The Big Meow (no spoilers)

[Peter Murray]

Update from yesterday's chat:
Peter Murray: DD: Buran asked if the print copy of Big Meow will be softcover or hardcover.
Diane Duane: PM -- It may be both ways. There's some pressure for a HC special edition.

[Buran]

Oh, thank you for passing that on! Wasn't required, but kind of you.

More hard choices!

[Lazy Leopard]

*sigh* The Big Meow blogger site's gone a bit quiet of late. I hope DD's not getting an overdose of Interesting Times(tm).

[Kathy Li]

Alternatively, it could means she's working like stink on TBM, now that she's fallen so far behind the original schedule.

[Lazy Leopard]

We can hope. DD did mention in "Out of Ambit" that she'd be updating that schedule at some point, but on balance I'd like to think she's writing original stuff rather than tinkering with websites. Tinkering can swallow so much time...

[Garrett Fitzgerald]

Diane has finally been able to update the schedule: next chapter is in two weeks. http://www.the-big-meow.com/ProjectSchedule.php

[Kathy Li]

Speaking of Interesting Times, given what happened to Peter Morwood and his horsefly bite, I figure if DD's late with Chapter 5, it would not be unusual. She's having a really bad summer...

Just because nobody else has posted it, here's the link Chapter 4:
http://www.the-big-meow.com/ch4/

[Lazy Leopard]

Yep, it sounds like they've been having a tough time. I sure hope things improve, and soon...

[Peter Murray]

I gather some people don't get the subscription emails for mysterious reasons. DD said in an announcement:

Another thought for subscribers: Some of you have expressed an interest in seeing a hardcover version of this book offered. Lulu.com now offers such -- so if you'd be interested, would you let me know by dropping an email to the diane.duane@gmail.com address with the word "HARDCOVER" in the message subject? If enough people want this, I'll start sorting out the costings and see how much additional $ would be required to convert the present paperback subscriptions to hardcover ones on demand.

Not sure if it's appropriate as a general post, but it might lure people who have the money for a hardback subscription (however much it is). (DD also mentioned it would be a good time for people to contribute to the Challenge Grants fund.)

Added 6 August:
The Big Meow page has been updated now that DD knows the cost of hardcovers.

This gives three formats for the book:
<LI> Paperback
<LI> Hardback (without dustcover)
<LI> Hardback (with dustcover)

The cover by Ursula Vernon will be basically the same for all three, but on the paperback it'll be just the front-cover part, on the dustcover it'll be the whole picture, and DD was going to check about the plain hardcover. (She drew the Transcendent Pig illustration on the Concordance, as well as the My Little Piggy on DeviantArt, after an LJ "discussion" with DD.) (She's done a lot of other work as well, but I think that's all that's relevant to here.)

[Buran]

Nope, I've never gotten one, ever, and attempts to get it sorted out have gone unanswered. I'm happy to pay the money to help fund the project, but at the same time, when you pay, the lack of help is more frustrating ...

[Moggie]

Any ideas when chapter 5 will be out ?

[Sean L.]

[Kathy Li]

Update: in case you missed the DD chat this last weekend, she did mention that Ch. 5 of TBM would be up "this week, sometime." Fingers crossed that DD's life stays really boring for a few days.

[the_peridexis]

Hey, I can't find chapter 3. I'm nearly done with chapter 2, but keeping thw window open for so long is getting on my nerves, because I can't shut down the compy. Downloading takes waaaaayyy too long, as it took nearly thirty minutes for it to download a SONG. (legally, of course.) Does anyone know if it's okay to copy and paste the chapters onto Word programs?

-peri

[Kathy Li]

Errrr... why not just do a "File -> Save As" when you've got the page open, and that way, you don't have to worry about breaking the net connection or turning off the computer, because you've go the file? Just a suggestion.

Links to: chapter 3 and Chapter 4.