This past week

I got some new The Hill of the Skull proofs last week. One proof was too contrasty, so I reprocessed the images. The other proof might also have been too contrasty if the printer didn’t lift all the shadows. Why they did this is beyond me. Maybe it was to save black ink? Maybe they don’t understand the style? In any case, the blacks were milky.

The issues with both printers raise some quality control concerns. But I need to give up the fantasy that this black and white POD approach to publishing THOTS can produce consistent results. I tweaked the images and ordered more proofs in hopes that this new (final) edit will be just right. The first proof arrived today (Sunday), and it looks good. There are some minor cropping issues, but it is a go! The proof from the other printer will hopefully come in a few days. I might just meet my November 15 deadline.

Some folks had asked if I’d make some prints available for purchase. I will, yes. I am picking up some small, “square print” proofs from the printer next week. I’ve used them in the past, so I know they’ll produce excellent prints. Just want to verify them first. If they look good when I pick them up, I’ll put in a small order before I walk out the door.

I recorded two new Travel Writing World interviews, one with Thomas Bird about his book about his new book on Chinese trains and the other with Thomas Swick about his latest travel memoir. One of the episodes will drop next week.

Lately, I’ve been thinking about retiring the TWW podcast and starting a new one about creativity more broadly. The new idea was actually an old one— it was my original idea for the podcast when it was called All Over the Place. Just thinking out loud…

Last Monday evening I saw Neil Gaiman and Art Speigelman speak about writing, creativity, and comics. Too many takeaways to distill here.

The week ahead

Edit, schedule, and release TWW podcasts. Record and publish a new YT video. Sign off on the the proofs and publish THOTS. New Drifting. Lots ahead…

Task list

Things I still need to do:

  • proof the THOTS proofs when they arrive
  • do the bookplate landing page on AI, redirect permalink
  • square prints on AI
  • rewrite/format the THOTS landing page on my personal site
  • new cover image for the THOTS landing page with the paperback
  • hit publish on THOTS!
  • edit the A+ content on the THOTS Amazon page
  • ship marketing copies of THOTS
  • schedule TWW podcasts
  • THOTS Kickstarter postmortem
  • write the Genius Loci for November
  • schedule Zoom chat with J.R. to discuss the AXMU book proposal
  • fix the css/formatting issues on the Creator’s Log category page (and add nav links to the single post pages)
  • look into reformatting these task lists in css
  • look into adding categories to the metadata of entries in this website’s archive page