Language and Layout Artists

Last week… Or early this week? I sent away the very last draft of the sequel to Barbary Station. It's not even a draft, technically. It is a proof, because many other people are involved in it, and it is formatted like you wouldn't believe. Some of the epigraphs (not epitaphs) are fictional quotes which extend longer than you'd expect would fit under a chapter header, but they look lovely. For your curiosity and persistence in making it through this paragraph, here's a sneak peak of one of the epigraphs: "It told me to. It told me to. It told me to. She told me to."

But the epigraphs were the least of the trouble I caused in constructing this story. The telling of Mutiny at Vesta involves multiple unusual O's and one Han character. Each one of those had to be meticulously translated into print. Self-centered and solitary scribbler that I am, it's strange to realize that part of the publishing process appears to be much easier for me than it is for someone else involved in the project of creating a book. Today is a good day I think for an umlaut! And I have just compressed some poor designer's timeline like an accordion. I'm not sure that will stop me, because there are so many delightful letters out there and Adda's and Iridian's universe includes major spacefarer populations of Hindi, Japanese, Chinese, and Russian speakers, but it does give me pause.

Either the Saga Press experts spent as long learning to lay out books as I spent learning to write books, or they make it look easy. Anyway, publishers and book designers are amazing, folks. And Mutiny at Vesta's interior design is living up to its cover.