Progress

[faustus]

One of the albatrosses (albatri?) round my neck from the last two years is a project on Terry Pratchett. After saying yes to this (in the midst if the depression and OCD which peaked a year after moving here), I bought a new computer which wouldn't talk to the new one. And the lack of a discdrive on the new machine and a USB on the old made the old work difficult to transfer, especially as I then moved and it was almost impossible to get work. Exhaustion and a constant stream of unproductive coughs basically meant the Big Project was almost constantly cursed throughout - in the sense of what might go wrong will go wrong rather than the $%^&%&ing book, which was also a factor. I'd work hard on it, and then burn out for a couple of months or feel too ill to work out where I was on it and how to proceed. In the grand tradition of Douglas Adams, deadlines wooshed by.

The good news is An Unofficial Companion to the Novels of Terry Pratchett is now being copy-edited, we are working on illustrations, working on covers, and me learned friends are happy no great copyright has been infringed. We even have the tacit approval, at the very least good will, of a couple of people involved in the oeuvre. And have a title which is both more or less accurate (there's non-novel stuff in there too) and which does seem unduly official.

But now to get back to all the things I've neglected in the meantime.

Comments

[pigeonhed.livejournal.com]

Well done sir, that must be a relief.

I had a similar problem, changed computers etc, with my Howard Waldrop article. It did however help me to completely change tack when I realised what i wanted to say.

[drasecretcampus.livejournal.com]

It's the moment you realise you've been hitting your head with a sledgehammer for two years.

The Ms went in at the start of August, but it feels real at last.

[buffysquirrel.livejournal.com]

I have a long tale about trying to get something from one computer to another, which I believe I will not bore anyone with :).

Yay for finishing the book!

[drasecretcampus.livejournal.com]

Mine involves saving to disk, taking disk to work, uploading to work computer, saving to memory stick, taking home, uploading... It was hard enough work when backing up a mate's music collection from another machine downstairs.

[pennski.livejournal.com]

Congratulations on finishing book! Ensure I know publication details so I can add it to my Pratchett literary collection.

[drasecretcampus.livejournal.com]

Thanks - it should be out from Greenwood Press in paperback this side of Christmas. It might be the cheapest book they've ever released (they tend to hardback acid free $50/£50 titles).