B&W Cover Illus. and Rant
First the good stuff:


(This will be in color in another 2 weeks or less There's some slight distortion due to resizing for the blog.)

Rant, or "Why none of us should ever break our deadlines with publishers."
I've been guilty of demonizing editors/publishers in the past. Stoic and silent behind a wall of professional courtesy, they make easy targets for weak minded phebes like myself. But from the other side of the curtain of Oz, it isn't so difficult to understand why they become so distant. The "Why" is really very, very simple.

When a writer (or anyone else) makes a promises to meet a deadline, it allows the publisher to make promises to other folks who must also work on deadline (printers, colorists, the guy that does layout, and the gal that does distribution). And when those first deadlines are broken, all 101 of the other deadlines fall like so many cliched dominoes, which results in the publisher looking like an idiot when the readers start asking for the book that was due two months ago.

A full blown catastrophe hasn't happened to PCPress yet, but even minor delays turn me into a type IV demon-grinch, because even minor delays threaten to slow up every other aspect of the book.

So when you get you big break, don't break a deadline without letting the guys upstairs know.

And if you're wondering why we haven't gotten back to you yet, it is because someone else did. Grr.

On the flip side, I planned for talent-drop out by over staffing certain departments, so everything will proceed smoothly in the end (if only by force of my fire whip).

End rant.

Deep breath.

Ah. It feels good to be able to post again. Round two of edits coming out by Monday.