<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:small">Hi Darrel<br>I remember that cover & it was quite unexpected & didn't really do it justice.<br>& you say the list wasn't auto-refreshing on your end? <br>This is the first I'd heard of that - oh well - so very long ago ....<br>Be well!</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:small">-Buzz</div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote gmail_quote_container"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Fri, Jul 11, 2025 at 11:33\u202fAM Darrel Plant <<a href="mailto:dplant@moshplant.com">dplant@moshplant.com</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">I take no credit/blame for the cover of the Shockwave book. I don\u2019t know the entire story behind it, but I landed there project back during the Shockwave beta test in 1995. I was at the office on New Year\u2019s Eve, occasionally refreshing the web page that was the discussion list for the beta group (I guess nobody managing the beta program at Macromedia at the time knew how to set up an email listserv) and I saw a note from someone saying they were an author agent looking for someone who could crank out a book. I\u2019d never written anything approaching book length, and I wasn\u2019t exactly a professional-level multimedia developer\u2014I\u2019d just come out of the prepress business, knew a bit about computer graphics programs, and had played with Director enough to have weaseled my way into a class teaching it at Portland State University Extension School, but I\u2019d never shipped a project with it. But they were desperate enough that I had a contract a couple weeks later. I think they\u2019d had the book on the schedule and sold to stores (common practice in the biz) but the authors had been pulled off to do a more important project and they still needed someone to fill the pages. There was already a team in place tracking down examples for the appendices and making the CD-ROM, and they had the cover design done (which I didn\u2019t see until later). But they needed the book in ten weeks, and they\u2019d give me a bonus if I managed to do it in eight. Didn\u2019t get the bonus, but I did manage finish in ten, basically trying every command in Shockwave Lingo and figuring out tutorials on how to make it do something useful. It was still early days in the Internet stuff; a lot of it was a big mystery to me. Fortunately, I\u2019d set up a web server in my office on a Mac.<br>
<br>
I was supposed to write a sequel to the Shockwave book, but by then, Macromedia had bought and shifted much of their focus to Flash, so they asked me to just expand the dictionary I\u2019d done to all of Lingo, which turned into a nightmare book called The Lingo Programmer\u2019s Reference that took a LOT longer than it should have. Then as it was coming out, the publisher was bought out and the sales staff started fleeing like rats, and more than a quarter-century later I still get statements telling me I haven\u2019t earned back the advance!<br>
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The woman who played Vampira was from Astoria, a small city about 90 miles from Portland. And Cassandra Petersen/Elvira lives part-time here in Portland these days.<br>
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Best,<br>
<br>
Darrel<br>
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> On Jul 10, 2025, at 7:47 PM, Jim Andrews <<a href="mailto:jim@vispo.com" target="_blank">jim@vispo.com</a>> wrote:<br>
> <br>
> I searched for your Shockwave book, Darrel. I got a good look at the cover from an ebay listing. I like the cover a lot. It's got Frankenstein and assorted other movie ghouls, including, er, Addams Family members (?) on the cover. Morbidly cinematic. Your book is the Svengoolie of Director books, Darrel. That much is clear. "Thrills! Chills! CD-ROM!" I watch Svengoolie, by the way. Big fan.<br>
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Darrel Plant phone: 503-490-1388 <a href="mailto:dplant@moshplant.com" target="_blank">dplant@moshplant.com</a><br>
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"Geriatech: Someone who's been around technology as long as me." -- Darrel Plant<br>
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