The BrassPotato

July 14, 2006

Post #2002 – 20060714

With all of your super creativity and numerous masterpieces, do you remember all of the various characters, places, names, or objects you have created for your books? For example, would you be able to pinpoint which book my pseudonym comes from, or “state 26,” or “Colonel Ken Krenwinkle?” And no, this is not a test. I’m just curious as to whether or not you retain every name you’ve spawned.

Currently rereading your stuff for the nth time, and some details caused a reaction of “oh yeah, I forgot about that.”

Have a great summer.

Daniel replies:

Yes, very much so--and no, very much so. Here's an example. Early on in this book-writing stunt I worked with an editor who would just take pages of my manuscript and retype them, with things changed to the way she thought they should be, without telling me, and then return her pages in place of mine for the next stage of editing.. (A disgusting and improper practice, in my opinion, and I have never encountered it again). To make it more complicated, she had the exact same type font, and her pages looked exactly like mine--in fact I thought they were mine. So I would just take my pencil and correct what I thought were my own errors. I found out about the editor's sneaky rewriting practice when she said to me, ""I don't know why I bother! I rewrite page after page for you, and then you go ahead and change every single thing back to the way it originally was."" I have the feeling I would do the same thing to a manuscript 20 years old. But I am not quite sure where the brass potato from the Moon, or maybe Mars, is mentioned.