:: Haadri ::

I really must update more often...

Back in February (29th, to be exact, publication day) I created the Jangyu wallpaper, and GoodTwin commented that she'd like to go there. I replied with a load of info on what was required for a visit - which then inspired the idea for a story. It's taken a while, but I have now finished it. However, Ken read it, enjoyed it, and wondered if I should see if one of the s-f online e-zines might like to publish it. It could certainly work as a stand-alone story: none of the main Haadri characters are even mentioned. So I think I'll try that first, before posting it on the Haadri site. (Though I don't expect much success: all 'zines seem to be absolutely inundated with hopefuls... Well, we'll see.)

It's a fun story though - first time I've written anything so completely alien.

Labels: short stories

Managed a little more of the CalCol font - colours, specifically, as I need them before I can create my version of the H-R diagram. (Actually I need something for numbers as well: will look at those tomorrow.) I'm hoping to have it created by the weekend, if I don't have too many bNb distractions in the meantime...

Labels: CalCol

[grin] Marie emailed me the first draft of the Heart front cover today. It's going to be terrific!

Labels: artwork, Heart

I've been playing around with Xara, beginning to devise the CalCol script. It's been interesting: the language is a mix of syllabic and alphanumeric (sort of) and based on sets of eight (the Caelixiin have four digits on each hand). Nothing to post yet, but it's evolving as I work, and I hope to have the basic vocabulary done in... oh, a couple of months? Depending on what else I'm supposed to be doing, which currently includes all the client site work, continuing work on Heart, writing short stories for both the Haadri site and the new e-mag we're creating (it's called Something Else and there'll be an announcement about it on Zone Doubt soon) - and I should also get the first set of Haadri wallpapers finished: I thought it would be nice to do six, one for each colour of the visible spectrum. (Be a bit difficult to go beyond that, after all. I don't know any humans who can see microwaves, Xrays or gamma radiation. And as for radio, well...)

More here as it happens.

Labels: CalCol, Heart, linguistics

... It looks like I forgot to cross-post the mp3 of me reading the Haadri: Prime Contact Foreword, taken from my radio interview: anyone who's interested can find it here. It's two minutes eighteen seconds long, and 2.1 megs in size.

After hearing it, GoodTwin and Sue both thought it might be useful for me to record myself pronouncing a lot of the more complex names/phrases and posting little mp3 files up on the Haadri site - and in fact it's an excellent idea. I just need a microphone, a fervent wish that this machine's line-in works, and lots and lots of haddock...

Labels: Haadri site, the nitty gritty

As I posted over at Zone Doubt, our latest amazon order arrived today: it included Garth Merenghi's Darkplace. One of the main characters is played by Matt Berry, who has the most amazing voice, and it's been nagging at me for a week or so. Today I realised why. His voice is absolutely perfect for Kadaji, a fairly major vourdaki character throughout the Haadri Cycle!

Always satisfying when that happens.

Labels: characters

Publication Day!

I celebrated by creating a new wallpaper - a landscape on Jangyu: you can find it here (scroll down the page to the free downloads section). Lutra asked for something green...

I should now devise the specs and write a short story about the place. It's quite an interesting world, in its own quiet way.

Labels: Haadri: Prime Contact, wallpapers

A handful of books went off to Waterstone's distributors today. They won't reach the shops in time for the launch, but they should be there in a few days. I hope.

Publication day tomorrow! I ought to do something to celebrate...

Labels: Haadri: Prime Contact

[x-posted to Zone Doubt] well that was very much less stressful than I expected - I ended up quite enjoying myself! Perry (the radio interviewer) went through the questions he wanted to ask before it began, then basically let me ramble on (within reason: there was another guest there too, Colin of the local, as yet not-well-known band Carol's in the Water, a friend of Perry's). And them what knows me knows I can talk the hind leg off an Arcturian megadonkey (though I've never yet tried persuading it to go for a walk afterwards...) if they let me. I just hope I didn't sound like too much of a compleat pillock.

The whole thing lasted an hour, with music in between sections of talking. Perry even managed to find a Muse track for me - Supermassive Black Hole, kind of appropriate since I'd just been wittering on about the universe being so vast I couldn't believe there wasn't life out there, and probably a lot of it! They're making a copy of the interview for me, which hopefully I'll get in a couple of days - at which point I shall get Ken to listen to it, as I really don't like my voice.

All in all, nothing like as nerve-wracking as I'd anticipated, although I have no idea how many people were listening. But it was almost fun.

And the Mighty Boosh Season 3 DVD arrived today! Guess what we'll be doing tonight?

Labels: Haadri: Prime Contact, publicity

Ooooooh kaaaay... I think I just agreed to a live radio interview next Wednesday.

Only a local station, Bristol Community fm, but still...

Labels: Haadri: Prime Contact, publicity

The sequel to Bounded - Induction - now coded and posted on the HaadriGuide (anyone with the book has access). I think it may need its own sequel though...

Labels: short stories

Never let it be said I do things by halves... I seem to have the hang of Excel now - at least enough for my purposes. My World Specs workbook currently has six worksheets: Alphabetical (by world), Suns (planet accompanied by name(s) of suns and spectral type(s) according to the Terran Hertzsprung-Russell diagram; I'm planning my own version using Haadri stars and a slightly different format, since the gravity wells around suns have a bearing on gross 'skimmer navigation), 'Slice' (for my own use - slices through the galaxy), Political Situation end Bk 1, Political Situation end Bk 2 (to be filled in as I go along), and Telepathic Status. I still have to create the Spiral Arms worksheet, but that can wait for a bit - it's less important than the others. It's actually a real relief having everything in one place rather than having to dart around among umpteen different .docs to find what I need. Wish I'd done it ages ago!

Back to Induction, which is coming along slowly but surely.

Labels: short stories, the nitty gritty, worlds

Ken went into town today, on arranged meetings with the book buyers for Borders and Waterstones. It was quite successful: they've both asked for a handful of copies of Haadri: Prime Contact, on sale or return, when it's published. Just the local bookshops to start with. And it'll be going into Forbidden Planet too (again, just the local shop initially). Borders have also said that if it sells reasonably well, they may ask me in for a book-signing session when Heart is published.

All good stuff!

Labels: bookshops, Haadri: Prime Contact

So, a page and a half into the 'kayen backstory (tentatively titled Induction for now) I realised that to make it work properly I have to give a much wider perspective than I had originally planned. However, in order to do that effectively, I had to list all of the worlds that are on my galactic schematic (pinned up on the corkboard along with a ruler marked in light years and prinits so I can measure distances more or less accurately), sort them out politically and topically, by planet and alliance, and type them into spreadsheets so I can keep all the details straight. (ARGH! Numbers! Excel! Oh noes!!1!). It's something I should have done at least a year ago, but kept putting off. It's done now - listed alphabetically, by location and by affiliation - which gives me the information I need to finish the story, reference material for the rest of the series, and the names I need to upload to the planets section on the site. Took a while, but will save time later.

Planets and People sections of the site now updated.

Labels: Haadri site, short stories, the nitty gritty

New short story just posted on the Haadri site (accessible to those who've read the book) - Ocean (this one fills the plot hole mentioned in the previous post).

Labels: Haadri site, short stories

Flicking through my working copy of H: PC last night, I realised I'd left a tiny plot hole gaping. Well, Ok, there are a fair few, actually, but they will gradually be closed as the series progresses. This particular one involves a minor character who isn't likely to appear again, except in passing, so I'm writing a short story to close the hole. It'll be posted on the site when I've finished, accessible to anyone who has the book.

Sue also asked for a 'kayen back story a wee while back - I'm working on that too, while some major revisions to Heart are taking shape. It's all go!

Labels: challenges, short stories

[blink] OK, this is odd, but rather nice and very fitting...

I thought at first my eyes were playing tricks, but I checked with K&K and they confirm it. If you open H: PC in artificial light or sunlight, there's a slightly eerie ultra-violet glow right down at the spine, between the pages. Not sure if it's the paper whitening, or the adhesive, but it's very pretty - and highly appropriate!

Take a look when you get your copies...

[X-posted from Zone Doubt]

[blink]

[blinkblink]

So there I was, doing the usual morning online thingies, when a knock came at the door...

I'm now sitting here surrounded by four of these...




... containing lots of these ->






..............

..............

We were supposed to get one, proof copy on xmas eve, to check everything was fine before we put in the order...

But as it happens, I've done a quick check check through and it all looks fine - the corrected version of the text has been used, and the illustrations look good (though they could have been a little darker. I'll remember that for the next book!) The cover looks a lot paler here than it really is - even a matte cover bounces a lot of flash back - but has actually come out exactly as we wanted it. So I'm very pleased.

[grin] Also as it happens, GoodTwin is on her way over, right now, for the pre-Yule visit. She's going to be the first person, other than myself, to see all the illustrations in place...

I shall sign and post the ordered copies over the next few days. I'm sorry they won't reach everyone in time for Yule, but you'll still get them well in advance of the publication date.

That is, of course, assuming everything is OK. I shall run through my working copy now and check that there aren't any errors.


Rather to our surprise, a quick google earlier (Ken wanted to check that despite the redirect frameset the spidbots were picking up on both Heartsown and H: PC) showed us the book listed on Amazons UK, Canada, France, Germany and the US, even though we've had no contact with or from them. That could be interesting...

Labels: Haadri: Prime Contact

The proof copy will be with us on Xmas eve, apparently.

Labels: printer

Would you believe that after all the work I put into preparing H: PC I still found a typo after it had gone off to the printer? Actually there were three, but the ones in the pronunciation guide and glossary would probably have gone unnoticed. The one in the text though - a 'you're' instead of a 'you've'... I missed it. How, I have no idea.

But we have a wonderful printer. I sent off the corrected .pdf and he reported back that we were just in time to slot that one into the print run rather than the incorrect version. [relief] I have no doubt I'd have spotted the errors in the proof copy, but getting it right now saves us money...

It occurred to me tonight that once Heart is published, I'd better update the Characters from the Cycle page on the Haadri website. [wince] That's going to take me days...

Back to the loom.

Labels: characters, Haadri site, printer

The printer has confirmed receipt of the .pdfs and says we should have the proof copy in a week!

Labels: Haadri: Prime Contact, printer

The final cover...

It's gone - cover and manuscript have winged their way off to the printer! Will take a photo of our proof copy when it arrives. Not sure how long that will be, but it may be up to four weeks I think...

Now I can focus on Heart properly - including reading through your feedback, Sue. Haven't had time yet, it's taken nearly two days for the final proof-read and cover preparation.

Exciting, 'tis!

A little later than anticipated, but still as promised, the pre-order page is now up and available

HERE!

Labels: Haadri: Prime Contact

[Cross-posted to Zone Doubt]

Right! We finally have the costings for Haadri Prime Contact. The actual pre-order page should be up and available tomorrow - we're still working on it - but I can say now that the RRP will be £12.95.

HOWEVER, if you order before the Winter Solstice (December 22^nd 2007) you will be able to buy it at the Special Offer price of only £9.95 (plus p&p). After the solstice the price will go up to £10.95 until February 1^st, then to £11.95 until the publication date of 29^th of February. All books ordered from the site can be signed (an additional inscription will be offered for a small handling fee - that means I don't get any of it!).

This book will not be available from Amazon.

More later!

Labels: Haadri: Prime Contact

[bemused] Had a cryptic email from the printer today: they'd received the new cover file, and we now have a bluebell planet...

To elucidate: apparently blue is a difficult colour for printers to handle, which is why they hate printing bluebells and why the sea on the back cover planet came out purple (I used the wrong shade of blue). On redesigning the planet I made the sea the blue side of light turquoise in the hopes that might solve the problem - from the printer's email it sounds as though it has. Well, fingers crossed anyway. They said it was going in the post this afternoon, so with a little luck I might get it tomorrow morning.

And if all's OK, we can send the whole thing off tomorrow afternoon. After I've checked one thing that I've just remembered...

Checked and it's fine.

Now onto chapter 12 of Heart, but I'm too tired to really think seriously tonight. I'm in the middle of a side story to be posted on the site between books One and Two - I could continue with that for a change.

Labels: covers, printer, short stories

I spent some hours playing around with the cover. The back is now more or less sorted (with an image of Heart), and Ken suggested darkening the whole thing until it looked like the printed version to see the difference between the original and what they'd sent us. Turns out it was 50% darker than we wanted - so we've lightened it by 50% and they've agreed to print out a further version to see if that works. Fingers crossed.

On a more worrying note, I couldn't get Adobe to create a .pdf of the new file - it refused to do anything in .psd or .tif format, even with files that worked before. (It'll .pdf .jpgs and .docs though, so at least we were able to send off the revised cover and the ms shouldn't be in jeopardy.) I'm really really hoping it's some sort of temporary glitch and it'll be OK tomorrow: I have no idea how fast their tech support are likely to be.

Tomorrow - barring any further hassles - we're planning to finally get the pre-order page set up and live. Will report here how it goes...

Labels: Haadri: Prime Contact, printer

Spent a large part of the day struggling to create two decent, matching halves of a globe for Heart in Digital Pear. Not as easy as it sounds, since I need at least two continents in a specific location (and of a particular size) in order to make H: PC work. I'm not completely satisfied yet...

Labels: Haadri: Prime Contact, Heart, worlds

Heart chapter 9 is still trundling - but my hands are painful at the moment, so I'm not pushing it.

Before closing down last night I was skimming over a couple of the early chapters in Horizons (that's the current fifth book) and thought I'd post a tiny snippet from chapter 3 (because it made me chuckle quietly...)

      Niall was a little uncertain as to how to deal with the situation when Bilik appeared at the door and beckoned them to follow her. Excusing themselves, Niall and Melynda trailed after her into the office. She closed the door firmly and turned to face them.
       "You'll be pleased to know I have been successful. You are due to die, in great pain and with much regret on our part, in five days. In accordance with our own customs, and our being unfamiliar with your own, since you didn't have time to give us any more information than we already have, your bodies will be minced and the remains scattered as fertiliser on the fallows beyond the enclave..."

      Melynda wasn't sure about the etiquette or propriety of hugging a seven foot high centipede, but she did it anyway, and Bilik didn't seem to mind.

Back to H09...

Labels: Heart, Horizons

[sigh] OK. I wanted Levys to be a forceful little spitfire; she's refusing to co-operate and insists on being a sweet and self-denigrating young thing (with, however, more than a hint of steel and determination hidden below the surface)...

Heh. She knows herself better than I know her - and I know from experience if I try to force these charas into different moulds it cocks everything up horribly and I end up having to rewrite at considerable length. Better by far to let her go her own way...

Labels: Heart, intransigent bloody characters...

And we're trundling along nicely. I've revised and tweaked the existing chapters 1-8 of Heart so far: now it's time for something completely new to tie up a couple of loose ends and properly introduce one of the subplots...

Labels: Heart