On experts...

Several weeks ago, I contacted a classics professor at Brown University and asked if I might pick his brain as needed for the Herms chapter. He graciously agreed and I picked a little as I went along. When I polished and polished, I then presumed on his kind nature to ask him to scan the piece for factual errors.

No matter, how much I read about the ancients, they're still all Greek to me... (Har, har, har.) It would be so easy to make glaring errors and not have a clue,that I could easily drop into the swamp of crappy scholarship I've seen in a lot of academic releases in the past few years. Conjecture is presented as fact. And pub houses don't have the time or personnel to fact-check (see "A Million Little Pieces" and "Love and Consequences" fallout...). Since book writers are, in essence, independant contractors, all lawsuits go to them. All responsibility drops on their shoulders. At least that's the buzz in the blogosphere...

I got said professor's comments back last PM. His comments were all in caps, and the pages bulged with what looked like graphic screams. ("ATHENS HAD NO SENATE. YOU MEAN HERE THE ASSEMBLY... NONSENSE: THEY PARODIED THE MYSTERY CELEBRATIONS IN THEIR HOMES.")

At first I was humiliated. "What a jerk he must think I am," I wailed into my champagne. "He must think I'm a total diletante idiot trying to write a pathetic little book! Wahhhhhh...." (Another cork pops and the foam rolls down the side of the bottle on to my waiting tongue... But I digress...)

Then- sanity. I may have misunderstood and misrepresented several facts and concepts, but I am also fixing them before the manuscript gets too far. I may have shown my ignorance, but this is hardly a term paper and the end of the trail. I am tightening the chapter up, fixing it, making it right. I did the best I could, now I'm making it better. Way to go, Cassidy.

So this whole experience leads me to refine plans for the future of Sculptural Assassination; Adventures in Iconoclasm. Obviously, I'll research and research and research each piece. But in addition, I'll find approachable experts I can ask questions of along the way. Then, after a fairly well worked over chapter is done, I can importune them to fact check. Duh. Maybe this is what I should have been doing all along. Since this isn't an academic work (thank god!) I haven't been thinking "referees" as the journals put it. I've just been working my brain to the bone and have been writing the chapters the best I can without a lot of help. Now, a new layer, a responsible layer, a basic layer...

More as things develop...