POET-EDITORS/ 45
Mark Young
What is (or has been) your favorite editing project and why?
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Mark Young
Mark Young lives on the Tropic of Capricorn in Australia. He is the editor of the print & electronic journal Otoliths, & the publisher of a wide range of books under the Otoliths imprint. His own most recent books are Pelican Dreaming: Poems 1959-2008 (Meritage Press, 2008), Lunch Poems (Soapbox Press, 2008), More from Series Magritte (Moria Books, 2009), & the e-chap terracotta worriers (ungovernable press, 2009). His latest collection, Genji Monogatari, was published in March 2010.
What is (or has been) your favorite editing project and why?
Leads
Rochelle Ratner
128 pages
ISBN: 978-0-9803-6591-7
Otoliths 2007
$12.50 + p&h
URL: http://www.lulu.com/content/830227
Leads: a correspondence with Rochelle Ratner
12/2/06
RR>MY: I've noticed that you've been publishing some books through Otoliths and Lulu, and was wondering if you might be willing to take a look at a manuscript of mine. This is LEADS — a poetry, prose, found poem conglomeration which doesn't really fit into most categories. It chronicles a trip I took to London and Leeds in 1978 — to London because I had friends there, to Leeds in order to try and trace what was left of my grandmother's childhood. It currently runs 80 pages.
MY>RR: Only too happy to look at it!
A couple of things. One is I've already got some sort of queue, plus Otoliths print three & electronic four so it's going to be February or so before I can do anything with it if I like it. The other thing is I'm still trying to work out distribution channels, so I don't know what sort of coverage I can give (though it will improve).
If you don't mind those riders, then I look forward to seeing it. Doc or rtf format please, & a note on any particular formatting or font or whatever.
12/3/06
RR>MY: Formatting might be a bit tricky. I'm using two fonts — Notebook (also sometimes called Century Schoolbook) and Architect. Hopefully, if you don't have the fonts, your computer will find suitable substitutes. Otherwise, I can make changes on this end. I'm also using a smaller point size for the quotes found in library records. Several pages don't start until mid-page. Some pages have two pieces with a large break in between. Just so you know it's not the computer dropping things.
MY>RR: Have given the ms a quick glance without going in either very far or deeply so this is not a yay or nay but a preliminary enquiry. A couple of things.
Will give it a serious reading probably the week after next. I'm getting my big city fix & heading to Sydney for a few days.
Thanks for sending it to me.
RR>MY: No, there shouldn't be any blank pages. page total is 80, on my version of word. When I tried to put it into wordperfect to change fonts, it came up with a lot of blank pages, which is why I gave up. And yes, anything but Times Roman — it seems so cramped, but in other ways is structured close to notebook, so I can see why the conversion was chosen. At any rate, the 9x6 format is fine, and we can work out precise details later.
MY>RR: & photographs? There are lots of references to them, so if you have any, why not include?
12/30/06
RR>MY: I know I've got some photos — the problem is that they're in my house in the country (a four hour drive). I'm hoping to get up there around January 6 or 7. It's just been crazy with the holidays.
MY>RR: Will wait till you venture forth. Photos, especially grainy / old b&w / unposed / frayed at the corners snapshots would, I feel, pull everything in nicely together.
1/7/07
RR>MY: I'm up in the country, and have some of the Leeds photos here. Not great, but they capture some of the crucial scenes. I'll get them scanned in and off to you by tomorrow at the latest.
1/8/07
RR>MY: I've divided these photos into three packets to make them easier to send. Here's the first packet.
1/23/07
RR>MY: I was just wondering what's happening with the Leads manuscript. Do the photos work for you? Do you see yourself able to publish it? No mad rush in terms of production, I'd just like to get a sense of how you feel about it.
MY>RR: The short answer is yes & yes. The slightly longer answer is we will probably have to do some structural work around the photos; & do you have any family photos as per The Photograph?
Would probably be a May publication date. How does that sound?
RR>MY: May sounds great.
I'm attaching two photos — one of my great grandmother, the other of my great grandfather. I know I've got that family picture somewhere upstate, but it wasn't where I thought it was. I'm going to have to hunt for it, and assume I'll find some others along the way.
2/7/07
RR>MY: I'm at the house upstate — I found the photo of my grandmother as a child with her family, and scanned it in, along with a few other photos. I'll have access to high speed internet tomorrow, and will send them to you then.
2/9/07
RR>MY: Sorry — I ended up not getting to a place with high speed access yesterday. Back in NYC tonight, and finally sending the photos. 4 photos here.
The Leeds Family photo was the one I talk about — I scanned it in, and did my best in photoshop, but I didn't have a great picture to work from. See what you think. I brought it back to the city with me, and if need be could have it more professionally restored.
Of the other photos, the picture of my grandmother holding the chair is my favorite photo of her. I don't know when it was taken, but most likely in Atlantic City, before she was married. The other two are photos I remember from childhood — the one with my mother's head chopped off is fascinating, especially considering it was probably taken by my father; the other is her sitting near the tv in my parent's house, probably when I was 6 or 7. Let me know what you think.
MY>RR: They're just the sort of photos that I hoped for. Don't do anything up about cleaning them up, wait until we see how they come up in b&w.
It'll probably be mid next month before I get to putting things together for a May publishing date. I think it's going to work out remarkably well.
Will be in touch.
2/12/07
RR>MY: I just got this fabulous photo from one of my father's cousins. she writes: In this photo your greatgreat grandfather, Isaac, has my Dad, Louis on his knee. His wife, Anna, is standing on the left behind Aunt Sarah, your grandmom, Bessie, is on her grandad's right, and the young man standing at the back is unknown. He's too young (a teenager we think) to be Simon, my grandfather.
I cleaned it up a bit in photoshop,and considering the age, it worked well. This would have had to be taken around 1900.
3/12/07
MY>RR: I've started setting Leads up in the 9" x 6" format that it'll be published in, just to see what overlaps, juggles, etc. need to be done. I might add a couple of photos in obvious places, but what I'd like is for you, once I'm done & have sent the ms to you, is have a look at where you'd like others placed. They're going to have to be black & white prints when published, but I think the coloured photos I've seen should translate alright.
I've about five things going on concurrently at present, & I'm sort of switching between them, so I'm guessing sometime next week you'll see the first mock-up.
3/13/07
RR>MY: That sounds good to me. And I'll have plenty of time to play with it once you get the basics done.
One idea I had for a cover would be to put the photo of the gravestone (probably the original one Louis sent) on the front cover, then the picture of his postcard "frame it and treasure it" on the back cover.
The one photo that might not work well in black and white is the one of the red car. But an idea might be to circle that car in magic marker, so it becomes obvious to the reader what she's talking about.
3/25/07
MY>RR: I've attached a pdf file of Leads in a rough formatting. Could you give it a quick look through & see if there's anything that immediately leaps our as being in the wrong place.
I must admit I'm not too fond of the fonts as they are, but I like them a bit more reduced in size. I've also attached a couple of pages where the Notebook is in 10pt, the architect in 9pt & I've also justified the architect bit because if you're quoting from old papers, justification seems to me a better option where applicable.
Once I've got yr thoughts & comments back, I'm going to run it through the Lulu printing process & send the resulting book to you. I think it might be easier in that format to work out where the photographs should / could / would go.
Look forward to hearing from you.
3/26/07
RR>MY: No doubt about it — your sample pages in a different font look much better.
The boldface titles look fuzzy, scrunched, and out of focus. The sample pages in a different font don't include any bold type, so it's hard to know if this would make a difference, but I suspect it will.
I'm not quite sure why the margins on the first page are justified.
Beginning on page 31, all the passages quoted from books and records have ended up bold, and extremely hard to read (and the font doesn't come through here as architect). Again, the sample in a different typeface looks fine. You just want to be certain that it doesn't shift over to bold in the new font, or when transferred to adobe or the typesetting program.
Great idea to justify the margins of those prose quotes.
When I was typing up this manuscript, I was using the 8.5 x 11 page, and trying to space things with plenty of blank space, as if there would be later notations. The addition of photos will obviously take up some of that slack, but if something's glaringly by itself and a waste of paper, there's no need to adhere strictly to the manuscript spacing. Use your judgment.
Question — I'm really not sure how to handle this one. But the "May 12th" piece (page 34 in adobe), says that my grandmother came to America "Alone, seventeen years old" — which is what my grandmother (I'm fairly certain) used to tell me. I find out now she was the last child to come, not the first. She came when she was 23 years old, and had her youngest sister, age 6, with her. This is born out by the Ellis Island records, as well as by my father's cousin. What do you think? Change it here? ("Twenty-three years old, in charge of her youngest sister")? Or let it go as it was in the original writing?
I assume the final book will be paginated?
Meanwhile, thanks for all the work you've put into this, and the care.
MY>RR: I've confused myself a little here because I forgot to mention that the second paragraph was in the Otoliths "house font" of Palatino Linotype in 10pt instead of the normal 9pt I use, & I now don't know if it's that or the 10pt notebook you're talking about or either or both...... :-)) Please clarify & end my confusion.
& the architect came through as bold in yr manuscript & is still there as architect so it may not be an adobe font. (or may be not picked up by my $9.95 pdf writer)
I'll put in place all your changes & give it a more solid runthrough/put together. What I'll do is give you an extract - both as a doc & a pdf - to check fonts & appearance before I give you a full revision. It'll be paginated a bit later on.
I think it's going to end up quite well.
3/27/07
RR>MY: The fonts I like were the ones you sent in the Word samples, not the pdf. Three fonts — the "postcard" is in Notebook 10, paragraph is in Palantino Linotype 10, quoted passage in Architect 9.
It might well be that Archetype isn't adobe (it's listed as truetype in my installed font list). It's not crucial — just a font that would make it distinct from the other two, maybe a bit more distinctive than the others. I've got fonts here named Manuscript, Opera, Pageant, Tempus Sans ITC — any of which might work. Or see what you come up with.
3/28/07
MY>RR: Haven't addressed the bits & pieces below yet but have done a bit more formatting & I'm running it by you to get your thoughts. I've only got up to page 40, where your font changed from Times NR to Notebook. I've used Palatino Linotype, 11pt for the text, 12 for the headings & 9 for the quotes. I've put in some pictures — & hope I haven't disrupted the family tree too much. & I've made a couple of minor changes — changed the second "knit" to "knitted" on page 41, have brought the itinerary forward a page so it comes before the note on the plane, & because I've got the gravestone picture in earlier, could you think about the "thises" in the piece on page 40 (I think it is).
RR>MY: The typefaces look great now (I have up to page 38 in the new fonts). And I love the cover photo — the idea of this all being a "stretch" — trying to stretch out a life, stretch the facts, etc. I didn't even realize it until I saw this cover.
One photo is problematic — on page 10. That's a photo of me, not of the family in Leeds, taken circa 1950. It might be best inserted next to page 32? or page 8? There's also the other family photo where she's holding flowers, that should be next to pages 26/27 — or maybe on the bottom of 27, or top of 26.
The itinerary is fine moved up, as is "knitted." I'm not sure which page you're referring to with the "this-es" problem.
Page 19 — that should really be two separate pages, starting the next page with "I didn't realize fifteen years..."
4/1/07
MY>RR: I have just about finished putting the book together.
But I can't send it to you because I've done something weird & the thing is now a humungous size. It's suddenly become 70+ meg, about 10 times bigger than it was. I think it's got something to do with the pictures, so I'm going to go through it over the next couple of days & delete each picture & then reimport it so I can try & track down what the hell is going on. Even then, it's still unlikely that I'll be able to email it; I've just turned it into a pdf & even that's 12 meg.
So what I will do once I've done whatever it is I'm going to do is upload it to Lulu, flag it as not available to the public, & order a print copy for you to go through. That'll take about a week & a day to get to you once I've placed the order, but I'll arrange for you to be able to download the print-ready pdf once it's been done & that can give you a preview.
& what I'll also do in the next day or so is break it up into two parts, turn them into pdfs, & send them to you in separate emails.
Will be in touch as soon as I can be.
RR>MY: 70 megs! Hopefully, once you track down the problem, it will be smaller as a pdf as well. Anyway, however you manage to work it will be fine.
MY>RR: attached as pdf (9 meg)
document & notes to follow
MY>RR: This time I've attached it as word doc. I think my problem had something to do with the fact that it was in rtf & was pulling down "instructions" everytime I imported a pic. The jpeg would be about 1 mg, but by the time it was in the file it was 13 mg & I didn't seem to be able to do anything about it. Then, when I started breaking it up into small pieces to send you, & saved them as word docs, the size came tumbling down. So I rejoined the 3 parts I had in word & voila.
I still have some tidying up to do, mainly leveling out headings, that sort of thing but I wanted to wait until I've got your feedback before doing that.
A couple of things. The piece about yr grandmother coming to America "alone". I've added yr note in brackets below it rather than change the text. I think it makes a nice touch, but feel free to change either bit as you see bit. & I've brought yr "sabbath" note forward so the Vilna pieces are all together.
Also: I haven't put in all the photos. But. I can add any multiple of 4 pages so the other pics can go in where you want them - (& a circle round the red car is a good idea, or an arrow pointing to it.) - & any text changes/rearranges. So again feel free.
Look forward to yr comments.
4/2/07
RR>MY: Basically, it looks great.
I've added another 10 or 11 photos, but most were on pages where there's also text. In all, there are now 128 pages in total, 4 more than the manuscript you sent. All my photos are added in the Word file, nothing in the pdf.
Other changes —
One small section that seemed in the wrong place — I took "Basil" from page 24 and moved it to page 12. That way it doesn't interrupt family memories.
Page 46 — insertion of the correction about her coming to America. I like the concept, but maybe make it clearer that I'm commenting. How about an asterisk after "alone, seventeen years old"? Then place the asterisk on the text below, taking out the main parenthesis. Possibly this should also be smaller type, if that wouldn't get too confusing? I've tried changing it in the manuscript itself. Also combined to make it one paragraph, not to give it too much space. (I made the changes in Word)
Basically, I think this reads well, and is going to be fabulous with the photos.
I added a "coming soon" note and cover photo on the "other writings" page of my website. Will of course make better announcements, etc. once the book's really out.
MY>RR: Thanks for all your work. Haven't had a chance to look at it, but will do so in the next day or so. Applied for an ISBN today so should have that early next week.
Now to the cover. What you have up (at your website) is, to use a marvellously old-fashioned word, the frontispiece. I've attached a small version, downsized for ease of transmission, of a rough idea for the cover.
Would also like about a 1000 character (including spaces) piece to use for the emailout blurb plus possibly for the back cover. A bit of an explanation for the book, not necessarily about it.
4/3/07
RR>MY: The cover looks GREAT. I was going to say that, even though I liked the photo cover for the trial version, I thought something more than black and white would be of use. But this is wonderful. I love the fact that my grandmother's cut off slightly, as is the tv. The one adjustment you might want to make, if you can (or if it can be done) would be to rotate or trim the tv image a bit, so it doesn't protrude over the bottom left of the tv screen itself.
I've also changed the image on my website.
I'm not sure if it's what you're looking for, but please try the attached blurb on for size.
MY>RR: Blurb's fine. & glad you like the cover. It's a bit rough, was done "with the crudest of tools", but now that I know you're happy with it, will proceed, in association with my cover man, harry k stammer, to fine it up. I was actually thinking of having the tv image in black & white, or at least grayscale, & the rest of the cover in sepia. Ah, I loved those old Russian movies, with sepia snow.......
RR>MY: I, too, love those sepia photos. I'd love to see how it looks that way as well.
4/9/07
MY>RR: Went to send you a pdf which didn't go through & have discovered that it's suffering from bloat. Don't know why, photos again?
So, doc attached. Have made a few small changes, mainly typographical — headings, a bit of centering, getting rid of a section break which caused the page numbering to change position around p35. One major change — have moved the grave photo further into the book so it's on the page before your "looking at this photo of the grave" poem, & replaced it with the front of the postcard & taken out the text that's on the card. I've rotated the front postcard so it aligns with the back on the facing page, but I'm not so sure of it. If you want it derotated & vertical am happy to do so. let you know what you think.
& love the way you've included the photographs.
I've sent harry k stammer the mockup of the cover plus the two photos it's taken from so he's working on that. I'm about to apply for an ISBN. & once they're in place & you've come back to me with your thoughts about everything, I'll run it through the Lulu printing process & send you a print copy for proofing & final jiggling & juggling.
4/11/07
RR>MY: The photo of the grave on its side doesn't work for me. I'm now starting to wonder, since we've replaced the typed words with the handwritten postcard, if it might not be advisable to do the same with the front of the postcard:
Page 14 stays as is
Page 15: My parents show me a picture of the grave, then postcard photo (upright)
Page 16: top writing as is, then photo of back of postcard
Page 17: They never framed it, etc. text alone on page, no photo (and possibly this text is close to the bottom of the page, leaving the empty space)
What do you think?
Other than that, everything looks great — the type, the positioning.
I leave for California tomorrow, be back in five days. Mary Mackey, one of the Marsh Hawk authors whose book came out the same time as mine, invited me out for some readings in Sacramento and Berkeley. I met Eileen Tabios a few times, but really got to know her at AWP last month, when we shared a room for three nights. Really fun person to be around, incredible energy. Actually, it was when I saw her Otoliths book that I was prompted to approach you about publishing mine. Wish you were coming to California as well.
MY>RR: Must admit it didn't work for me either tho seemed like a reasonable idea until I actually did it. Will make the requested changes.
I'll do the changes to the ms in the next day or so. Do you want me to send you a pdf or doc file whilst you're California Dreamin', or hold off till you're back in NY?
RR>MY: I'll have access to high speed wireless al through California — so yes, please send me the doc or pdf files. Among other things, with changes in planes, there's 12 hours travel time each way.
What do you think about my idea of having the photo of grave replace the text? What other books are you bringing out in May?
MY>RR: Will send pdf or doc in the next few days.
Agree that text & photo are a redundancy, esp. as the carved text is easy enough to read. Plus, it's a good strong photo!
The other books I'll be doing in May are an anthology of the first eleven interviews from Tom Beckett's E-X-C-H-A-N-G-E-V-A-L-U-E-S blog, augmented with poetry & bionotes from the interviewees; Nick Piombino's "visual collage novel" Free Fall ( 156 pages of full color - now that will be expensive!) plus a book from Sheila Murphy that she's still working on, probably a combination of text & vispo. With your book, I think it's an amazing offering. Really pleased & proud to be able to do it. You'll be in good company.
Enjoy California. Kiss Eileen for me!
4/12/07
RR>MY: Sounds like a fabulous lineup. Delighted to be a part of it.
MY>RR: Doc file attached. You might have to rename it because it's the same as the last one. Will try sending you a pdf a bit later on, but don't like my chances. It comes in at over 10 meg.
MY>RR: pdf too big to send. 10 mg (including message) maximum.
MY>RR: harry has just sent me these (possible covers). Don't know what you think, but I'm a fan for the sepia one with the b&w tv. Let's know.
4/13/07
RR>MY: Looking at them now, I'm inclined toward the b&w photo with the sepia photo on tv. The television set clearly marks this as 1950s, and b&w would have been what was used then. And this book is all about time and place.
Also just downloaded the doc file. Will go over that in the next day or so.
MY>RR: To get it in under the size limit so I could send it to you, I've taken out the grave photo (which is also attached as a doc) & taken the resolution down to 150 dpi. I still can't work out why the original pdf was so large.
4/21/07
RR>MY: The covers look great.
Sorry I haven't gotten back to you on the final text yet. I just printed it out yesterday. I hadn't expected not to have much time while in California, then have been incredibly jetlagged since I got back. Today's the first day I woke up feeling almost normal.
4/23/07
RR>MY: Sorry things got so backed up. But I finally read through the pdf carefully, and everything looks great.
5/5/07
RR>MY: It looks good. Sorry, I was down with unexpected headaches for a few days. and have been frantically trying to catch up. But by all means, send it along to Lulu.
One interesting development has been the publication a few weeks ago of THE INVISIBLE WALL by Harry Bernstein. It's a memoir about growing up Jewish in Lancashire in the early 1900s. Attracting huge attention, including front page of the NY Times book review. Written when he was 93, and virtually a first book, it's comparable to MC Court's Angela's Ashes, and brings the almost forgotten world of British Jews into the limelight. It might even be able to attract some attention for Leads (hope, hope). I reviewed the audio version of the book for an audio magazine here, so there even might be a bit of a link to my name.
5/14/07
RR>MY: The finished book arrived — and I think it looks great. The larger bar code box looks fine, merges with the other boxes. As hard as I tried to put the pages together in the galleys, seeing them bound like this, with the photos all in place, it really makes a difference. It just reads right, feels right to the hand. So unless you have other problems, I think we can go ahead with this.
Yes. And thank you.
6/29/07
RR>MY: I just wanted to be back in touch. I had a few health issues which prevented me from sending out review copies of Leads right away, The feedback I've gotten from a few friends has been wonderful.
Thanks once again for making all this possible.
MY>RR: The pleasure has been all mine. My copies arrived yesterday. It's one thing seeing pdfs, to to be able to hold the finished book in my hands is another thing altogether. I'm really pleased with how they've turned out. Leads looks great.
Sorry to hear you haven't been well. Hope you're feeling better. I've been skating around on the cusp of the flu but have managed to avoid the major aspects — touch wood. But we've actually been having a winter here. I've been forced to get sweaters out of the cupboard that haven't seen the light of day for a few years now.
You seem to have been busy in your promotional work. I'd be interested to know what sort of response you get. It's a book slightly out of the mainstream, but a marvellously personal one that I enjoyed reading in ms, putting together & finally holding in my hands. I'm so pleased that you're pleased with how it's turned out.
7/10/07
RR>MY: Tony Rudolf just sent me this. Totally unexpected, especially when he talked about being in the middle of writing a long memoir. He asked if I'd prefer it published in the US or UK — I told him the UK. He's reasonably big in the jewish literary community there — I met him once, and have had a few correspondences in terms of ABR, but still...
MY>RR: What a great review. I bet you're thrilled.
7/11/07
RR>MY: I don't believe this. The Yorkshire Evening Post is the large Yorkshire newspaper — not the Jewish paper! I sent the book to them on a fluke, figuring I had nothing to lose.
9/1/07
RR>MY: Short but sweet, and the first positive review of Leads. I'm also putting up links from my website.
http://artvoice.com/issues/v6n35/book_reviews
RR>MY: The review's longer than I realized — here's the real link:
http://artvoice.com/issues/v6n35/book_reviews/leads_by_rochelle_ratner
MY>RR: I'd discovered it was a longer review, though a bit difficult to realize there was more unless you knew the outlet or, like me, you're a link-clicker.
Good review, & I also thought the Yorkshire Post(?) piece was quite good as well. Though the one I read in one of the Jewish outlets — which wasn't complimentary — struck me as missing the point of the book entirely, was one of those factual fatuous nitpicking things that considers a book faulty if the author got a name wrong. Might be fine if it's supposed to be a definitive history but such an approach is more like — actually I don't know what it's like outside of being what I would describe as a review by a fuckwit.
RR>MY: Jesus — I'd absolutely never seen the Yorkshire Evening Post piece — even though he called to interview me, I'd writen asking when it was coming out and he never replied, and I'd searched the website any number of times without finding it. Especially after the horrendous Leeds Jewish Telegraph piece appeared, I assumed they'd just decided to kill it.
You don't happen to have a hard copy, do you?
Anthony Rudolf also wrote a review — he sent it to London Magazine, but hasn't heard back from them yet. This book's getting as much attention as my last three books put together, and I'm really delighted.
Things are going well, though I didn't get up to the country place this summer (and my barn fell down, in isolation). Continued health issues, and not wanting to be far from good medical care. The fall season's starting in the city next week, with various commitments, and I'll be back teaching in October.
2/4/08
RR>MY: I finally pulled it together to send you some new work for Otoliths.
Did you see Anthony Rudolf's great review of Leads? The London Magazine - August / September 2007. If not, I can scan in a copy. This book has gotten more attention than my last 3 books put together. I'm delighted.
Best,
Rochelle
Rochelle Ratner
128 pages
ISBN: 978-0-9803-6591-7
Otoliths 2007
$12.50 + p&h
URL: http://www.lulu.com/content/830227
Leads: a correspondence with Rochelle Ratner
12/2/06
RR>MY: I've noticed that you've been publishing some books through Otoliths and Lulu, and was wondering if you might be willing to take a look at a manuscript of mine. This is LEADS — a poetry, prose, found poem conglomeration which doesn't really fit into most categories. It chronicles a trip I took to London and Leeds in 1978 — to London because I had friends there, to Leeds in order to try and trace what was left of my grandmother's childhood. It currently runs 80 pages.
MY>RR: Only too happy to look at it!
A couple of things. One is I've already got some sort of queue, plus Otoliths print three & electronic four so it's going to be February or so before I can do anything with it if I like it. The other thing is I'm still trying to work out distribution channels, so I don't know what sort of coverage I can give (though it will improve).
If you don't mind those riders, then I look forward to seeing it. Doc or rtf format please, & a note on any particular formatting or font or whatever.
12/3/06
RR>MY: Formatting might be a bit tricky. I'm using two fonts — Notebook (also sometimes called Century Schoolbook) and Architect. Hopefully, if you don't have the fonts, your computer will find suitable substitutes. Otherwise, I can make changes on this end. I'm also using a smaller point size for the quotes found in library records. Several pages don't start until mid-page. Some pages have two pieces with a large break in between. Just so you know it's not the computer dropping things.
MY>RR: Have given the ms a quick glance without going in either very far or deeply so this is not a yay or nay but a preliminary enquiry. A couple of things.
Photos would be good.There seem to be a lot of blank pages. Should they be there?
Do you have photos that can be included?
Word picks up Architect & Notebook but I'll have to check what fonts the Lulu conversion picks up.
The main fonts in your ms are Times New Roman & Arial — there may be others I haven't got to. I don't mind Arial, but would prefer to use Palatino Linotype instead of TNR. It's the font I use as a standard for Otoliths, point size 9. It's clean, has a serif, & is very readable at that size.
Standard page size for Otoliths is 9" x 6" with top & bottom margins 2.54 cm & left & right margins 2.03 cm. That'll change the structure a little, but I'd do any necessary re-formatting in consultation with yourself.
Will give it a serious reading probably the week after next. I'm getting my big city fix & heading to Sydney for a few days.
Thanks for sending it to me.
RR>MY: No, there shouldn't be any blank pages. page total is 80, on my version of word. When I tried to put it into wordperfect to change fonts, it came up with a lot of blank pages, which is why I gave up. And yes, anything but Times Roman — it seems so cramped, but in other ways is structured close to notebook, so I can see why the conversion was chosen. At any rate, the 9x6 format is fine, and we can work out precise details later.
MY>RR: & photographs? There are lots of references to them, so if you have any, why not include?
12/30/06
RR>MY: I know I've got some photos — the problem is that they're in my house in the country (a four hour drive). I'm hoping to get up there around January 6 or 7. It's just been crazy with the holidays.
MY>RR: Will wait till you venture forth. Photos, especially grainy / old b&w / unposed / frayed at the corners snapshots would, I feel, pull everything in nicely together.
1/7/07
RR>MY: I'm up in the country, and have some of the Leeds photos here. Not great, but they capture some of the crucial scenes. I'll get them scanned in and off to you by tomorrow at the latest.
1/8/07
RR>MY: I've divided these photos into three packets to make them easier to send. Here's the first packet.
1/23/07
RR>MY: I was just wondering what's happening with the Leads manuscript. Do the photos work for you? Do you see yourself able to publish it? No mad rush in terms of production, I'd just like to get a sense of how you feel about it.
MY>RR: The short answer is yes & yes. The slightly longer answer is we will probably have to do some structural work around the photos; & do you have any family photos as per The Photograph?
Would probably be a May publication date. How does that sound?
RR>MY: May sounds great.
I'm attaching two photos — one of my great grandmother, the other of my great grandfather. I know I've got that family picture somewhere upstate, but it wasn't where I thought it was. I'm going to have to hunt for it, and assume I'll find some others along the way.
2/7/07
RR>MY: I'm at the house upstate — I found the photo of my grandmother as a child with her family, and scanned it in, along with a few other photos. I'll have access to high speed internet tomorrow, and will send them to you then.
2/9/07
RR>MY: Sorry — I ended up not getting to a place with high speed access yesterday. Back in NYC tonight, and finally sending the photos. 4 photos here.
The Leeds Family photo was the one I talk about — I scanned it in, and did my best in photoshop, but I didn't have a great picture to work from. See what you think. I brought it back to the city with me, and if need be could have it more professionally restored.
Of the other photos, the picture of my grandmother holding the chair is my favorite photo of her. I don't know when it was taken, but most likely in Atlantic City, before she was married. The other two are photos I remember from childhood — the one with my mother's head chopped off is fascinating, especially considering it was probably taken by my father; the other is her sitting near the tv in my parent's house, probably when I was 6 or 7. Let me know what you think.
MY>RR: They're just the sort of photos that I hoped for. Don't do anything up about cleaning them up, wait until we see how they come up in b&w.
It'll probably be mid next month before I get to putting things together for a May publishing date. I think it's going to work out remarkably well.
Will be in touch.
2/12/07
RR>MY: I just got this fabulous photo from one of my father's cousins. she writes: In this photo your greatgreat grandfather, Isaac, has my Dad, Louis on his knee. His wife, Anna, is standing on the left behind Aunt Sarah, your grandmom, Bessie, is on her grandad's right, and the young man standing at the back is unknown. He's too young (a teenager we think) to be Simon, my grandfather.
I cleaned it up a bit in photoshop,and considering the age, it worked well. This would have had to be taken around 1900.
3/12/07
MY>RR: I've started setting Leads up in the 9" x 6" format that it'll be published in, just to see what overlaps, juggles, etc. need to be done. I might add a couple of photos in obvious places, but what I'd like is for you, once I'm done & have sent the ms to you, is have a look at where you'd like others placed. They're going to have to be black & white prints when published, but I think the coloured photos I've seen should translate alright.
I've about five things going on concurrently at present, & I'm sort of switching between them, so I'm guessing sometime next week you'll see the first mock-up.
3/13/07
RR>MY: That sounds good to me. And I'll have plenty of time to play with it once you get the basics done.
One idea I had for a cover would be to put the photo of the gravestone (probably the original one Louis sent) on the front cover, then the picture of his postcard "frame it and treasure it" on the back cover.
The one photo that might not work well in black and white is the one of the red car. But an idea might be to circle that car in magic marker, so it becomes obvious to the reader what she's talking about.
3/25/07
MY>RR: I've attached a pdf file of Leads in a rough formatting. Could you give it a quick look through & see if there's anything that immediately leaps our as being in the wrong place.
I must admit I'm not too fond of the fonts as they are, but I like them a bit more reduced in size. I've also attached a couple of pages where the Notebook is in 10pt, the architect in 9pt & I've also justified the architect bit because if you're quoting from old papers, justification seems to me a better option where applicable.
Once I've got yr thoughts & comments back, I'm going to run it through the Lulu printing process & send the resulting book to you. I think it might be easier in that format to work out where the photographs should / could / would go.
Look forward to hearing from you.
3/26/07
RR>MY: No doubt about it — your sample pages in a different font look much better.
The boldface titles look fuzzy, scrunched, and out of focus. The sample pages in a different font don't include any bold type, so it's hard to know if this would make a difference, but I suspect it will.
I'm not quite sure why the margins on the first page are justified.
Beginning on page 31, all the passages quoted from books and records have ended up bold, and extremely hard to read (and the font doesn't come through here as architect). Again, the sample in a different typeface looks fine. You just want to be certain that it doesn't shift over to bold in the new font, or when transferred to adobe or the typesetting program.
Great idea to justify the margins of those prose quotes.
When I was typing up this manuscript, I was using the 8.5 x 11 page, and trying to space things with plenty of blank space, as if there would be later notations. The addition of photos will obviously take up some of that slack, but if something's glaringly by itself and a waste of paper, there's no need to adhere strictly to the manuscript spacing. Use your judgment.
Question — I'm really not sure how to handle this one. But the "May 12th" piece (page 34 in adobe), says that my grandmother came to America "Alone, seventeen years old" — which is what my grandmother (I'm fairly certain) used to tell me. I find out now she was the last child to come, not the first. She came when she was 23 years old, and had her youngest sister, age 6, with her. This is born out by the Ellis Island records, as well as by my father's cousin. What do you think? Change it here? ("Twenty-three years old, in charge of her youngest sister")? Or let it go as it was in the original writing?
I assume the final book will be paginated?
Meanwhile, thanks for all the work you've put into this, and the care.
MY>RR: I've confused myself a little here because I forgot to mention that the second paragraph was in the Otoliths "house font" of Palatino Linotype in 10pt instead of the normal 9pt I use, & I now don't know if it's that or the 10pt notebook you're talking about or either or both...... :-)) Please clarify & end my confusion.
& the architect came through as bold in yr manuscript & is still there as architect so it may not be an adobe font. (or may be not picked up by my $9.95 pdf writer)
I'll put in place all your changes & give it a more solid runthrough/put together. What I'll do is give you an extract - both as a doc & a pdf - to check fonts & appearance before I give you a full revision. It'll be paginated a bit later on.
I think it's going to end up quite well.
3/27/07
RR>MY: The fonts I like were the ones you sent in the Word samples, not the pdf. Three fonts — the "postcard" is in Notebook 10, paragraph is in Palantino Linotype 10, quoted passage in Architect 9.
It might well be that Archetype isn't adobe (it's listed as truetype in my installed font list). It's not crucial — just a font that would make it distinct from the other two, maybe a bit more distinctive than the others. I've got fonts here named Manuscript, Opera, Pageant, Tempus Sans ITC — any of which might work. Or see what you come up with.
3/28/07
MY>RR: Haven't addressed the bits & pieces below yet but have done a bit more formatting & I'm running it by you to get your thoughts. I've only got up to page 40, where your font changed from Times NR to Notebook. I've used Palatino Linotype, 11pt for the text, 12 for the headings & 9 for the quotes. I've put in some pictures — & hope I haven't disrupted the family tree too much. & I've made a couple of minor changes — changed the second "knit" to "knitted" on page 41, have brought the itinerary forward a page so it comes before the note on the plane, & because I've got the gravestone picture in earlier, could you think about the "thises" in the piece on page 40 (I think it is).
RR>MY: The typefaces look great now (I have up to page 38 in the new fonts). And I love the cover photo — the idea of this all being a "stretch" — trying to stretch out a life, stretch the facts, etc. I didn't even realize it until I saw this cover.
One photo is problematic — on page 10. That's a photo of me, not of the family in Leeds, taken circa 1950. It might be best inserted next to page 32? or page 8? There's also the other family photo where she's holding flowers, that should be next to pages 26/27 — or maybe on the bottom of 27, or top of 26.
The itinerary is fine moved up, as is "knitted." I'm not sure which page you're referring to with the "this-es" problem.
Page 19 — that should really be two separate pages, starting the next page with "I didn't realize fifteen years..."
4/1/07
MY>RR: I have just about finished putting the book together.
But I can't send it to you because I've done something weird & the thing is now a humungous size. It's suddenly become 70+ meg, about 10 times bigger than it was. I think it's got something to do with the pictures, so I'm going to go through it over the next couple of days & delete each picture & then reimport it so I can try & track down what the hell is going on. Even then, it's still unlikely that I'll be able to email it; I've just turned it into a pdf & even that's 12 meg.
So what I will do once I've done whatever it is I'm going to do is upload it to Lulu, flag it as not available to the public, & order a print copy for you to go through. That'll take about a week & a day to get to you once I've placed the order, but I'll arrange for you to be able to download the print-ready pdf once it's been done & that can give you a preview.
& what I'll also do in the next day or so is break it up into two parts, turn them into pdfs, & send them to you in separate emails.
Will be in touch as soon as I can be.
RR>MY: 70 megs! Hopefully, once you track down the problem, it will be smaller as a pdf as well. Anyway, however you manage to work it will be fine.
MY>RR: attached as pdf (9 meg)
document & notes to follow
MY>RR: This time I've attached it as word doc. I think my problem had something to do with the fact that it was in rtf & was pulling down "instructions" everytime I imported a pic. The jpeg would be about 1 mg, but by the time it was in the file it was 13 mg & I didn't seem to be able to do anything about it. Then, when I started breaking it up into small pieces to send you, & saved them as word docs, the size came tumbling down. So I rejoined the 3 parts I had in word & voila.
I still have some tidying up to do, mainly leveling out headings, that sort of thing but I wanted to wait until I've got your feedback before doing that.
A couple of things. The piece about yr grandmother coming to America "alone". I've added yr note in brackets below it rather than change the text. I think it makes a nice touch, but feel free to change either bit as you see bit. & I've brought yr "sabbath" note forward so the Vilna pieces are all together.
Also: I haven't put in all the photos. But. I can add any multiple of 4 pages so the other pics can go in where you want them - (& a circle round the red car is a good idea, or an arrow pointing to it.) - & any text changes/rearranges. So again feel free.
Look forward to yr comments.
4/2/07
RR>MY: Basically, it looks great.
I've added another 10 or 11 photos, but most were on pages where there's also text. In all, there are now 128 pages in total, 4 more than the manuscript you sent. All my photos are added in the Word file, nothing in the pdf.
Other changes —
One small section that seemed in the wrong place — I took "Basil" from page 24 and moved it to page 12. That way it doesn't interrupt family memories.
Page 46 — insertion of the correction about her coming to America. I like the concept, but maybe make it clearer that I'm commenting. How about an asterisk after "alone, seventeen years old"? Then place the asterisk on the text below, taking out the main parenthesis. Possibly this should also be smaller type, if that wouldn't get too confusing? I've tried changing it in the manuscript itself. Also combined to make it one paragraph, not to give it too much space. (I made the changes in Word)
Basically, I think this reads well, and is going to be fabulous with the photos.
I added a "coming soon" note and cover photo on the "other writings" page of my website. Will of course make better announcements, etc. once the book's really out.
MY>RR: Thanks for all your work. Haven't had a chance to look at it, but will do so in the next day or so. Applied for an ISBN today so should have that early next week.
Now to the cover. What you have up (at your website) is, to use a marvellously old-fashioned word, the frontispiece. I've attached a small version, downsized for ease of transmission, of a rough idea for the cover.
Would also like about a 1000 character (including spaces) piece to use for the emailout blurb plus possibly for the back cover. A bit of an explanation for the book, not necessarily about it.
4/3/07
RR>MY: The cover looks GREAT. I was going to say that, even though I liked the photo cover for the trial version, I thought something more than black and white would be of use. But this is wonderful. I love the fact that my grandmother's cut off slightly, as is the tv. The one adjustment you might want to make, if you can (or if it can be done) would be to rotate or trim the tv image a bit, so it doesn't protrude over the bottom left of the tv screen itself.
I've also changed the image on my website.
I'm not sure if it's what you're looking for, but please try the attached blurb on for size.
MY>RR: Blurb's fine. & glad you like the cover. It's a bit rough, was done "with the crudest of tools", but now that I know you're happy with it, will proceed, in association with my cover man, harry k stammer, to fine it up. I was actually thinking of having the tv image in black & white, or at least grayscale, & the rest of the cover in sepia. Ah, I loved those old Russian movies, with sepia snow.......
RR>MY: I, too, love those sepia photos. I'd love to see how it looks that way as well.
4/9/07
MY>RR: Went to send you a pdf which didn't go through & have discovered that it's suffering from bloat. Don't know why, photos again?
So, doc attached. Have made a few small changes, mainly typographical — headings, a bit of centering, getting rid of a section break which caused the page numbering to change position around p35. One major change — have moved the grave photo further into the book so it's on the page before your "looking at this photo of the grave" poem, & replaced it with the front of the postcard & taken out the text that's on the card. I've rotated the front postcard so it aligns with the back on the facing page, but I'm not so sure of it. If you want it derotated & vertical am happy to do so. let you know what you think.
& love the way you've included the photographs.
I've sent harry k stammer the mockup of the cover plus the two photos it's taken from so he's working on that. I'm about to apply for an ISBN. & once they're in place & you've come back to me with your thoughts about everything, I'll run it through the Lulu printing process & send you a print copy for proofing & final jiggling & juggling.
4/11/07
RR>MY: The photo of the grave on its side doesn't work for me. I'm now starting to wonder, since we've replaced the typed words with the handwritten postcard, if it might not be advisable to do the same with the front of the postcard:
Page 14 stays as is
Page 15: My parents show me a picture of the grave, then postcard photo (upright)
Page 16: top writing as is, then photo of back of postcard
Page 17: They never framed it, etc. text alone on page, no photo (and possibly this text is close to the bottom of the page, leaving the empty space)
What do you think?
Other than that, everything looks great — the type, the positioning.
I leave for California tomorrow, be back in five days. Mary Mackey, one of the Marsh Hawk authors whose book came out the same time as mine, invited me out for some readings in Sacramento and Berkeley. I met Eileen Tabios a few times, but really got to know her at AWP last month, when we shared a room for three nights. Really fun person to be around, incredible energy. Actually, it was when I saw her Otoliths book that I was prompted to approach you about publishing mine. Wish you were coming to California as well.
MY>RR: Must admit it didn't work for me either tho seemed like a reasonable idea until I actually did it. Will make the requested changes.
I'll do the changes to the ms in the next day or so. Do you want me to send you a pdf or doc file whilst you're California Dreamin', or hold off till you're back in NY?
RR>MY: I'll have access to high speed wireless al through California — so yes, please send me the doc or pdf files. Among other things, with changes in planes, there's 12 hours travel time each way.
What do you think about my idea of having the photo of grave replace the text? What other books are you bringing out in May?
MY>RR: Will send pdf or doc in the next few days.
Agree that text & photo are a redundancy, esp. as the carved text is easy enough to read. Plus, it's a good strong photo!
The other books I'll be doing in May are an anthology of the first eleven interviews from Tom Beckett's E-X-C-H-A-N-G-E-V-A-L-U-E-S blog, augmented with poetry & bionotes from the interviewees; Nick Piombino's "visual collage novel" Free Fall ( 156 pages of full color - now that will be expensive!) plus a book from Sheila Murphy that she's still working on, probably a combination of text & vispo. With your book, I think it's an amazing offering. Really pleased & proud to be able to do it. You'll be in good company.
Enjoy California. Kiss Eileen for me!
4/12/07
RR>MY: Sounds like a fabulous lineup. Delighted to be a part of it.
MY>RR: Doc file attached. You might have to rename it because it's the same as the last one. Will try sending you a pdf a bit later on, but don't like my chances. It comes in at over 10 meg.
MY>RR: pdf too big to send. 10 mg (including message) maximum.
MY>RR: harry has just sent me these (possible covers). Don't know what you think, but I'm a fan for the sepia one with the b&w tv. Let's know.
4/13/07
RR>MY: Looking at them now, I'm inclined toward the b&w photo with the sepia photo on tv. The television set clearly marks this as 1950s, and b&w would have been what was used then. And this book is all about time and place.
Also just downloaded the doc file. Will go over that in the next day or so.
MY>RR: To get it in under the size limit so I could send it to you, I've taken out the grave photo (which is also attached as a doc) & taken the resolution down to 150 dpi. I still can't work out why the original pdf was so large.
4/21/07
RR>MY: The covers look great.
Sorry I haven't gotten back to you on the final text yet. I just printed it out yesterday. I hadn't expected not to have much time while in California, then have been incredibly jetlagged since I got back. Today's the first day I woke up feeling almost normal.
4/23/07
RR>MY: Sorry things got so backed up. But I finally read through the pdf carefully, and everything looks great.
5/5/07
RR>MY: It looks good. Sorry, I was down with unexpected headaches for a few days. and have been frantically trying to catch up. But by all means, send it along to Lulu.
One interesting development has been the publication a few weeks ago of THE INVISIBLE WALL by Harry Bernstein. It's a memoir about growing up Jewish in Lancashire in the early 1900s. Attracting huge attention, including front page of the NY Times book review. Written when he was 93, and virtually a first book, it's comparable to MC Court's Angela's Ashes, and brings the almost forgotten world of British Jews into the limelight. It might even be able to attract some attention for Leads (hope, hope). I reviewed the audio version of the book for an audio magazine here, so there even might be a bit of a link to my name.
5/14/07
RR>MY: The finished book arrived — and I think it looks great. The larger bar code box looks fine, merges with the other boxes. As hard as I tried to put the pages together in the galleys, seeing them bound like this, with the photos all in place, it really makes a difference. It just reads right, feels right to the hand. So unless you have other problems, I think we can go ahead with this.
Yes. And thank you.
6/29/07
RR>MY: I just wanted to be back in touch. I had a few health issues which prevented me from sending out review copies of Leads right away, The feedback I've gotten from a few friends has been wonderful.
Thanks once again for making all this possible.
MY>RR: The pleasure has been all mine. My copies arrived yesterday. It's one thing seeing pdfs, to to be able to hold the finished book in my hands is another thing altogether. I'm really pleased with how they've turned out. Leads looks great.
Sorry to hear you haven't been well. Hope you're feeling better. I've been skating around on the cusp of the flu but have managed to avoid the major aspects — touch wood. But we've actually been having a winter here. I've been forced to get sweaters out of the cupboard that haven't seen the light of day for a few years now.
You seem to have been busy in your promotional work. I'd be interested to know what sort of response you get. It's a book slightly out of the mainstream, but a marvellously personal one that I enjoyed reading in ms, putting together & finally holding in my hands. I'm so pleased that you're pleased with how it's turned out.
7/10/07
RR>MY: Tony Rudolf just sent me this. Totally unexpected, especially when he talked about being in the middle of writing a long memoir. He asked if I'd prefer it published in the US or UK — I told him the UK. He's reasonably big in the jewish literary community there — I met him once, and have had a few correspondences in terms of ABR, but still...
MY>RR: What a great review. I bet you're thrilled.
7/11/07
RR>MY: I don't believe this. The Yorkshire Evening Post is the large Yorkshire newspaper — not the Jewish paper! I sent the book to them on a fluke, figuring I had nothing to lose.
I guess this is a response of my father's comment, that he doesn't see how anyone but the family would be interested. A comment which has had me a bit depressed since he made it two weeks ago, but at least he read the book.Dear Rochelle,
Thank you for writing to the Yorkshire Evening Post with regards to your book, Leads.
We were interested in talking to you a little about your writing and wondered if it would be possible to give you a call at some point over the next couple of weeks? Would that be ok? If so, what day or time of day is best for you?
Also, we wondered if you could send us, by e mail a recent photo of yourself?
Finally, do you have any objection to us including some of the extracts from the book?
Look forward to hearing from you soon.
Yours,
Rod McPhee
Arts Editor
Yorkshire Evening Post
9/1/07
RR>MY: Short but sweet, and the first positive review of Leads. I'm also putting up links from my website.
http://artvoice.com/issues/v6n35/book_reviews
RR>MY: The review's longer than I realized — here's the real link:
http://artvoice.com/issues/v6n35/book_reviews/leads_by_rochelle_ratner
MY>RR: I'd discovered it was a longer review, though a bit difficult to realize there was more unless you knew the outlet or, like me, you're a link-clicker.
Good review, & I also thought the Yorkshire Post(?) piece was quite good as well. Though the one I read in one of the Jewish outlets — which wasn't complimentary — struck me as missing the point of the book entirely, was one of those factual fatuous nitpicking things that considers a book faulty if the author got a name wrong. Might be fine if it's supposed to be a definitive history but such an approach is more like — actually I don't know what it's like outside of being what I would describe as a review by a fuckwit.
RR>MY: Jesus — I'd absolutely never seen the Yorkshire Evening Post piece — even though he called to interview me, I'd writen asking when it was coming out and he never replied, and I'd searched the website any number of times without finding it. Especially after the horrendous Leeds Jewish Telegraph piece appeared, I assumed they'd just decided to kill it.
You don't happen to have a hard copy, do you?
Anthony Rudolf also wrote a review — he sent it to London Magazine, but hasn't heard back from them yet. This book's getting as much attention as my last three books put together, and I'm really delighted.
Things are going well, though I didn't get up to the country place this summer (and my barn fell down, in isolation). Continued health issues, and not wanting to be far from good medical care. The fall season's starting in the city next week, with various commitments, and I'll be back teaching in October.
2/4/08
RR>MY: I finally pulled it together to send you some new work for Otoliths.
Did you see Anthony Rudolf's great review of Leads? The London Magazine - August / September 2007. If not, I can scan in a copy. This book has gotten more attention than my last 3 books put together. I'm delighted.
Best,
Rochelle
from: geographies
Padua
Dante went apeshit
late last night, cursing
his cleaning lady &
shaking his fists at the
lawn guys. Network TV
rarely offers portrayals
of law enforcers as
believable soldiers
of the working class.
TriBeCa
The ice-cream ad
seems just a tad
ungodly now that
the medium-hold
fine mist hairspray
infused with apple
& coconut has
cleared & saddled
White with a
backward pawn.
Scarab
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