Blog Posts - HOLLOW SQUARE PRESS

HOLLOW SQUARE PRESS

A.i. ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

11/30/2023

I’ve watched A.I. Artificial Intelligence many times since it came out in 2001. I first saw it in a theater on opening day with my sister and my late friend Tom Miller. We all loved it. I’ve never stopped loving it. I watched it again last evening, and if anything I love it more than ever. And with more than love: great admiration.

What a gift Stephen Spielberg has given us here, and what a great tribute to his friend and mentor Stanley Kubrick. Some early reviews complained of an uneasy blend of Spielberg and Kubrick. I find it a perfect wedding of their talents. I always wait through the end credits to see Spielberg’s dedication of the movie to the master. Also, if you are as moved by this movie as I am, you need that time to reflect and wind down.

ART. ARTISTS, AND KINDLE CREATE

11/5/2023

A few weeks back I downloaded from Kindle Direct Publishing a program called Kindle Create. I made use of it on an earlier project, but now I wanted to create something in which that program would take the central role. Hence the compilation “Star-Gazing and Navel-Gazing: Art, Artists, and Me.”

AT LAST, UP AND RUNNING!

10/15/2023

It took a while. I thought everything was just fine, and when I got my proof copy I discovered that the page numbers at the top had been lopped off and the text crowded against the top of the page. That won't do!

So back to the page design section of Kindle Diirect Publishing. This time I took special care with the top margin, and when I got my proof copy I was happe enough and hit the PUBLISH button.

Now before you report to me the typo on the back cover and another one in the description on Amazon (and I assume other book sites), be assured that I am too well aware of them already. I will correct them eventually. I find that I need to step back from this project for now and worry about other things. Eventually I will examine the entire book with a careful eye for any additional problems that I would like to correct and will handle matters after I make my list.

Terence Davies. November 10, 1945 – October 7, 2023. rEST IN PEACE.

10/10/2023

To honor his life on the occasion of its passing I will share a chapter from my not-yet-published “Star-Gazing and Navel-Gazing: Art, Artists, and Me.”

16. THE LONG DAY CLOSES
(AND OTHERS)

EXPLICATIONS OF EFFORTS OF THE ELDERLY EDITOR

9/25/2023

Having just self-published White on Black in eBook and paperback through Kindle Direct Publishing, the matter of editing and production of books is much [just corrected from mush] on my mind.

Production first, to get that behind us. The paperback looked perfect in the online proof on the Kindle publishing site, so I bravely hit the PUBLISH button. I did order a proof copy, and it arrived nearly 2 weeks later. Cover looked reasonably okay, and then I opened it. Page numbers at top were all cut off, and the first line of book text was at top of the page. That was bad. I had goofed. Back to the drawing board re design.

STILL A WORK IN PROGRESS. SIGH . . .

9/13/2023

Yesterday my proof copy of the paperback finally arrived. Looked good, and then I opened it. One problem immediately leaped out: no margin at top, and page numbers cut off. Why this is I don’t know, although I assume it is a failure in communication between their artificial intelligence (AI) and my non-artificial intelligence (NI). Back to the drawing board to fix the margins.

Bottom margin looks okay. Right margin comes a little closer to the edge than I’d like, so I’ll adjust that. Gutter needs to be adjusted just a smidgen. I probably would not have worried about those 2 if the top margin had been okay, but since that must be improved I’ll try to improve the whole look.

WHITE ON BLACK

9/7/2023

The rear jacket tells you this:

LOSING

9/1/2023

Flora Eloise Pickens was born on October 6, 1886 into great wealth and social position on Umbria Plantation in Sawyerville, Alabama. She died on August 12, 1964 as a charity case at the nursing home in Greensboro, her only possessions being her wedding ring and a photograph of her late husband, Will Lunsford, who had died in 1943. She had pawned that wedding ring, but a niece, upon discovering that, had redeemed it and restored it to her.

COUSIN PICKETT

8/25/2023

Life is filled with mysteries. Why did that uncle kill himself? Why did that aunt seem to hate me so when I was a child? Sometimes the mystery is a person. Cousin Pickett, a standard fixture of my childhood, is a mystery to me, and the older I get the more mysterious I find him.

I know some facts. But what do they tell me?

EATING OUT IN THE ALABAMA BLACK BELT

8/20/2023

My late friend and boss from Columbia University Libraries, Bruce Langdon, was a fine cook. He once ventured the thought that the great American contribution to international cuisine was fast food. He loved fast food. He would have loved being in Alabama had he survived AIDS.
But I could have introduced him to more than that, much of which he would have enjoyed.