Well, dear readers, I finished doing the test designed book – this is just a guide for the designers to have in terms of spacing and fonts and everything. They’ll use the manuscript entered into their own design program and that will give them more control over it. They they’ll conform it to the guide, making sure the chapters start where I want them to on the page – it’s all designed to their specs, too, so other than a few things maybe being off by a line it should all work easily. But first, I’m going to go through it again, just to see if I catch anything new. I did catch stuff when I was doing the test designed book and I do hope I entered all those tiny things into the manuscript – I’m pretty sure I did. I think the book will be very nice looking and it came out to around 310 pages but there’ll be a sixteen-page section of photographs, some pretty rare. Doug will be laying out those sixteen pages and I’ll send that separately, with a note as to where it gets placed, probably halfway through the book. That took most of yesterday. I did get eight hours of sleep, I answered e-mails, and then I went to the mail place and picked up the little package of four cans of soup. As I was walking back to the motor car I looked over at Subway and decided to get me a spicy Eyetalian foot-long sandwich. That I did, then came right home and ate it all up and it was quite good. Not as much meat as before but still good. I then worked on the book thing for about four or five hours straight, until I finished it. It’s a slow-moving process. I have to make sure the chapter fall on odd numbered pages (right side), I have to do the chapter number and subtitle in the title treatment font, get the spacing the way I want it, and then I cut and paste that chapter in from the manuscript. Then I highlight that text, make it justified so that there’s no ragged text on the right, change Courier New to Baskerville, the click on paragraph and put in the proper spacing and settings there, click OK, and voila, chapter done. Then I have to go through and make sure the spacing is right, and then in this book there are titles within chapters, so I have to convert all those into the other font. Then I move on. When I finished, I had to go throught it all to make sure all the titles, chapter titles, and chapter numbers are all correctly centered.
After I finally finished, I made some tuna and hat it on Chicken in a Biskit crackers, a fine snack. I then watched a little of this and a little of that, then settled on Citizen Kane on Max. Of course, I own it on Blu and Ray, but Max is the newer transfer I never picked up. I watched the first thirty minutes, and it really is an astonishing piece of work. It seems to have fallen out of favor a bit these days, but nothing can take away from its bravura style and the way in which it pushes all kinds of envelopes – an astonishing feat for someone who’d never made a movie before. All I have to say can be summed up in one simple word: Rosebud.
I’m back after a ninety-minute telephonic call. Anyway, I can’t remember what I was talking about – oh yes, Citizen Kane – I’ll finish watching it tonight.
Today, I’ll be up when I’m up, I’ll pray for a modern major miracle, which is majorly needed in a modern way, I’ll probably make Wacky Noodles for food, I’ll send Doug all the photos and the measurements for those pages, along with the galley of Album Produced by so he can see the way that photo section is laid out. I’ll get back to writing on the project with David Wechter, and then at some point I can watch, listen, and relax.
Tomorrow, I do the interview for The Faculty – can’t remember what time it is – maybe one o’clock my time. Then the rest of the week is writing, and once I have the photos section of the book, then I’ll get everything to the designer. Once it’s designed, then we’ll give it a final careful proofing. Then I’ll call my gal at the publisher and put everything into the works there.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be up when I’m up, I’ll pray for a modern major miracle, I’ll probably have Wacky Noodles for food, send Doug the photos, write, and then watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: If you could go back in time and see any big flop musical, which would it be and why? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, where I shall dream of Rosebud.