It is done!

This is a weird feeling. It's just like when I finished my dissertation. Months - nearly a year actually - and then with one stroke of the key, it is over. I was working until 2am today, and not for the first time either, but I handed over my master copies this afternoon.

I've been a bit let down by the guy who was going to duplicate these for me. It was scheduled for next Tuesday, but now he can't do it, so I've had to go to a commercial House. Unfortunately they all need 7-10 working days, so I'll miss the Bash deadline. This means that I'm having to have a batch burned as well, which is much quicker but twice the price, too.

On the bright side, everyone whom I asked if I could quote their kind remarks has agreed, so there are a few attributions on the back cover.

And on the other bright side, Fine Woodworking are featuring some of my YouTube videos on GlueTube.

I'm not sure what to do now. The garden needs tidying, there is some painting to do, the insurance stuff needs sorting from the burglary and my workshop needs setting straight. I've also got to give Charley some help PDQ, so I'm not short of stuff, it's just not Video! But as I've done noting else for longer than I can remember, it's going to feel strange.

I'll probably post once more after the Bash and launch and then it's history.

Steve

Home run

Well the filming is finished, the editing is done and I'm fighting my way through the authoring of the DVD. It's amazing how much there is to learn. We take for granted (well, I do) that a DVD works the way we expect - menus, buttons, one scene following another - but none of that happens automatically. It all has to be programmed. It's rather like writing a computer program, actually.

It's complicated by the fact that I want to have DVDROM content on the same disk as the DVD Video content, but after a couple of duff attempts, I think I've got that cracked. Some application Help manuals are rubbish, aren't they?

I've been heartened this week to receive some feedback of previews I sent to one or two people. All the criticism has been constructive and by and large the overwhelming response has been positive. The criticism has all been perfectly justified, and in fact, generally less critical of some aspects than I have been myself, so I'm optimistic it won't get completely slated!

One guy, whom I don't know (he just turned up to assess some flood damage and we got talking...) said, and I quote, "If you can get the beeb to show this on a Saturday morning, every bloke in the country will be glued to the telly!" He had never met me before and had no reason to be unnecessarily nice to me, so that was very gratifying. I'm rather hoping I can quote him attributively in my blurb.

My website is coming on, apparently, not helped by me rather ignoring Charley's pleas for information. Apparently he has many skills but being telepathic isn't one of them. I'll try to do better, Charley.

So it's testing, testing and more testing this week. I have a Duplication date of July 17th, which will give me a few days before the Nottingham Bash and launch. I've done the artwork for the disks and the cover, I need to get them printed.

So all in all I'm optimistic of meeting my deadline. I just wish I was as certain about the success of it. I'm pretty sure it will get good reviews, but will anyone actually buy it? I just don't know. I do hope so, not just so that I can become an economically viable human being, but because I'd really quite like to do the others that I have on paper, and there is no point if people are not going to buy. But if they do, then I can continue and produce a fairly major body of work.

We'll just have to wait and see, won't we?