Book News & Other Nuttiness

We're still working on launching our publishing company. Everything's slow, but things are taking shape - we think (and hope!).

I'm slowly working on editing the text of the first publication of Sense and Sensibility. It's fascinating to see what was changed in the following publication.

I'm trying to find the best way to show the differences between the two versions; I "fear" it's between classical footnotes and a different colour to show what changed. Basically I'll have to print tests...

I'm also working on checking my translation of Salomé, but I'm not going to rush because I want to be proud of that work, and poor Wilde deserves a decent translation of his work (I could hire a necromancer to have a lil' chat with both Douglas and Ross to tell them what I think of their "work" - Wilde must have been heartbroken to allow Douglas's translation to be printed... with whatever amount of correction Wilde did to the "text").

Speaking of Wilde, Cousin Chris is writing the bilingual introduction for our edition of Salomé (no massive discoveries like for our Shakespeare, but interesting facts...).

We're working on Racine's Phedre et Hippolyte. This time, we don't know if we want the original fonts and spelling and a more modern one, or just the version from 1677.

I'm also working on a comedy (Merlin, that's *hard*!!!). 

I know I mentioned this somewhere in my blog, but I need the title to work on my stories, and the one I have for this play is a tad nutty. I keep thinking, 'It's for a comedy, why not have a barmy title?'...

I've just read quite a weird "review", as a reader was telling one of our authors to not portray old people in "bed". There's nothing graphic in the story, but the person was disgusted by the idea of an old man, and an old woman making love.

Merlin! That happens in real life, and I fail to understand why that person thinks that it's more disgusting to picture old people making love than younger bipeds doing it. 

Good grief! Having fun in bed happens - and if it happens after 70... Lucky bipeds!

It was demented to read something almost ordering the author to not do that again in the future. Of course, it was an anonymous review, so the author could not answer and kindly tell that person that:

A) No one is forcing "it" to read any story, and closing a browser, or a book, is always an option.

B) Writers will write whatever they want. You can read it, or not.

[Once upon a time, drunk on positive feedback, I added a chapter to a short story I had written, and... I still regret adding that chapter. The story is still good, but not as good as in its first form. That was quite a lesson.]

Am I a Goddess?

I know that I'm the empress of Mars {still a long story*}, but it seems that I'm a goddess, too.

I mean, if relatives and bipeds I work with expect me to know things I was never told about or do things I was never instructed to do,...... then, I must be a goddess if they think I'm this omniscient. Right. Right?

I won't give any example from my very own Dursleys, but the work-bipeds are fair game.

The latest incident has me needing to transfer something, but... no one told me where to transfer it - or how to do it. And yet, I'm expected to do it. Oh! And no one told me I was supposed to do the transfer; I discovered that *completely* by chance.

To conclude, I've got to be a very good omniscient goddess - otherwise bipeds would actually tell me what they expect from me, and I wouldn't have to rely on sheer luck, or a crystal ball.

Perhaps I should add "gifted Terran goddess" to my bio (I'm only half-joking)...

*: It's not, but it looks good in my bio, and it sounds mysterious... *mwaha*

La SNCF, c'est (vraiment) [pas] possible

Si vous n'avez besoin de rien vous serez tout de suite servi.

Mon dernier voyage en train ?

Je me lève à l'aube (littéralement), arrive à la gare bien en avance et mon premier train part... A la moitié du voyage, une erreur d'aiguillage (ben voyons !) nous fait prendre un retard de 25 minutes - dommage, je n'ai que 20 minutes de battement pour attraper mon second train.
Que va-t-il se passer ?
Le contrôleur nous annonce que la correspondance sera assurée quand même cinq minutes avant l'arrivée en gare (merci pour le stress, les gars !).
Une fois sur le quai, ben t'as intérêt à battre le record de vitesse avec ta valise si tu veux l'avoir le TGV (quelques palpitations plus tard et un poignet abîmé à cause de ma valise super lourde, la porte s'est carrément refermée sur mes fesses - on courrait tous sur le quai, mais le chef de gare était pressé pour l'autre TGV... Ben mon gars, t'as qu'à apprendre à tes collègues à aiguiller les trains correctement).

L'année dernière, la SNCF m'avait laissée en rade à pas d'heure dans un gare dangereuse (Mère avait payé ce billet-là).
Je râle et le médiateur me donne raison (en bons de voyage, mais c'est déjà ça). La SNCF ne conteste pas, mais ne fait rien.
Depuis plus de quinze jours, après être passée en agence où on m'a dit de téléphoner au SAV, je tente de joindre ce service, mais le choix d'option ne marche tout simplement pas (avec deux téléphones !).
Je demande de l'aide à la SNCF sur Twitter et de fil en aiguille, on me demande les références du problème pour nous aider, puis nom, prénom, adresse, courriel, numéro de téléphone (l'âge du capitaine et mon mot de passe Twitter, aussi, peut-être ?!!!).
On me promet la relance du service hier...
... ce matin ? Ah, bah, "contactez un autre service, nous, on ne peut rien faire".
Conclusion : ils se payent nos tronches, bossent comme des "plonkers" (ouaip, de l'anglais, je sais, mais 1 - je suis bilingue et 2 - c'est le mot parfait pour les décrire !) et refusent de payer ce qu'ils doivent.
A en juger par les messages d'autres personnes sur les forums de la SNCF, le SAV est souvent en rade et ils bossent quand ils ont le temps.

Bloody plonkers!