Timewaster's Guide Archive
General => Everything Else => Topic started by: EUOL on June 24, 2004, 11:49:32 PM
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All right, the new book is revised and spellchecked, and I'm going to need readers. This thread is specifically for Ookla and Stacer, to whom I'd like to send electronic copies if they have time to give me a read.
As I've said before, I need to be careful with electronic copies of my books, especially since I'm finally publishing. If you've read for me before, you're invited to do so again. If you haven't read from me before, I could probably be persuaded, but it shouldn't be TOO long before a physical copy gets released.
If you're in the Provo/Orem area, I'd still prefer you to read the paper copy--both to keep down on electronic copies, and because it's much easier for me to deal with your comments when they're grouped with those of other people.
So, if you're outside the area and want to give me an electronic read, post here and tell me what email address to use. Be sure you've got enough space in that account for a one-meg file. I'll include a second document zipped with the actual book; it will give an explanation of the kinds of criticism I'm looking for.
Thanks, all. I appreciate it.
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I'd love to. stacer 11 at hotmail (no spaces).
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I'd love to too. If this is the one that parallels people from the board.
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Stacer: It's off.
Gemm: I suppose I'll should send it to you, since your dialect inspired one of the characters. Just promise me you won't post it anywhere or forward it to anyone else, okay?
I'll send to the email you have on your profile. Let me know if you need it somewhere else.
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I could read the new version. I could read it while I'm at work this weekend. Electric or Print will do.
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What timetable are you on for this? I'd like to read it, but July is pretty busy.
Either way, you could send it to me and I'll read as much as I can: robisonwells at msn dot com
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Personally, I would love to read it, however, you DO hardley know me so I don't expect you to just up and hand me a peice of your financial security. But if, for some reason, you feel like getting the perspective of a younger audience, I would be all but delighted to read a copy.
[email protected]
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Oh, go on then.
The last book is still sitting in 'My Documents' on my pc, which is not shared on the p2p program i use. It'sa safe, mario-san.
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EUOL, if you are still looking for readers, I would love to.
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42, I'll get you a paper copy.
The rest of you, check your email boxes. You should have a present waiting for you.
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If I'm in the california area(at the moment) when could I expect to see any of your books in stores? I'd like to get myself one of them.
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First one doesn't come out until May, I'm afraid, TFO. However, when it does, you'll be able to find it on the shelves everywhere.
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Oh well, guess anticipation will make it more satisfying when I read it.
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You still looking for readers? I'd love to see the new mistborn world.
lilyofthefield at yahoo.com
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I WOULD like to finish it sometime soon, before I forget the first half....
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I'll send you specific comments when I'm through, but I just want to say that I can't put it down, regardless of how I have to read it onscreen. I'm up to chapter 6 and I'm really enjoying it so far.
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urk. Didn't check this forum for a few days. I've been feverishly lettering and retouching a manga book (with some editing as I go) this week and last. But I'm almost done so might have time to read tomorrow.
[email protected] should work fine
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EUOL, my inbox was full of surprises. Not including yours though! And yes, it will stay in my computers mind, forever and completly, pending a loose invasion of the Gou`ald.
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EUOL, why didn't you ask me on Friday? We could have just popped it onto my flash drive.
But yeah, if you still need a reader, consider me a volunteer.
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This is wonderful. Just wonderful. I can't seem to read anything except it. If I start reading something else, it seems dull... you have ruined all literature for me...
On another note, this angers me. My computer which I have in my basement, you know, decently private, does not wish to read this, so I have to read it in the middle of the house. My mom refuses to let me read for more than twenty minuites at a time...
And do you plan on keeping the words underlined when you have a character thinking, and sometimes talking? I think that it would come across better if you used italics, not to be mean...
From now on I will e-mail you comments...
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The underlining is just standard manuscript format. That's the way most authors submit their works. I wouldn't worry about formatting issues like that--they're kind of hard to read in manuscript form, but that stuff will work out through the publishing process.
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Gorgon: I'm glad you like it!
If the underlining bothers you, just do a search and replace in MS Word for blank text 'Underlined' and replace it with blank text 'italicized' (you have to use the formatting button at the bottom to get that.) It's standard process for writers, in text, to underline instead of italicize. Otherwise, when the book gets typsetted, it's too easy to miss a word that needs to be italicized. In the final copy, it will be changed.
Also, if you want to move it to another computer, you can just try saving it as an 'RTF' on your upstairs computer, then move it via disk to the one below. That should work.
Gemm: I sent it to your Kaven100 account. You didn't get it? Is there another account I should try?
SE: I wasn't sure if you wanted to read another one, since you just got through KINGS. I'll send it off, though!
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I'd like to read the paper copy (as long as it's before August, since we'll be moving who knows where at that point).
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Hmmm, still not coming. Ok, send it to [email protected] Let's see if that one works.
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Done.
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Got it! And not to be Entropy-ish about it, but where does the character that I've inspired come in?
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Opening this document was rather humorous. Right now I'm waiting for it to finish figuring out how many pages there are.
But yes, amazing. 1167 pages. 226,899 words. Indeed. You will be wrought EUOL, wrought.
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Heh. Notice the little sig beneath my avatar. I got it from an email of that title sent to me by my editor after I told him that I'd 'accidentally' written a new novel when he wasn't looking.
As for the character...well, anticipation is part of the enjoyment, right? You'll know the character when he shows up.
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Heh. Notice the little sig beneath my avatar. I got it from an email of that title sent to me by my editor after I told him that I'd 'accidentally' written a new novel when he wasn't looking.
...I would love to see both sides of that exchange. (That's not just a rhetorical remark.)
I'm 500 pages into the book and am enjoying it thoroughly. Been a bit busy though so I don't think I'll be able to blow through it. So far it's a much more fun read than Way of Kings. At this point it seems your purpose in writing this one is very different from that one.
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Good eye, Ookla. I wrote MISTBORN to have a very different feel and tone from KINGS. When I finished KINGS, I realized I'd written a book that might surprise my editor, since it was so different from ELANTRIS. Concerned about this, I figured I would write another book more thematically similar to ELANTRIS, in case Moshe wanted to publish that one instead.
He told me to send him both, once they're edited. I've started the rewrite of KINGS, and it's a bit of a daunting task. We'll see how it goes, and then we'll see which of the two books he'd rather publish.
As for the email exchange, here you go:
My Email
Re: July 4th Weekend
Moshe:
Perhaps this is the place to come clean. While I've been waiting between ELANTRIS pages and things, I...kinda wrote another book. I know you told me to focus on short stories, but I just couldn't help myself! Honestly. This is kind what I do--I write books. When I finish one (like I did with WAY OF KINGS back in November) I start working on another. I postponed it for a while, spending my time editing KINGS, ELANTRIS, and that short story I sent you. However, I eventually ran out of things to do, and I had this really great idea....
Anyway, It's called MISTBORN. I was a bit worried about WAY OF KINGS, since it's such a different style of book from ELANTRIS. KINGS is a deeply character-intensive book, and it's a bit bulky, with a lot of backstory and complex world elements. There are a lot of war chapters, and it has six major viewpoint characters--which makes its 'learning curve' rather steep. (I'm working on this, trying to find a way to cut one of the character or at least hold off their viewpoints until the middle of the book.)
Whenever I write a book like KINGS--a book that's intended to be a straight series (not 'episodic' sequel-wise, like ELANTRIS is) I tend to have to do more editing work with it than I do to ELANTRIS style books. There's just so much information there, it needs to be refined and polished.
Anyway, the short of it is, I figured that we'd like to have another ELANTRIS-style book to consider as a follow-up before we got into something more like KINGS. (I actually wouldn't be adverse to doing an ELANTRIS trilogy and a MISTBORN trilogy to get some name recognition before we launch me into a 'true' epic fantasy series. If we did this, I could probably finish the entire WAY OF KINGS series before we put it out--which would be VERY nice.)
Anyway, MISTBORN is similar, stylistically, to ELANTRIS--it has a very interesting, clever magic system. It has a distinctive setting, fun characters, and has a mystery/intrigue plot. It's a very good book, and I think people will enjoy it--and I think it says the things about my writing that we want it to.
I know the contract says KINGS, but I was hoping I could send you both KINGS and MISTBORN (after I'm finished revising them this summer) and let you decide which would be the better book to publish next. Who knows, maybe I'm worried about nothing with KINGS--maybe this IS the time to put me into a big epic series. (Tad Williams did it after just one 'introduction' book.) Anyway, would it be all right if I sent you both? (I mean eventually--neither is in a shape to be read by another human being right now.)
Curious,
Brandon
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Moshe's Response:
Subject: Mr. Prolific [tm]
Dear Brandon,
Well, what an interesting and pleasant surprise. You certainly are productive!
Of course you may send me both when they're ready. I'm certainly open to swapping MISTBORN and TWoK if that seems advantageous, and it's not impossible that we'd just go ahead and buy MISTBORN now anyway. My confidence in your future success has only deepened after my work on ELANTRIS and your response to it, and I might well be able to convince Tom to 'up the ante' of our investment in your career.
I look forward to both.
But for now, please spend as much time as possible in Opelon. The sooner you finish, the sooner we can start having people read it.
Best,
Moshe
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sweet. It's got to be cool to have people tell you they want to invest in your career.
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Wow EUOL, that's awesome.
This may be a dumb question: what's Opelon?
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World that ELANTRIS takes place in.
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Sounds like a fairly normal 'do what we told you to do response' at the end, although the rest is very, very cool.
Incidentally, I thought that the release date for Elantris was already decided, and couldn't be sped up by any work you have left to do. Is he referring more to a different Opelon work?
As long as EUOL is likely to look at this, I've had a really slow day at work today, and I'm most of the way done with the WotK: Part 1 binder already, so I'd have to be a real flake to not get it done by the end of the week like we talked about.
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"Having people read it" refers to reviewers and potential cover-quoters.
It sure would be great if I could pick up Pt1 on Friday, Prometheus. I'm going out of town on Saturday, and would like to take it with me.
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My confidence in your future success has only deepened after my work on ELANTRIS and your response to it
Meaning he said "this needs to be changed here and here and here and here" and you said "Yes sir Mr. Editor sir!" instead of "I am an artiste! You cannot alter my baby!"
--ah, I have to go. Will post more later.
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lol. Yes, I'm pretty open to changes. Moshe was astounded when I quickly agreed to some major changes, such as name swaps and the like. I thought the suggestions made sense, and I figured Moshe knew what he was doing--he's been doing this for a while, after all. My job is to write books. His job is to make sure they sell as well as they can. I don't understand who would complain about that.
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EUOL, here's some female emotional motivation for you.
I'm feeling very left out that I was reading Mistborn before and now everyone BUT me is reading it.
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If it makes you feel better, Fuzzy, I don't have a copy yet either.
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I'm working on the paper copy as fast I as can. Unfortunately, this book is a monstrous beast. On the good side, it is a lot better than the first version, which I put down about two-thirds through because I was so bored with it.
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Brenna:
Sorry! 42 grabbed it first.
Fuzzy:
I haven't given up on that reading group idea. However, you're going to be moving away soon, right?
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Jury's still out on the moving. We were moving, then we were not, now we still are, but we might just be moving to another town nearby.
J.T.'s really set on working with Lucid Raven full time if he can, and if it's doable then we'd be staying around.
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If it makes you feel better Fuzzy, I haven't had the time yet to actually read anything except up to that beginning thing before Chapter 1 starts.
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That's very niceof you Gemm, and I appreciate it. I just hate having our plans be up in the air. It's somewhat disconcerting not knowing if I'm going to be moving in a month and a half, and if I were moving WHERE I'd be moving to.
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If you want you could pitch tents in my backyard. It's freaking huge, sort of.
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I sympathize greatly, Fuzzy. Mega good luck on getting everything figured out, and soon!
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Yeah, Brenna: you of all people can definitely sympathize, that I know.
And Gemm, well we have a tent...
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Move to california and dye your hair blonde.
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Fuzzyoctupus alread has very blonde hair. ???
And California... nice place to visit, expensive place to live.
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....
I can't imagine that. I have no idea why, but I simply cannot see Fuzzy as having blonde hair. Not that I've ever imagined what anyone here quite looks like, but you, fuzzy, have a very brunette posting style. If that makes sense, and it probably doesn't. Go away and get off my back, I'm tired.
Ah, the joys of faceless communication.
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That's ok, I'd rather be told "you write like a brunette." than "you totally come across as a blonde."
No worries.
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Still off-topic:
I completed the read, EUOL. How would you like to pick it up? In a twist of fate, I don't have a car right now, but I work pretty closeby to your home & could just walk it over...say 4:30 PM-ish. Or I could just go home, and you could get it from me there.
Pathetic attempt at staying on-topic:
I haven't read any of Mistborn v2 yet either, and it's in my apartment sometimes.
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So incidentally, I have been reading the print version of Mistborn version 2.0 and I discovered that chapters 21-27 were in between chapters 11 and 12. The funny part is that I didn't notice until chapter 20.
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I also thought Fuzzy had brunnette hair though after i made that post i had the sneaking suspicious that this exact result would transpire.
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Neither of you remember then, I suppose, the thread in which Fuzzy and I got all depressed and offended because EUOL (I think it was EUOL) said he preferred brunettes?
So, do I come across as a blonde? ;)
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I... don't think so, but because i saw those pictures of you, i changed the perception to fit. So i'm not randomly generating mental images of you, since i already know you are blonde.
Since I tend to use the avatar images to help with that, fuzzy gets a wierd mental image.
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what about MY avatar? Does that mean you think of me as a dancing primate?
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I know I do...
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No, he probably just thinks of you as a hairy shirtless guy.
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don't make me pull that picture back out.
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Ah the things you remember when you're sitting at home... doing nothing... having the day off.
Yup, I have a 4-day weekend ahead of me. Gotta love summer hours.
(Course, I'm having people over tonight, so I have to get off my butt and clean the house. But I just thought I'd rub it in. ;D)
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Well I have a few months off. Just thought I'd rub it in... ;D
I don't really understand why everyone is making mental images of everyone else... I just use the avatar as any physical image I might need...
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so I'm a free-floating spinning yin-yang?
Just to join In the fun...I have few months of too, and even better I'm already in a summer resort town(year round)
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Yes, but that's different. We all got months off when we were kids, though some of us did have to work for a living even then. But working a summer job as a kid is freedom compared to being a working adult. So you grab a day off when it comes along.
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Actually, its more a modify the avatar sort of thing.
And yes, yes i do regard you as a monkey SE. A melted chocolate coloured one.
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chocolate dipped and baked in batter!
mmm.... beer batter monkey chocolate....
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Well I guess the notes I've been putting in my posts about being off-topic are looking pretty silly now. :D
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Well, I'll make another attempt at dragging things back.
Prometheus: Just give the manuscript to my brother. He and I will be going to a friend's wedding reception tonight, and I can get it from him then.
42: lol. Sorry. I didn't realize that there weren't page numbers on the manuscript until after I'd printed a good section of it. Things were a bit confusing, since I was printing during the big Heroclix brawl. I hope you got things sorted out!
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The page #s on The Way of Kings are messed up too, but that's just a numbering issue I think---sometimes it makes huge leaps. The story seems to be in order.
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That's explained in the introduction, I think. I've replaced a few KINGS chapters since I printed that first version. (The explanation might be in the intro to book two.)
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So I think I'll be finishing Mistborn at work tonight. EUOL, shoudl I wait for you to get back or should I just pass it onto the next person in line?
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I should probably be finishing Mistborn by the end of the week, I've been kinda busy lately.
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42: If you could get it to Brenna so she can read it before she moves, that would be wonderful. If not, I'll be back on Saturday, and you can give it to me then. Thanks!
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So if I brought Mistborn by TLE tonight would Brenna or Fuzzy be there to pick it up? 42 thinks to himself.
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Yep, I'll at least be there, and Brenna probably will too.
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I've gotten through the first 3 chapters so far. Good read.
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yeah, I was able to sell it on ebay for $5. I should start my own publishing company.
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*Paging EUOL*
Do you want to meet sometime so I can provide some feeback on Mistborn Book 1? I never got around to taking the survey.
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Hum. Yes, I'll stop by your apartment sometime. I want to see about getting a map from 42 as well.
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Alright, I got to Section Two a while ago and haven't picked it up for a bit. I got distracted by something, although I can't remember what now.... Anyway, maybe I will read some tonight and try to get it done by Sunday.
~Modification~ :-X
I just found out I wont have too much time for reading this week, something to do with the foreign exchange kid today, a wedding and photography exibit this weekend, so most of my spare time is going into it, but I probably wont be able to have it done by the end of the week. Sorry. I get home on monday and I will give you an estimate then... :(
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That would be great. So far, Stacer is the only one to get back to me--though, 42 apparently finished the book in paper form and passed it on.
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I...was grossly negligent in my duty, and didn't feel like taking notes my first time through. But I did finish it and enjoyed it thoroughly. Then Anime Expo came up...then I got a cold...now the weather is really hot (and I'm not quite over my cold)...and I have another book to lay out (.hack volume 3) starting tomorrow, and next week is Comic-Con, so...argh. I should have just done it right the first time. Hopefully I'll be able to get to it soon.
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Amongst Brandon-books how does it rank, Ookla? And, how do you think it compares to the original MISTBORN?
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Okay, I'm into part three a little bit, and my computer ate my homework... actually, my sister deleted it. So I don't have any notes, but I didn't have anything major to say other than "Great" anyway... I'll see what I can do to revive them from my memory...
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Wow. Uh, just reached chapter twenty-one in my edit, and the prose there is pretty rough. Sorry about that, folks.
Oh, and Gorgon: bummer about your sister, but whatever you can give me will help. I hope to hear your reaction to the whole book soon!
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speaking as one who enjoyed the old Mistborn well enough...the new one blows it out of the water.
How does it compare among Brandon books? It's tight. Definitely the tightest of your long books. In most other categories it compares quite favorably. I'll have to hold off until later though on more.
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If you're going to read it again, you might want to wait for the new revision. I'm estimating 30k words cut. Most of them will be little snips here and there--tightening up the language. Hopefully, most readers wouldn't even notice the edits except to find the book paced just a bit faster and written just a bit more clearly. I'd be interested to see if you could tell a difference.
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Are you revising 3 books at once?
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And prewriting three others. You can watch my progress on the nifty little book-progress-bar Sprig made for my website!
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ooh, another blog update!
Planning 3.0 on WoK? What does that mean?
So revisions on ELANTRIS are pretty much over?
CJ Cherryh keeps track of her current word count in her blog, which she posts pretty much every day. (It seems to focus on her iceskating lessons more than anything else.)
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well once we get book pages working you might see more of that stuff. Of course adding a little box in the right hand corner of the blog to show word count might be a good idea. What I'm thinking of doing is useing the image tag alt text to display word counts on the progress bars. If you don't know what those are (wich I'm sure most TWGers do) just place your mouse over the house icon on the top menu.
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I'm planning a major draft of KINGS, and before I do a draft, I write out a big kind of 'strategy' for the rewrite. This lets me collect all of my ideas together, and gives me a chance to come up with theories for how to fix problems and that sort of thing. I was doing this for KINGS, but got distracted by the MISTBORN line edit.
ELANTRIS still has one edit, I think. I'll throw it up once I know for certain.
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By the way, I'm almost finished with the book, and I'm really, really enjoying it. I think Vin is the best girl you've ever written, by far. Just so you know. :)
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I am coming along... somewhere with it. I've been bogged down with things right now. But my last summer class is next tuesday, so things may pick up then. And this weekend I may be going to an anime con. So where lets see where things go.
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It looks like we're moving to American Fork, so I want to be put on the list of people who get to read the darn thing.
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So, is that good news Fuzzy? I can't tell from your post. (I mean about moving. It's of course good news for me, since you'll still be close enough to read a hard copy and make comments in it. :))
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I consider it to be good news. I will consider it to be better news when it is a signed-contract-fact and just the working plan of the week.
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Wow, you're moving to AF. Well if you end up staying there for a long time, you raise your kids there and send them to the same abysmal pit of High School I went to.
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Ah, always optimistic, 42.
In other news, I delivered 42 a copy of the Elantris map and he showed me the style he was planning to use. It's dumbfoundingly cool-looking. He'll probably let us post it when it's done!
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Well, I've finished the book. I will pass it on to the next person tomorrow. I wrote stuff in the book, EUOL, but if you want to meet sometime to talk about the book, let me know.
Oh, and Chris and I *might* be staying in the area for a while longer now--seeing as we haven't found work anywhere else (not that we've found anything here, but I have a lot more contacts in this area...). Now we just need to find a place to live before Wymount kicks us out on the 16th...
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Maybe I'll stop by TLE tomorrow.
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Brenna, remember you have a contact in Boston as well. If you need me to pass along resumes, etc., let me know. Of course, Boston's not exactly a hotspot. And educational publishing is probably not what you had in mind. But at any rate, there you go.
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EUOL: I finished a few weeks ago and am still trying to find time to finish my feedback and send it to you. Mathias refuses to cooperate, perhaps because he knows I will delete the file as soon as I've sent you feedback. I'm doing my best to cement your fame in the up and coming generation.
I loved it.
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Thanks, Stacer, I appreciate that. And educational publishing is looking as good as anything else at the moment! :)
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MoD: I'll look forward to your feedback.
My email access is a bit limited (I can't make Comcast work on my computer out here for some reason--so I have to use my father's.) However, if you do send me something, I'll respond as soon as I can.
I still owe Tekiel an email. I'll get to that as soon as I have better email access!
(PS--thanks for your comments so far, Gorgon.)
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I see you finished the line edit... I'd like to go over it and give more detailed comments but right now I'm busy working on .hack volume 3 and will be for a couple weeks yet. Maybe before worldcon?
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Brandon, I'd love to be able to read Mistborn (I even snagged it for a few days before I turned it over to Brenna) but I'd like to finally read TWoK part 2 first.
At least I now have a more direct way of pestering you for the copy instead of pestering Brenna to pester you.
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EUOL, you should insist on handing it to her in person.
then you can force her to tell you about Ms. Fish
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lol.
Ookla, you want a copy of the new version?
(ps--I handed physical copies of it to my agent and editor yesterday. I'll be doing a Brandonsanderson.com post about the visit shortly, then start up a thread here to talk more.)
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I think I'll wait to ask for it until I actually have time to read it. >_>
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New Cover Quote:
Brandon Sanderson's Elantris is a marvelous, magic monster of a book, packed full of intrigue and daring, based around a killer high concept. When the city of the gods becomes a city of the damned, who and what do you believe in? The story twists and turns, characters bait traps for one another as they vie for secular and religious power, and no-one is necessarily who or what they seem. Royal houses rise and fall, the fate of all Humanity is in the balence, and maybe, just maybe... the gods are coming back. All this and a genuinely touching love story too. Elantris; the book that put epic back into fantasy.
--Simon R. Green
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That's high praise. Good trend so far.
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wow, and it's not even close to epic in the scale of some of your other books.
EDIT: Brandon, you might want to fix the spelling of "NINETH" in your blog...
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I positively writhe with jealousy
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At my spelling powers?
Uh...I can't find the typoe. Where is it again?
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Was that a joke (deliberately misspelling typo)? :) If not, it's on the Elantris 9.0 page. NINETH should be NINTH.
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y'know what the blog needs, is a "next" and "previous" button for the actual blogs, not just the month calanders
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As long as we're on the topic of spelling errors, 'balence' is incorrect in the last cover quote. I hope that wasn't cut and paste from the quote author.
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Well, however that guy spells fantasy sure is weird. Or at least delusional. I sure can't get e-p-i-c out of f-a-n-t-a-s-y.
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Hum. My spellchecker doesn't notice things spelled in all-caps. Interesting.
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That's not unusual. The reasoning, I think, is that all caps tends to be reserved for acronyms in business writing.
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no biggie...spelling has never been your specialty. That's what editors are for! Maybe you should have someone other than Jordan edit your postings.
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lol. That's what you guys are for!
Seriously, Ninth is one of my banes. I really think there should be an 'e' in there, so I can never remember which way it should actually be.
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New Cover Quote!
Apperantly, Dave told Kevin J. Anderson about ELANTRIS. He read it, and decided to give a blurb. Here's his email to my editor:
Thanks for sending me Brandon Sanderson's ELANTRIS. Dave Wolverton wasn't
exaggerating when he said this is a fine debut.
With a couple of last-minute book deadlines, and now tomorrow I leave for
three weeks on DUNE book-signing tour, I was only able to read the first 200
pages of the ms., and it's quite engrossing and interesting. I hope to find
time to finish it, but since you need a quote before your August 20 launch
meeting, I am comfortable in offering the following blurb:
"ELANTRIS is a new BEN HUR for the fantasy genre, with a sweeping, epic
storyline and closely personal characters." -- Kevin J. Anderson, NYT
bestselling coauthor of DUNE: THE BATTLE OF CORRIN.
Nifty, eh?
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Ya, as long as I don't have to watch you in a loin cloth.
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Heh. Yeah, I mentioned the quote to Tage and Micah, and they were a little confused about what the quote meant....
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dude, you have some amazing cover quotes. You rule. You know that, don't you?
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Can you GIVE a quote like that after 200 pages? o.o
Which Brandon book is the most like Ben Hur?
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Can you GIVE a quote like that after 200 pages?
Quotes just imply that the author read the book. They don't actually say that he or she actually read the book. I'm fairly sure that half the cover quotes on a Robert Jordan book come from people who have never read the books. Apparently all is fair in love, war and marketing.
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I meant a quote like that specifically...it just seems iffy to compare a book to Ben Hur after reading the first fifth of it. Actually, it almost seems like a parody of a cover quote. Anderson is probably well aware how much of a joke cover quotes can be...
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Like I said, all is fair in marketing. We compare drinking cola to the greatest moments in life or history, so apparently nothing is sacred.
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I think the BEN HUR reference had to do with the exiled prince idea, which he would have gotten in the first 100 pages.
In other news--actually on topic with this thread--Joshua read MISTBORN, and gave it a very strong thumbs up. That's a relief, since he didn't much care for WAY OF KINGS.
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which one's Joshua? the Editor?
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He's my agent. My editor never saw KINGS--it wasn't yet to the point where I thought I should send it to him.
Joshua is extremely discerning and critical, which is one of the reasons he makes a good agent. For him to like the book at this early a draft is a VERY good sign.
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So is the plan to rewrite Way of Kings I partially due to Joshua's response?
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KINGS has been sidelined in favor of MISTBORN. It'll probably be five or six years before we see any OATHSHARDS books in the stores.
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Nice blog update. Heh heh.
Brandon, someday you'll have to write a magic-slinging chariot duel.
Mistborn is definitely a lot of FUN.
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Heh. Ben Hur. Ben was off with a Her for a good chunk of the night....
Anyway....today, Joshua said he honestly thought he'd never read anything that compared to my Allomancy battles in MISTBORN. I found that encouraging.
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Speaking of your blog, you've spelled "genre" as "genera" once.
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Odd. My spellchecker accepts both as valid spellings. I guess I should be consistent, but that's why I didn't notice it.
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"genera" is the plural of "genus," and while genus and genre are nearly the same in meaning, they typically apply to different fields and do have distinctions. "Genre" is the literary term. "Genus" is more biological, though admittedly either can be more general use, so technically your usage wasn't wrong, per se. Just very atypical. And, as you said, inconsistant
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So EUOL, I'm writing a biography of Frederick Douglass today, and I found this quote that made me think of city skaa vs. plantation skaa.
[A]t the age of eight, he was sent to Baltimore. City slavery was less oppressive than plantation slavery, the former offering far more "elbow room." "A city slave," wrote Douglass, "is almost a freeman, compared with a slave on the plantation." "Going to Baltimore laid the foundation, and opened the gateway, to all my subsequent prosperity. (from Encyclopedia of Black America ed. Low and Clift)
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So...I need this back, wherever it is. It's time for the 4.0 revision.
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dibs on an e-copy of the revision.
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I had Brenna pass it onto Old One - did it get to you?
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Thanks, Fuzzy. It's at the Pub. I'll go get it in a few minutes.
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Brandon,
I've read it, and I'm planning on adding a few more comments. I'll get it to you tomorrow, assuming you're going to be at class.
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Thank you very much.