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DR KENT RASMUSSEN <[log in to unmask]>
Thu, 17 Nov 1994 00:26:39 EST
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Taylor,
  I hope that this message reaches you. Prodigy has just
started offering on-line Internet messaging (in contrast to
its previous system of launching such messages off-line,
then going on-line to transmit them). Anyway, a couple of
quick notes:
  First, a reassurance for what it's worth, that my review
of the audiotape books is still coming. My problem has been
total physical exhaustion since I started commuting to my
new job in September. Every day I vow to come home and get
this review (and other work) done, but every night it's the
same thing: a slow fade until I reach my fail-safe point and
go to bed. Weekends always look promising, but after
catching up on my rest and family obligations, I suddenly
find that it's Sunday night and I'm right back where I
started. The dumb thing is that the review has been
essentially written for months; all that remains is
reorganizing and polishing it (which I have been working
on). I should warn you, BTW, that it's long ... very long.
However, I believe that you once said that an advantage of
on-line reviews is that length needn't be limited. I should
also reassure you, however, that I range rather widely on
the subject of audiotaped books (while not neglecting the
designated titles at all). I think that readers will find
what I have to say to be of great interest. I'm not trying
to make the thing humorous, but I think it will be regarded
as a _fun_ review. If I don't deliver it to you by Sunday
night, feel free to nag at me severely.
  Oh, a little technical point while I think of it: I don't
have ISBNs for any of these tapes. The information doesn't
appear on the tapes, their packages (I have the rental boxes
for the Books on Tape cassettes), or their catalogs.
  Next subject: MTAZ, which I gather you have by now. I
don't know what Kevin told you about that manuscript, so
I'll fill in a few details. First, it belatedly occurred to
me that if I am to get that ms. into the hands of SLC
specialists while I still have a chance to make corrections,
I had better do it double-quick. Last week I sent Kevin my
only set of double-column pages and had him duplicate them
on back-to-back pages (I still haven't seen such a set
myself, BTW). I asked him to send copies to a number of
people including you.
  First, let me say that I expect nothing in return from
you, though I naturally will welcome any comments or
corrections that you care to pass on. I figured that you
would enjoy seeing the ms. and might find it useful (the
book is now scheduled to appear next August). I appreciate
your work in running the forum, so I'm happy to be able to
do something for you.
  The master copy of the ms. is at Facts On File, where it
is being copyedited. I expect to receive the entire edited
ms. at the end of the month, and I'll have until Christmas
to get it back to FOF with my response to the editing.
December will thus be my last opportunity to make changes in
the ms. At this point all I can really do is delete unhappy
passages and make minor textual corrections. It's absolutely
too late to add new entries or make major revisions (of
course, I'm painfully aware of the book's significant
omissions). Even so, I have no doubt that there are many
errors waiting to be found (in fact, I'm aware of a bunch of
them that I acciden- tally overlooked in my rush to get the
ms. off in August). I expect that the publisher's copyeditor
will find most of the typos & minor stylistic problems.
OBTW, if it isn't clear in the ms. package, the book will
have nearly 150 illustrations & a map of the USA. I hope
that you enjoy reading the thing.  More later,   Kent

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