Jo Walton ([info]papersky) wrote,
@ 2004-09-13 10:39:00
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Typos in Tooth and Claw
I've just been sent the paperback proofs, on a really short deadline.

Did anyone notice any typos, errors, mistakes or other things that can be easily fixed for the paperback. (Thomas? Anyone?)

If so, post here with page numbers and I'll do my best to catch them.

Waahhh!

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[info]jinian
2004-09-13 01:19 pm UTC (link)
I don't remember any that bothered me much, and I'm very picky. How short is this deadline? I'd be happy to get a copy from the library to go over, but that takes about three days. Should I place a hold? (Absolutely no trouble, a joy to read it again.)

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[info]papersky
2004-09-13 02:49 pm UTC (link)
It needs to be in New York by Wednesday, so thanks for the offer, but never mind.

I've read it through and I haven't found any... I'm the world's worst proofreader, I read too fast and I can't force myself to slow down enough.

I liked, it, reading it this time. It's like Trollope, with dragons. It made me smile.

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[info]adrian_turtle
2004-09-13 01:25 pm UTC (link)
I adored _Tooth and Claw_, and didn't notice any typos when I read it. (Of course, I read it during Arisia.) Your readers seem very unlike the character in the Ruth Rendell story I was reading on the bus this morning, "Piranha to Scurfy." You probably ought not to read it this week, (in the same spirit that pregnant women ought not read _Barrayar_.)

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[info]papersky
2004-09-13 02:51 pm UTC (link)
Tell me about it.

The number of people I have not killed with the OED at one time or another runs into triple figures.

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[info]boxofdelights
2004-09-13 03:58 pm UTC (link)
I have to read very slowly to look for typos, so I've only got to page 58, but it's very clean so far. There are places where I would add a comma, but they seem more like stylistic differences than errors.

On page 15: Also present in a serving capacity was the family's old retainer Amer, whose wings were fastened down, to be sure, but through long trust and casual habit of the family, scarcely tighter than those of a parson.

I would put a comma after but.

On page 55: Thus Penn ordered his wife to be lectured, and permitted her, if she chose to side with his patroness against him.

I would put a comma after chose.

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[info]readwrite
2004-09-13 08:00 pm UTC (link)
I definitely agree with you on the second instance, but in the first, that sort of construction is generally allowed these days, so as to avoid overpunctuation (", but,").

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aha!
[info]boxofdelights
2004-09-13 08:58 pm UTC (link)
I have found an error!

Page 60: Now she mentioned it, he would have been sacrificing himself for his sisters, and although he did not forget that he need not have quite given up his hopes and that the safety of the position had also been a factor in his considerations. He allowed those to recede into the back of his mind and enjoyed his sister's admiration as she made much of him.

The first sentence doesn't work. I think these were meant to be one sentence, with a comma after considerations.

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[info]thomasyan
2004-09-13 10:15 pm UTC (link)
Alas, I am way behind on my reading. I have not read _Curse of Chalion_, _The Lord of Castle Black_, or the latest Laurell K Hamilton book(s). I expect within a year or so I will miss reading so much that I will get back to reading at least one book a month if not one book a week, but so far this year I have read only two or so new-to-me books. (I have reread or reskimmed a few dozen books.) One was _Home Buying for Dummies_.

In fact, I just posted a whine to my LJ about how I do not know how to lay out my basement. Suggestions are welcome!

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[info]boxofdelights
2004-09-14 11:03 am UTC (link)
Page 91: "Well, it's about time you did see, and stopped giving yourself airs, Little Eminence v--." It's your problem because when Avan gets back, if he does, he won't have a position here and I'll be taking over his responsibilities, and that includes your pretty--"

There's an extra " right after the v--.

Hey, if I drive you from Flagstaff to Tempe and back, will you tell me what the dragon obscenities are?

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[info]papersky
2004-09-14 11:45 am UTC (link)
I'll tell you now -- they aren't anything, but several people have come up with very cool guesses.

Trollope uses dashes, generally without a letter but sometimes with. In Is He Popenjoy? there's a word spoken, which we are supposed to be horrified by, and which is never given in the text. It's supposed to be an excuse for a father knocking down a sick man when he hears it used about his daughter.

Anyway, about this point, I decided that where Trollope was saying ---- and expecting me to read "damn" or "hell" I was going to read "fuck", because that would actually seem shocking, in the text, where "hell" wouldn't. And where that word was, which the footnotes suggest is supposed to be "harlot", well... you know, it's always perfectly obvious what they mean, emotionally, more so than if there were some antique swear-word there.

So I decided to make my dragons swear blanks with letters for which there were no appropriate words, such as v--- and g---. (The "G" word also comes from Jethro Tull's Thick as a Brick.)

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Last bit!
[info]boxofdelights
2004-09-14 10:08 pm UTC (link)
On page 187: He sat restlessly and at time came to be more at ease with the place through sheer boredom.

Should that be in time?

Page 197: ”How are you? Is there any news.”

I would expect a question mark.

Page 249: Missing close quote at the end of ”I do feel much better. I will see them, then they can play with your dragonets and I shall write to dear Londaver telling him to come to Irieth as fast as his wings will bring him.

I'm done!

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Re: Last bit!
[info]papersky
2004-09-15 07:43 am UTC (link)
You're a hero.

I've just sent all of this to Tor, and you can feel assured that the paperback will have them fixed.

Thank you so much for doing this.

I didn't catch any of the ones you caught. I found a place where I should have added another word for clarity, and two fruit names I considered changing but decided not to.

I definitely owe you a drink or something!

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)
Re: Last bit!
[info]boxofdelights
2004-09-15 08:21 pm UTC (link)
Oh, I love this book. And I consider any little thing I can do to help you bring your books into the world an honor. Seriously.

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