Actually, perhaps it is more correct to call them fictional biographies. But you know what I mean. One biographer's Harry Truman is usually quite different from the Harry Truman of another. And consider the differences between Richard III in "The Sunne in Splendor" and the Richard III of Shakespeare. Wouldn't it be disconcerting to be a public figure and be confronted with a portrayal of yourself that emerged from an off-base biography? It gives a whole new aspect to the careers of spindoctors. And a final question/comment: why bother to have children the old-fashioned way or even genetically create them when one can write them into existance? Book-deliveries must be must less painful than the real thing.

VictorianRadical wrote:

> And consider the differences between Richard III in
> "The Sunne in Splendor" and the Richard III of Shakespeare.

ooooooohhhh just what I thought!
After reading Penman's book I still haven't been able to read Shakespeare, 'cos I really think Richard's a good guy ehehehe

Then again, in those days... actually.... in any days.... you get either loved or hated if you're a public figure, and everyone has an opinion of you, either for political or personal reasons. In a neverending publishing world, everybody could be portraited as good or bad.... depending on who wrote your story....

I know - the idea of loads of different Dickies having a party together scares the willies out of me too! You'll have to ask Mr Ff about the pain of book-delivery! (Or Skiffle, come to think of it)

Welcome to the fforum, btw.



PSD

==========

This is the work of an Italian narco-anarchic collective. Don't bother insulting them, they can't read English anyway.

Now that's a really good idea! Writing a child into existence, that is. It would save me the necessity of finding myself a suitable Husband 2.1.1 (those who have known me a while will recall that Husband 1.1.1 crashed early last year and had to be sent back with a set of divorce papers).

On the other hand, cats are generally less trouble!



..........................................................................................

That which does not kill us makes us stranger.
(Llewelyn the dragon, Ozy and Millie)

Sarah

I have read that the average time taken to write a book is nine months. But then I've done it in two !
My books are definitly my babies, my precioussess. I've been known to hug them....

i've heard jasper say that if it were up to him, he would go around door to door with a pen and some white-out asking people if he could just fix a few things in the book...
apparently publishers have to rip the manuscripts out of the iron grip of the author fairly commonly.
i have so much to learn...

jenn aka neliamne

I rarely want to change anything in a book once it's been published, although when I got the first copies of my first book, the first page I opened it at had a spelling mistake...

My fifth was copy-edited by a newbie who had an unparralled passion for hyphens: the bloody things had been scattered through the MS like confetti ! And not always in a suitable place either. Dried raspberry pie became dried raspberry-pie. It wasn't the pie that was dried, it was supposed to be the raspberries ! Dialogue and description were rearranged freely, so that in one place, a character appeared to be answering his own question. AAAAAARRRGGHHH !

Normally, I only make a few changes to the work of the copy-editor. For 'San Felipe Guns', I sent back a list of 43 notes. There was another tussle over the wording of a very important sentence (I won).

Things have gone a lot more smoothly since, although there are still too many hyphens for my taste (mutter, mutter....)

Then there was the matter of the blurb for 'Hyde's Honour', but you can find out about that on my website, which for somewhat inexplicable reasons (although I suspect a corporate cock-up) can be accessed via two addresses:
www.genre-fiction.co.uk
www.gillian-f-taylor.co.uk

Question - why are so many of your books in large print? Or is that something Evesham-library specific?

(Out of loyalty I got out as many as possible, but returned them immediately - large print messes with my eyes. Don't ask me to explain it - I can't.)



PSD

==========

This is the work of an Italian narco-anarchic collective. Don't bother insulting them, they can't read English anyway.

About half are now in large-print. Don't ask me why Evesham library should stock more of those than the original edition. Large-print is fine by me: I get paid more for those.

And thanx for borrowing them. The cash adds up, it really does.

What I meant in the last post was that I get paid more for the rights to publish the large-print editions, I don't get any more for their library loans.

Really? Is this the same as school essays that had to cover two sides - so kids with large handwriting had less homework?



PSD

==========

This is the work of an Italian narco-anarchic collective. Don't bother insulting them, they can't read English anyway.