"Mandrake" Finally Manifests

Been nothing much to post lately, due mainly to working on getting "A Surfeit of Mandrake" polished, uploaded and printed. Problems with PDF creation at my end stopped me from producing the required hi-quality 100MB file, until I downloaded OpenOffice and used it's rather handy instant PDF creator function. Which is all very good, as I've now completely ditched MS Word in favour of the free solution.

The first proof arrived today and the pencil artwork really looks good in the interior. The cover art from Frang also looks sharp and fine, however a flaw in the printing has rendered the copy useless, by throwing a regular greyed out area across the verso throughout the entire copy. This is the first actual printing flaw I've seen from Lulu.com and I'm hoping it will be the last. It has been reported, and despite the time of year I'm feeling less than charitable as I had promised my contributors I'd have copies fully ISBN'd and in the shops before the end of the year. Already a couple of weeks behind schedule thanks to the PDF problems, and this is really the last thing we need. I hope the matter is resolved quickly and satisfactorily, as my next order will be a bulk order for Borders and elsewhere (including the contributors themselves).