Thursday, July 8, 2010

Dates And Updates

I'll start with the updates.

My mother's in the hospital. I haven't gotten over to see her yet, but my understanding is from my brother (who came over yesterday to see what was going on, and got stuck with the emergency room duty)that she has pneumonia, which seems to have been caught nice and early. We practically had to convince the paramedics to take her to the hospital in the first place, and the general feeling seems to be that my mother is strong and healthy and will make a complete recovery.

I can't say the past few days have been harrowing, but they have been difficult. And now that my brother has spent hours and hours and hours in the emergency room, I can't even play Martyr Martyr I'm The Biggest Martyr with him, which is kind of a shame, since that's practically my favorite game in the world.

Today is (I think) the last day the book trailer will be playing in the movie theaters, so it will go unseen by me (Yonkers never did move closer to me). I'll restate a request I made in a comment. If anyone here knows how to burn a DVD from the book trailer, either on youtube or AOL or Amazon or anyplace else for that matter, could you let me know how? I figure if I watch the book trailer on my gigantic TV set, it'll be almost as exciting as seeing it in a movie theater (I'll even make popcorn).

I heard from my editor yesterday morning about the rewrites on Blood Wounds.She had a handful of small questions and one really good catch. Somewhere in her email, the word "wonderful" was used. I forget in what context, but I don't think it was in reference to the weather. She said the manuscript would come back from copy editing in about a month, so I have a month not to think about it.

I also heard from Harcourt Houghton Mifflin that the paperback of This World We Live In is scheduled for publication in Spring 2011. I find this somewhat interesting, since the paperbacks for both Life As We Knew It and The Dead And The Gone were 18 months after hardcover publication, and TWWLI will be one year after instead. I have no problem with this.

I asked my editor if there was an official pub date for Blood Wounds, but she hasn't gotten back to me about that. The last I heard it was set for Fall 2011 and it probably still is. When I know for sure, I'll let you know.

Okay. I'd better eat an early lunch so I can get my hair cut and pop in on my mother.

Life is nothing if not complex!

15 comments:

Nina said...

We will keep your mom in our thoughts!

Fear Death By Water said...

Try this:

Step 1: Download the Internet Video to your hard disk in Flash Video FLV format using any of the free software programs like Orbit Downloader or an online Video conversion service like Vixy.net.

Step 2: Download free DVD authoring software called DVD Flick - it takes all your videos in a batch, encodes (converts into a DVD format) and burns a DVD that can play inside any DVD player (region-free) or even your computer.

DVD Flick lets you add Titles, subtitles and audio tracks to your Video DVD. Alternatively, you can use Nero, Roxio or Alcohol to create DVD of web videos but they are not free like DVD Flick.


hope it works

Also I'm off to visit my own dad in the hospital. He's sick and no one knows exactly what's wrong. Hope all goes better for you.

Susan Beth Pfeffer said...

Hi Nina and Fear Death By Water-

First of all, thanks to both of you. I visited my mother this afternoon, and except for the fact that she refused to eat lunch, she seemed much much better.

Here's hoping all our parents make swift and complete recoveries.

I think I can almost understand those instructions. I'll let you know if I can actually make them work!

Mr. Cavin said...

RE: the DVD. If Fear Death By Water's instructions don't work out (and it seems to me that you may need the proper DVD burning hardware installed inside your computer already to do this--but I might be reading him wrong), try this:

call your publisher, and ask them to have the marketing department send you a DVD. This has worked for me several times when I have wanted personal copies of the short films commercial businesses have been recently financing to sell products (like arty commercials. BMW put out six or so about eight or nine years ago, each by a different very reputable director, for example). This method may work for anybody interested, by the way. These marketing departments really want people to see their things, after all.

Mr. Cavin said...

RE: your mom. Glad things seem to be looking up. Hospitals are bummer places to have to spend any time at all, so I hope she gets to go home soon.

Susan Beth Pfeffer said...

Good morning Mr. Cavin-

What a sensible suggestion about simply asking for a DVD of the book trailer. If I fail at my attenpts to make my own, I will definitely do that (I may do it anyway, since it would be better quality).

I have a call in to the hospital to see how my mother is doing. I'll see for myself soon enough when I visit, but I figured I'd try for official word first.

Anonymous said...

I wish you and your mother all the best.

Glen

Susan Beth Pfeffer said...

Hi Glen and thank you.

I should be going over to visit my mother in an hour or so, and I'll convey everyone's good wishes to her (she'll get a kick out of it).

Rachel said...

I hope that your mother gets all better again, and stays that way!

Anonymous said...

Your mother is in my thoughts and prayers. :)

--Courtney

Friendly Neighbourhood Bookseller said...

Hope your mom kicks the illness, Susan. My mother is also in hospital...heart problems...but she is on the Isle of Man while I am stuck here in Ireland. Le sigh. Hopefully both of them get better soon.

Susan Beth Pfeffer said...

Hi Courtney and Friendly Neighbourhood Bookseller-

I just got off the phone with my brother who called our mother. He said she sounds great.

I'll be over this afternoon to check things out for myself.

Thank you again for your good wishes. All of you who have family medical issues are in my thoughts as well.

Anonymous said...

A little worried since we haven't heard from you in a few days. I hope your mom is feeling much better and that you've just been busy writing.

WandaV

Susan Beth Pfeffer said...

Hi WandaV (and everyone else)-

I brought my mother home from the hospital today, but I'm not sure how things are going (or will go).

It's been a very hard couple of weeks. I'll probably post tomorrow when I have a better sense of things.

My mother very much appreciated everyone's wishes, thoughts, and prayers, and so did I. Thank you all for your concern.

Nora said...

I hope everything goes well.