Ebooks & Warlocks

[Elder Geek]

I've read nearly every one of your books, & I believe I found the last few I haven't yet a week or so back. I hope to have them in hand in a week or so.

I have been trying to get your collected works in ebook format, but as you know the pickings are slim. If Ortho is interested in any help with cleaning up copy so it is presentable in ebook format, please let me know. I have worked my way painstakingly, carefully, and with great attention to detail through 1/2 dozen of your works that are available from the usual "alternate" sources, trying to make them worth reading on my iPads & Kindle. (I was the oldest child of two journalism graduates. Among the earliest lessons of life I learned, right behind "Look both ways" and "Don't take candy from strangers", was this one, always emoted with a combination of dread and absolute certainty: "Never, EVER proofread your own work.") Unfortunately, the source files often contain unmitigated garbage (uncorrected OCR is a cancer on both authors and readers) such that entire sentences or paragraphs cannot be deciphered.

Those parts would require Ortho (or someone like him) to reconstruct your words from original sources, as I have only a dozen or so in printed form.

But at the very least I can send you vastly cleaner source material for ebooks than is generally available for roughly 12-14 books of yours.

If not? C'est la vie!

The first book I bought (at age 5) was Heinlein's "Have Space Suit, Will Travel", and I haven't stopped reading since. Hell, for that matter, my velocity kept increasing for the next 20 years. I read at least 3-5 books a week (usually more), and have done so for the past 40 of my 60 years. In that time I've read many books more than once, but that number is still a small fraction of the total number of books I've read.

The only books of yours that I've only read once are the last three I found...but give me a break, it's early yet.

May you enjoy retirement for the blessing it is, and I thank you most sincerely for all the happiness you've given me for so many years.

[Ortho the Frank]

Wow, yes! That would be a huge help! I'm currently cleaning up The Witch Doctor (with kf6eml's help), but I think we're planning on a Warlock book next. Just out of curiosity, which ebook manuscripts have you proofread?

Thank you so much in advance!

[kf6eml]

Ditto!
It would be great to get a team to get all of these books converted.
Time is always the problem - What with work, the wife, and any number of other things, getting all of this done isn't easy.
Too, I have no .dtf* copies of most of Dr. Stasheff's books with me, so fixing OCR errors is difficult if not impossible. It's up to Ortho to get that straightened out.
I should have more time soon, though: I go in for back surgery in March, so I imagine I'll be home recovering for a few days. Fingers crossed...
On top of that, every good artist I've lined up has the same problem: No time! I'd love to be able to put together a book and add cover art, but it just isn't happening.

(*.dtf = "dead tree format")

[Ortho the Frank]

Hmm. We usually pay our cover artists around $50 or so for an ebook cover. That might provide an extra incentive for your artists friends. If so, have them get in touch with me (my email is in the Members section), and I'll add them to my artist list for cover art feeler emails.

Thanks again, kf6eml!
... and good luck with the back surgery.

[cstasheff]

I'll second that. Don't know what we would do without you, Kf6eml!

[Elder Geek]

Yikes. Sorry I'm late responding, but as happens quite often, Life intervened.

Ortho: Below is my current list of proofed ebook files. Please note that some of them were hastily done (because I wanted to read the damn things!), while others were very thoroughly vetted. Before presenting any of them (in the event you are interested) I will make a quick pass through to verify the quality of the results.

Escape Velocity
The Warlock In Spite of Himself
The Secular Wizard
The Witch Doctor
The Oath Bound Wizard
A Wizard in Mind
A Wizard in Bedlam
A Wizard in War
A Wizard in Peace
A Wizard in Midgard
A Wizard in Chaos
A Wizard in the Way
A Wizard and a Warlord
A Wizard in a Feud

Please let me know if you are interested in any of the above. Give me 48 hours to run through any book you wish to see (so as to reduce my chance of embarrassing myself) and I will send whatever strikes your fancy.

All of these are currently in EPUB format, although the majority of them are also stored in TXT or RTF formats. If you desire a copy in a particular format just let me know, since I stay current with Calibre for ebook conversion and management.

[kf6eml]

I like the new guy

[Ortho the Frank]

Oh... wow. Yes, that will definitely help us speed up the process! I'm currently working on The Witch Doctor. A proofed copy of The Secular Wizard to convert next would be very helpful! There's no rush, though - I won't get done with Witch Doctor until the end of March at the earliest.

So yeah, sometime between now and then, if you could email me your proofed copy of Secular (in both .epub and .rtf, if that's possible), it would be greatly appreciated! (you can find my email in the Members section).

[Elder Geek]

No problem, Ortho (and thanks kf6eml). I'll go over The Secular Wizard again & forward you both EPUB and RTF versions before the end of the month.

And a small "whew!" of relief that you didn't request them in a few days, as Life is currently intervening in ways far more blatant than usual.

"It's not that I mind that The Universe has a sense of humor, I'm just tired of being the butt of Her jokes."
(Me, c. 1983)