The most recent 20 comments posted to Making Light by Noelle:

With three jack-o-lanterns (one is a cat face) and a glowing blue ghost, maybe I shouldn't be surprised that we ran out of candy. But I'm mortified. Four bags gone before 8pm. Next year I'm buying more. We figure at least 60 kids. This part of Hamilton is a kid friendly place, I guess.

When I lived in Reno for a couple of years I worked a crisis line. It was an eye-opening experience, to say the least. I remember turning from a call to ask my supervisor if I could send the caller to one of the different supports I would have offered in Canada and she snapped "Don't talk about your damn system here." I think she was close to crying with frustration. People with suicidal kids were saying, "Don't send Ambulance. No ambulance." No body blamed them.

Since I've moved back to Canada I've had two children at no cost to our family. I was hospitalized for an extra three days with the first one and my second child has Down Syndrome. I had all his testing and care paid for. I'm now on a fabulous program that gives him specialized medical care once a year and sends me communications and play therapists to work with him, again at no charge to me. I could never move back to the States with Sam (my second child). We simply couldn't afford to.

KeithS @ 89

No worries, I never thought that. I just found it interesting that you noticed the weight. I notice it all the time, and so do people I work with, but we're book geeks. I'm also the kind of person who picks up a book and looks at who the publisher is before reading any of the back cover bits.

KeithS @ 86 - it's interesting that you should mention the weight of the book. When I have a thin book (like a collection of poetry) I put heavy weight paper in it - a 70lb laid is my normal stock. Otherwise the book weighs nothing in your hand. I can't do that for thicker books. The paper costs too much.

I'm sensing that people like well-made books, a rather obvious statement, but it's telling me that form is a close second to content, rather than price. (Though I don't know if I'll be able to afford sewn books.)Do most people prefer their paperbacks close to a mass-market size instead of the larger ones? I agree that it would be odd to put ragged edges on a paperback. If I wanted to make a book more intersting, or up production values, I'd use endpapers or french flaps instead. Any thoughts on those? I'll remember to keep my margins nice and wide.

Thanks David and Madeline,

Good points on both accounts. I'm pretty keen on the production values of books. Nothing irritates me more than having a book fall apart on me, or having type on nearly see-through thin paper.

I'm only now starting to look at ebooks and such, but it makes sense that these issues would be high priority for the readers (and authors) I'm hoping for. I hadn't even thought about readings in bars versus all age environments. I'll keep it in mind.

Since this is an open thread, I thought I might pose a question which I'm sure will get some interesting answers. I'm thinking of publishing science fiction in a couple of years. Not getting my book published, but publishing someones else's work. What's the worst thing I could do as a publisher (barring just publishing a book and sitting on it - these books will find their way into bookstores)and what's the best?

Canada has a time-honoured way of dealing with large conflicts in our society. We call a royal commission. It consults with nearly everyone, writes up a lengthy report and sometimes even creates major change. Other times (particularly with more contentious issues) it takes so long to report that we've forgotten we called it in the first place.

But it sure does cut down on direct conflict.

I think the edges of all the genres are blurry. I remember I once picked up an Anita Blake Vampire Hunter novel at the library and read the back of it. It was a horror, a mystery, a thriller and a love story set in a fantasy alternative universe. I read the book because I couldn't believe you could pack all of that into one book and have it work in any sort of way.

Whether it worked or not is debateable, but the story did hold together. I'm reading a collection of Connie Willis' short stories (suddenly I'm blanking on the spelling of her last name, I think that's right)where she mentions she loves writing SF because she can set her screwball romantic comedies there.

I always found I differentiated literary fiction from genre fiction by the elevation of character over story. That didn't mean the story wasn't important, but that the character was the focus of most of the authors energy. Books in other genres centre more (to me) on story. Bad characters could still kill a book, but the majority of the energy to me was in telling the story. Which I guess goes back to that London/Woolf debate that was already mentioned, now that I think about it.

I've read most of the comments about Amazon here, and I agree with parts of everything nearly everybody has said. Equating GLBT with Adult is worse than stupid. Having a way to randomly make categories of books disappear is disquieting and Amazon is certainly not shining in the PR department. But all of this highlights to me why you might want to shop at an independent bookstore. Particularly the kind of bookstore where the clerks read and love the books and might be writers themselves. Amazon might be convenient, it might have great selection, but if we want care and thoughtfullness, might a real person behind a counter be a better choice.

Teresa, thank you for that comment, it clarified a lot of my unease about some of the reactions to queryfail. It also captured an aspect of slush pile reading that I was intuitively aware of, but hadn't really thought about. I've read some disturbing submissions, some were disturbing in a good way and others in a bad way. And sometimes it's hard to know if you are reading a piece of writing openly or if your innate biases are getting the better of you. Talking about it helps to clarify things.

While I'm not about to take part in a queryfail twitter event, partly because I'm not an agent and partly because twitter is not my cup of tea, I'm wondering a bit about the idea that agents shouldn't talk about queries that they've received. If someone is posting the majority of the text of a query on a website and dissecting it bit by bit, yes they need permission. But in most other jobs you're allowed to discuss what you're working on - what bugs you and what is good.

I read many, many submissions. I respond, or someone else responds, to all of them. Most of my responses are sorry, you just don't fit my list. All of them thank the person for submitting. But does that mean I shouldn't talk about completely inappropriate submissions sent to me with another editor? Maybe even a laugh a little, and then go on to the wonderful author I read next? Or is it just the fact that anyone could post to the twitter feed or read it that makes it objectional?

I couldn't read this entire article - though I think it's well written and was probably a very difficult piece to write. I sure couldn't do it.

I know someone whose daughter was killed when the girls grandparents accidently backed over the child in their pick up. The family had been out for a walk together, and the daughter had drifted out of reach. The grand parents never fully recovered from it.

I think these deaths fall into the category of tragedy. And tragedy can vist anyone, at any time. The article does make that terrifyingly clear.

Carrie S. 106;

Fnz Nyjnelq (fcryyvat?) sebz Qvrf gur Sver?

re: knitting and reusing sweaters

There's a store in Toronto called Preloved which takes old wool sweaters, cuts them up, mixes the pieces up and creates new, funky sweaters, mitts, vests, etc. Their stuff is great, and caused one knitter friend to dive into the store when she wasn't intending to shop at all. If they every get their website all the way up I'd suggest anyone who likes knitting take a look at it. They have great stuff and it appeals to my thrifty side. There's a bit on the site now, but not as much information (or pictures) as I would like.

We had our Christmas/Solstice open house yesterday, which after the solid blizzard on Friday - we have sculpted drifts in our backyard - I thought would be safe. Of course it snowed Sunday morning, but it was really the wind that caused the problems. Whipping and throwing the snow up everywhere. There were white-out warnings across most of the west end of Lake Ontario.

Still, about two dozen people made it out. Mostly those with small children who had been cooped up with them for two days. They needed to go somewhere. The snow on my front lawn is now piled to nearly my height. I guess it's officially winter in Hamilton now.

tarquita@116

I'm not so sure that the Liberals and NDP would be hurt by this move. I'm hearing a lot of people being happy that something was done and that some parts of the government are able to work together. The people who dislike it the most are those who already voted Conservative and would like do so again.

Of course, an interesting side effect of this is the level of discontent that is growing in the Conservative party. Harper has alienated a lot of people in his party and they are starting to quietly call for him to step down. The calls will only get louder.

Hope everyone is off the picket line soon.

I have to say that everyone I know in Ontario is quite happy with the idea of a coalition, and about half the people I know in Alberta like the idea. I've been invited to rallies to support it, have been inundated with emails and updates about what's happening and have been given many ideas on how to argue against Conservative 'talking points.' This is a lot of fun. Much better than the election. Of course it helps that I'm in the Arts and everyone I know hates Stephen Harper. He's just been pilloried on Rick Mercer and This Hour Has 22 Minutes. I think the cast had trouble not smirking the entire time.

Why is it that I understand the economics in this post better than I understand the physics?

Thanks Serge,

That makes sense, on many levels. I didn't realize the banner holders were made out of wood.

Cheers,
Noelle.

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