... a book in hand

The proof copy of COT-O came in the mail the other day. Surprisingly fast! Lulu usually took around two weeks.

The binding seems a bit shoddy, but lulu's tended to be shoddy sometimes too. The paper is bright white, much whiter than lulu's. One other issue is that the book warps. It's hard to really convey from the photos, but when it's left flat on the table it gets all wrinkly and the cover curls open. Not very good. Lulu doesn't do that.

... it's what it costs

My fact-finding venture has produced results. It seems that Amazon's createspace does produce print on demand books for a few dollars cheaper than Lulu.com does. The biggest boon however should be in the shipping costs, as I know from experience that Lulu gouges on international shipping, and Amazon is, well, Amazon. Here's the publishing versions of the COT-O cover and the book itself.

http://www.digital-nightfall.com/COT-O-cover.jpg
http://www.digital-nightfall.com/COT-original-publishing.pdf

I would like for the blog readers to check out the pdf file and offer any suggestions or comments about the formatting, as this is the prototype for how COT-R will be formatted.

... getting some distance

I decided it was about time to update http://cosas.ttlg.com/ with some information on COT-R since it is fairly relevant to that project. I gave this page some linkage as well as a new title image using an amazing bit of artwork done by Dominus. (It was a prototype for the 1st book's cover.) I am also toying with the term e-play (as a quick way of describing e-mail based role-play, along the lines of screen-play, radio-play, stage-play, and so forth) as a way to define the original work and to distinguish it from the rewrite. I plan to keep the original around, and not try to hide or cover it up, so I am thinking of ways to make it clear which I am talking about without having to say "the original" and "the rewrite".

In fact I've started formatting COT-O into a book for eventual publishing along with COT-R. On one level it's a good prototype to experiment with formatting and how I want everything to look, so that as I do the next revision and edit to COT-R I can format it for publishing then, rather than having to do another whole pass for that purpose. On another level, I am quite fond of the original, and I think many others are too, so it makes sense to make it available in book form as well. However, it will be done as-is, which means that whenever I typed solomon but meant solemn, the error stays. All of the errors are part of COT-O now, and thus they shall go with it to the printer and onto our shelves.

I think that about wraps things up for me for now. Everyone whom I had ever sent a copy of the unfinished COT-R now have a copy of the current draft whether they wanted it or not, so my fingers are crossed that I'll be getting some good critical feedback within the next few months. In the mean time, it's time to take off my writer's hat and try to focus on other things.

... book covers

I contacted some artists today to try to get the team ready to do the cover images. I already have Dominus and Ireth Kalt, and to my great surprise redface was very happy to accept the task. I am still waiting to hear from Silmuen, Tazio, and Julia, but if everyone can do one that takes care of the six images.

I haven't decided yet what the six covers will be, except for the first one (which Dominus is already working on) that will feature Jyre climbing the tower in the opening chapter. I am a little torn between two ideas; having each cover focus more on the contents of that volume, or having them focus entirely on a pivotal moment for that character no matter where in the story the scene falls. I started a new poll - but if you're reading this note that the third option is a lark. I have no desire to see movie-poster style covers for any of the books. :)

... for the back of the book

The City is a place of conflict, where technology and magic eek out an uneasy coexistence, where the religious and the occult vie for dominance, where crime and politics intermingle and corrupt everything within their reach.

Jyre had escaped from a life of servitude, holds a meager existence in the gutters, and seeks to right the wrongs of her past.

The nobility knew him as Lord Thresh, the church as Brother Daelus, but the underworld knew him as Master Nightfall.

To Sheam it was a simple job, cataloguing, managing schedules, turning a blind eye to the criminal intent behind it all.

No one had ever broken into the sacred tomb before, but no one held so little regard for their own preservation as Ghost.

She stole, and had never been caught. Lytha lived apart from the world, yet could feel every thought and feeling around her.

James loved coffee, baked potatoes, and knowledge; especially knowledge cherished by others as secrets. His spies rarely failed.

Six stories tied together by chance and circumstance, between the belching factory towers and the haunted hidden grottos, between the clutching fist of the church, and the conniving fingers of the criminal underworld.

... still "in" Japan

I gave the first run of the MX manual to the artist Ireth Kalt (Marianna) who did the team member portraits (which turned out to be eerily accurate in some cases, in spite of neither she nor I knowing what some of us looked like) for use in her samples kit. I expect the next draft in the mail any day now. An additional problem has appeared through - any time there are elements which must be precisely against the edge of the page, it seems I am asking for trouble. As a result, half of the borders around the pages are cut off by about an eighth of an inch. I don't think there's anything that can be done about it. Another problem was the darkness of the cover image, but I anticipated this and brightened it up for the second run. We'll see how it turns out! By the way, its a perfect fit for a DVD case insert; both the dimensions and the thickness of the booklet for fitting under the plastic tabs in most cases. I suppose this means that an MX DVD cover should be next, no? Anyone want to try designing one for me? :)

As the title suggests, I am still hard at work on the Japan Journal. The text is finished of course, with the selection and insertion of photos dragging on and on. The problem is that I have about 2,500 photos, and I am trying to narrow that selection down to only a few hundred. In the end it looks like the book will be about 400 pages long, which means for black and white it will be about $10 (guess) and for full color about $80. I'm going to make the full color one a hardback too. Oddly enough it did a switch on me mid-path. I was thinking of it as a journal with a few photos to illustrate. Really it's more of a photo book with a few pages of text as introduction to each photo section. Eeeash!

I'm going to add a new poll to the site, which asks opinions about the ending. Don't worry, I am not going to determine the story based on popular vote, I am just curious about how people feel concerning a certain topic, especially considering it entails dramatically changing the ending from the original. Doing this poll, I keep in mind several things. I have never been formally educated in creative writing, and have always considered COT as a learning process. Discussing and debating storytelling issues is almost as interesting as writing itself. I like to keep things unexpected and mysterious, but think that plot-twists are an overrated device. The reader should feel that the author is a confidant, not a trickster or conman.

... my other book

As I mentioned in my other post, I am taking a brief break from the COT revision to compile, edit, and complete my Japan daily journal. During the summer of '07 I spent over seven weeks there on study abroad with architecture school, and I kept a daily log of my adventures. I always meant to edit it into a book and self-publish it, and now seems like a good time. I needed a little break from COT, and this way I can get it done and ready in time for Christmas in case I want to send it to anyone as gifts (or if anyone wants it). Yesterday I went through all 120 pages of it, scanning for errors but leaving most of the writing as-is, since it should maintain the "journal" aspect. I also added comments as footnotes wherever I felt like it.

The next step will be to add photos, but I also want to write an introduction (in case anyone gets their hands on it who doesn't actually know me) and a concluding journal entry as a year-and-a-half later reflection. Naturally, if anyone wants a peek at it, I'll be happy to send out the manuscript. Or you could just head over to my other blog and check out the J months in 2007, as well as my flickr and youtube accounts, which are all linked to on the side of the page.

In other news, the print&bound Mission X manual should be arriving any time now, and once I've had a look at it to make sure there's no problems with it, I'll see about using it as a "trial run" for how the COT volumes will be distrubuted.

.. a trial run

I've ordered the first attempt at a self-published paperback copy of the Mission X manual. This is a good trial run for the eventual self-publishing of COT, as I intend to use the same company (lulu.com) which I worked with successfully on school projects. I will have the published book in about 14 days, and will be able to then know what we can expect from similarly published COT books. The size of the published manual will be simialr to a DVD case insert, which is smaller than I intend to print the novels.