Monday Morning, and a poll

[lagilman]

Spent Sunday afternoon hidden in a downtown bar with a bunch of fellow Giants fans, some early-arriving Jets fans, a few random Redskin fans, and a bunch of very rowdy and enthusiastic Detroit fans who got very very quiet as the game ended. Sorry, guys. But I was rooting against you just because your fight song was so damn annoying. For those of you who don't follow such things -- yeah, the Giants won (41-13).

Mass transit to/from the game: $4
A steak-and-eggs brunch and two pints of Bass -- $35
Being carded by the bouncer: priceless.
Being hit on by a 20-something Jets fan: hysterical.

But now it is Monday, the weekend has been rolled up and put to rest, and I'm back to the desk. And I've realized that trying to balance what the Story needs with the Actual Process of wine-making is making me second-guess the readership for Vineart War. The history/geography/politics/religion I have no trouble messing with -- readers understand second world/sidestep fantasy as not-quite-but-like. But how will people respond to something less malleable -- a scientific process, after all -- as being not-quite-but-like? Especially if they too are fans of the process and the results?

EtA: I'm not (hopefully) talking an infodump, but the details of the process as an ongoing thread within the books)

So, to reduce my headache, I'm actually asking the readership (or you guys, anyway):
[Poll #1259845]

In a different Universe, for those who don't want to wait for their news, there was an update to The Cosa Nostradamus OnLine over the weekend...

Comments

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

I'm one of that weird minority that enjoyed the infodumps in Moby Dick . . .

Voted for "be thrown out of the story" with the proviso that you have to give me reason not to be.

[lagilman]

Voted for "be thrown out of the story" with the proviso that you have to give me reason not to be.

Except that I don't know what level you'll be thrown out at [is it the timing of the harvest? The description of the fields? (what most people think of as "traditional" plantings are actually a fairly modern invention caused by something that doesn't happen in this world) The fact that the wines undergo a slightly different process of crush and fermentation? Or the description of technical/chemical aspects that are accurate to 14th century winemaking but not 20th or 21st century?]

*head implodes, author whimpers*

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

Oh woe! Author whimpers!

Different timing or planting system probably wouldn't hit the ejection button. The technical or chemical aspects might. "Wait -- don't yeast cells die when they hit that level of alcohol?"

[lagilman]

Wait -- don't yeast cells die when they hit that level of alcohol?"

*snicker* I'm staying as far away from the chemistry as I can. Advantage of setting it in a pre-Pasteur society....

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

Sounds like a plan. The timing and planting questions wouldn't bother me so much because a lot of agriculture is culture. "Plant plotdevice bulbs in the dark of the moon."