Hello everyone! Once again its time to update Tim’s many friends and fans, and all those anxiously awaiting news about Tim Conover and our progress toward publishing his work. It’s been a little more than a year since our last update, and though sometimes the progress has seemed slow, we can now see the books beginning to come together. The writing is in the final phases—polishing the language and editing more than writing really—and about to be sent off to the various proofreaders. So we really are starting to see the end of that long and challenging tunnel.
We (Shari and Eric) spent the last few days together looking at the magic books Tim loved, looking at beautifully designed modern books, and starting to really visualize what our finished volumes will look like by asking what Tim would like to see if he were here helping. We are choosing fonts, photo treatments, color palette, design options and visual touches so that as the corrected files of text start coming back from our team they can go into the layout. Just for fun we put together rough versions of one of the tricks in several formats so we could see what the pages will look like printed, and it was truly thrilling to see fully designed and illustrated pages of the book emerging from the printer.
What’s next will be a lengthy process of having our proofing and editing team help sculpt Eric’s drafts into polished prose, and pairing them with the edited illustrations. After years of lonely work at the computer (for Eric) it’s a thrill to finally be inviting others into the process, and getting feedback on the work.
We’re not yet ready to take pre-publication orders, or to announce a time frame for publication, and we know that’s frustrating for all of you who have been so patient. (Just to be extra obnoxious, Eric often says “more than a year, but certainly less than 10…” when pressed for an estimate of publication.) We agree completely that it is taking longer than anyone thought at the outset. Understand that it is a labor of love, both for the art of magic and for dear brilliant Tim, and getting it right has always been more important to us than doing it quickly. We hope you’ll continue to be understanding, and trust us when we affirm that in the end you’ll agree it was worth the wait.
Ok then, that’s where we are in the fall of 2018.
Best,
Shari and Eric
10/24/2018
