Advance reader copies!!!! *_*

[swan_tower]

so yesterday evening my husband says to me "two boxes just arrived that say 'Mask of Mirrors' on the side"

and I zoom downstairs to snap a photo to send to Alyc

and they say "I may need to come over there this evening"

and I say "I may have been thinking of asking you to do that"

(because this is my first time co-authoring a book like this, but I knew without asking that I wouldn't be allowed to open them without Alyc present)

(don't worry; we're in a social bubble together anyway)

and behold, my first "unboxing" video ever:

Watch on YouTube

*_*

Comments

[pameladean]

How exciting! Also just nice to see your faces; I met both of you at Fourth Street, once each, some years ago, so it's just nice to in some sense meet you again.

I've really enjoyed the glimpses you gave us of the process of writing the book, and I look forward to it a lot.

P.

[teleidoplex]

(Alyc here!) Thank you so much! Meeting you at 4th Street (and getting to thank you for writing Tam Lin and jumpstarting my return to college) remains one of my favorite 'meet your heroes' moments.

I only met Marie because we went to the same field school, which wouldn't have happened if I hadn't gone back to school... so in a very real way, you helped midwife this book into being <3

[swan_tower]

. . . wow, that's a nice little flap of the butterfly wings.

[pameladean]

I didn't know you were on Dreamwidth! Can I subscribe to your journal, or would it be too weird?

It's not quite the same feeling, but it was a "meet your heroes" moment for me too. You never know where your books will end up or who they will influence, but good readers are totally my heroes.

I'm also delighted to hear that Tam Lin had a role in you two collaborators' meeting!

P.

[teleidoplex]

Not weird at all, please do! Although fair warning that I'm very bad about posting here except for my annual Yuletide request letters :D

[swan_tower]

In these times, it is nice to get reminders that human beings are flesh and blood creatures!

[pameladean]

Yes, very true! Everyone can become very disembodied in situations like the one we are in.

P.

[starlady]

That is a very charming video and I am looking forward to the book!

Also it is nice to see your faces in these quarantine times.

[swan_tower]

Yeah, I was a lot more willing to do a video right now than I might have been under ordinary circumstances.

[sovay]

and behold, my first "unboxing" video ever

Congratulations!

[swan_tower]

Gracias!

[p_h_lee]

Ah! I'm so excited for this one!

[swan_tower]

We are, too. :-D

[yhlee]

huzzah!

[swan_tower]

Lemme tell you, though, it is a brick. O_O I'm also about to do revisions on my L5R novel, and at the moment, I'm thinking you have the right idea with this "short books only" thing . . .

[yhlee]

hahaha! i prefer short books solely because i'm lazy, with the caveat that sometimes getting a book to be short is more work. :p at least i've never had to try to cut 100,000 words from a 300,000-word manuscript, as with a writer i know.

[swan_tower]

Yeah, we wound up chiseling about 12K out of this one, and even that was pretty heavy-duty work. As for it being more work to do short, I was really glad when FFG stopped printing L5R stories for the card packs and just put them all online! I may not be paid for those extra 178 words over my 3K limit, but the labor of writing them is trivial compared to the labor of scraping them out without weakening the story.

When it comes to things like copy-edits, though . . . oof. Shorter is much better. <g>

[mrissa]

Yaybook!

When we were in preschool, my cousin believed that while she was looking at the montage of other children playing on Sesame Street, they could also see her. And I have sort of that feeling looking at your faces: HI HI IT'S YOU IT IS ME ALSO HI. No, Marissa, they cannot see you.

[teleidoplex]

We see you now!!

[mrissa]

<3

[swan_tower]

HI HI MRIS IT IS GOOD TO SEE YOU (SORT OF)

[cgbookcat1]

Congratulations! Really looking forward to reading this!

[via_ostiense]

Congratulations! I'm looking forward to reading this when it comes out!