As promised, tonight I've got the Taupo Times interview. Now, a word of warning. No - I don't mean it's x-rated! I mean that on my dial-up it takes about 10 minutes to load. There was no way of accessing it via the web other than me scanning the newspaper clipping.
So - unless you simply have to read it, I'd suggest you miss it. I'm not going to ask questions on it, I promise you! You won't offend me because I'll never know. And if you've been around for a week or two there isn't anything in it that you probably don't already know. (I do have a swag of rejection slips but just not from HarperCollins. That was probably one of the places where I was waffling!)
However, if you must -despite my warning - click here and you will be laboriously transported to a new page I've put on the website for reviews. While you're waiting go and pour yourself a drink or make a bacon buttie or something.
I'll leave it there for 24 hours and then remove it because it does look rather amateurish. My scanning of it, I mean, not the article itself. And simply the fact that I did scan it - as if I was newie author who had never before had an item in the paper about herself!
What you'll also find there are excerpts from the first three reviews in. I'm excited about them because between the three of them they sort of cover all bases. There is the Australian Woman's Weekly (NZ edition), a medium size newspaper and a Maori magazine and the fact that they each felt that Ripples on the Lake made a good fit with their readers pleases me. I'm still at that "want everyone in the world to love it" stage.
Today I deleted my first comment. It was a strange moment. Now you folk with blogs that are powering through the stratosphere at a zillion miles an hour are probably doing this all the time, but here at The Flightless Writer, we're more waddling along a bush track than screaming down a highway. I've never deleted a comment before.
I hope I did the right thing, but it was in Spanish (I think) so I couldn't understand a word of it and I suspect that most of you wouldn't either. And it did contain 2 links. And when I followed a link, that was in Spanish to.
So I apologise if there is a lovely Spanish person out there wondering where their post of congratulations has gone to - but I don't think that was what you were saying to me. Two links on a first post make me thing you were selling something - little blue pills or religion or - something.
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19 comments:
Of course I read the news article. Good piece. Good selection of quotes from you, it would seem, and the reporter appears to have done a fair and balanced job.
Made the waiting for my copy to arrive all the harder.
So, another one on the way? Excellent news.
Yes, dialup does take forever but it was more than worth the wait.
That said, what's a bacon buttie? I have no clue but I really, really want one.
I too am curious about the bacon buttie!
I have DSL so had no problem being whisked instantly to the right place. If there's a way you can leave the article up there, I think you should! There were a lot of things I didn't know yet and I really enjoyed reading it. I'd hate for anyone else to miss out on it.
It so wonderful that the reviews are all so positive--you must be so pleased!
Now of course I'm curious about whether there will be sequels and film adaptations... I'm quite vicariously ambitious for you. We'll be able to say "we knew her when..."
Pretty cool.
It only took me like a tenth of a second to get to the article. DSL rocks!!!
--P
Leah - I should be handing out medals to the dial-up folk who wait for that to load.
Bacon butties are a British idea - very tasty. You wack a couple of rashers of a lovely fried or grilled bacon between two hunks of bread!
Crabby - I do envy you guys with Broadband although I understand that most of the world do not so I feel it does make me sensitive to how long most people have to wait for things to load and I try to tailor my site to suit. Once people have Broadband sometimes they forget.
Umm, the movie deals are not yet flooding in Crabby but when they do, I shall remember your interest. There's a rather cute little native lobster that lives in Lake Taupo that you could perhaps play the part of!
Penelope - And you could play the part of the neighbours's cat! It is a cat with attitude!
What a great article!! And I don't have dialup, so the article was up in a flash. But for you Dawn, I would have waited!
I also don't think the scan looks amateurish at all, but if you are worried about it taking time to upload, maybe you could re-type the thing onto the site itself. Eh, it's an idea!
So congrats on the interview one more time, and here's to many many more!
What a great interview. (As if we weren't going to read it.) You did a fine job scanning.
Between your article and Crabby's blog about Ripples, I can't wait to get my copy, which should be winging its way to me by now.
And I feel famous by association, what with your reference to your Canadian and American following. I wanted to shout: "That's me, that's me."
Bacon buttie, hmmmmm.
Here in the USA we have BLTs--bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwiches on any and every kind of bread. But just bacon, hmmmmm. Sounds good.
Terrie
Adrienne - You're a long-suffering lot out there in blogland, wading through my newbie "look ma, no hands!" excitement. Hopefully in a week or so an interview won't even be worth a mention and we can return to the real topic of interest. Widgets!!
Terrie - I would like to have named you all individually because to me your names belong to real people. I feel as if I know you all and am basking in your well wishes.
Your USA version of the bacon buttie does sound healthier!
That's an excellent review article. I think you should include it but trim away the irrelevant story and lighten the background. If you can't do it email it to me and I'll see what I can do.
That story is too good to omit and it takes seconds to upload on broadband!
Bacon butties are very greasy and served warm. Bacon between white bread or a white bun. Absolutely nothing healthy about it
After taking a second look, why don't you ask the Taupo Times to send you a better quality version of the clip and rescan, and then I'll trim it for you. The poor quality with the background showing through will be slowing download speed time, as will the extra writing on the sides
P.S. extremely impressed with 3,000 words a day. I'm proud of myself if I do 300!
I couldn't read the typeface properly. How many words did you cut?
Talia - I agree - nothing healthy about bacon butties but they are yum!
I had to remove 30,000 words which was a big chunk of story and it was tricky to do seamlessly.
Thanks for the offer of help. I might just type out a transcript of it. I know it's silly but because it's my first interview I like it!
It's not silly and it's a really nice interview
Maybe taking out those words made it a tighter read? Sometimes paring it down improves it.
When i looked at the paper I thought it said 80,000 words removed. i was thinking holy heck that's a whole book ROFL
there is something about having the actual clipping online. i think it's nicer than typing it in. other option would be to scan in their logo and then type it. not sure on legality of that
i do know you'd have to get permission to type in the entire article... it's too long to come under fair use provisions
On the good news front: it only took 30 seconds or so to load. (I'm on cable.)
Bad news: it was too darn blurry for me to read so I'm glad you gave us a precis of it.
And of COURSE, you're at the "want everyone to love it stage." You'll always be at that stage. Wouldn't you hate to be so jaded that a bad review occasions a shrug and a cocked brow?
Speaking of which, I'm jealous of anyone who can cock a single brow. Mine insist on lifting in tandem. Stupid things....
PS- I'm glad things are going so well for you and your book. :)
Frank - My brows work in unison too! And you're right - who would want to get so blase that they didn't care about reviews.
it loads almost instantly for me and cable is faster than my broadband...
however i agree with frank it's hard to read
i'm still impressed that you wrote 2,000 words a day for a whole year. that makes you a REAL writer no matter how you look
gasp typo
3,000 words
Talia - Leah and I seem to be the only people on the planet left on dial-up.
There was the odd day off when life intruded excessively but most days it was 3000 words, no excuses accepted. Now 3000 words times 365 days does not give you a Ripples length novel but I pull things out as much as I put things in! And then there was the second draft and the third draft! It really did take over my life for a year but in an enjoyable way.
Dawn,
I thought I would check in. I am back in town for awhile now.
Jeff
Nice to see you again, Captain Jeff.
Yes I did the maths on 3,000 words a day and it was an horrific figure.
What is the final word count for your book?
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