Sun?

[jhetley]

Light rain again this morning, but the sun has made a valiant effort (sorta like a Plymouth Valiant, I'm afraid, a good car but nowhere near exciting...) to come out and dry things up a bit. The rivers won't crest until tonight or tomorrow, at which time it may be raining again.

Finished the first pass through the copyedit, nothing to raise my blood pressure there. As usual, I had to exert my authorial veto to "stet" a couple of places where I _meant_ to do that. If I split an infinitive, I did it on purpose, dammit...

I note that our beloved Prezzie now proposes to move Social Security into the welfare division of national government, adjusting benefits by a "means" test. In other words, if you (hypothetical USA-you) act like a responsible adult and save for your old age, you lose the guv-ment pension.

**elevates both middle fingers in the direction of Washington**

Remain bemused by the cover art for DRAGON'S EYE. If you look closely enough, you'll find a reflection of a castle in the water. Thing is, you kinda hafta know it's there in order to find it, an excess of subtlety for grabber-cover purposes. And it's the wrong castle -- I describe Morgans' Castle as a single plain stone tower, not the multi-tower'd critter with curtain wall etc that you can puzzle out. Thus do authors nit-pick their covers.

(And the dragon pendent is wrong, too -- the dragon should curl _around_ the gemstone, and it should look more Norse or Celtic, simpler, older, and it shouldn't have wings, and....)

But then, a cover's job is to sell books. No necessary relation to the contents.

Comments

[pernishus.livejournal.com]

US Social Security/CAN Social Insurance are both, alas, something of a pyramid scheme-type boondoggle, -- and it looks like we're the folks who'll be holding the worthless IOUs when the whole thing collapses. They've always depended on the next generation being willing to shoulder the burden of the previous one -- and there are fewer and fewer of them kind of shoulders about these days... proportionally speaking, that is...

On another topic -- how does Friday, June 10 sound as der Tag for the SF student session? You can come for as many days to either side of that as you imagine you can put up with my company during... The backup date would be the following Friday, June 17. Let me know.

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

"something of a pyramid scheme-type"

How about a straight Ponzi scheme? If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, shits like a duck....

AFLAC!!

June 10 sounds possible. I'd probably drive around Fundy on Thursday and drive back Sunday, or something like that. Probably not gonna try the ferry -- requires reservations long in advance, or so I understand.

Have to check with AAA to find the actual distances involved.

[lolleeroberts.livejournal.com]

I tend to notice things like a cover that looks like someone actually read the book. I realize that anecdotes are not statistics, but I'd be surprised if that weren't the case with many sf/f readers. I think we tend to be nitpicky nerd types who read a description then look at the cover and think, "Not even close."

But that could just be me.

[98.livejournal.com]

Naw. I do it too.

[wcg.livejournal.com]

we tend to be nitpicky nerd types who read a description then look at the cover and think, "Not even close."

Aflak!

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

The problem with "artist who actually read the book" is that most cover artists haven't. Even the cover designer and the art director may not have read it. Not part of the arcane inner process of publishing....

I would like to take this opportunity to proclaim, to all to whom these presents come, that authors have little (at my level *NOTHING*) to do with the design of bookcovers or the selection of cover art. I refer you once more to that little ditty, findable by a quick googling, "There's a bimbo on the cover of the book."

cover art

[prophet-marcus.livejournal.com]

Seems to be true. I remember Larry Niven going on about how the cover artist for "The Integral Trees" actually did read the book and then sat down and talked with Niven before doing the art and how incredibly unusual it all was.

[edschweppe.livejournal.com]

(sorta like a Plymouth Valiant, I'm afraid, a good car but nowhere near exciting...)

Oh, I don't know about that. I found our old Plymouth Valiant plenty exciting as I was growing up, especially once the floorboards rusted out and I could watch the road pass below me.

And the Dodge Dart of similar vintage that I ended up learning how to drive in was also the source of much excitement; especially the time I was practicing skids with my father in a nice, empty, snowcovered parking lot. Get the car up to speed, step on the brakes until the wheels lock, then keep steering into the skid; much fun. At least, until the "step on the brake" caused the cable to snap, the pedal to go to the metal, and Dad to finish driving home...

By the way, despite my mightiest Google-fu, I can't find more than one full verse of "There's a Bimbo on the Cover of My Book." It would appear that nobody has put that particular filk online.

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

Now _that's_ odd. I just tried google and came up with three hits, one of which is me citing the song in an "interview" with Green Man. The last time I tried that phrase, I came up with the whole thing. Somebody has been censoring the web.

(One of the other hits misquotes. "Though the _heroine_ is Black, with Art that cuts no slack.")

Our personal Valiant did provide some exciting moments, like when a frame cross-member rusted through and broke at the sway bar....