1/10/08

Changes, additions. Two new books added to the list: an FPI Atheling. And a beautiful Friends in Time. The frontispiece is shown above.

Thanks to shortsighted tax laws passed 20 or so years ago, books now have the same kind of shelf life as sausages and homogenized milk. But books do not go "off." They simply cost to sit in the warehouse. That's why FPI. To keep my books available and fresh, not tattered relics traded on Amazon and eBay, and also to produce them the way I want, from start to finish. It's fun and rewarding.

I've also formatted most of the FPI books for the Amazon Kindle, another learning curve. They're not the same, by intent. They can't be, to my mind, for they are expressed in a virtual medium, and in html. The fonts are all reduced to Times New Roman, and designed to flow down the screen or whatever it's called. No choice as to the size of graphics. But trial and error teaches the way for a tolerable read in that form. The text, the story, is everything. It can't replace the printed form, has no room yet in the formatting process for graceful gesture. Upshot: the books have now an alterative format and are more widely available at a reasonable cost - no paper or ink or glue or upgraded printers and finishes and binding materials and processes, etc. etc. to drive up the price. And no sweat, once the book is "published."

I'm working on Briony's ABC right now. Be ready in a few days. Working on The Hesta to add to The Atheling and The Orborgon. And in between, taking a look at The Chimes with an eye to finishing it properly, adding the chapters I never did get to write, of the underground people Caidren stayed with when she disappeared.