It’s here… almost!

Master Digital Color is almost here, we saw advanced copies today.  Overall, it looks really good.  A couple tiny glitches that they are going to try to fix before the mass printing but it looks pretty good if I do say so myself.

Ya know, I have to admit that this book writing process is hard on Brian & I.  Of course, the time, gathering the materials, figuring out what to say is hard but that’s not what I’m talking about.  Read one of Brian’s column’s then read mine, go on I’ll wait….

Did you notice anything different in our writing styles?  Ok, stop laughing, I get it, he writes like a professional with pretty language, transitions, a theme, and a point.  I rarely have any of those things.  I say what’s in my head and move on.  Brian (wisely) thinks before he types (or speaks), I don’t–ever. Now take that bit of knowledge and try to co-author two books.

For the first book we divided up chapters, he wrote about certain topics and so did I, mostly what we deal with every day.  I started writing the flatting chapter and the end chapter on running a business.  I also did the homework for all chapters since I might as well use those teaching degrees I have.   He wrote the rest… ok, if you are doing a page count he wrote more, a LOT more but who’s really counting.

Oh, one other little thing I should mention.  I tend to procrastinate, no it’s true, I will wait until the very last hour before I write anything, prepare anything, or even do anything.  Then I rush around, cussing and barely get it in on time.  Then I sit back and think about how well I did… then I look at Brian who’s about to pop a vessel.  He does not work that way.  He likes to have a list, check things off as early as possible, then gather his thoughts before we present or write or whatever.  Now, again, think about these two styles coming together to write books (and give all those presentations we give together!) It’s amazing our marriage has survived.

Anyway, back to book one (Hi-Fi Color for Comics incase you missed it.) So, he has like four chapters written and is sweetly nagging me to do the homework for those and show him the chapter on flatting.  I, of course, hadn’t written word one and honestly, hadn’t read what he’s written even though he asked me to proof it and see what I thought.  Man, I’m a bad person when you write it all out like this…

So, the eleventh hour arrives and we are to turn in the first part of the book and Brian says here’s all my stuff why don’t you look over it and make sure your homework sections aren’t doubling up on art or anything.  He then asks to see my chapters to make sure we didn’t overlap there.  I said something like, ok I’m busy here let’s do this tonight when I have more time.  (Of course it was a ploy, haven’t you been paying attention? I had done close to nothing by this point!) So by the end of the day I actually read his stuff so that I could eliminate things to write.  But what I discovered is that my chapters were going to stick out like a sore thumb, I mean his stuff was good and positive and flow-y.  The couple pages I had written were harsh, to the point, and written practically in first person.  I was in BIG trouble.  I did have a couple of homework ideas that I had filled away so I whipped those out and put them in the appropriate places.

At the end of the day I confessed to my slacking (no he was not surprised) and to my lack of writing skills.  I told him I would give him my notes/thoughts and he could write them so that they flowed with the rest of the book.  (I know that sounds like me dumping on him… wait until you read about book two!)  Honestly, I was concerned.  As I’ve mentioned many times I read a ton of books and I hate it when it seems like it was written by two people.  It really needs to have one voice no matter what or the reader gets confused.  Long story short, he re-wrote most of the flatting section and between the editor (thanks Amy!) and him you couldn’t tell I’d initially screwed it up.  In some of the homework sections, you will be reading along and realize that it doesn’t sound like the rest of the book.  I think they left it in there because they felt sorry for me and wanted me to have a least five words in a row that didn’t need to be edited.   As for the chapter on the business side of things, I tried my best and most of it was left as my own words.  There was some editing by Brian & Amy but I managed to complete it almost by myself.

Overall, Hi-Fi Color for Comics turned out great.  The biggest typo in the book was, of course, in my section but c’est la vie.

Fast forward and we get the gig to write the second book, Master Digital Color.  This time I know I’m useless ahead of time–that saves us a lot of problems.   I wrote very little of this book, instead I did what I do best.  I corralled, I got different artists to let us use there artwork, I handled all that paperwork, I gave ideas and opinions (but I didn’t have to write them down, whoopee!) I also did the homework.  Ok, fine it was the very last thing turned in and I waited until the final seconds before completing it but I DID do it.  Brian did everything else.

Brian must have appreciated my hands-off approach too, he dedicated the book to me and I didn’t even know it until I saw the copy!  What a sweetie (sniff.)

Kristy Miller

VP, Development

Hi-Fi colour design