Ladies & Gentlemen: I Give You—the Post Office; aka “Just Arrived: More Hugo Awards Reading”
The earth may shake and buildings fall, but the post office, bless it, continues to deliver mail. You may recall that I plan to read, post on and vote for the Hugo Awards fiction finalists once I meet my Gathering deadline of 1 July. (Hugo Awards voting closes on 31 July so there should be a window, all going well.)
To that end, I have been acquiring hard copies of all the finalists in the novel category because I don’t like reading works that large on screen. And now I have Ian McDonald’s The Dervish House to add to the Hugo Awards TBR pile.
So may I propose, ladies and gentlemen, a toast: to the Post Office—steadfastly carrying on in a quaky, shaky world.
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Completed Today:
And yes, I do know that I owe you a “completed today” as well. You may recall that yesterday I posted that: “Tomorrow I will begin by reading through and polishing the chapter completed today.”
Sadly, gentle readers, events have made me into a liar. I did not begin by reading through and polishing. I woke up with two or three continuity threads niggling in my head and saying: these are important themes—you need to check now that you have all their houses in order before proceeding on to the endgame of the story (which, by the way, is effectively the part I’m now in.) So—gasp, shock—I began with the continuity checking and once you begin a process like that you find a lot of additional little spin-offs that need to be checked and where necessary tidied up as well. Only then did I review and polish the chapter I completed yesterday, half of which was new text (for which review/polish is always an essential step.)
And there you have it, dear readers: my working day!
A little harder to quantify statistically, but here goes:
- 12 pages of previously rewritten manuscript reviewed and polished;
- 4 additional chapters reviewed in whole or in part for continuity, with some new material added and further revisions made;
- Total Pages Until Completion: 119 plus Glossary.
ohhh after reading you days work i feel like the story is getting closer to my hot little hands. I want to reread Heir just before the next release… good on you helen for keeping to task with all the shifting and moving going on down there–take care!!
To the Post Office! *Clinks glass* 🙂
And hey, you do what you got to do. Gotta follow that writer’s mind 🙂
Yes indeed; an author must always be alert for the voice of the muse—especially when it wakes you up at night!
I read and adored a section of Dervish House a few months ago. I mean to read the whole thing, properly, asap!
Ah, now I am even more excited to read it!
To the Post Office! But even more, to The Press – they didn’t miss a single day, whereas the post did stop for a few days in February. (Make that a few weeks in some of the hill suburbs)
Actually my brother is a postman in Sumner, after Monday his rounds had to be checked for safety again. Enjoy your reading.
Catherine, you are so right about “The Press”—but I can’t blame the post office for stopping delivery in the hill suburbs given the boulders that have been flying about up there! I will enjoy the reading but probably won’t get to it properly until after the book is done.:)
Happy reading, Helen! The Dervish House sounds really good!
I shall let you know my report when I get around to that Hugos blogging in due course.
I’ve been thinking of you…glad to see you are OK and still going for broke on that MS…Well done that girl!
Maureen—so great to hear from you and thank you for the thoughts. I have to say that the post-earthquake world is getting very wearing & I couldn’t have kept going through this latest one without our friends, but I think everyone is just getting very weary now. But yeah, still “keeping going.”
Glad to see that things do keep moving during such a horrible event. Props to the Post Office!
It’s definitely a bright spot in the day to find a book package in the letterbox. (Bills, well, maybe not so much …)