Editing Sense&Sensibility / Edition de Raison & sentiment

We've barely started working on the first edition of Sense and Sensibility, but we discovered that there were many things that were different in the first 1811 version.

It can be "just" punctuation, but it can also be full sentences that disappeared or changed in later versions.

Being researchers, we pointed out the differences in footnotes, but it makes for a dry reading.

We briefly considered printing the differences in a different colours, but this might not suit all our readers.

Then... we thought about underlining the differences. It wouldn't interfere with reading, but it would signal the differences.

We could have a Notes section after the novel, in order to point out the differences in later versions.

What do you think? Do you think underlining would work, or should we use bold characters as well - or just bold characters?  

Do we keep the footnote numbers in the text to point out the differences signalled in the Notes?

Nous avons à peine commencé à travailler sur les premières pages de la première édition de Raison et sentiment, mais nous avons ainsi découvert qu'il existe de nombreuses différences dans la première version de 1811.

Il s'agit le plus souvent simplement de ponctuation différente, mais il y a aussi des phrases entières qui ont disparu des versions suivantes ou ont changé.

En tant que chercheuses, nous avons naturellement utilisé des notes de bas de page, mais cela rend la lecture ennuyeuse.

Nous avons évoqué la possibilité d'utiliser une autre couleur pour les différences, mais il est possible que cela ne convienne pas à tous nos lecteurs.

Nous avons ensuite pensé souligner les différences. Cela n'interférerait pas avec la lecture, mais signalerait quand même les différences.

Nous pourrions avoir un chapitre de Notes à la fin de l'ouvrage afin de signaler les différences dans les versions ultérireures.

Qu'en pensez-vous ? Pensez-vous que souligner les différences serait suffisant ou devrions-nous les signaler en gras également - ou utiliser seulement des caractères en gras ?

Gardons-nous les numéros des notes de bas de page dans les texte afin de faire référence aux différences signalées dans les notes finales ?

Censorship in the 21st Century

Long time no post, but the summer's properly demented, and some of us have Internet woes (and Usagi's still in Kyoto). Basically, reduced team is no fun...

We've made a choice about Racine's Phedre et Hyppolyte: we'll have the original spelling and typography, and a modern version (just the old one could be fun, but it'd be really tough without a more modern one on the right page).

We're still working on Wilde's Salomé, but we're taking our time to make sure that we'll give you a nice translation - and a bilingual introduction.

When I have some free time, I work on the fourth novel in my Sci-Fi universe (the current news are feeding the plot bunny in a rather dark way).

Then... bank news to be able to launch our website.

So... we've found a bank, but because of an annoying technicality, we can only open the account in September (sometime in September).

But what's utterly frustrating is that Cousin Chris had managed to open an account for us at her main bank. She'd had to go through artificial hoops to please the arrogant plonkers, but we had an account... until we asked for the reference that would allow us to buy an e-commerce plugin so that we could safely link our website to our account.

The female that called my cousin at my aunt's (even though my cousin never gives any phone number because she does business at 2 am by e-mail - because she gets some written proof) was a proper nightmare. 

First, she claimed that she didn't have access to our file (then, how did she get my aunt's phone number, um?), and she demanded to be given the names, addresses, and e-mails of the website provider and webmaster; to quote my cousin: 'No way in friggin' Hell!!!!!'.

My cousin's plan was to get the reference, give it to the plugin company, buy the plugin, install it, buy the website, migrate our site that's on Xampp, test everything, and launch the ship.

That wasn't possible, as the phoning biped demanded to be allowed to see our website first because she wanted... to censor it!

She literally said that she had to "check our website for references to religion, sex, and drug".

Well, 95% of our books are LGBTQ-friendly (though there's nothing graphic, but with "Miss Censorship-Sunshine", we'd have ended up with an empty catalogue). And Shakespeare's potentially controversial. And Wilde's play was already censored on religious grounds - from the late 19th century, up to the 1930s!

What we miss is stuff about drugs (thanks for the plot bunny, arrogant bank biped!).

So the account was closed, because none of us (not even our accountant, who growled with us, editors and authors) were ready to accept censorship in the 21st century.

Do you know what the other bank only asked us? That the website had an SSL certificate, which we will have. Internet security is their only concern.

Right now, we're plotting all together to report the censoring biped to someone much higher than her in the food chain.

I'll have some painting to show you soon, maybe a video, and we're planning to take pictures of our paper babies to add them to the website (we'll share some with you then).

See you soon (hopefully)!

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.]

Editing News

Now that we've sent our edition of Shakespeare's Sonnets and A Lover's Complaint to be officially registered, and that our work on editing Oscar Wilde's Salomé (the original French edition, and a new translation in English by yours truly - the introduction is being written by Cousin Editor-in-chief) is nearing completion, we've made a discovery: we love editing the books that we loved reading.

We're still working on our own stories or works, but it's properly exhilarating and possibly addictive to go back to the original texts, edit and dust them off (or even make discoveries), and then share them with you, dear Readers.

The day we had the idea to publish our favourite works, we came up with this list:

William Shakespeare: Sonnets - Much Ado About Nothing

Oscar Wilde: Salomé (we decided to translate it into proper English when we read how it's been treated by Douglas)

Jane Austen: Sense and Sensibility

Jean Racine: Phèdre

Charles Dickens: A Christmas Carol

We have now added:

The Forme of Cury

Edmond Rostand: Cyrano de Bergerac (a request from my aunt)

Even if it was a lot of work, editing Shakespeare gave us access to fonts that can mimic the ligatures used in the early years of printing.

Last night, in order to do something soothing after dealing with the infuriating banker, we had a look at the first edition of Racine's Phèdre et Hippolyte, and we discovered that he wrote an introduction, and that the text of the royal privilege allowing him to print the play was printed there, as well.

We're not planning to make a facsimile of it, but we started thinking that it'd be different, unusual, original to publish a version of the text as it was first printed. Perhaps it's quite a niche, but we really think it could be a different kind of edition.

De is plotting more short stories (focussing on friendship this time).

Chris is still formatting her PhD.

I've got two Muff&Sherly stories ready to be edited (and the next novel is whispering in my ear). I've been thinking about my Sordid Fairy Tales, and my Victorian spy plot, too.

We're quite busy.

Now, if only we could find a banker with a brain and get this e-bookstore started... 

PS: if there are books that you'd like us to edit, you're more than welcome to make suggestions.

New News (about Books)

Sorry about the silly title, I'm knackered, and my sense of humour is... erm... so-so when I'm that tired.

Since we avoided a massive snafu with the Tax People (I'm so going to call them that from now on!), there's been a lot on our plates.

First, work was nutty for us all, which doesn't help when you're trying to start a new company that's going to be your secondary activity.

Then... my cousin's working on sub-parts of our future website, and she's editing her PhD, which we'll publish.

She's done editing the French version of Oscar Wilde's Salomé, and I'm slowly translating it into proper English (I'm checking old dictionaries in order to try and stay faithful to Wilde's original meaning).

We're also working on our edition of Shakespeare's Sonnets, and things are nicely taking shape (my growly, anti-Anti-Stratfordian preface is ready, and I've made an interesting discovery about the loudest nutcase against Shakespeare in the 19th century). We're checking the modern punctuation, and we're correcting emendations that were wrongly made in the versions with the original and the modern spelling.

I'm also trying to finish my third Muff&Sherly story.

We're swimming in plot bunnies, and we'll all share them with you next month.

In Kafka-land

Dear Administrations,

would you please stop trying to give me an ulcer or a heart attack?

Sincerely,

Dru

My cousin, her mum, and I have spent last night attempting to read the additional bumph sent by our local "HM Revenue & Customs" (the IRS, if you're on the other side of the pond).

First... It's always written in North Korean (or in Romulan!).

And then, after picturing our publishing adventure closing before it even opened... we discovered that we're not concerned by the bumph they sent (our status is so rare - okay, and recent - that we're not on their map).

My cousin will have to go see them, explain (in veeeeeeeery simple words) what we do, give them the legal reference that concerns our status, and pray to Zeus that they acknowledge that we're right (otherwise they could ask us a pay a tax we cannot afford to pay).

We're trying to do everything by the book, and we're being probed, and investigated, and doubted (and generally not helped at all) even though we've done nothing to deserve that.

How do con-men go through these nets? Do they bulldoze and/or cajole their way though?

It's the third time we fear we might have to stop launching our own business. I hope it's the last time - and I hope we can go on...

Wish us luck?

Meet Our 'Babies' [Book 1]

Since our company's website is only on Xampp for the moment, I'll use this blog to make you meet our books.

I've got photos of the one that was posted today (my cousin's M. St., which she'd promised to publish years ago):

I'll take pictures of the others as soon as I can (yes, I know, it was silly not to take pics of our 'babies' before we mailed them to Godmother National Library).

That 'White Rabbit' Feeling (A Dru Update with Some Book News)

Everything's mad (in my life), my dears.

There's not enough hours in a day for everything.

One more title for Éditions Aikyō was just sent to be registered (one of my cousin's this time).

I'm still growling on a regular basis, but I'm really recycling most growls into my Sci-Fi plots. Novel #3 has just exploded, because of a controversial piece of clothing that's presented as "liberating" when the bottom line I see is that some have been brainwashed to believe it was necessary to look "modest" (I've created a kingdom where I'm going to use the news to feed the bunnies).

I'm currently writing two novels: Muff&Sherly 3, & An Honourable Spy (a [pseudo-]Victorian piece of nuttiness inspired by History, and too many spy novels), and reading three: Se una notte d'inverno un viaggiatore by Italo Calvino, La coartada de Antínoo by Manuel Franscico Reina, and this beauty:

Work Woes (Sort of)

Things are so weird right now, and I must admit I'm tired and tense (and... yea, scared a bit).

College work is okay, which is not normal. In my years of teaching, there's always been one thing that was negative (be it the one student who tried my patience or the merry war between two offices - war that started in the '60s, and that was still being kept active by people who were barely born when it started). Of course, I've got the classroom management snafu, but I do wonder if I should be prepared to face some kind of storm soon...

I tried to find a complementary teaching position, and I'd found something that could be nice... Too bad that the online recruitment form wanted to know so many private things that I had to withdraw my file.

I don't mind answering work-related questions, but they were being properly nosey about things that were completely unrelated to the (temporary!!!) position.

Has it become the bloody norm? Do potential employers want you to give away your soul with a contract signed with your own blood now?

I'm not built for that.

We're still in the process of launching our company, and... specialists (the guys who get paid to register what needs to be registered) don't even know what to tell us, where to send us, or what bumph they need from us... I'm going to end up with an ulcer, and my cousin is considering upping her stress meds.

We had to choose a particular status. It exists. It's on paper. We've read pages and pages on the net about that (yes, rather new) status. The specialists look at us as if we were speaking Etruscan.

It's exhausting.

My cousin's in charge of the bumph, and I think she's planning to send everything we've got to the appropriate office and tell them to deal with it and contact her if they need anything else. I can't blame her.

The whole situation really feels like this:

May we avoid Bedlam...
ô.O

Dru in April

Life's properly nutty here, but I'm taking a moment to wave and say "Hello!"...

We're approaching exam time for my students, and that's a proper time-thief.

As well, the launch of our publishing company needs us to be involved in time-consuming and bumph-creating things (but things are taking shape). Chi va piano, va sano, e va lontano... Ne?

Our family's rather addicted to Lucifer (the series on telly - start breathing again, for Merlin's sake), and we really hope it's going to be renewed.

By chance, our cousin Jacky lent us her copy of Kingsman - the Secret Service, and it's awesome (the pub fight scene made my month!!).

I have predictions about Kingsman II (well, at least, I know where I'd like it to go on a couple of points).

The casting people must still be giggling (if they're not, what's wrong with them?).

I also watched Lilting (and cried a river), and now I've got this stuck in my head:

Lovely song...

In completely unrelated news, apparently, my hair's turning quite light grey/white.
Just last week, a lovely lady (a pensioner!) gave me her seat on the bus. I may look a bit tired, but I think the hair colour's doing something to the way people interact with me.
Honestly, I hesitate between:
- doing nothing because I don't give a fig
- turning to blond henna (but that's a lot of work)
- trying to turn all my hair white and be done with it forever (recipes that wouldn't kill my hair more than welcome)

I'm going to post a specific post about the latest (as I write) episode of Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders, coz I need to growl... and I think that's about it.

If I'm silent again, it'll be that I'm launching a company, making books, or writing them...

Cheers!

Publishing News (Looking for...)

Soooooooo, my sweet (mostly silent) readers... I need your help.

I'm one of the three heads in an adventure that's going to become a publishing company.

We've got authors, we've got great ideas to create unique books, the website's taking shape (my cousin and I are working on it, and it looks grrrreat), but... [of course there's a "but"...] but we need to find a bank we can trust.

Don't die with laughter just yet, please!

What we need is to find a bank willing to work with us after signing an NDA (a "non-disclosure agreement"). We're not even asking for any money!

Since we're not even on the market yet, the usual answer is "A standard contract is good enough for you. What are you afraid of?".

A- I don't trust you, Cupcake

B- No one died and made you king

C- If you blab about our secrets, we can close the shop

If some of you are bankers (one never knows) or if you know one, it'd be nice to break that damn silence and help us.

Until we're sure that we won't get stabbed in the back, we can't start our business. Heeelp!

^_~

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