Advice for young players

This weeks piece of folksy wisdom: do not stay up way past your bedtime, tap yourself a glass o' water when overtired, go to bed and have your wife/partner/flatmate wake up 3 hours later to find that said tap (faucet) has not been properly turned off and the kitchen bench, floor and draws are all swimming, then spend next hour+ ladling water out of draws that can not be removed and towel dry every stinking piece that dwelt in said drawers. If you can avoid this, I would recommend it.

Noelle asked: "Is it possible to be both a wit and fulgar? This just occurred to me and it's going to bother me."

Well Noelle be bothered no longer! It is indeed possible to be a wit and fulgar in one person - a super-lahzar, such maddened souls are generally called dexters and typically have short lives full of violence, pain and a whole lot of treacle-taking. Not recommended for any but "power players".

Anna asks: "By the way Mr Cornish, how is the culture-life in H-C? Authors, painters, genealogy ..?"

There surely are these things, I touch on such a little more in Book 3 - though Rossamünd not being overly cultural does not give me great play with such things. However a brief mention in the story does give me licence to go too far in the Explicarium, which is yet to be properly worked up. I tend to add brief entries as I write the main tale, points to be elaborated while the main text is in Celia's/Tim's most excellent hands.

Ah, Monday, you spotted my H.P! I feel like I have been caught with my petticoat showing ;)

Thank you all! for your encouragements last post, I clearly see you all know full well the personal insanity that is writing.

A galley - I have the proof.

Yesterday I received from Tim Travaglini - my US publisher-man - what in the US publishing industry is called a galley (here in Oz we called them ubers, or somesuch - not sure why, probably an acronym) of Book 2, Lamplighter. This galley is what most folks would call an uncorrected proof. Indeed, that is what it says clearly on the front: "UNCORRECTED PROOF NOT FOR RESALE"... and uncorrected it is: I am still working with Mr Travaglini to make the final adjustments for the US edition.

But the best bit is that a galley is actually an early, paperback version of the book! Yipee! It looks very nifty, I near took it to bed with me as some kind of blankey... and talk about thick! Now I reckon it is not seemly to judge a book by its weight, but deep inside some part of me cannot help but go "HURRAH! Look how dense it is! " - 730 odd pages with all things included. "Did I write that? It looks just like a bought one," I marvel to myself much more than I did with Foundling, but too much self-congratulation is not a good thing so I stop.

Just to note, there is a little treat in Book 2 for many of the brave souls who have contributed to this blog with their comments. Speaking of which, thank you very much to those who dared to answer my questions last post, your entries were brilliant. In fact they have helped greatly in expanding my sense of people moving about independently in the Half-Continent, doing their thing apart from any narrative. It would be great if others would give them a go too.

And as requested today for breakfast I had Apricot Fruity Bix[TM].