12:25 am - draft.
My brain has melted into goo, my spellinges maye neuer recouer, and I'll be speaking in run-on sentences for the next seventeen years, by which time I may hope by the grace of God to have finished one . . . but I have a draft.
And if I never have to see the phrase "the said X" EVER AGAIN, it'll be too soon.
I just wish I could see my publicist's face when he tries to read this thing. He told me to get as Elizabethan as I could; I don't know if he realized that meant using twenty-seven words where five would do, all of them spelled with extraneous e's and y's and a total disregard for the distinction between u and v.
There may need to be a revision of this tomorrow.
But that can wait for tomorrow.
01:32 pm - mini-contest! also emergency!
Now I need someone with calligraphy skills.
The challenge is this: e-mail me an image of Invidiana's signature. Think sixteenth-century handwriting (see icon) as done by a cold, heartless, Machiavellian faerie queen.
I'll pick my favorite and send it to my publicist. In return, you'll receive a copy of Midnight Never Come, plus (if I can wangle it out of him) a contract written in period language, on parchment paper, sealed in wax, possibly with a raven feather, with that signature and Elizabeth's written at the bottom. (It's a promotional doohickey they're putting together for the book, and if it turns out the way we've been describing it to each other, it's going to look awesome.)
Deadline is 10 p.m EST tomorrow (Saturday). Sorry for the short notice, but this whole thing is happening very abruptly; they need to print these things on Sunday. You can send me a scan or a digital photo (if it's steady and clear enough), or create it directly in a graphics program; whatever works for you. Address for submissions is marie dot brennan at gmail dot com.
I don't know if there are enough calligraphy/good handwriting types here to make this work -- turned out I know too few artists for the "Baby Got Back" contest to happen -- but I'm hoping so.
