My copy of Phil's book arrived today. I probably won't get to actually start reading it until this weekend though.
Thanks Phil!

Mine and Morgan's copy arrived today, too!

Thanks, Phil!

I got mine too and wanted to echo the appreciation.

Ooh, where's mine???

Probably having funny red headings added, Luigi. ;-)

Got mine.

Just in time too. Tomorrow I print out my club's newsletter & usually need something to do, or read, to kill time.

So M, did you & Mark get one copy or 2?

Actually....on reflection, I should have sent two to Machicko and Morgan!!! Thought about that the other day! Sorry about that. When I get some more in, I'll send another. ;-)

Luigi!

Did you ever send me your postal address???! Cause I can't find you on the list! Arrgh! I knew I was going to miss some people. I didn't run the moderator list because we have some moderators who haven't visited in a LONG time. ;-)

Anyway...if you will send me your mailing address in to my daily email address, I'll get you in the next batch. Sorry, sorry, sorry!!

Yup, we got one copy. Package addressed to me, but we're both named on the inside cover.

I claimed the book first just because of the addressee ;).

I'm told that mine arrived yesterday, although since it's in Louisiana and I'll be in Texas until finals are over two weeks from now, I won't be able to get my hands on it until then. (Not that I particularly mind; it's not as though I need *more* distractions from studying.)

To my amazement, mine arrived over here in England this morning! I’d not imagined that it would get here for at least another week.

(This is the second signed book I’ve had inside a month – and both thanking me for my work on websites. Am I now a complete nerd?!)

What, you were only an incomplete nerd before, Callie?

Anyway, I was off on Monday and stayed inside all day and didn't check my mail til Tuesday after work and the box was crammed, but Phil's book was there! I was just concerned that it may have been damaged a bit but thankfully it wasn't. I also expected a hardback but that's ok, too. As long as I got the book is all I'm concerned about. Thanks, Phil!

I sent you at least twice, Phil, though I know you didn't get the first one (both of them mainly regarded the moderator problems at PM and LM), but I thought you got the second one. I'll send it again. Thanks.

Phil, I just emailed you from both my hotmail and yahoo accounts, and to both of the addresses I have for you. That should make four in all, so let me know here if you haven't gotten them.

Luigi, don't forget to put "FOR THE CHIEF" in the subject line, or his spamfilters will kill it.

Did I ever send you my address, Phil?

I always do that now, Scott, thanks.

Do y'all think that if we ask Phil reeeally nicely that he'll put us all in his next book as characters? With our permission and the proper release forms, of course, but then again he couldn't put in one of them "No resemblance to any persons living or dead" disclaimers, either. But who cares? We'll be characters in his book! heh

How about it, Phil? Could we please be characters in your next novel? I for one give thee full permission to put me into your next novel if you so wish! And if you wanna make me the incredibly intelligent, handsome, suave, debonaire, charismatic, sexy, billionaire ladies man hero well, I'd have no problems with that. If I can't be it in real life then I'll settle for it in a novel.

Yes, folks, I have no shame. ;)

MarkN, I've seen books starring real historical characters (like Harry Turtledove's alternate history, etc.) which still have that "No resemblance to any persons living or dead" disclaimer.

Hey, Phil, any chance of adapting TSTWATR into a graphic novel?

Or even better, Luigi, a movie! And we could all have small parts in it as extras perhaps! Yeah, that's the ticket!

Now if only my mom's book can be made into one, that'd be sooo cool, too! Why, Luigi, you could even get some screeners for it (or Phil's book) if it ever happened. That is, if you're still doing that job by then. ;)

Okay! Sorry I haven't checked in in the last few days. (I'm working on building a murder mystery for the kids that's supposed to happen the second week of January so I'm working hard on it at this point!)

Let me see if I can address all the comments:

JoshM! Can't find you on the list but if you'll send me your address to the email addres listed in the private moderators message board, I will put you on the list!

As for being characters in my books, there are far too many characters in my head already and if I would take away any of their chances to live outside my head there would be a collective riot! So...probably not. ;-)

As for movies, I'm not really sure how in the world you could compress it that much. There's a lot of story there and typically when a book gets made into a film the story pretty much get butchered (although...the Lord of the Rings movies certainly held together even though they were only a shadow of the original novels.)

Personally, I'd rather see, "NitCentral: The Movie", but I'm not sure that the MPAA Ratings Board would approve

Not to mention that the scriptwriters would have to go insane...

Scpiptwriters, Scott.

Phil: As for movies, I'm not really sure how in the world you could compress it that much. There's a lot of story there and typically when a book gets made into a film the story pretty much get butchered.
Luigi Novi: Hence a graphic novel. It can include everything.

It's also harder to show characters thinking in movies than it is in books or graphic novels.

As for graphic novels...my buddy who did the cover is a fabulous artist. he does these gorgeous comic book characters and several years ago I put together what I thought was a fairly simple script for a starshipped-based series from some characters he and another buddy had worked up. Well...he should it to his other friend who's a graphic artist and the guy said that my little "simple" script would take six issues. So....I would imagine it would be *possible* to do a graphic novel but it would be thousands of pages!!!!

Nice thought, though!

NitCentral: The Movie! I like it! ;-)

Now can we get George Clooney to play ScottN? And Lucy Liu to play MJ?

Enough silliness, though, let's get back to the Chief's book!

All token Brits such as myself will be played by Dame Judi Dench. It's a law, you know.

Or Sean Connery (but only if you're not a Scot. TPTB in Hollywood have no clue).

Kevin Costner as John A. Lang

chief - several years ago I put together what I thought was a fairly simple script for a starshipped-based series from some characters he and another buddy had worked up. Well...he should it to his other friend who's a graphic artist and the guy said that my little "simple" script would take six issues.

Depends on the script & the artist.

Years ago I wondered how many words a comic book page could contain without being too wordy, so I pulled out some comics that had a lot of words but still flowed smoothly as a comic book story. I was surprised to discover that you can comfortably have an average of 200 words per page plus art. Novels average 250 words a page.

For decades comics tended to average 6 panels per page, but it seems like artists have become more egotistical & prefer to do big panels, full pagers, double-page spreads... anything to show off their talent, regardless of the story.

If you were to give a classic 8-page comic story to a modern comic artist he would probably turn it into a two parter. ;-)

Isn't Michael Caine a Brit, or would they cast him to play a New England nitpicker?

With my luck they'd cast Gilbert Gottfried to play me.

Mine arrived yesterday. Now I'll have to find the time to read it.

Any French nitpickers will be played by Patrick Stewart.

Something weird has happened. I had gotten around to opening the package shortly after my last post. Now I had assumed it was my copy, seeing as how the Chief's name was in the return address and it was marked media mail. But when I opened it, do you know what I found? A shower head. Chief, what gives?

So you got the rain, but not the Sun or the Wind?

Gordon!

A showerhead?!? If you received a showerhead someone opened the package and stole the book! A showerhead?!?!?! Really?

A showerhead??

Add me to the list (started by the Chief) of those who are absolutely....wowed.

A shower head.

Me too, and quite amused.

So maybe someone's trying to say you're all wet?

Seriously, sounds very odd. Chief, you didn't send out any showerheads aroudn that time, did you?

Also, how did you send them? USPS? UPS? FedEx?

If it was USPS, and someone stole it, that's a federal offense (interfering with the mail).

No joke. Come to think of it, one end of the envelope did look rather heavily taped. So some loser apparently did steal the contents.

That is so low. I hope you get a free replacement book.

Gordon!

Well...I hope whoever lifted it enjoys it! When I get the next shipment in, I'll send you another. ;-)

Chief, how did you send them? If it was USPS, either you or Gordon should alert the Postal Inspectors, regardless of whether you really care whether it's resolved. Tampering with the mail is a federal offense.

Tonight on "The Postal Inspectors"....

So, was it a brand-new, in-the-package showerhead, Gordo, or just something somebody could have filched from a motel bathroom?

Sounds to me like a good idea to contact the Postal Inspectors!

Gordon! Since you're the one with the shower head, do you want to get in touch with them?

I haven't received mine yet - possibly held up at the border?

It's taking a shower

Still waiting too.

Josh!

I'm not sure I was able to get delivery confirmation on the ones to Canada but I will check when I get home.

Luigi!

Yours is going to be a while because I probably have another week before the second set makes it to me!

Hmm, I checked the mail tonight, and there was a package... I'll pick it up tomorrow. I'll let you know.

I understand, Chief. Thanks.

Just a quick note to add that I have FINISHED THE BOOK!

I've got the book; looks like Customs opened up and they charged $7.07 in duty. Ah well.

Thanks so much Chief!

Did the put a showerhead in there, too?

Hey, Gordon! Just had a thought, are you US-ian or Canadian?

Machiko!

'Course you know what my next question is: Whaddathink? ;-)

KAM, IIRC, the reasons for why some comic books have bigger panels might be cuz of time constraints or just laziness since the bigger the panel the fewer you'll have to put on a page. Of course, Benn could tell ya more about that since he still reads 'em and it's been well over a decade since I stopped buying 'em.

And Luigi, look on the bright side of getting a later copy than the rest of us: Maybe you'll get one of those that's been reworked and had all the typos corrected! Or it could be a disappointment to you if you're so nitpicky a nitpicker that you want the original typo-laden version instead just to nitpick it! Quite the conundrum, ain't it? "Well, I'd like the original version so I can nitpick all the typos, but I'd also rather have the corrected version instead. But then if I got that one I couldn't nitpick it! But the corrected one would be so much nicer! Oh, why, oh, why must the Fates be so cruel as to ruthlessly torture me so!"

laziness since the bigger the panel the fewer you'll have to put on a page
Maybe if you were using the Marvel method where the writer gives the artist an outline of what the story should be then the artist draws the pages, then the writer goes through & adds dialogue, but unlikely if the script came first.

Also the bigger panels leave more white space to fill with art (backgrounds & other details) whereas more panels could allow an artist to draw less details & just focus on what's important (talking heads, some object, etc.).

I still read comics too. Also I've written & drawn some comic book shorts which I've submitted (1 rejection, 3 waiting-to-hear-abouts, so far) & have written some scripts for artists I know to submit, so I do have a tiny amount of experience on the subject.

Scott, I'm South of the Border, so to speak.

I got mine yesterday. Looks very interesting.

Joel: Good! I checked and I didn't have any delivery confirmations for Canada

As for corrections: I don't think there's going to be any in this first edition! Now if some publisher wants to pick this up, I will certainly pass along all of the excellent suggestions! ;-)

To make corrections in the first edition wouldn't you have to go back in time?

However I assume you have the manuscript on a computer file so you could just open the document & make the corrections as you read about them here. So if a publisher does pick this up you'll have a corrected version for them to use.

Just a suggestion.

Kam!

I *could* do that but I would have to pay the publisher money! ;-)

So...it is what it is until there's a version 2!

Greetings All!

Well we've had another casualty in the book shipping world. Just received the *envelope* back from the post office on Friday for Simon L's copy of the book so I'm going to have to send him another one too! ;-)

Phil! I got mine today! Thanks!

I just received mine yesterday. Thanks Phil.

I didn't see this board (I didn't look too closely as I was afraid of spoilers in this section) I got mine just before X-mas, thanks Phil, only got a chance to start it a couple of weeks ago but nearly finished now and must say, I'm really enjoying it. Thanks again.

Well, a package with Mr. Farrand's name in the return address arrived yesterday and this time it didn't contain a shower head. I'll get to reading it the first chance I get.

I still want to know if there's a poor soul somewhere trying to fit a copy of The Son, the Wind and the Reign onto his shower attachment...

Just looked on Amazon, and so far only one bloke has reviewed SWR, and only given it 3 stars unfortunately...so how about a few of us go and 'help things along'? ;)

If it didn't contain a shower head, can we take guesses as to what it *did* contain?

My guess: One Fully Disassembled Jeep, Ready to be Eaten.

Greetings All!

Luigi: Good!

JoshM: Happy to hear it!

Art: Glad you're enjoying it!

Gordon: Success! Just don't read it in the shower. Despite the fact you have an extra shower head now ;-)

Thande: Okay by me!

Just got mine! Thanks, Chief!

Yeah, wouldn't want that nice autograph to go all runny.

Because Morgan is busy blasting his eardrums out, I would like to note that he has received his copy of SWR today (tells ya how often WE check the mail!).

We are very much enjoying where you autographed too, Chief!

My copy starts off: Machiko! Mark!

His copy starts off: Mark! Machiko!

Hee hee.

Greetings All!

Ya know...the amount of creativity around here is a scary thing. ;-)
re: Oh NitCentralia, now moved to the Kitchen Sink

Machiko: I thought you'd get a giggle out of the autograph. ;-)

Much as I enjoy these, do they really belong here?

A good point Scott, so I've taken the liberty of creating a new topic in The Kitchen Sink under Humor called "Oh NitCentralia" and copied all the relevant posts to it so we can continue it over there.
Oh NitCentralia

Now this board needs cleaning. Otherwise there are 2 boards with the same postings

Let us do it... so you don't have Tooooooooooooooooo.....

Done!