Category: Stories in Stone Blog

Cairns: I turn my book galleys in

Golly ned, I turned in the galleys of my new book yesterday. For those of you not familiar with galleys, this is the first round of seeing a book look like a book with titles page, table of contents, illustrations, etc. It is also the last chance I have to make major changes.

I am quite happy with the look of the new book. The title font, which is used throughout for chapter titles and the first few words of each chapter is rather handsome and somewhat old fashioned and dignified. My wife thinks it looks a bit like an old typewriter face. Another friend thought it looked like a font used on tombstones, elegant and permanent. I agree!

Fortunately, I didn’t have any major changes to make in the text. I did pick up a few extraneous words, a June/July dating issue, a misplaced epigraph, some places where there should have been italics and some places where there shouldn’t, and an extra footnote, which could have been ugly. The major changes had to do with a complicated section on carbon dating, where I had omitted a crucial fact, and a sentence on lichen thalli, which you can imagine can be a troubling enterprise to address. I like to think that I worked out a solution that will please even the most opinionated lichenologist.

[nggallery id=24]Right now I feel pretty good about the writing. I don’t mean this to sound like bragging but it is easy to get tired one’s own work in these final stages. I cannot count the number of times I have read the entire book. I usually do this two times: silently with an eye and pencil for editing and out loud, usually without a pencil for editing. I have found that I need to do it this way to pick up words I use too many times and sentence structures that sound odd together.

It is also strange how much the book changes from screen to hard copy to galleys. Each edition reveals something new. I am very happy, too, that I had a diligent copyeditor and am also having a proofreader for I know that I see what isn’t there and don’t see what I should. Plus, I know that I am not very good at punctuation.

So now the publisher will work their magic and incorporate my changes and the ones from the proofreader. They will then send back my final page proofs, with I hope no mistakes. Publication date is mid September.

 

 

Of Rocks and Whiskey

We’ve all heard of whiskey on the rocks. This usually refers to ice but in a new twist, some people are now pouring whiskey over real rocks. I first learned about this over the holidays when a pal of mine sent me whiskey rocks, six little cubes of soapstone. The instructions tell you to place the rocks in the freezer. When cold put them in your glass, add whiskey, and consume without having to worry about melting ice cubes curtailing your enjoyment of a fine beverage.

As so often happens, the New York Times has cottoned on to this latest craze in geology. Yesterday, they had a short story about the rock cubes. Apparently, some, including a noted mixologist (isn’t that what we used to call a bartender?), scoff at the cubes. The only substance that should mingle with a fine scotch or bourbon, these purists say, is a splash of water. I suspect that if you are purity personified that you would use only bottled water.

I have tried the rocks and I was not terribly impressed. They did not cool my scotch, though I did enjoy having the small gray cubes in my peat-colored drink. Using them did get me thinking about soapstone. I wonder if the purveyors of these icy rocks know that one early name for soapstone is lardite, which comes from the French pierre de lard. The name refers to the marbled texture of some soapstones. Other names include steatite, pagodite, potstone, and soap earth.

Soapstone is a metamorphic rock (usually from a peridotite) rich in the mineral talc. Because of the talc, it is usually soft and easy to work. (When I teach rocks and minerals to student groups, I get them to notice the feel of talc and to realize that it’s the material in talcum powder, which they are most familiar with because of its use for diaper rash, yet another fact not mentioned by the seller of these fad stones.) Soapstone does not absorb water but does soak up heat slowly and then retain it for long periods. I have not read, except in advertising, that it retains cold as well. In Norway, soapstone is used as a building material. The best known example is the Nidaros Cathedral in Trondheim, built between the 11th and 14th centuries.

The NYT articles says that the cubes are selling well. As I have long said, anytime you can connect people with geology it’s a good thing. So I will drink to these rocks.