PROJECTS

LARRY TOLLE

28 May 2021 — I’ve done a bit of proofing over the last few months for an old friend, Larry Tolle. The two of us did some theatre work together in Colorado years ago. He’s relocated to Minnesota and has recently ramped up his writing. He completed a draft of a children’s theatre radio script back in January (The Deceit of Luciant) and a draft of a full-length musical (Father of Lies, Children of Darkness) in April.

I just proofed his excellent short story, “The Body Under the Porch,” and he tells me more are on the way. He’s been happy with my work and my prompt communications with him. It’s nice to work with friends and to be able to keep the “Creative” part of JPRT Creative alive and kicking.

AUDIO – A CHRISTMAS CAROL

In addition to A Christmas Carol, you’ll find an excellent recording of It’s a Wonderful Life: A Play for Radio, my live-stage adaptation of the holiday classic film, produced by Theatre on the Bay in Marinette, Wisconsin, in 2013. I perform vocally in it alongside a number of other talented artists.

Most of my friends celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, or some combination of the two. Whatever holiday you celebrate, though, enjoy it safely and let its light carry you and yours into a better New Year.

IN THE PROOFS OF MADNESS

21 September 2020 — You never know where you’ll end up when you read for a living. Thanks to two authors, I’ve spent a bit of time recently in Arkham, Massachusetts: in Lovecraft country. Evan van Dreel allowed me to proof his short story, “Üthüm: The Sleeping Giant Beneath Worlds.” I’ve also just completed proofing The Face in the Floor, a Lovecraft-based novella by Anthony E. LaMalfa. All the best to them as they submit their works for publication!

I cannot express how grateful I am that I was given the opportunity to have a story of mine professionally proofread. Your revisions were phenomenal, errors I didn’t even notice were picked out! … I went through the story again and took almost every revision you suggested and the story reads fantastically now. I think I can say with confidence that this is the final draft. — Evan Van Dreel, author, “Üthüm: The Sleeping Giant Beneath Worlds”

ARES STUDIOS KICKSTARTER PROJECT – USS ARES BLUEPRINTS

04 September 2020 — I’m a lifelong fan of Star Trek, and of some of the hundreds of fan films produced over the past several years. One of the very best of these is Prelude to Axanar, a dream project for Alec Peters, one of the film’s stars, as well as one of its co-writers. Alec currently runs Ares Studios in Lawrenceville, Georgia, and he plans to continue his Axanar saga by shooting two additional short fan films set in a period before Kirk, Spock, and company board the starship Enterprise for their famous five-year mission. (Tangential but related: if you want to take a deep dive into the whole Trek fan film phenomenon, there’s no better source anywhere than Jonathan Lane’s blog, Fan Film Factor. It’s where I discovered Prelude to Axanar.)

So, this has exactly what to do with proofreading? Ares Studios does crowdfunding to help finance their studio operations, and to further their educational mission of introducing high school students to film work by allowing those students to bring projects to Ares for a complete production experience. Their first campaign featured a four-color glossy print of a cutaway of the USS Ares, a starship at the center of the Axanar story. An email about the campaign included a low-res image of the cutaway … and that’s where I spotted a typo.

Normally, I wouldn’t have thought twice about it. It wasn’t my project. I’d never met Alec Peters–I’d only read about him and about Axanar. He wouldn’t have any idea who in the world I was if I said anything. But (I thought) if I was producing something as nice as that cutaway, I’d want somebody to tell me. So I sent Alec a private message: I love the image and someone might be fixing this but there’s a typo. I want you to know in case there’s time to adjust things before you go to print.

I just knew I was in line behind a hundred other people telling Alec about something he’d already repaired. Color me surprised when he wrote back to thank me. He’d passed my note to Alexander Richardson, the graphic designer, and the issue would be corrected. Great, I said, and hey–if you need proofreading down the road, feel free to get in touch. I was serious, of course, but didn’t know if he thought that. At any rate, I figured that was my good deed and I wouldn’t hear anything more: sort of like saying to a long-distance friend, “Hey, we should stay in better touch.” You probably should, but will you really?

The studio’s most recent crowdfunding perk was a set of eight 11″ x 17″ blueprints of that same Ares class assault cruiser, again by Alexander Richardson: a deck-by-deck, detailed layout sure to thrill any deep-dive Trek and Axanar fans out there. How did I find out about them? Alec Peters emailed me to take me up on my proofreading offer. He put me in direct contact with Alexander, and oh by the way could I turn the project around by the next day?

I’d been staring at Trek blueprints of all kinds since I was a kid. Absolutely, I could handle it. I worked out some communications details and sent an errata list to Alexander the next day. He was happy, Alec was happy, and I was thrilled. It’s an incredibly tiny, fingernail-sized dent of a footnote in Star Trek lore, but it’s mine: my first proofreading gig was for Ares Studios to help them make more Star Trek. If you ask me, that’s pretty cool.

WHAT DOES PROOFREADING LOOK LIKE?