What I Did Today in 2019 (and a Bit of The Next Day)

 

2/7/2019: Got up at 5 AM and started work on “downloading” F(inders)K(eep) 2009. Sent [Mr. Jerome] these notes about mock-up cover:

Original: I imagine a cover mostly green and black, trees on either hand, with a path leading up to the Deacon's narrow tomb. An eldritch green light streams from the cracks around the door into the darkness. The Deacon’s skeletal face and gleaming eyes seen dimly in the window plate. First lines small, then the title large in an old-fashioned Caslon typeface.

Reaction to First Cover Mock-up: The color effects are good overall, but some of the details are not as described in the book. The tomb stands alone (no other gravestones) and is more primitive looking, stark; also, I see the woods behind as dense and shadowy, the trees taller and less "swampy" if you know what I mean. You must have some talented artists if they can produce this so quickly! [I realize now it must have been some computer program.]

Finished FK 2009, and at 9 AM went in for ramen. Came out, worked on L(ost) L(ibrary) till 11 AM, rested, made notes on the story foreseen. At 12:30 PM went in and got leftover cabbage and taters. Connection (daytime and with some winds) pretty sketchy. Walk on, walk on.

 

2/8/2019: Started about 7 AM on LL, finished at 12:44 PM. At last! ... Zipped it off to John, and he dropped by at 3:30 PM and paid me $50! ... Also in the afternoon got 9 different covers with different fonts, which I sent off to John by e-mail, where he noticed (which I had not) that they had changed “Unsettling Affairs” to “Unnatural Affairs”. Must see about that. Still, great to see my name in print, as it were, and having a free weekend (no writing) and enough money to wallow in my own crapulence for a bit. Can’t wait to see what John thinks of LL. The relationship of Korm and Gho kind of echoes Mike and me. Tomorrow is his 57^th birthday.

Notes: I was in the process of downloading what I considered to be the most important parts of Finder’s Keep because I had fears (Google+ going down?) that I would lose it.