Cover Arty

So apparently, even though the artist said that she was really excited about the cover art project, she doesn't want to touch it. She hasn't responded to me, and hasn't shown me anything even though she said she would a week ago. It doesn't have to be done anytime REALLY soon, but since she is AWOL to me...the project is now up for grabs. I have no desire to deal with someone who can't at least respond with an update even if it's just to tell me to shut up and be patient. Especially if that person is going to post all over tumblr about their new projects...clearly if you're on tumblr you have been on the internet. And probably checked your email and ask box. So I know you've seen my email and ask box comment. I'm not stupid.

So anyway....that's a pickle. I need a new artist who will actually take it seriously.

My Editor

So, im pretty sure that my editor was sleep deprived when he edited chapter two....

Lot's of places, he changed my wording, and then later said that it was awkwardly worded. Well, it was only awkwardly worded AFTER he changed it. And he tried to re-word direct quotes!!! I'm afraid to look at chapter three...

On the one hand, this means that I have a lot less to change about chapter two than it appears. Less stress right? WRONG!!! Now I'm worried that in his sleep deprivation, he missed things that needed editing while editing things that were perfectly fine!

I know, a lot of people will say, "then edit your own stuff!" Except that normally he does a wonderful editing job and I don't have any complaints.

GET SOME SLEEP CHRIS!!!!

Chapter Three Preview - detailed

"According to the historian Romila Thapar, the Sanskrit used to write the Rigveda is closer in comparison to Avesta, the language of East Iran in which the Zoroastrian text named for the language is written. This suggests that the Rigveda is much younger than the archaic Hittite-Mittani treaty, a treaty between the Suppiluliuma and Shattiwaza people between 1425-1275 BCE. Unfortunately, historians David Frawley and Georg Fuerstein pointed out that the Rigveda mentions the Saraswati – a river that dried before 1900 BCE. Satellite studies have shown that the Saraswati river actually dried up completely by 1750 BCE, but at that time there was already a desert in that region of Afghanistan. The Rigveda does not mention a desert – in fact one is not mentioned until the Brahmana books 500-1000 years later – so the date for the Rigveda must be before 1750 BCE. Despite the various arguments, the generally accepted date is 1900 BCE. "


CHAPTER 3 PREVIEW

Easy

"everything is easy when you think you poop rainbows."

-Me

Google Translate Saves My Ass

So...today Google translate and screenshot both saved my butt. Once, i found a translation of a hymn from a Veda...but i wanted to include the original Sanskrit as well. You know what I found out really fast? Microsoft word doesn't recognize most of the characters in the Sanskrit language (spelled phonetically, not the symbols that resemble Hindi). So I had to go to the website I found it on, zoom my browser in, take a screenshot, open it in Photoshop, crop it down to just the Sanskrit, and include it in the book as an image.

THEN...i was writing about a historical figure and his contributions, and when I clicked a link for the text of one of his works i found the page was completely in french. Fortunately, Google offered to automatically translate it for me, so not only was I able to include the french, but also the English for the sake of the readers. I don't know about you, but I don't speak your moonman language.

Vedic history

So...on page two of chapter three. There must not be that many people in the world interested in the middle eastern alchemical traditions, or perhaps too many...for some reason its a lot harder to nail down dates than it was for china and egypt. Why do you think that is?

In any case, the journey has taken me back to the days of the Vedas, to study their contents (interestingly comparable to Chinese alchemical traditions...). Endlessly mystifying and interesting, but SO HARD to get through and record in an organized way.

Today, I began work on chapter three. Having finished the first two chapters with relative ease, I expected this chapter to be just as simple. Unfortunately, I seem to have reached a region of the world where the history of alchemy is complicated and all tied up in religion, and no one can be sure where exactly the traditions originally stemmed from.

To my future readers: a teaser for chapter three - This complicated region of the world is the Middle East!

There is just so much to learn about alchemy...I didn't realize how much I would be learning about the world in general. But it seems I will come out of this experience with much more knowledge about the eastern cultures than I ever thought to have! Good thing its more fun than studying for exams in a class on the subject....