.livejournal.com 2008-07-30 05:18 pm (UTC)(link)
It looks good to me.

The opposite thing to dimwitted, it seems to me, would be to be brought up, say, in Kemnay in Aberdeenshire.

[identity profile] realthog.livejournal.com 2008-07-30 10:07 pm (UTC)(link)

Where's Kemnay? I'm an Aberdeen boy myself, but I don't recall a Kemnay.

[identity profile] fledgist.livejournal.com 2008-07-30 11:10 pm (UTC)(link)
Kemnay is a village southwest of Aberdeen at the foot of the Grampians. While I've never been there meself, my youngest brother lives there, and is raising his children there. My youngest nephew was born there.

[identity profile] realthog.livejournal.com 2008-07-30 11:21 pm (UTC)(link)

Well, give him my regards! Though born in Aberdeen itself, my first memories are of living in Pitmedden, a village in the parish of Udny, about 14 miles westish of Aberdeen. It's possible Kemnay is not too far distant from there; this was a long time ago, and I was only 6 when we moved back into the city.

[identity profile] fledgist.livejournal.com 2008-07-30 11:30 pm (UTC)(link)
I shall endeavour so to do. Funny thing, although he was born in Jamaica (the only one of my generation to be) my brother has become something of a Scottish nationalist (this has nothing to do with his marrying a woman named Campbell, she's Guyanese).

[identity profile] realthog.livejournal.com 2008-07-30 11:39 pm (UTC)(link)

I've no idea what the situation is now, but for a long time the chieftain of my clan, the Robertsons (Clan Duanachaidh), was a Jamaican.

[identity profile] fledgist.livejournal.com 2008-07-30 11:43 pm (UTC)(link)
You are a member of Clan Robertson of Struan are you?

[identity profile] fledgist.livejournal.com 2008-07-30 11:54 pm (UTC)(link)
My father knew Lachlan Robertson of Struan, I didn't, I'm ashamed to say.

[identity profile] realthog.livejournal.com 2008-07-30 11:57 pm (UTC)(link)

You mean, that's him? Have you any idea what happened to his line thereafter?

[identity profile] fledgist.livejournal.com 2008-07-31 12:17 am (UTC)(link)
That's him. I've no idea what happened to his family, or even if he had one. I saw some mentions of him -- a genuine Scots laird living in Jamaica -- and I know my father knew him (he was a landowner in the same parish, Jamaican parishes are hundreds of square miles in area I hasten to add). Taht's all.

[identity profile] realthog.livejournal.com 2008-07-31 12:52 am (UTC)(link)

Would you mind if I passed this on to the rest of the surviving family (depressingly few) who might be interested?

[identity profile] fledgist.livejournal.com 2008-07-31 01:04 am (UTC)(link)
Not at all.

[identity profile] sarcobatus.livejournal.com 2008-07-30 06:45 pm (UTC)(link)
Everytime I see this cover I'm in awe of its design and artwork.

(I thought it was your modesty that was your most appealing characteristic . . . now I'm really confused)

[identity profile] hutch0.livejournal.com 2008-07-30 09:35 pm (UTC)(link)
His most appealing characteristic is a sworn secret, known only to a mysterious sect of warrior-monks who live in a hut just outside Aberdeen.

[identity profile] realthog.livejournal.com 2008-07-30 10:13 pm (UTC)(link)

Sigh. I have so many appealing characteristics that it's hard to keep track of them . . .

[identity profile] hutch0.livejournal.com 2008-07-31 10:57 pm (UTC)(link)
I have them written down on a set of index cards, if you need them in an emergency...

[identity profile] hutch0.livejournal.com 2008-07-30 09:32 pm (UTC)(link)
I've had a long day, but I can't see any difference between the two. What was the rogue word?
I'd like to big the book up (translation: I'd like to read it now) but I'm not sure when I'll have time; I haven't even started Cone Zero yet.
Lovely cover.

[identity profile] realthog.livejournal.com 2008-07-30 10:11 pm (UTC)(link)

I used to be a "master", now I'm just an "author" -- all my own bloody fault that Im now officially an ex-master (sob!), because I pointed out that "masterpiece by . . . master" was a bit inelegant.

[identity profile] hutch0.livejournal.com 2008-07-30 10:23 pm (UTC)(link)
I'd have left it the way it was.

[identity profile] realthog.livejournal.com 2008-07-30 11:23 pm (UTC)(link)

Myself, I'd have solved the problem by replacing "masterpiece" with "natural for the Nobel Committee". But would Nazarian listen?

[identity profile] hutch0.livejournal.com 2008-07-30 11:31 pm (UTC)(link)
Your invitation to Norway will arrive one day, don't worry.

[identity profile] fledgist.livejournal.com 2008-07-30 11:31 pm (UTC)(link)
Strictly speaking, you can only produce a masterpiece once.

[identity profile] realthog.livejournal.com 2008-07-30 11:34 pm (UTC)(link)

"Strictly speaking, you can only produce a masterpiece once"

Ahem. You mean you can only produce a masterpiece once.

[identity profile] fledgist.livejournal.com 2008-07-30 11:38 pm (UTC)(link)
Er, no. The masterpiece was the piece of work produced by a journeyman member of a guild to show that he (it was usually a he) had reached a level of attainment satisfactory enough to be admitted to the rank of master.

I've heard the term used correctly once, by an elderly gentleman whose father was a farrier. His father made a wrought iron gate as his masterpiece.

[identity profile] realthog.livejournal.com 2008-07-30 11:41 pm (UTC)(link)

"The masterpiece was the piece of work produced by a journeyman member of a guild to show that he (it was usually a he) had reached a level of attainment satisfactory enough to be admitted to the rank of master."

I know this. I was joking. RealThog stuffs own head down nearest toilet by way of apology.

[identity profile] fledgist.livejournal.com 2008-07-30 11:44 pm (UTC)(link)
Oops. I should have realised this. Will shoot myself for being dimwitted.

[identity profile] realthog.livejournal.com 2008-07-30 11:51 pm (UTC)(link)

"Will shoot myself for being dimwitted."

That's the only optionleft open to you. The toilet's already taken.

[identity profile] fledgist.livejournal.com 2008-07-30 11:55 pm (UTC)(link)
Drat, now where did I leave my blunderbuss. That's the only thing for blunders.

[identity profile] hutch0.livejournal.com 2008-07-31 10:59 pm (UTC)(link)
I always think of a blunderbuss as having something to do with London Transport. Along with the blundertrains and the Blunderground.

[identity profile] realthog.livejournal.com 2008-07-31 11:01 pm (UTC)(link)

Isn't a blunderbuss when you're so drunk at a party you find you're kissing the wrong person?

[identity profile] fledgist.livejournal.com 2008-07-31 11:04 pm (UTC)(link)
Especially at a party with an eighteenth-century theme.

[identity profile] hutch0.livejournal.com 2008-07-31 11:06 pm (UTC)(link)
I think it may be too late to submit that one to The Meaning Of Liff, but it deserves to be included.

[identity profile] fledgist.livejournal.com 2008-07-31 11:02 pm (UTC)(link)
*snort*