Editing with a Kindle

by
Scott D. Parker

In advance of the release of THE PHANTOM AUTOMOBILES next week, I did a thing I’ve heard about: read the book on my Kindle Paperwhite.

It’s really a no-brainer when you think about it. A Paperwhite will likely be the primary device through which PHANTOM is consumed. Mobile phones are next on that list. I have my Kobo Glo and my Nook SimpleTouch, but if you read it on one device like that—a dedicated e-reader, my preferred device for reading—you’ve read it on all of them.

Besides, the Kindle Paperwhite has one killer feature: you can take notes AND export said notes. You can take notes on the other devices but you cannot get them off the reader. Paperwhite makes a “MyClippings.txt” file where you notes go. It wasn’t until I downloaded that file—via connecting the Kindle to my Mac—that I realized the files contains *all* notes in all books. No big deal, but I still had to search for “Phantom” before I found the list of notes.

Mind you, I’ve edited this book, my editor gave it a thorough review, and I implemented all the changes. I still found over a hundred things to change. Some of it was further tightening of the story (kill your darlings, right?). Others was me realizing passages often flowed better with further modification. So I’m making them and the book should hit virtual shelves by the end of the month.

Comicpalooza

This Memorial Day weekend, Comicpalooza lands in Houston. I went on my first of three days yesterday and brought home a modest haul. I found some pins related to the FLASH TV show, a nice, bright, gaudy, really orange Aquaman t-shirt, and the following paper items.

The Phantom Detective is a facsimile edition complete with the ads. The Batman title further completes my collection of those titles (I already had the 50s and the 70s) while the Man-Thing volume (#1) helps me understand the stories in #2 that I already owned.

The Detective Fiction Weekly pulp is original, dated 21 March 1931. It ain’t in great condition but I didn’t buy it for that. I bought it to read. You’ll notice there’s an Erle Stanley Gardner story in there, a Sidney Zoom yard. I’m not familiar with him, but there is a pricy, out-of-price collection of Zoom stories out there. They had another issue with a Gardner cover story—Lester Leith—but at a much higher price. The dealer had a few Doc Savages, including the original #5 tale, Pirate of the Pacific, but I didn’t get it. But I might tomorrow. It’s a rather tempting pull for me.