Well, dear readers, it is late and I must write these here notes in a hurry – it’s been a long, been a long, been a long, been a long day, as J. Pierpont Finch, Rosemary, and Smitty would say. I did manage to get eight hours of sleep, so that was nice. Once up, I had a lot of e-mails to answer, I had a couple of telephonic calls, and then I spent about three hours trying to format something that will work for eBooks for the new book. I’m trying to do everything Kindle suggests. Kindle likes Times New Roman, so I used that font. I used the same font as Grant did for the chapter headings. I got the margins exactly the same and the page count almost the same. I had to enter the final set of corrections I’d done, and then I thought it looked pretty terrific (if you can get past Times New Roman, which I don’t like). I got the copyright page and the dedication page and all of the front matter. I haven’t figured out page numbers yet but may not have to. So, I took what looked like my perfectly formatted Word doc and put it into the Kindle for formatting. And then I previewed it and it’s so screwy what it does. Some of it looks just right, while other parts are totally wacko. The new paragraph indentations are the worst thing about it – some are correct, some are further in, and some start at the three-quarter mark on the page. It makes no damn sense to me why it would do it. I’m guessing it’s something to do with Word and maybe the way I write, but I think if I knew someone who really understood Word in terms of what Kindle’s needs are, they could probably fix it up in ten minutes. I mean, I can leave it and it’s readable, but it just looks stupid. Not sure why Kindle and eBooks in general haven’t figured this stuff out yet – it really can’t be brain surgery. What they SHOULD have figured out is how people can upload a PDF of the fully designed book without having whatever the Kindle conversion is screw it all up. I wonder what the big publishers do? Perhaps they have in-house people who do nothing BUT converting this stuff for Kindle. It’s really irritating.
I worked on it so long, that I then had to rush and get ready to be on my way to Doug Haverty’s. Once there, we did the trek out to Sierra Madre. Even at three the traffic was stop and go, thanks to the rain. Still, it only took about thirty-five minutes to get there. We parked and then walked to a restaurant right across the street from the theater, called The Only Place in Town. I had the fish and chips and I must say it was really good, especially the tartar sauce. We also had mac-and-cheese for the table – we all really only had one bite each, and then we had the rest boxed up and then forgot to take the box. I hate when that happens.
Then we went to the theater. Our gals arrived and we ran a few things and set a tiny bit of staging, and that was that. We had about thirty people there to see the “concert” reading. I thought it went as well as these things go with only three hours of rehearsal. The gals were all great, and Tom Griep did a yeoman job given that he hadn’t had much time with the music. The problem with these kinds of things is that they’re done with scripts and when you’re reading from them the danger is that the energy goes down into the script instead of out into the audience. The gals did very well not having that be the case, but it’s just inevitable that it will happen. It was very smooth, though. They did a little silly talkback after – done by the artistic director of the theater. Not sure if anything will come of it, frankly, but it was nice to all be together again.
After, Doug, his ever-lovin’ Dorathy, daughter Hartley, and I went to a Burbank jernt called Harry’s. I had a little bowl of chili – not great. We had fun, and then I came home.
Today, I have to figure out the show order and write the commentary. I also have to do some “sides” for tomorrow’s auditions for the LA show. I have just enough material for the males and females to have a little to read. I’ll eat, I’ll perhaps jog, hopefully I’ll pick up packages, and then at some point I’m sure I’ll relax.
Tomorrow, I’ll write until it’s time to go to LACC. Prior to the auditions, I have a meeting with the set designer, the same talented fellow who did Li’l Abner. Then we have three hours of auditions, although it may stretch to four. The weekend will be all writing, and I had an idea for a new segment for the LA show, if I can get the video clips I’d need edited together. The song I’d use is already written, although I’d probably add another chorus or two to it.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, figure out a show order, write, print out sides, eat, hopefully pick up packages, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: For our eBook readers – do you find that most books look good on Kindle? Are there any where the formatting just looks completely screwy? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland because it’s been a long, been a long, been a long, been a long day.