And So It Begins

Newsgroup post, March 4, 2006:

With the kids out of the house, the place doesn’t get messed up much. This means Julie actually has these silly fantasies about someday getting everything cleaned up and sorted out.

We had to move a bunch of boxes to install the new water heater, including one that had been partially soaked by the leak that precipitated the departure of the old water heater, and then they had to stay out of the way until the WSSC inspector came to approve the installation. That meant that those boxes were sitting out in the basement den, taunting Julie.

So we’ve actually started going through some of this old stuff, reorganizing it, throwing out the obvious trash, etc.

And we’re stumbling across stuff that has us wondering, “What the heck should we do with this?”

For example, there are four manuscripts here — photocopies, not originals — of novels I was asked to blurb in the 1980s. Specifically, The Magic of Recluce, by Lee Modesitt; Alchemy Unlimited, by Douglas W. Clark; The Duchess of Kneedeep, by Atanielle Annyn Noel; and The Blind Archer, by John Betancourt.

Now, what should I do with these? eBay? Donate them to a SFWA charity auction? Trash? Donate to a museum somewhere?

April 4, 2017: I note that nobody had any useful suggestions, and I still have all these manuscripts ten years later. You people are no help.

3 thoughts on “And So It Begins

  1. In the continuing vein of not being of any help — my wife is occasionally a reviewer for PW. When she’s done with ARCs and their publishing date is nigh, she donates them to the local school library (for appropriate books) or the town library.

    ARCs aren’t MSs of course, so auction to benefit whomever sounds like a good idea to me.

  2. I’d say either eBay them, assuming that doesn’t violate some agreement you made when receiving them, or do a charity thing that benefits the SFWA medical fund or something similar. Because, good PR is priceless.

    1. I didn’t formally agree to anything before receiving them, beyond (in some cases but not all) saying sure, you can send me a manuscript.

      I doubt I’d get enough from eBay to be worth the trouble.

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