Congratulations to Gus on selling a novel to Baen. I will definitely buy a copy so I can self-importantly tell everyone that I know the author, and then segue into some weremonkey jokes.

Dunno if this will help with the blurbage issue, but Mercedes Lackey published her elves-at-the-racetrack stuff with Baen.

Nutty, I think I was unclear about it.

These were first galleys. They weren't my printed pages - they were already laid out and reviewers were waiting. I had already done the pass-pages, with detailed notes. All it needed was laying out, and what's more, this was the third book in an existing series. If this maniac had queries, all he or she had to do was look at the layout for Weaver or FFoSM.

Not only that, but this came FedEx with a request to have it back to them within 48 hours.

Um - excuse me? No. This stuff is supposed to get taken care of with the first round of pass-pages. And I honestly should not have been sent this pile. All that was needed were the four or five queries that were actually within my purview, sent to me via email. Instead there was stress and high drama, and, unforgiveably, a major delay.

I really don't want to be made responsible for doing their job for them, or having to tell them that they're either not doing their job or going way the hell over the line.

There weren't supposed to BE any copy-edits at that point. Pass-pages done. Queries on format, style, layout, etc? I need a stamp: "Not Within Author's Purview" or "Dude, Author Doesn't Get A Vote".

And I honestly should not have been sent this pile. All that was needed were the four or five queries that were actually within my purview, sent to me via email.

Reread what I posted -- I'm agreeing with you. All I'm saying is, it's not the layout person's job to decide what the author looks at; the layout person is supposed to kick it upstairs to an editor, who selects only certain queries to send on to an author.

That's the whole point of having an editor -- the intermediary between the "physical text" people (CE, proofer, layout, manufacturing) and the "idea" people (author), to translate between groups and decrease confusion. Usually, there are two layers of editors, one on the production end and one on the editorial end, because it's too much translation for one editor to handle.

In your case, either an editor was asleep at the switch, and sent you more than intended, or somebody lower down the totem pole sent stuff out without checking with a boss. But my point is, that's not the system working normally; that's the system not working.

Teppy, what you do sounds like what I do, right down to the strange house-style hyphenation rules. And the authors who will argue hyphens and indentations with me.

I'm agreeing with you.

No, no, I know. Mine was a vent. And hence the "Dear Toni" letter - she really was asleep at the switch.

In this instance, though, Mr. Post-It was adding editorial commentary and questioning things that were done, approved, stetted, stamped and approved by Ruth Cavin, whose purview all of that actually is. He was way over the line, he had no business whatsoever sending that sort of query at all, and he certainly had no business doing it at that late stage of the game.

Also, writing your questions out on post-its, sticking them to the BACK OF THE PAGE, and then not marking in pencil on the front of the page just where your corresponding query is? Dumb, infuriating and totally time-wasting. A post-it note that says "sp use/u line 18 para 6" means I have to turn the page over, count down the damned paragraphs, figure out what the hell he meant, realise that he was querying the UK usage of the "u" in neighbour - NOT HIS DAMNED JOB - and then type out a response?

No. Whether or not my editor's PA was asleep at the switch or not, this wasn't his job, and he threw timing issues at the publisher and stress issues at me.

Toni will get the hang of this, or she won't. In this instance, the snippy letter may have served as a clue-sticking.

New drabble topic!

Challenge #98 (Baby, You Can Drive My Car) is now closed.

Challenge #99 is the perfect vacation. Real or imagined, wishful thinking or travelogue. However you like.

A little off the drabble topic, but I have a vacation story that I think is funny even though it was embarrassing at the time. Trouble is, no one laughs when I tell it. Maybe it's my delivery. Maybe you just had to be there. I've given up trying to trim it to 100 words. What would make this funnier?

When I was little, Dad would sometimes make crêpes for breakfast as a special treat. We would eat them with powdered sugar, or jelly, or honey, or even peanut butter. But that ended after Dad got remarried and was no longer in charge of breakfast.

Years later, during the summer break after seventh grade, I had just turned thirteen when we went for a week's vacation to the island of Penang, Malaysia, and stayed at a resort hotel right on the beach. It was the poshest place I had ever been--even at breakfast the dining room had real china and fine crystal and napkins folded into fancy shapes. So perhaps I should have been a little more careful reading the menu our first morning there, but "crêpes" caught my eye and brought back fond memories, and that's what I ordered.

Heads turned throughout the dining room when the waiter strode in from the kitchen with a huge flaming platter held high. I couldn't believe it when he came to our table.

"What's this?" I asked.

"Your order, sah. Crêpes Suzette."

There was nothing for it but to put on a brave face, ignore all the stares, and dig in.

(fine, so I'm greedy)

If Only...

Florence, the Arno spilling along under bridges dating back to Hadrian. The Ponte Vecchio leads to busts of long-dead icons, to gelato, to Michaelangelo, to The Prisoners; the other way and the city smells like the de Medicis.

Warmth, grappa, bats wheeling overhead in the Piazza della Signori. We'll sleep the sleep of the decadent at the Hotel Grand, on the Lungarno. Tomorrow, we'll take the night train to Paris, waking at sunrise, France rattling by.

Perfection is relative, and this comes close. But for true perfection, I would have both of you, Nic and Nicky, bracketing me, loving me.

Hee. Lovely. And there's nothing wrong with greedy for a "best vacation" challenge.

I'm so overwrought with lousy vacations that I hesitate to post. Also, I'm in the midst of planning for our spring break. I don't wanna jinx anything.

I don't wanna jinx anything.

BWAH! I know the feeling...