Superday

Yesterday (Thursday, 28 Feb 2008) can go down in the books as one of the great teamwork efforts of the modern era. The whole gang met up in the Oscar Wilde Centre for a serious, honest-to-goodness, last-ditch session of Final editing. The stories are done like T-bone steaks, the final ordering of pieces is decided, and within a couple days the work will be off to the designer/layout/printing stages of the operation (out of our hands!). We all put in some serious labour (as you can see evidenced by me in the last picture...a 9-letter word for young lad...STRIPLING) and we had a hell of a time just hanging out and finding camaraderie in G.H.W. (good, hard work). Yay us.

A horse designed by committee

Big 'decision' day here at the Oscar Wilde Centre. Making choices on book design, which editors' changes to take into account, who to argue with, etc. A good day, but a trying day. We are a pretty amenable group, usually coming to some sort of an agreement on all the decisions, and this theme held true this afternoon. We basically have our cover design chosen, and we are entering the absolute, positive, 110% final round of editing changes (remember how I said we were done before? WRONG!) Hopefully by the end of next week, we'll be sending the final copies to the design/printer to put the finished product together.

Here's what we look like when we're making decisions at night, having civilized debate on whether the sub-sub-title of the book should be italicized, SMALL CAPS, or erased altogether.

Our Official Home..

The real deal website (none of this running commentary nonsense) is up and (somewhat) operational. Check back to it for official details and prestigious presentation. Check back here for, well, running commentary nonsense.


http://www.tcd.ie/OWC/sixteenafterten



ready yourselves...

Shameless

So we've gotten together a (mostly) finished proof/reader copy of the book. Thanks to me, it was highly imperfect in regards to spacing, pagination, line length, and the like, but what's done is done right? Emily had a few copies bound and send out to potential folks who could offer some kind words for use on the cover of our book, or puffs as they're known in the industry (new knowledge to me, but what of this process isn't?).

There's something of this whole process that smacks of humiliation, but I don't imagine that's unique to this book, but more a simple and true part of putting out a stack of paper which basically just contains your opinions of the world and asking people to care what you've said and how you've said it. At a certain point, you've got to accept the inherent humility, as we are now, and ask people to graciously give their names and praise to our good cause of art.

So we're in a bit of stasis right now waiting for response from the 'names' who'll possibly be heaping praise upon us, but after the good word arrives, the steps towards completion (layout, design, printing) should really be off and running. Sit tight, everyone.

Making Books

Since we're making a book, we went to go see how books are made. A good time was had by all.

It never ends...

So hopefully the final versions of all the stories/poems for publication have been put to rest today. It went down to the wire, with lots of confusion and misunderstanding over the collective rules we were all following for grammar and punctuation. I personally could have been the final to submit a completed draft, so I might be the crown-holder for least organized.

It's amazing how just when I thought things were done...like really finished, new wrinkles turn up in our writing in the least expected of places. But as of this evening, we can say with near-certainty that the content portion of the book is complete. Next, of course, is the layout, the design, the printing, the publicity, the advertising, the hype, the hucksterdom of getting it sold, the hoopla of the launch, and so on. There'll be more about these details as the days roll by, which they are doing all too fast lately.

In the end, the book is about the stories and poem of the members of the Trinity writing program. Everything else is just a ribbon on the box, but the work is the gift. For all of the eventual readers out there, the gift has been purchased, and is hidden underneath your parents' bed until we can get together some really swell wrapping paper and ribbons.

Say it to yourself -- sixteen. after. ten. -- it isn't far off, everybody.

Finishing Touches

Mass group editorial meeting today. Laughs and stress, red pens and M&Ms. We spent a few hours today doing a near final runthrough (is runthrough one word, two, or a hyphenate?) of our stories for the anthology. All who were there can agree that some good old-fashioned work was put in by all, and we're nearing a finished product to send off to the design/printing company.

Special thanks go to Emily and Monica who have unarguably (is that a word?) put in the most all-around work in this stage. The supporting cast isn't chopped liver either though. Here's what editors look like when they're hard at work.