Chapter 4 of Don’t Fear the Joker got a wonderful reception. April 1st saw the hacking of our beloved forum (and this very blog) by agents of Ra’s al Ghul. You can’t imagine the headaches cleaning up something like that.
And despite the considerable demands related to that book release in a few weeks, I made enormous headway on one of those big TBAs I’ve been referencing on and off for a year. So much so that I expect to actually make good on the implicit promise of calling them TBAs and announce one by the end of the month for a May opening. Huzzah!
In other news, Random Equinox slipped in a new fic on us when he thought we weren’t looking. Sneaky, sneaky, Random, but I found you… One of Those Days at ffnet. Check it out, everybody.
And finally, I caught up on my reading this weekend… well, almost. There’s still a half-finished library book on the nightstand, but all the rest is done. And the unfinished one has only itself to blame. I’m not what I’d call a lazy reader, but a 60-page introduction drains away all the reader’s enthusiasm for the material. Let’s put it this way: you know the one about the IT guy who goes to a Tech Support center for some extra training? They’ve got this picture up of a ditzy looking blonde with the caption that her password is MickeyMinnieDonaldDaisyGoofyPlutoSacramento – because it had to be 6 characters and a capital. Here’s the thing: if that’s your opinion of your audience, you shouldn’t be writing. Seriously. Yes, there is a need for context if you’re serving up period material from the early years of the Cold War, but 60 pages worth? I’m not sure if the problem is lack of discipline – taking 9 paragraphs to say what can be covered in 2 – or if it’s what I suspect: simply not trusting the readers. The thing is, we’re not talking about some random sampling off the street. We all made a choice to buy the book, or in my case borrow it from the library. Assume we’re at least, y’know, functionally literate and didn’t buy the book as a doorstop. Give us a little context, and then pay us the compliment of assuming that if we need more, we can take what you’ve told us and Google for more. Anyway, point is, apart from this one annoying volume that is probably going to go back to the library unfinished, I’ve swept away the backlog. Life is good. Meow.
The week ahead looks to be a busy one. I doubt I’ll be able to finish up Chapter 5, but as stated previously: book release. You really have no idea how much graphic art and other paperwork is required. Oh, which brings me to the neatest piece of trivia from the mailbag… which I realize will be a longer entry. We’ll save that for Wednesday. Ciaomeow, everybody.
Chris Dee
www.catwoman-cattales.com
cattales.yuku.com
cattales.wikispaces.com
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