Novel Ideas

I’ve got some new things going on.

 
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First, for those of you who have been waiting for Volume Two of the Matrix Study Sheetsit’s finally gone to press. I mean that I have actually uploaded the files to the publisher website to be printed. I expect to have a proof copy in a couple of days. I’ll ship pre-ordered copies as soon as I have them, which will be before the end of March. Barring any printing issues, I will also have fresh copies for sale at the Etymology! weekend in Portland in two weeks.

I know this book took forever. A legal battle, a cross-country move, a car accident, and the loss of two designers were part of the problem. But one considerable delay was conceptual rather than circumstantial: my trip to France last November and my conversations with folks there about the matrix and the representation of an etymological word family really gave me pause and caused me to reconsider — and redo — the graphics for all 30+ matrices.

The book is really beautiful and I’m so proud of it. Scott Mills did a great job riding shotgun on this book. If you haven’t ordered yours, you’ll want to do that now.

 

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Second, I am officially announcing that the 3rd Edition of the LEX Grapheme Deck is available for pre-sale.

The LEX Grapheme Deck is a comprehensive study of literal units in words in use in English. The Deck is a textbook in card form. It’s an encyclopedia of graphemes. It’s a life’s work. It’s unique in all the world. There’s nothing else like it. This 3rd Edition takes into consideration my deepening understanding of orthographic phonology, cultivated over the past four years of research and development, including my LEXinars on the Nature of the Phoneme, the Zero Allophone, the Nature of the Grapheme, and more.

Earlybird Pre-Order Pricing — the same $60 I’ve always sold the decks for — is available until the cards are published; after that they will be $75. I’ve never raised the price through two editions, and it’s time. The cartons are custom made, and everything costs me more than it did in 2011. I anticipate publication of the 3rd Edition in August or September 2018, but sometimes things take longer than I hope they will.  Place your order now to guarantee the held price. If you want to order multiple copies, contact me for discounted shipping.

 

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Third
, I will be offering some special products in the LEX store for a limited time only, starting March 22nd or 23rd, including Spanish Matrices and other brilliant new study resources from Scott Mills of Language InnerViews for Educators, and from Emily O’Connor of Advantage Math Clinic.

Fourth, Douglas Harper and I are still working on an Etymology book suitable for kids, but it’s not yet ready for showtime. My illustrator had surgery on her wrist, and Doug and I have more work to do. I don’t plan to make it available for pre-sale, but will let you know when it’s ready.

Finally, don’t forget that my latest LEXinar, The Science of Silence, starts next week.

All this happens in-between studying with nine or ten different kids, all online, including one, a second grader, who noticed this past week that the <v> in new and the <w> in novel must be related.

Guess I’ll need to add that to the new Grapheme Deck. Order yours today.

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