Behind the Times - My times, that is.

I should've written this last week, 'cause last week's when I finished the novel.  But then, today is the day I got my first feedback on the whole novel.  Today, someone has actually read the whole thing, and it was apparently an enjoyable experience.  The feedback was mostly positive, which isn't bad for a full 1st draft, & there's not that much work to do anyway.
Phew!
The illustrations went down well, and my supervisor can't see any reason why I shouldn't include them in the final submission - especially if I mention that people always love illustrating Lovecraft, & while the novel is by no means Lovecraftian, it sorta is.  Of course, the subject of Lovecraftian-inspired artwork would be enough for a PhD in itself, it will be fun to explore.  Of course, it's all to do with the fact everything's unspeakable & ineffable and that is such a temptation to go about cementing it with some kind of imagery.
So, I'm reasonably satisfied with the novel, though everything I left out is enough material for several novels more :-)  Very tempting. There are some things not strong enough, one or two plot lines not neatly sewn up at the end, but it's strange they weren't mentioned.  But strange.  And one or two things that need strengthening weren't in the comments either.
Of course, a couple of things that I didn't realize were - though I was aware of one clumsy bit.


This was one of the attempts at a cover I did.  Not finished as the pages of the book are blank, & I didn't do it to the correct size, but I still kinda like it.

Cover_1_unfinished

Pictures - it's not a kid's book.  Will I be confusing the as-yet unknown markers?  Will they fuss & complain if I include pictures?  I'm going to!  I'm intending to illustrate the exegesis as well, though will have to get someone to take really good photos of artwork down outside the computer as it were.  The illustrations for the novel have been done on a graphics tablet so reproduction isn't a problem (though their longevity is - I don't think I can afford to get them printed on acid free paper and even that is not, apparently, a guarantee of longevity as far as digital print goes.  Rather sad, that.).

It feels strange having finished the thing and knowing that, apart from polishing, it is in itself complete.  I like that feeling, but in the week since, I've been keying in the bibliography for the exegesis, and isn't that a sobering thing to be doing.  Not much time for celebrating.

But, that's it for the time being.  & I think I'm only writing this entry 'cause it took me all night to get a thing to reset my password for Google.  They weren't going to let me back into my account & it was pissing me off mightily.

And I'm doing the nanowrimo thing again this year.  Not sure I should be, but I can't be spending all my time reading Kant! I'm up to 15000 words (the nanothing, not the exegesis - or even Kant, let alone Bakhtin, or Foucault....), and I'm entertaining myself.  What else is it for :-)