MBTA stuff

I had hoped Murder by the Acre would be on sale today. The “official” release date is October 30, but Lulu had a price change that went into effect today and I was trying to beat the change. Well, I did my part, but Lulu had a problems, and so it didn’t happen despite a lot of emails and three or four live chat sessions.

However, the news is still partly good. The price increase barely touched the softcover of my book. The major increase was in the hardcover. This means the hardcover will never be available on Amazon -- with the online retailer markup, the price would soar to $30 -- but it will be available on Lulu.

Anyway, as I’ve waited for Lulu to fix their problems, I gave MBTA another reading. And found errors. Yes, that’s right. After all this proofing, I found a handful of formatting errors, places where I left out a word, other places where I duplicated the same word in a row, spelled a name in two different ways, etc. About thirty errors in all. Sigh.

I have another proof to read through today and tonight. This is my last read-through. Although I’m sure errors remain to be found, I think I’ve reached a point of diminishing returns. What I can’t find after this read-through, I’m not going to find.

The cover is finished and ready for the contents.

Oh, Frenzied Feline designed the front of a bookmark for Murder by the Acre. She did a great job. It’s already off at the printers, and I should receive 500 shiny bookmarks next week. That’s probably more than I need, but I do have three libraries to supply. I intend to give 50 or so to each and resupply them when they run out.

Speaking of libraries, my first three book signings are scheduled:
Friday, November 14, 4-6 p.m. at the Ada Public Library.
Friday, November 21, 3:30-5 p.m. at the Stanley Tubbs Memorial Library in Sallisaw.
Saturday, November 22, 9 a.m.-1 p.m. at the Muldrow Public Library.

I don’t think I’ll be able to squeeze any more signings in until after Christmas, but I’ll see. People’s schedules are so packed during the holidays. I hope to make it to Alva sometime in December, but I’ll have to see if that can be worked out.

Speaking of errors and corrections:

My proofers did a marvelous job. That they missed a few is only a reflection on how difficult proofing is -- and also how sloppy a writer I must be! Something for me to work on. The problem is that the story comes fast and I type as fast I can. And when reread the story, I see what I intended to write instead of what’s there. I appreciate my proofers taking the time and effort to proof MBTA.

Speaking of particular errors:

Kirsten pointed out that ellipses (…) get a period when they end a sentence, so there would be four dots (….) instead of three. Several of the other proofers disagreed, and my “regular” reader -- who read the book for content, not errors -- noticed the difference in number of dots and wanted to know why. Kristen, however, is correct. But I finally decided to use only three dots throughout because: 1) Random House does, 2) it fixed two formatting errors, 3) it seemed consistent, and 4) it was less distracting to my regular reader.

Kirsten won a clear victory, however, in her refusal of the interrobang (?!). I like the poor interrobang, but its main use seems to be in comic books -- although Neal Stephenson’s new book Anathem has at least two instances of its use. Anyway, all the stylebooks support Kirsten, so MBTA has no interrobangs now. Sigh.

Jean pointed out my overwhelming use of the phrase “for a moment.” I did a check and discovered to my horror that I used the phrase 42 times in the book! I changed most of those, and we are only left with three instances now.

Crystal noted my overwhelming use of the word “that.” Lord only knows how many times I used it. I removed most of those instances before my other proofers read MBTA. Several of the other proofers marked several places where they thought I should put “that” back. I read every contested instance out loud and went with what sounded best to my ear.

I use the phrase “ever so often” in the book once in the book. Almost every proofer wanted it changed to “every so often.” I stood firm on this one. “Ever so often” means “a great many times.” “Every so often” means “once in a while.” Since I intended the former and not the latter, I kept “ever so often.” See here and here and here for more info. I think it’s a useful distinction between the two phrases.

Crystal thought I had spelled “Gill” as “Gil” somewhere in the book. I was never able to find that error. Probably will after the book is published. Nancy thought I should change the name to “Gil” so that it could be short for “Gilbert.” I kept it “Gill,” mostly because I like it that way and don’t like the sound of Gilbert.

On names: any character who has a speaking line -- or is mentioned more than once -- has an “unreal” name. In other words, it’s a name I made up. Some people who are just mentioned in passing, however, are my friends and family. It’s my small tribute to them, and I make sure they’re mentioned in a neutral or complimentary fashion. Notable in this book are: my good friends Chuck and Joan Perry; my niece Jana May (I use her mother’s maiden name as Jana’s last name in this book) who really does have a wonderful singing voice; and my brother-in-law Phillip Owens. Phillip, by the way, is the only “real” character who was in the first book, too. There are a couple of other “reals” in the book, but I’ll let their real world counterparts find them.

Enough about MBTA. You'll be hearing more about it over the next weeks, but you knew that, didn't you? Don't try to hide now. It's too late.

I've been ghastly sick the past few days. The doctor changed my diabetes med again, and my body reacted in its usual unpleasant fashion, but my sugar levels are going down. We're making progress.

And now I'll close. I hope to announce MBTA going on sale tonight. If not, tomorrow. Talk to you then.