Beginning Again

I began work on Project X on Saturday, the annotation of a major fantasy novel. I can’t reveal the title yet because the contract is not yet signed. For the last month or so, I’ve been twitchy without a project to work on, so I first spent a few hours, kludging together an electronic text to annotate and then dove in.
My usual process, before beginning to read what others have written about the book, is to re-read the work slowly, dropping in empty footnotes wherever I come across something that I don’t understand or something that will need elucidation. Of course, I immediately started down a tantalizing byway, trying to figure out the geography of the story, measuring distances, and poring over maps to locate suitable airports and towns. Google Earth and the Geographic Names Information System to the rescue!
My wife worried that I was wasting my time–that, with no signed contract, the project might die, and I’d have misspent the day. I pointed out to her that it was grand fun to do this work, even if it ended up in the wastebasket.
And clearly the good karma that must have accrued from starting worked: In my inbox this morning appeared an e-mail from the publisher, providing an official copy of the electronic text on which I could work! So at least the editors there believe we’re moving ahead, signed contract or no! I’ll move over the 45 (45!) notes I already created for the first 3 chapters and get going in earnest!
Watch this space for an official announcement soon! The book is expected to be published in the Fall of 2019.

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