On the 8th anniversary of his tragic death, I want to give a little update on the Tim Conover project. You’ll be pleased to know the end is now in sight. Still distant, hazy, but we can start to see the outline of finished volumes, I’m not dumb enough to offer a release date just yet, but the bits and pieces are now being assembled into books. Four chapters went to Shari for layout yesterday, and outside people are finally getting a first look at the material and what we’ve been doing.
The close up magic material is all written, with the exception of a major edit on Tim’s own write up of multiple versions of Cylinder and Coins. I also have a large list of little extras—touches, sleights, detailed thinking that’s not part of his major body of work—that we may add in, but we’re going to wait to see the size and scope of the existing work as it comes together to see if that’s appropriate.
The volume of mentalism is still being written, but there’s not really too much left to finish. Couple more months maybe. Maybe less. But the majority that is done will start going to proofreading and layout shortly.
The most difficult part of this writing are the chapters about Tim as performer, and as person. I’ve written and rewritten these sections too many times to count, and I’m still not happy. We know it’s impossible to sum up a personality and person in a few pages, so I’m not unrealistic and beating myself up over that. But with a book like this I have to imagine a reader 100 years from now who never met or saw Tim, needing to have some sense of him. Of course, we can glean so much from the work itself, and I comfort myself with that thought as Tim’s work really can speak for him. But I want to do right by him otherwise, and man it’s tough. It’s not only challenging, it’s frankly painful for me, and where most of my focus is on the project now.
We are assembling the team of proofreaders, beta testers and historians to help correct the hundreds of errors I’ve surely made in writing such technically demanding text. I have countless generous offers of help from competent and experienced colleagues, so please don’t pile on. Most of this team is already in place and will start their work very soon.
Other things: I have people in mind I’m hoping will contribute forewords and additional specific writings, but haven’t asked yet. We haven’t decided if we need an index. Some formatting issues aren’t resolved yet. I have great advisors to help us with the physical production—papers, inks, covers, binding, slip cases, etc—which are things we knew nothing about but are learning.
So, as I’ve been saying for years to everyone who asks, it’s inching forward. It really is coming, it’s just slow. I have started to talk about some of the material, lecturing at MagicLive and MagiCuba last year, teaching some of Tim’s tricks that up until now I’ve been guarding. I’ve leaked early drafts of a couple pieces to my closest trusted friends, and I promise, I would not have done so if I thought publication wasn’t getting fairly close.
Finally, understand that we are naive about the nuts and bolts of publication. We took on this project without the kind of experience needed to do it efficiently. We knew this though, sought out and received expert guidance from top publishers, but are still learning as we go, and taking our time. It’s a true labor of love, and we’re taking as much time as we need to make sure we’re proud of it, and that Tim would be too.
It’s coming.
Eric and Shari