Readers and writers blog

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And a tribute to the late Arthur
C. Clarke, writer and visionary

(See note at bottom)

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Here’s something I never expected to say in retirement: I’ve been busy.

But it’s true. We at R&W Blog are now serializing two novels — yes, count ‘em, two — and that involves something I’m supposed to be good at. Actually, several things — editing, proofreading and, thanks to my latter years at work, using a computer to convert words into readable type.

Today we offer two new installments in our fiction section — Chapter 5 of Sniper in the Mist by Joseph Cigan and Chapter 7 of The Unearthing by Steve Karmazenuk.

Believe me, it’s a pleasure to work on these books. But it is work. Not so much editing, because both these guys are very good writers, but a lot of proofreading. Karmazenuk’s science fiction novel comes in as a pdf file, and that isn’t easily converted to our page style. Cigan’s chapters arrive as OpenOffice files that also must be proofed line-by-line.

And just in case you think reading proof is easy, I defer to a higher authority — the pseudonymous June GonnaEatThat, author of the weblog Bye Bye, Pie, who is a professional proofreader. In her blog’s previous incarnation, Bye Bye Buy, she had this to say about her calling:

So, I am going to come out now and tell you what I do for a living. I am a proofreader. Which means I read every letter of every word with excruciating slowness, searching for inaccuracies.

If you are now thinking, “Oh a proofreader. How fun. I love to read,” please let me take this opportunity to fill your nasal cavities with a fast-hardening cement. You do not love to PROOFread. You love to read a nice novel. You like to catch up on that Miss Marple, see what shenanigans she is up to now. So do I. That, however, is not PROOFREADING. Unless you read like this: “Y (capital Y? Yes.)ou caaann copyyy saaaved (saved past tense? Yeah. Okay.) dataaaa (data? Are they using data as a plural? Are they using data as a plural in the rest of this thing? Okay.) (Wait. Didn’t it say 10 pages ago that you CAN’T copy saved data? Hang on.). . .”

Just as an example, an average chapter in Sniper in the Mist runs about 4,500 words, in The Unearthing about 6,000 words. The total, 10,500 words, is about the same as two and a half full-sized newspaper pages filled only with small body type, no headlines, no pictures. And we’re trying to process this much type twice a week.

Hell, I’ve been planked into this chair in front of my computer for days now, trying to get ahead.

But I protest too much.

You know, when I used to think being a reporter — a job I did for more than 20 years — was getting too hard, I thought about those summers working in the woods for my stepfather, a logger, or those nights in the woolen mill, wrestling with heavy bolts of cloth, or selling brushes door-to-door, or waiting on tables where tips were nonexistent . . .. Being a reporter was a lot easier. Just carry a small notebook and pencil, talk to people, nothing to sell, do a little typing.

And when that got too hard, I became an editor, a job I did nearly as long as reporting. And by the time that got too hard, I retired.

I still think about those summers in the woods, those nights in the mill, those days on the pavement or lugging the trays. And you know, this chair is pretty comfortable. Even more than that reporter’s chair, where there was pressure from daily deadlines, impatient editors and an occasional source insisting that what was said really wasn’t said. And even comfier than that editor’s chair, where, thanks to computers in my latter days, an editor also became a typesetter, compositor and graphic designer as well as a proofreader.

So it is with a remembered humility that I recommend our latest installments:

• In Chapter 5, Sniper in the Mist, Joseph Cigan through his protagonist, Joseph Varga, recreates some of the characters — and youthful drug adventures — of life in his Chicago neighborhood of the 1960s.

• In Chapter 7 of Steve Karmazenuk’s The Unearthing, Professor Mark Echohawk and a team of scientists venture into the bowels of a huge alien ship unearthed from the sands of New Mexico, a foray that ends in tragedy.

Please check them out. For we proofread so that you may read.

– Sid Leavitt

NOTE:

Arthur C. Clarke, who died Tuesday (U.S. time) at age 90, is remembered for his vision of the future and his contribution to science fiction by one of our featured authors, Montreal writer Steve Karmazenuk, in Tuesday’s post on his weblog, Kspace.