|
Post by David A. Riley on Jun 11, 2013 9:43:09 GMT
I’ll be in touch with you in near future re. BFS, David. By the way, do you have 2 email addresses? I’ve a feeling I’ve seen two but only one ever shows up in my address book. There's rileybooks@ntlworld.com and info@rileybooks.co.uk Either should work.
|
|
|
Post by Craig Herbertson on Jun 14, 2013 9:37:46 GMT
We are slowly gravitating to the point where FC might be ready. But then you knew that. Usual last minute glitches and disasters. Rog had to remove a story sadly to make room but it will be out in the next one
|
|
|
Post by Calenture on Jun 15, 2013 20:47:13 GMT
As the subject line reads... sorry, really should have looked in before.
I'd told myself I wouldn't look in until it was printed, but as Craig says above there was a last minute problem. Relax, it's sorted now, but I was a bit frantic when it happened.
I think it was late last Monday that I gave Des a preview of his illustration. Then I decided to print the PDF file to take to the printer Tuesday. Disaster. The Word document looked fine but must have become slightly corrupt. Result: the PDF came out as nonsense, with pages in all the wrong places.
I'd finally reached throat-cutting stage (don't you just love drama?) when I sent Craig a positively suicidal email, with the offending PDF attached.
Thank you, Craig. Your calm response and suggestion that I fed the whole magazine into a new file did the trick.
After that the PDF was fine and the idiot in Cornwall finally started calming down.
But after that I wanted to recheck the whole thing.
There were only tiny errors, hardly anything... until I realized that I was about to misspell the lovely and talented Penni McLaren Walker's name wrong for the second issue in a row! Mortified!
Then I looked at the cover (a different file) and David Riley's name was missing a 'v'.
I got the corrected files burned to a disk finally at about 4:00 pm Friday afternoon. Too late for the printer this week. Oh well... I'll deliver the disk early Monday. I always park outside the print shop and leave the first shift at 8:30 a.m.
Today's been pretty laid-back, mainly getting long naps and catching up on housework. Tomorrow I'll be getting back to FC 8.
Thanks for those email addresses David. And as for The Beast, James, I started a revision a while back and will be getting back to that shortly.
|
|
|
Post by Calenture on Jun 15, 2013 21:27:24 GMT
Before I buzz off, here are a few details about FC 7: It's 88 pages (not including the cover). I did a test print of just two sides and noticed that the size 10 Times New Roman font was actually more readable than I'd thought. So I reformatted everything to that smaller size. That gave a few more pages. I slightly reduced the margin widths. More space again. FC 6 was 84 pages. With folded booklets the page count must be a multiple of 4. If it isn't, we get blank pages. If the magazine gets too big, it can't be folded - we get 'page creep' (or the thick bit in the middle) - and the edges can't be trimmed. 88 pages seems the largest that can be got in folded magazine format. If you're interested, here's a link to the Lulu guide. Find the 'saddle stitched' binding column and look down it - nothing over 88 pages: Lulu binding guide. Anyway, if we ever do that 'Best of FC' anthology, Lulu could well be an option. Mood, by the way, as they say on FaceBook... Mood is enthusiastic. Trying very hard not to screw this one up, as it could be the strongest FC yet. Which just makes FC 8 a bigger challenge.
|
|
|
Post by Calenture on Jun 16, 2013 12:08:37 GMT
It's been bothering me that some contributors still might be wondering if they're in FC 7, which isn't right, so here's the Table of Contents at the moment: The Wicket Man by Franklin Marsh The Architect’s Table by Penni McLaren Walker The Only Climax by D F Lewis Shapeshifter by Charles H Galloway Mycelium by Robert Mammone The Death Tableaux (part 2) by Craig Herbertson Sendings (part 2) by David A Riley All Endings Are Happy by D F Lewis The Filthy Creators The Stories so far… I was gutted at the stories I had to leave out. Colin Leslie's Melting is a popular story in the workshop, and will be in FC 8. I'm looking at a couple of others by Charles H Galloway for that issue. Dan McGachey's An Honest Night's Work has probably been rewritten and submitted to another publication by now (must contact) and I know Rob Mammone's Widdershins has been snapped up elsewhere. James Stanger's Van Vogtian primitive The Beast is open in Word for editing, as are a couple of shorter David Kartos pieces. I'm going to be pretty ruthless with any rewrites I do, so be warned that if something appears after extensive revision I might decide to add my name as co-author (scary thought). I would have liked to have used Des Lewis's Snow at Midnight (which has that weird "I think this is disturbing, but I can't quite put my finger on it and it could have been that pie I ate last night" feeling about it, which is a pretty good way of defining the best D F Lewis stories). But it's one of his epics at almost one and a half pages, and I think it's a companion piece to another, A Threat of Rain, so they're both strong contenders for FC 8. In short, far too many MSS open in Word right now and I need something to eat quickly in case someone drops in this afternoon and distracts me by wanting to watch a film. But at least, here's the TOC. There are other stories in the workshop needing to be found and looked at.
|
|
|
Post by Calenture on Jun 16, 2013 18:16:34 GMT
Begun revising The Beast. Not much rewriting needed at all in the second part, unless anyone disagrees.
Also sent a couple of needed emails and some PM replies, and have been adding to and formatting FC 8.
|
|
|
Post by Calenture on Jun 16, 2013 21:11:26 GMT
Finished revision of The Beast in workshop. Quite enjoyed doing that!
|
|
|
Post by Craig Herbertson on Jun 17, 2013 9:18:18 GMT
Glad to see we're getting there. It's a horrible road full of pitfalls for the unwary as anyone who has done it knows and the final stages are always the worst. I'd also like to state that the table of contents is excluding some stories and that that is nothing to do with the quality of the stories. Please bear in mind the next issue including these stories will probably be not as long a wait. If anyone is really unhappy with that please let us know and reluctantly we'll drop them from the issue - but then again please don't do that because we want them in as they are really good and some have already been illustrated...
Contributors will be getting subscription copies but it would be enormously helpful if you could consider buying more than your copy to perhaps give a couple to friends and get them into reading FC. So,if you can, order at least one extra copy. There are some back issues available of various FC's and I suppose new people would want the previous issue to see how David A Riley and I started our serials.
|
|
|
Post by Calenture on Jun 17, 2013 11:11:58 GMT
Glad to see we're getting there. It's a horrible road full of pitfalls for the unwary as anyone who has done it knows and the final stages are always the worst. I'd also like to state that the table of contents is excluding some stories and that that is nothing to do with the quality of the stories. Please bear in mind the next issue including these stories will probably be not as long a wait. If anyone is really unhappy with that please let us know and reluctantly we'll drop them from the issue - but then again please don't do that because we want them in as they are really good and some have already been illustrated... Contributors will be getting subscription copies but it would be enormously helpful if you could consider buying more than your copy to perhaps give a couple to friends and get them into reading FC. So,if you can, order at least one extra copy. There are some back issues available of various FC's and I suppose new people would want the previous issue to see how David A Riley and I started our serials. Thanks, Craig! This morning, after some last minute moments of terror, I delivered the PDFs to the printers. Remember those drawings Charles Schultz did of Linus Van Pelt, clutching a security blanket and with worry-rings circling his eyes? That could have been me these past couple of weeks. I wonder how Des Lewis and Charles Black keep turning out such excellent anthologies without any of the histrionics that usually accompanies the birth of another FC. Seriously, it must just be me! I don't think I'll write any more here for now. The main thing is, after about half a year I finally let the printer prise the all-important CD from my fingers and walked away. Yay! ;D Back later...
|
|
|
Post by franklinmarsh on Jun 17, 2013 11:25:53 GMT
Fantastic news, you fellows. And thank you for including one of the old FM stories. Will this be available via PayPal?
|
|
|
Post by Calenture on Jun 17, 2013 19:36:36 GMT
Fantastic news, you fellows. And thank you for including one of the old FM stories. Will this be available via PayPal? I'll be setting up a new PayPal page, Franklin. It's much the easiest and safest way to send payment. I don't know when the magazines will be ready. As usual they're dealing with a bit of a backlog of work (the art block just had it's summer exhibition which always requires a lot of posters and illustrated booklets) but personally I don't mind that as I've got editing of FC 8, submission revisions and promotional videos to get on with.
|
|
|
Post by Craig Herbertson on Jun 17, 2013 19:56:24 GMT
Well done Rog.
|
|
|
Post by Craig Herbertson on Jun 17, 2013 19:56:59 GMT
Having had a glimpse I think this could be a really top class issue of the old FC
|
|
|
Post by Calenture on Jun 19, 2013 21:49:21 GMT
Having had a glimpse I think this could be a really top class issue of the old FC Been sort of quiet here, but I guess people are used to that. Yesterday I fell victim to some sort of dreaded lurgy which resulted in me taking to bed with a bottle of Beecham's Kill or Cure-all, whatever they call it now (bet that brings weird adverts up all over the site). Anyway, today been feeling better after sleeping all yesterday and have been working quietly on formatting FC 8 and comparing MSS where I have a choice of more than one from an author. In the past few days I've also been uploading illustrations to PhotoBucket so contributors can get at them. I'll be posting links soon. I used to prefer Flickr for image-hosting but PhotoBucket has the facility of folders to help organize stuff. Just realised what the time is so I think I'll be calling it a day.
|
|
|
Post by Craig Herbertson on Jun 21, 2013 8:31:20 GMT
Apart from you being ill all good news. I'm really looking forward to FC7. Is t about time people pm'd you about orders for FC7 (and FC6 for those who missed out on the two serials) or has that been done.
|
|