New ASL Publication Announcement

[Honza]

I live in a place that doesn't have postal codes. When there is a website that requires one, I just type in 5 zeros and that makes the web page happy. I don't really know if that would help in the UK or Europe, where there is a postal code. Would your post office blanch at an address that had 5 zeros at the end instead of the normal postal code?

That sounds like a good idea. Thanks.

 

[fwheel73]

I noticed the funny off topic :spam: stuff over at "More thoughts on the Scenario Designers Guide".... so, just want to add here that Michael's effort looks to be a very good one... and colorful. It also looks to be the same cost per page that Mark's scenario design book was. I like info and this new book looks to have lots of it...

As several noted, the new publication looks to be a complementary resource for those who might want to use there research library to build a scenerio.

I ordered my copy yesterday....and hope to see it by next Friday. I would like to see some comments by those on the forum who have received Michael's new book. Even a comparison and contrast with Marks. It looks like LuLu.com is getting the printing done in 3 days!!

Best regards,:salute:
John

 

[Psycho]

Mine showed up yesterday. Flipped thru it quickly. Not enough pictures! Too many words! Psycho no like words!

 

[tenebre]

got mine yesterday.
Very cool indeed. Nice reading. (opposite of psycho)

Seriously this is an invaluable book for me. well worht the price.

 

[thedrake]

Mike,

Made sure to put my recommendation for your book here at the ASL Forums after reading over my copy last night--excellent work!

MD

 

[hershmeister]

oh hell - i went ahead and orderded both books - Michaels looks mosre detailed, but once I was in it for the shipping, I figured I'd toss Pittmans book into the box anyway.

 

[Portal]

Pitman's book does have the nice glossary of popular SSRs at the end. I can see that being very handy.

 

[Starlancer]

We shall have a lot of new scenarios in the next months it seems :devious:

 

[Hennie van der Salm]

My copy arrived in the Netherlands today. Just had time to flip through the pages and it looks nice. Especially the colors make it a nice thing to have. I hope to be able to read it during Xmas. Well done Michael!

Hennie

 

[Honza]

Just placed an order for the SDH. I look forward to recieving it.

Thanks.

 

[Honza]

Just placed an order for the SDH. I look forward to recieving it.

Thanks.

Lulu sent an email informing me my SDH has been sent today. Since its got to travel accross the pond I'm expecting it come New Year time. It will be a nice 'post-christmas' arrival for me to look forward to.

 

[Steve Jones]

Got mine today. It looks great and just in time for Christmas. Looking forward to reading it over the school hols - cheers and seasons greetings to everyone

 

[Honza]

A special delivery van turned up on Christmas Eve afternoon and dropped off my Scenario Designers Handbook. It was such a quick delivery time because I chose the express option - which I'm glad I did because I got it in time for Xmas.

Micheal the Handbook looks like a fine piece of work with many important details and facts for ASL designers. Very comprehensive, thanks.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

 

[Kevin Kenneally]

Wow.

Seems like a very good book for the price.

This is for those who have purchased the book:

How long does it take to arrive at your location after you have ordered the book?

My TDY schedule has me busy for the next six months; just want to get it and read it while TDY.

 

[fwheel73]

Wow.

Seems like a very good book for the price.

This is for those who have purchased the book:

How long does it take to arrive at your location after you have ordered the book?

My TDY schedule has me busy for the next six months; just want to get it and read it while TDY.

Kevin,
I ordered mine back on Nov 27 or so....I ordered expedited shipping... shipped on Dec 3... it arrived Dec 10.

A very good ASL source and well worth the price.

Best regards,:salute:
John

 

[Honza]

Wow.

Seems like a very good book for the price.

This is for those who have purchased the book:

How long does it take to arrive at your location after you have ordered the book?

My TDY schedule has me busy for the next six months; just want to get it and read it while TDY.

Hi Kevin,

I ordered mine on the 14th Dec. It was posted on the 21st and arrived IN ENGLAND! on the 24th. But I did choose 'express' post service.

Jan.

 

[Pitman]

That was printed in Spain.

 

[L'Emperor]

Just recieved mine today. Looks AWESOME! Bigger than I expected. Will keep my lips moving for awhile.

 

[Psycho]

Just recieved mine today. Looks AWESOME! Bigger than I expected. Will keep my lips moving for awhile.

I'll take "things my wife has never said to me" for $300 Alex.

 

[Michael Dorosh]

I'll take "things my wife has never said to me" for $300 Alex.

I had to laugh when I read his comment as my mind went to the same place as yours (scary). I was fortunate enough to hear such a comment said in earnest, once upon a time. Almost made a year and a half of jealousy, crying, demands for attention, cheating and bickering worth it. Made this forum look like a picnic, really. Best advice for life - pass on the redheads.

To those who have posted their comments on the Handbook, thanks for your support and encouragement. I may as well put forth some Designer's Notes here now that the dust has settled a little bit. I can't say I'm 100% pleased with the final product. I can't remember if it was George Lucas who said it, but probably everyone who has ever been involved in a creative endeavor has either said or felt it at some point - he said about his movies that he never finished them, simply abandoned them.

I'm pleased there have been no negative comments yet in open forum; at worst, there could have been claims I was "beta testing" the book, which was certainly not the intent. The only major concern I have is the typos that, despite the number of passes made over the text, still managed to creep in. (Those proofreaders I mention in the acknowledgments were not given access to the book proper and responsibility for its condition is mine alone). The good news is that they don't alter the meaning of the commentary, though one table has "<" and ">" reversed, which hopefully should be obvious through context.

Other glitches are more minor; there is a software bug that altered the left/right justification of the page numbers in two or three spots. The changes were invisible to me during the formatting process. I've reported the bug to the software people; the work-around is labour-intensive but this will be corrected in future printings. The advantage of print-on-demand is that the book can be changed relatively easy. I will not do any major alterations out of respect for those whose faith caused them to order early, so any changes to the book will be cosmetic in nature only.

I'm happy with the stuff that is out of my hands; paper and print quality, for example, though as pointed out earlier in the thread, there may be concerns about the longevity of the book - frankly, I was unaware of these issues, and thanks to MLaPanzer for pointing out the distinction between conventional printing and POD. Turnaround times also seem to be acceptable so far as does packaging during shipping. I don't like the cover; their hardcovers are nice, but for some reason, the softcover versions of SDH I got had an oily film to them that shows fingerprints very easily. Out of my hands, unfortunately. The black colour highlights this also.

I've received no real feedback on content, particularly the force composition chapter. One omission I noticed just this morning is the Battlefield Integrity figures; I should have at least mentioned where they go as they are a standard part of the composition of a scenario card.

Otherwise, the utility of the book will not be for me to say. I'll look forward to any detailed, constructive critique. The book is dense, and indeed big, so would expect it to take a while for people to find the time to sit down with it. But as the name implies, as a "handbook" it is intended more a reference to be picked up when sitting down and working out a scenario idea. Plutarch wrote that the mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be lighted. The handbook was written with that object in place - the end goal being not a reader's brain full of memorized yet fairly useless statistics about how many squads a Russian infantry battalion had in the winter of 1942-43, but to arm him and inspire him to research and create. If that happens as a result, then we can all benefit from it.