Vital question

[mrissa]

So, having poked the Not The Moose Book with a sharp stick enough times, I have discovered that it separates rather cleanly in twain. (I had just had a mad thought about putting Twain in one of the books in this series. NO. Stay focused, Mris.) And further that the first book, Thermionic Night, is rough-drafted. Its 120K length should have tipped me off that it was a book. Sometimes I'm rather slow about these things.

I have to edit like a mad thing to get it into any kind of public shape -- and I'm not going to do that until I'm done with the draft of Sampo, which was Part 2 and is now Book 2, because of "Bull Durham" -- that is, I'm not going to do it yet because of "Bull Durham," not that it's Book 2 because of "Bull Durham" -- maybe I should just quit now and start a new sentence. Have to edit like a mad thing, but the bones of the book are there and some flesh and functional organs, too.

The vital question before me -- and before you, dears, via e-mail or comment section -- relates to parties. You get to have a celebration of your choice when you finish a book. (In fact, for each book written you are allowed five celebrations, as described here.) I missed throwing the "book is drafted" party. The choices before me:
--skip all parties: who needs to celebrate anyway?
--wrap it in with the party for finishing Sampo, since they used to be pretending to be the same book anyway
--wrap it in with Mark's intended but unscheduled acquisition party, since Sun now owns his company and we now own a piece of Sun to sell off and use for happy things
--have a series of parties for each of these things separately, because, hey, any excuse!

I should mention that I have moose napkins, so skipping the parties entirely will result in their sad everyday use. Not that that should sway your answers. I'm just sayin'.

Talk to me, people.

Comments

What is this "finish a book" thing?

[joelrosenberg.livejournal.com]

Well, actually, I know what I think of as finished -- it's when the pageproofs have finally gone off to the publisher, and by that time, I typically find that being done with it is enough reward. After all, there's been the first draft, the revisions after the first readers look at it, the editorial revision, the copyediting to deal with, and then, finally, the pageproofs.

By that time, my thought isn't of parties, but of finally having it off my desk...

The time I want to have a party is when I get the first box of copies of the thing. The smell of the glue is still, after a fair number of years, pretty wonderful.

That said, any excuse/reason for a fun party is fine by me. Go with it.

Re: What is this "finish a book" thing?

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

That's all well and good, but I waiting for the smell of fresh book unnecessarily delays gratification that could be doubled. Unnecessarily, and at this stage in my career indefinitely. Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow a first reader may hate the damn thing.