2011 is almost finished and so is this lovely collection.


Today I sent in the last full round of edits for Letters 3
AND
I just got in the next round of Screen Writing 1, which puts our current standing at:


Vol. 41 - (the elusive) Letters 3 - last set of edits have been sent in, need to be applied, and needs permission to print
Vol. 43 - Tramp Royale - needs permission to print
Vol. 44 - Screen Writing 1 - last read through, apply, quality control, apply, and needs permission to print
Vol. 45 - Screen Writing 2 - send in last edits, which need to be applied, then quality control, apply, and permission to print
Vol. 46 - Requiem - quality control, apply any edits, then needs permission to print


Sean and I are splitting SP 1 (Screen Writing 1) and hope to have this round finished by COB on Monday.  At which point, I hope we have Requiem and/or Letters 3.  Close of business Tuesday should see us with 2 books ready to print (minus the official permission form), maybe 3.  


The screenplays have been a hassle.  Most of them have not been typeset before, which left a lot of room to design a readable book, but also a lot of open questions.  We have tried to stay close to the patterns and formats, while adjusting text and layout to make them internally consistent.  It meant a lot of word juggling for Andrew, who has been working pretty much solo in New Hampshire. 


This overdue update written, I am going to get reading!  
Hope to write soon with more completions to report. 

Status Update

As you all may be aware from the shelf space the collection is already taking up we are coming to the end of this very long quite bumpy road.  The last five volumes need to be read over or just have the last set of edits checked and will go to the printer soon.  


We (Sean and myself) just got in the fully updated Screen Writing 2 and are diving in.  I wanted to share a piece of it with you.


From Crater Base One - "Nothing Ever Happens--" 
The television has below it a more numerous group of controls than are found on a livingroom set; this is intended to be a closed-circuit system whereby the Director can see, from his desk, any of many scenes inside and outside Crater Base One. A single power knob plus a long row of push buttons conspicuously numbered and/or lettered is sufficient to simulate this. It is assumed that a repeater with parallel controls is located in his private dining-living room, and another at his bedside; thus the Director can see, from the three places where he spends most of his time, every major activity he directs. Cutting in the video pickup also cuts in 2-way teletalk . . . and it may be assumed that the video is 2-way, also, for this is 1988.  


As we all know, 1988 of course had two way t.v.'s.  At least now we have touch screens and video chat on our phones and computers.  Dear Mr. Heinlein, sorry we took so long.

Don't worry you aren't missing vol. 41

This edition of the blog is to reassure everyone that you are not missing volume 41.
Volume 41 was not ready to go to print with the preceding 4, while volume 42 (Farnham's Freehold) was.
It will be printed and shipped with the last set of books.
You read correctly, the last set of books!


On our current schedule, updated this week, we should have all material turned over to the printer by mid to late October.  This means the books should ship in November and be in your hands for the holidays.


Volume 41 - Letters 3 is undergoing a quality control check, and will be turned back to WH for final corrections tomorrow.
Volume 43 - Tramp Royale is at WH to have proofreading edits applied, then it will come here for a quality control check.
Volume 44 - Screenplay 1 just got turned back to WH after its 2nd proofread and needs those edits applied.  We are also working on getting some pictures from the set of Destination Moon to include in this volume.
Volume 45 - Screenplay 2 was also just turned in to WH, but from its 1st proofreader, and will come here next.
Volume 46 - Requiem is going out this week for its 1st proofread.  


On another note here is an interesting Heinlein mention:

AUGUST 15, 2011

BARACK OBAMA MUST BE A ROBERT HEINLEIN FAN! Robert Heinlein:

Throughout history, poverty is the normal condition of man. Advances which permit this norm to be exceeded — here and there, now and then — are the work of an extremely small minority, frequently despised, often condemned, and almost always opposed by all right-thinking people. Whenever this tiny minority is kept from creating, or (as sometimes happens) is driven out of a society, the people then slip back into abject poverty.

This is known as “bad luck.”

Barack Obama:

“We had reversed the recession, avoided a depression, gotten the economy moving again,” Obama told a crowd in Decorah, Iowa. “But over the last six months we’ve had a run of bad luck.”

Fan, instantiation, whatever.

Posted by Glenn Reynolds at 10:00 pm

http://pajamasmedia.com/instapundit/126252/

Greetings,

After much difficulty with the latest batch of covers, an issue with a graphic, and a small issue regarding wire transfer fees, we are just about ready to ship the next 5 volumes!  Once the payment is transferred for the second half of the current 5 books, they will be sent to the warehouse/shipping department at Transcontinental and shipped out to you.

The cover of Letters 1 was a hassle.  The digital version of the icon looked like this:

The black area is where the gold foil is stamped.  However, the stamping process tends to spread or bleed, leading to :

Which is mostly a gold blob.  I spent several hours trying to clean up the digital so that the negative space was increased such that the gold wouldn't over run too much of it leading to distortion.

Clearer right?  Well, the gold stamping was resilient so the printing company just decided to invert the image:

And hurrah! you can tell it is a face, but it is supposed to match:

So I had to half invert the image so that the scalloped edge was gold not the space around it:

This is the final icon, it just took us days to get there.

So as it stands these books are finished printing and should ship from the warehouse to you around the 16th of September.

The remaining 5 books are as follows:

Vol 41 - Letters 3 - final edits to be applied, followed by quality check, then to printer

Vol 43 - Tramp Royale - final edits to be applied, followed by quality check, then to printer

Vol 44 - ScreenPlay 1 - undergoing 2nd proofread here, then same as above

Vol 45 - ScreenPlay 2 - undergoing 1st proofread with some work being done on the last pages at                            Windhaven, edits to be applied, 

Vol 46 - Requiem - to be set (but it should be fast)

Order of events:

Right now SP 1 and SP 2 are in proofreaders hands and WH is working on the end of SP 2.

Following that WH will apply the edits to L 3 and send is here for a control check, it goes back to WH for polish then off to the printer.

While we have L 3 WH will set Req and send it out to its 1st proofreader.

Then WH will apply they last round of edits to Tramp and send it here.

(During this time both SPs should be turned back into WH with comments, at which point I will try and schedule the remaining 3 for the next set of passing back and forth.)

Publishing is a chaotic business.

We have NEWS!

Today I will finally send in the last of the permission forms, which means 5 more books will begin printing. I know this has taken quite a long time, but these are some of the larger volumes and most of the material has never been published before.

A lot of time consuming double checking, while necessary, delayed the release of these volumes. For example, do you know what a mustache trainer is? or do you think he meant mustache strainer? While most of the original letters were typed (on a typewriter), some of them were hand written. The deciphering of both is complicated by the fact that the archives are not necessarily in chronological order or necessarily arranged by name and that the scanning process leaves much to be desired. Maybe there will be an effort to stream-line the collection more, albeit a daunting task.

For those of you who are not aware yet - Sean is back at the office helping with the proof reading, etc. His presence means we should be able to move double time on the last 5 books. That is right - THE LAST 5 BOOKS. We are almost done for real.

In appreciation of your patience and belated acknowledgement of Heinlein's birthday, we will be sending everyone some posters based on Heinlein's novels. There are 6 different posters. Blow is the one of Glory Road. The poster layout was done by Eric Gignac and the original paintings were done by Steven Hickman.

We will get started on mailing these out after the current 5 books are fully turned over to the printer.

The status of the last 5 books is a follows:

Volume 41 - Letters 3 -- is here and I am just about finished with checking potential errors against the archived sources.

Volume 43 - Tramp Royale -- is here and Sean is just about finished with it.

Volume 44 - Screenplay 1 -- should be ready for its first proof read.

Volume 45 - Screenplay 2 -- should be typeset this week.

Volume 46 - Requiem -- is waiting on the index for the collection.

We hope to get these 5 turned over to the printer by the end of August. In order to do so I had best get back to work.

Yes, I realize it is April.

I have had updating this blog on my list of things to do since a week or two after I last updated it.

Now for the follow through.

As you are all well aware we have 10 books left to go in this long lived collection of 46.

Here is the current standing:

1. Nonfiction 1 - through 3 proof reads including mine. (If you are not familiar with the origin of The Door Into Summer, it is found in this volume and I really liked it.)
2. Nonfiction 2 - I got this volume last week and just reached the halfway point before I finally started this long awaited update.
3. Letters 1 - Sean Thompson is back part-time and is do our 3 proof on this volume. (He thinks he will be done with it by the end of this week.)
4. Letters 2 - I am waiting for a call back from Andrew and Nancy at Windhaven as to when I can see this book. (Actually, it probably will go to Sean.)
5. Letters 3 - this one had a little trouble at the first proofreader, but may be back at WH (see comment above).
6. Farnham's Freehold - Already through all three passes and back at WH for final edits to be applied.
7. Tramp Royale - is working through some last typesetting issues - like discussions on including the map tracing the Heinleins' journeys around the world.
8. Screenplay 1 - transcribed, still needs typesetting.
9. Screenplay 2 - this one is still on my to do list for transcribing since some of the pages are almost impossible - see image below.
10. Requiem - We have decided to add a table of contents for the whole collection here - so until we are almost finished this one sits on the side lines.

I would like to poll you all on several questions (if you would like to respond):

[I will also send this out in email to all subscribers. Please suggest questions you think may be helpful towards a goal of understanding the demographics of the Heinlein community.]

1. Age
2. In which country do you reside?
3. If USA, which state, if not skip?
4. Gender
5. What industry do you work in?
6. How did you hear about the Virginia Edition Collection?
1. Internet
2. Print advertisement
3. Word of mouth
4. Heinlein Centennial
5. Other – please specify

Sean and I were also asked to work on a travelling Heinlein exhibit to be used both in more traditional museum installments, but also for trade fairs and the like. I would appreciate some ideas for exhibits. Here are some I have come up with so far:

1. The poem “Dance Session,” Virginia Heinlein’s skates, a letter from RAH to VG with a doodle of her ice skating
2. Manuscript of article: “Appointment in Space”/ “All Aboard the Gemini,” Popular Mechanics May 1963 (turned to page 112 or after)
3. Photograph(s) from the archives of the V2 launch, Article “Journey of Death”
4. Heinlein’s computer with a MS or letters or something
5. Heinlein’s camera with original photos and blow-ups thereof
6. Props and photos from Destination Moon - specifically the picture of Ginny and RAH on set (although I think we only have a newspaper clipping), include the article “Shooting Destination Moon”
7. The Rolling Stones TV script for Star Trek: “The Trouble with Tribbles.” (Opus #92?), props or shots from the episode
8. Heinlein’s Hugo’s along with copies of MS or paperback or hardcover of the winners and a description/background of the Hugos