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Post by Calenture on May 17, 2013 9:50:07 GMT
Gosh, do people really take me as seriously as that? God forbid! Must remember to use more smileys in future. Don't worry. My lips are sealed. Why ? I want them to know, at least those that know me I'm sure you know that I was being deliberately silly, there, David. And if you've looked around the workshop you'll have seen that lobolover no longer exists. Following the changing of your ID name, lobo has now been replaced through all your previous posts by your own name. I don't think there'll be much mystery about your identity! Incidentally I've just copied off your story The Abyss, noted Craig's comments, and will be reading that one. I did write more here, but I think the closed workshop would be a more appropriate place to post them.
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Post by David Kartos on May 17, 2013 11:47:47 GMT
Why ? I want them to know, at least those that know me I'm sure you know that I was being deliberately silly, there, David. And if you've looked around the workshop you'll have seen that lobolover no longer exists. Following the changing of your ID name, lobo has now been replaced through all your previous posts by your own name. I don't think there'll be much mystery about your identity! Incidentally I've just copied off your story The Abyss, noted Craig's comments, and will be reading that one. I did write more here, but I think the closed workshop would be a more appropriate place to post them. Thanks, would be realy interested in reading what you think about it.
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Post by Craig Herbertson on May 20, 2013 7:57:42 GMT
I've no idea who you are because I've got a memory like a sieve,,,
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Post by Calenture on May 21, 2013 15:05:56 GMT
Like it says in the subject line, I managed to get FC 7 down to about 100 pages. It was around 150 some days back, and I was grinding my teeth down to the gums. Obviously while working on the space thing I started wondering just how big a magazine could get before it became necessary to change from folded publication to a digest with a spine. Then I disabled all the programs that were running in the background and eating up the RAM so that Word kept crashing. That did help a lot, but then I tried to be too smart and disabled some more stuff, so today I collected the computer from the shop where the nice man had restored the settings so that I could use the thing again. Reluctantly I had to move Charles Galloway's Shapeshifter to issue 8, as Penni McClaren Walker's Architect's Table and Robert Mammone's Mycelium were already in issue 7. I know Penni's story's been here for an age, and I think Rob's story submission briefly preceded Charles's. Franklin Marsh's The Wicket Man goes in ish' 7. Following Craig's comment on Hunt I started looking at that one again and decided I was missing a trick, namely there are worrying signs Franklin's style is changing here and probably he needs another pseudonym (and I need a new brain). At the moment, Des Lewis's The Only Climax is in 7, but I might swap it for an older one, Snow at Midnight that I found the other day. Decisions decisions. Colin Leslie's Melting goes into issue 8. Craig Herbertson's Death Tableaux has less chapters but 10 more pages than David Riley's Sendings in issue 7. I just take these extracts to what looks like a fairly elegant episode conclusion for the magazines, and have to just hope the authors agree. There are two other stories possibly in the running for issue 8 (or 9), but a lot depends on editing.
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Post by David Kartos on May 21, 2013 20:26:23 GMT
I've no idea who you are because I've got a memory like a sieve,,, I'd make a joke about owing me some money if that is the case, but I don't want to sidetrack the thread with shennanigans. I have sort of a confession to make, I might be the only one here who has never seen an issue of FC, which is why I'm not sure how much over the line 100 pages is.
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Post by Calenture on May 22, 2013 20:13:12 GMT
I have sort of a confession to make, I might be the only one here who has never seen an issue of FC, which is why I'm not sure how much over the line 100 pages is. FC 1 was 44 pages and the text, I think, was Times New Roman 12. That always struck me as being the ideal font and size. Nice to look at and easy on the eyes. The magazine has got bigger each issue. Last issue it was 84 pages and the text needed to be reduced to size 10. I'm not going below 10 for text - we want a magazine which is pleasing to read, not something that looks like an insurance company's small print. I also want a return to the 'cleaner' look of the early FCs, with more 'white space' instead of filling every gap with mini 'articles'.
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Post by Calenture on May 23, 2013 10:02:54 GMT
Since writing the post above, I started wondering whether, with a 100 page FC, it would really be better to (a) go for a digest-size publication with a paper spine, and (b) get it printed 'online' at a print-on-demand site. Some months back I bought a copy of D F Lewis's The Drawstring at this Lulu.com Spotlight page: D F Lewis's Store at LuluI wanted to get hold of one of his stories - either that or use it in FC - as it persisted in haunting me, and for the first time learned of this online store which clearly is Des's way of keeping up with his own Megazanthine output (E R Burroughs did something similar, I think! ) It definitely could solve some problems - the size restriction of a folded magazine, payment, distribution. Of course I don't know if Lulu take some sort of financially prohibitive initial payment. But if so that digest size issue might still be necessary from the 'usual' printer.
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Post by weirdmonger on May 23, 2013 16:57:08 GMT
Rog, Lulu is free until you start buying the books! And postage seems high. I think you might find the cost prohibitive in the long run.
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Post by weirdmonger on May 23, 2013 16:59:13 GMT
Rog, Lulu is free until you start buying the books! And postage seems high. I think you might find the cost prohibitive in the long run. Having said that, if you get the book on Amazon - as I did with the HA of HA - it can be more reasonable. But it normally takes about 6 weeks to get on to Amazon from your initial printing of the Lulu book.
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Post by Calenture on May 23, 2013 19:39:37 GMT
Rog, Lulu is free until you start buying the books! And postage seems high. I think you might find the cost prohibitive in the long run. Having said that, if you get the book on Amazon - as I did with the HA of HA - it can be more reasonable. But it normally takes about 6 weeks to get on to Amazon from your initial printing of the Lulu book. Thanks for this, Des. You'll gather that I was impressed by that copy of The Drawstring - also impressed by the speed that it reached me! But I'll keep in mind your comment about postage costs. What I'll do is ask the College Print about digest-style publications first - I know they do them for student yearbooks, etc. A digest volume does seem to be the way to go. I really hate small, unattractive print. I've bored people by rabbiting on about fonts in the past; but obviously it's important, and if a digest means we can go back to size 12 font, then - I'll try for it. Putting together this issue really has dragged on, I know, and I wish this forum was the sort of site with so much input that long silences would have been overlooked. Still, new ideas keep generating more new ideas, which I'll get to waffling about eventually.
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Post by David Kartos on May 23, 2013 20:59:31 GMT
Having said that, if you get the book on Amazon - as I did with the HA of HA - it can be more reasonable. But it normally takes about 6 weeks to get on to Amazon from your initial printing of the Lulu book. Thanks for this, Des. You'll gather that I was impressed by that copy of The Drawstring - also impressed by the speed that it reached me! But I'll keep in mind your comment about postage costs. What I'll do is ask the College Print about digest-style publications first - I know they do them for student yearbooks, etc. A digest volume does seem to be the way to go. I really hate small, unattractive print. I've bored people by rabbiting on about fonts in the past; but obviously it's important, and if a digest means we can go back to size 12 font, then - I'll try for it. Putting together this issue really has dragged on, I know, and I wish this forum was the sort of site with so much input that long silences would have been overlooked. Still, new ideas keep generating more new ideas, which I'll get to waffling about eventually. Any sort of input was kinda drowned out by the frequent offers of Escorts from Bombai. And fonts can make a huge difference. For example, old MP paint does not have a single font that does not look at best mediocre and that realy impairs picture editing for someone of my non-existent visual editing skills.
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Post by Craig Herbertson on May 25, 2013 21:31:05 GMT
I like the idea of digest.
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Post by corpsecandle on May 30, 2013 18:42:51 GMT
I guess it would be issue 10 that would be the best for a story submission yes?
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Post by Craig Herbertson on Jun 2, 2013 10:10:44 GMT
I'm not sure about that. I think we have to wait and see what we have with FC7. My own, partly selfish reason for pressing on with FC is to get both David Riley's story and mine completed as the intended serials. It seemed sad to see them unfinished in that format The second and more important reason was that FC is a great little mag. The third reason is that these kind of outlets for writers are often consigned to the nether world of failed publications and I'd like to see FC succeed. The fourth reason is that Rog Pile should be more actively involved in this genre and I'm glad to see that he has been plagued to death by me in pms and spends most of his time in a dungeon doing art for nothing.
I think everyone who contributes should see the board as a chance to experiment but you will have to be patient with the publication side: best not to see FC as some regular well organised publication. Neither Rog nor me are well organised, efficient or really publishers - just writers/artists who hopefully will produce an occasional magazine. The best bet is to submit anything you feel good about to other magazines and treat FC as a sort of hit and miss place with no obligations
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Post by Craig Herbertson on Jun 2, 2013 10:12:24 GMT
I should also add that despite appearances Rog has been slaving away. One of the hardest parts of all this is completing what you have started.
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