Comments on: Finch Finished: Killing Deadlines

By: Will Hindmarch

Will Hindmarch — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 17:45:33 +0000

Mazel tov, sir.

By: James

James — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 17:21:34 +0000

Congrats. But where are the Finch coasters?

By: jeff vandermeer

jeff vandermeer — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 15:19:03 +0000

yeah, I need to get more details on the limited. haven’t seen the one for Evenson yet.

By: Seth Merlo

Seth Merlo — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 15:03:15 +0000

Congrats, Jeff. Really looking for to it and saving my pennies for Underland’s ltd hb :o)

By: J M McDermott

J M McDermott — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 14:35:20 +0000

Congratulations!

We’re all waiting with pitchforks and torches outside the bookstores.

I am, anyway. And, they’re all looking at me, funny.

By: Bill Ectric

Bill Ectric — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 14:02:17 +0000

Jeff, you should be commended for employing the Jack Sparrow approach. A deadline is like the pirate’s code, “really more what you’d call guidelines than actual rules.”

By: Marty Stephenson

Marty Stephenson — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 06:57:54 +0000

Gratz! Looking forward to the read and once again thanks for the writing process insights. Platypus! (Sorry, but it is Friday here still).

By: Larry

Larry — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 06:43:06 +0000

Drats! There goes my plan for starting a snarky LJ called “Finish the Book, Jeff!” :P

Congrats on getting it done and getting it done to your satisfaction. That’s what matters, no?

By: Dan Read

Dan Read — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 04:50:43 +0000

Congratulations, Jeff. I look forward to buying and reading it, and supporting Underland in the process.

FWIW, my opinion on the deadline thing is that there is a certain amount of leeway that editors and publishers of fiction should expect to provide an author. Authors should do their best, but creation is not a purely mechanistic process. Companies that make their living buy marketing the works of artists should expect to make room for certain irregularities in the output of artists. On the other hand, if you’ve been hired to write a Batman novel and agree to a deadline, an editor would not be unreasonable to hold you to it. But something totally original that you’re are dredging out of your depths? Of course, there are blown deadlines, and then there are blown deadlines…yours seems well within the limits to me. :-)

So I vote, yes, professional indeed–proven doubly so by your desire to improve, and your conscientiousness about it in the first place. My guess is you never went dark on your editor.

Celebrate with a beer for me, Jeff! My current favorite treat is Victory Storm King. Yummy.

By: Zak Jarvis

Zak Jarvis — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 04:33:23 +0000

I’m totally chomping at the bit to read it. I heard you read from it back during Clarion in San Diego, and the book is SO VERY up my ally it’s like you wrote it just for MEEEEEEEE!